1807] On Fir Tees. 163

found. Though the expenses are great in cultiyating car- rots, yet the giving..of them in part instead of oats will most abundantly repay them. The expense of each acre in S0w- ing, cleaning and housing, will not be short of 151. Whatever system can multiply the produce of one acre into that of two or more, is, he conceives, an object to a country where the consumption of the first neceszsary of life exceeds what is at present produced within the empire."

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REMARKS ON PRUNING FIR TREES, BY MR. ROBERT SALMON, OF WOBURN, BEDFORDSHIRE,.

[From the Tranſadions of the Society of Arts,&c.]

.66 N contemplating these Specimens, considering the

purpozes that fir Umber is generally applied to, and having 5ome knowledge of plantations of this Sort, it must occur tbat clearness of knots, Straightness, length and equal Size of its trunk, constitute its perfection z and, if deficient in all these, it is of no value but for the fire. Next to these considerations, and the prospect of an improves knowledge of cultivating this article, it may be a fair question, if our own country is not capable of producing fir umber little or not at all inferior to the foreign fir.

At prezent fir in this country appears not for any period to have been considered much otberwise than as ornamental. For this purpose they Serve but for a certain time, which past, it has been their fate tv be cut down long before having at- tained maturity. But, from the vast plantations now esta- blished, it is to be boped that another century may obtain to English Fir Some of the character of the English Oak; to- wards Such end, if attainable, every means Should be used, and towards which nothing appears wore likely to Succeed, than a well-grounded general practical mode of manage- ment, from the time of their being planted out, to their great« est imaginable age of improvement. That a knowledge of Such may by perseverance be gained, is not much to be doubted: and by inspectiug and considering the Specimens herein referred to, there appears great reason to conclude, that early and proper pruning and thinning will.form a con- Siderable feature in the SyStem to be adopted.

<« Now as forms are first instruments3 in good systews, and that proceedings on fundamental principles(though in the es3ay they may a little err) are beiter, in a general view,than occasional Success by hazard; 50 it may be warrantable that