ut, and parts of it planted with
young oaks, obtained from places where they had sprung up
spontaneously, but it is still imperfectly stocked. Stapledge
(another of the earlier plantations) has been filled up by
transplanting from the thick parts, and is tolerably well stocked on
the whole. Birchwood (the third of the previous enclosures) has been
planted in the vacant parts, and is fully stocked and very
flourishing. From the Acorn Patch (the last of the old plantations)
a large quantity of young oaks have been transplanted into the open
parts of the Forest and the upper part of Russell's Enclosure. The
trees drawn out are thriving, and many of them grow faster than the
trees remaining in the Acorn Patch. There is a great quantity of
holly and other underwood scattered on the parts where the trees are
planted, and which serves for shelter and protection, and the soil is
very good. The trees, though never transplanted before, came up with
bunches of fibrous roots; and though of so large a size, being from
10 to 25 ft. high, scarcely any of them failed. Several experiments
were tried as to pruning closely, pruning a little, and not at all;
and it appears that those pruned sufficiently to prevent the wind
from loosening the roots answer best, although many of those which
were reduced to bare poles, and had their heads cut off, are now
sending up vigorous leading shoots, and have every appearance of
becoming fine timber: those unpruned did not succeed at all."
Alluding to the earthen banks, with which the plantations were mostly
surrounded, Mr. Machen observes that "In most parts they appear to
succeed very well, and the furze on the top of them grows very
luxuriantly; but in some places, and those where the bank of mould
has accumulated by being washed there in floods, the banks are
mouldering, and in the last two years hawthorn-quick has been planted
in those parts, and now looks very flourishing. There has not been a
good year of acorns, that is, where a quantity have ripened in the
Forest, since the commencement of the plantations until the present,
and the trees are now loaded, and with every prospect of ripening.
The young trees in all the new enclosures are looking remarkably well
this year, and some of them have made shoots so long that they more
resemble willows than oak