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that they should be turned over several times during the year before sowing, but I have not found this necessary ; and with regard to the time of sowing, it should be put off as long as possible, because the natural germination of the seed takes place six to eight weeks before the tree comes into leaf, and the tender seedlings are thus often injured and killed by late frost. Therefore I advise storing them in a cold place, and not sowing until they begin to germinate. If they come up too thickly and survive the first spring, they may be transplanted in the following March or April, which will tend to check their early leafing, but if thin on the ground they may be allowed to stand two years before transplanting into rows. At three, or at most four, years old, they will be fit to go out permanently, the stronger side branches and double leads, if any, being first pruned. If intended for copsewood, they must be cut over in the month of April, two or three years after planting, and any pruning necessary to older trees should be done in summer or early autumn, so that the wounds may heal as soon as possible. The tree makes an abundance of fibrous roots, and unless these are allowed to become dry, the proportion of loss from trans- planting should be very small, and transplanting may be done later than in the case of most hard woods.

For ash coppice, 4 or 5 feet apart is the right distance; for timber trees, they may be alternated with spruce or larch, which will keep them from becoming branchy. The cutting of the stools must be done with a sharp knife or axe as near the ground as possible, and with an upward cut, and the poles removed at latest by the middle of May, as much harm is caused by getting the poles away after the stools have begun to push new growth.

One of the best examples of copse-grown ash that I have seen in England is the Walk Copse near Buckhold, Berks, where a number of tall, slender, clean poles, believed by Dr. Watney to be about sixty years old, have originally sprung up from seed, in a plantation once largely composed of silver firs. Though the soil is a flinty clay, now of little agricultural value, the majority of these trees are 90 to 100 feet high, by 3 to 4 feet in girth, and quite clean to 50 or 60 feet. One of the best was quite straight and clean to 65 feet high, but only about 3 feet in girth. Such poles as these are much sought for by agricultural implement and coach makers, and are worth from as. 6d. to 3s. per foot,

I do not know of any ash at present alive in England which equals in size a tree mentioned by Loudon as growing near Moccas Court, Herefordshire, on the edge of a dingle. This had immensely large roots, running on the surface for 50 feet or more down the steep hillside, and a clear trunk of 30 feet long, 7 feet in diameter at 15 feet from the ground. This, including three large limbs, was estimated to contain 1003 cubic feet of timber. This ash is remembered as a marvellous tree, though quite decayed, by the Rev. Sir George Cornewall, who told me that not a vestige of it now remains,

The tallest living ash trees I have seen or heard of are in a grove near the