WOODCRAFT. No. II.

Otago Witness, Issue 633, 15 February 1862, Page 5

WOODCRAFT. No. II.

The different objects in view in planting trees will evidently induce a different treatment in each case. We will take at present the must obvious object in an agricultural country like this, that which contemplates protection to cattle ; for it only requires that we should be conversant with the associations of a country life, to realise the importance of this point. Look at the cattle during a broiling day, and 3011 will find them reposing in some sheltered spot, on the banks of a stream, or in the neighborhood of some marshy pool; or cast a glance around wlien the pitiless rain is borne swiftly along on the wings of a piercing cold South-easter, and you will at once notice how unacceptable the visitor is by the cold reception he meets with, which is evinced by the cattle standing, tail on to the gale, with downcast head. Here then the judicious and kindly-hearted farmer steps in. and plants a small grove of thickly foliaged tree 3 ; and there is no tree better adapted for this purpose than the Beach, which, unlike the Oak, does not attract lightning. The objectionable practice of planting trees in hedgerows cannot be too strongly deprecated. While allowing that they agreeably break the dull uniformity of the outline of a hedge, and often afford the wearied traveller an agreeable shelter, it is nevertheless true that they injure the roads very seriously by the constant dropping of rain from the boughs, and the interruptions of the drying influences of the sun and wind, to say nothing of the evil effects on the human constitution which results from iuterfcrence with the circulation of the nir. In many parts of the South oT England, and particularly in the Island of Jersey, the evils we have alluded to are strongly developed. We freely acknowledge that on some of those tropical ctoys when ail nature is hushed, and insect life seeks the friendly shade, we have revelled in the delicious coolness of the winding high banked lane with its avenues of wide spreading trees; but when wo have passed along the same spots when the autumn rains have fallen, the illusion was dispelled, and we had but to enter the neighbouring catters' huts to learn something of chronic rheumatism, and of some of the diseases to which humanity is heir.

Besides these objections, the timber is usually of an inferior character, the trees having been broken and disfigured in their infancy by cattle ; but if, despite these objections, it is desired to adopt the too prevalent system we have objected to, it would be better to take advantage of the junction of four fields to make a circular plantation, or of a declivity undesirable for cultivation. Along the banks of rivers, the elm, mountain ash", holly, and hazel flourish remarkably well, and pleasingly diversify the scenery; but whatever alternative we adopt, anything is better than planting hedge-row timbjr, which invariably, when growing and when felled, docs considerable damage to the hedge, and abstracts the good qualities of the soil for some distance on both sides.

Independently of the shelter afforded by the presence of groups and groves of trees, it is desirable to make the necessary dividing fences of the ordinary hedge plants, such a* hawthorn, holly, &c. We are not unaware that where an economy of space is desirable, some prefer n fence, which occupies but little room, and does not draw upon the resources of the land, but while discarding the minute division of fields as subvertive of all good farming, we hold it to be necessary both for cattle and pasture, that the fields be not left in their bleak and defenceless state.

In planting Hawthorn — the chief of hedge plants — we should bear in mind (hat it is a moisture-loving plant, but at the same time seriously injured by stagnant water. In many of the midland counties and along the line of railroads, the hawthorn has been planted considerably above the level of the country on a raised bank, and consequently the hedge is a decided failure. The best method is to form a ditch 2 feet 6 inches wide at top, about 10 to VI inches at the bottom, and 2 feet 6 inches in depth, which will form a mound about 3 feet wide at top and about 8 inches high, along which the hawthorn may be planted, though a height of 5 inches would be better.

The hawthorn, or quickset, should be planted in double rows, about six inches apart, and the plants about eight inches from each other in the rows, the hind row dividing the spaces in the front row.

We will dwell on the early treatment of the plant at a future period; we will here merely mention that there is but one form in which the hedge will be serviceable and healthy; it must be wide at the bottom and narrow at the top, whereas the reverse of this is usually practised.

The hornbeam has many qualities which admirably adapt it for forming shelter to paduocks, nurseries, and gardens. It is a quick grower, thrives even on the coldest hills, and the most barren soil, and is not easily injured by wind. Being thickly sot with leaves, it affords, like the beech, an agreeable shelter, even though its leaves wither at the approach of winter.

In low, marshy lands, effective hedges may be formed by planting the alder, elder, black poplar, bircb, sallows, and willows, on banks formed by double ditches.

We conceive that the proper time for rearing alive fence in this country, where the expense of a double protecting fence is considerble, would be as early as possible after the ground has been broken up. By obtaining good, healthy plants, one or two years old, which are imported at twelve or fifteen shil lings a thousand, and by a little management and attention, you may have some-thing approaching a serviceable hedge by the time you have taken two or three crops off the land, and given it a fallow or two before finally laying it down in grass. Delays are dangerous. Our object should be to have a live fence by the time our post and rail one is decayed, and before we admit cattle or sheep to graze in the enclosure.

If the hawthorn be regarded as too much of a luxury in our present condition, though we consider it a cheap necessary of farming life, we must have recourse to planting gorse along the top of a low bank. The proper time for sowing is from March to August : an ounce of seed will be sufficient for a chain. It has been recommended to raise the plants first in a nursery, and transplant at the end of the first year ; a good serviceable hedge may be thus formed in three or four years. But, except for interior or dividing fences the gorse is objectionable, from the accumulation ef dead foliage, of an extremely combustible nature, around it.

We so dearty love Governments of all kinds, except a blind rampant democracy, or an ironheeled despotism, that we have hope that even our Government will not think it beside its duties, and interfering with the conflicting claims of the Benevolent Associations and Acclimatising Societies, to take the advice given to Jock, and " be aye sticking in a tree." We know it to be deeply imbued with the love of the beautiful, because imagery of the brightest hues overflows in some of its Sessional productions, and therefore we appeal to it on its weak side — its love for the picturesque and the rural. We ask it to aid in fostering the infant state of horticulture and arboriculture in this Province. We appeal, and we are sure it will not be in vain, to its associative recollections, and conclude by quoting this moral lesson, — " The elm that once shaded our door, And flourished and grew in the blast, Now a sapless old trunk, and no more, Brings to mem'ry my youth that is past,"

The Key. Alex. Lendrum, Principal of St. Max* gaM-s College, QtkS, few failed for i£l6 4 000.