WEBSTER’S PRACTICAL FORESTRY
Reading edition
A POPULAR HANDBOOK ON THE REARING AND GROWTH OF TREES FOR PROFIT OR ORNAMENT
By A. D. WEBSTER
Author of “Hardy Ornamental Flowering Trees and Shrubs” (3 Editions), “Foresters’ Diary” (15 Editions), “Hardy Coniferous Trees” (2 Editions), “Town Planting,” “Tree Wounds and Diseases,” “British Timber and Timber-Producing Trees,” etc., etc.
FIFTH EDITION ENLARGED AND REVISED
LONDON WILLIAM RIDER & SON, LIMITED CATHEDRAL HOUSE, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. 4 1917
TO MY WIFE THE FIFTH EDITION OF “PRACTICAL FORESTRY” IS DEDICATED
PREFACE TO FIFTH EDITION
To the Author at least, it is gratifying to know that four editions of Practical Forestry have been sold out, and that a fifth is urgently called for; no other work on British Forestry having achieved a like popularity.
The whole has now been completely revised and several important chapters added, particularly with reference to Timber and the War, British Timber and Timber Trees, Afforesting Waste Lands, and The Education of Foresters, on both of which latter questions the Author had the honour of giving evidence before the Departmental Committee on Forestry of the Board of Agriculture.
A. D. WEBSTER.
Regent’s Park, June, 1917.
INTRODUCTION TO FIFTH EDITION
In my long experience of British Forestry, which, in a practical way, has extended over a period of forty years, I have become more and more convinced that in order to place it on a systematic and sound economic footing, State aid and the afforesting of large areas of comparatively waste lands are first necessities.
For the past thirty years I have not failed to urge upon the State, as well as private owners of suitable land, the pressing necessity of afforestation; and though in this matter a start has been made, yet this can only be looked upon as a faint, half-hearted attempt quite unworthy of our country and the vast interests at stake. As early as 1883, I drew attention to this matter in Woods and Forests, and at later periods in most of the leading journals and papers of the day; while in my evidence given before the Select Committee on Forestry, and in a paper contributed by special request to the Board of Agriculture, I went fully into the question, and pointed out what a boon to the unemployed, and how great a saving to the country would be effected by a well-organized scheme of tree planting.
Years ago I urged the Government to take up the question of the Larch disease, the ravages of which I then described as being little short of a national calamity. To the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, and the Royal Scottish Arboricultural Society, I have contributed twenty-three papers on different topics connected with forestry, for which special medals have been awarded, while my Practical Forestry has now passed into a fifth edition.
In connection with the afforesting of waste lands, I have travelled over the greater part of the United Kingdom and have examined much of the ground that could be set aside for this purpose, including the peat bogs of Ireland; while at altitudes up to 1,100 ft. I have formed plantations on the bare and wind-swept hillsides of Wales and Scotland, which to-day are proving not only a boon to the farmers in the way of the shelter they afford, but also a considerable source of profit to the owners.
The above investigations, combined with the examination of and reports on several of the largest woodland properties in this country, made at the request of the owners, have given me a wide insight into the forestry problem generally, but particularly with reference to our requirements in the near future, in view of the fact that the United Kingdom is by far the largest timber-importing country in the world.
A. D. W.
CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER I
Forestry and the War 1
CHAPTER II
Collecting and Storing Tree Seeds 8
CHAPTER III
Propagating Trees and Shrubs 15
CHAPTER IV
The Home Nursery: its Formation and Management 24
CHAPTER V
Formation of Plantations 32
CHAPTER VI
Trees for Economic Planting 47
CHAPTER VII
Planting Exposed Ground 68
CHAPTER VIII
Seaside Planting 73
CHAPTER IX
Town Planting, and the Trees and Shrubs that
are Best Adapted for Withstanding Smoke 87
CHAPTER X
Trees Suitable for Hedgerow and Field Planting 110
CHAPTER XI
Ornamental Planting 116
CHAPTER XII
Trees best Adapted for Various Soils 128
CHAPTER XIII
Transplanting Large Trees 139
CHAPTER XIV
Thinning Plantations 141
CHAPTER XV
Tree-Pruning in Economic Forestry 151
CHAPTER XVI
Bracing and Repairing Trees 159
CHAPTER XVII
Coppice and Underwood 170
CHAPTER XVIII
Game Coverts: their Formation and Management 174
CHAPTER XIX
Hedges: their Formation and Management 184
CHAPTER XX
Shrubs for Shady Situations 191
CHAPTER XXI
Insect Enemies of Trees 193
CHAPTER XXII
Fungus Growth on Trees 212
CHAPTER XXIII
Barking Oak 220
CHAPTER XXIV
The Manufacture of Charcoal 226
CHAPTER XXV
Prices of Home-grown Timber 237
CHAPTER XXVI
British-Grown Timber and some of its Uses 240
CHAPTER XXVII
Willows for Basket-Making 243
CHAPTER XXVIII
Utilizing Waste Forest Produce 250
CHAPTER XXIX
Fencing Plantations 257
CHAPTER XXX
Timber Measuring 268
CHAPTER XXXI
Blasting and Burning Tree Roots 273
CHAPTER XXXII
Prices of Contract or Piecework 277
CHAPTER XXXIII
Forest Area of the World 280
CHAPTER XXXIV
Afforesting Waste Lands and the Financial
Returns Therefrom 282
Index 295
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Arrangement of Plantations 33
Band and Connecting-Rod 166
Barking Tools 222
Beam Tree in London 103
Beech Tree 50
Blasting and Burning Tree Roots 273
Bracing a Tree 165
Cricket Bat Willow 55
Elm Tree Destroyer 199
Faulkner’s Transplanting Machine 140
Felling Tools 143
Goat Moth 201
Hedging Tools 185
Larch Canker 213
Measuring the Height of Trees 271
Method of Levelling 39
Oak Fences 262
Plan of Nursery 27
Plane Tree in Regent’s Park 99
Polyporus Sulphureus 219
Polyporus Squamosus 216
Pruning Tools 153
Pruning, Bad effects of 155
Rustic Wooden Fence, Strong Mortised Fence,
Strong Paling Fence 262
Sawn Wooden Fence 261
Section of Charcoal Pit 229
Savin Juniper as a Town Shrub 108
Slate Fences 259
Spirit-Level 39
Stone and Wire Fence 257
Tools used in Planting 43
Tools used in Draining 37
Tools required in Nursery 29
Tools for Fencing 264
Tree Guards 266
Weymouth Pine at Gwydyr Castle 61
Wire Fence with Wooden Posts 263
Willow Beetle 197
Wood Leopard Moth 203
Witch’s Broom on Willow 209, 210
WEBSTER’S PRACTICAL FORESTRY