Page:TheTreesOfGreatBritainAndIreland vol04B.djvu/347

planted in wet situations; but is not, as a rule, a long-lived tree, and never grows to be so large as it does in England.’ (A.H.)

Though old writers tell us that the alder was often planted by inserting long cuttings, or by burying pieces of the root in the soil ; and though layering is the mode usually adopted by nurserymen for propagating the varieties ; yet, as a general rule, it is best raised from seed. The cones ripen in autumn and are freely produced almost every year so far as I have observed. As soon as they begin to open, they should be gathered when quite dry; and though it is said that the seeds will keep for two years or more in the cone, yet, as a rule, they should be sown in autumn or in early spring and lightly covered with earth. Though I have not tried it myself, I believe that the germination is more rapid and regular if the seed is soaked in water before sowing, but seedlings can be procured so cheaply from nurserymen that I have always bought them at one or two years old. They are easy to transplant and grow fast if the soil is moist, being fit to plant out at three or at most four years old ; and I have had as good or better success by planting them in spring as in autumn. The alder bears coppicing well, if not cut too near the ground, but the stools have a tendency to decay in the centre and to spread outwardly. True suckers are not produced, though the roots when exposed by running water will throw up shoots. The usual age for coppicing is fifteen to twenty years, and I am informed by Sir Hugh Beevor that he obtained a yield of 1700 poles per acre, which at seventeen years’ growth from the stool averaged 20 feet long with a girth of 7 to 11 inches, giving a yield of about 1100 cubic feet per acre. If the trees are allowed to stand for timber they should be cut at fifty to seventy years, when they may average 50 to 70 feet high by 4 to 5 feet in girth. The only lot of alders I ever sold standing, 300 in number, realised £100, being at the rate of 4d. or 5d. per foot. Sir Herbert Maxwell states, that as long as clogs remain in common use, there will be little difficulty in realising 440 per acre for mature alder coppice, and this on land so wet as to be worthless for any other purpose. Except in localities where a good and regular market is assured, I should not recommend the planting of alder except in places too cold, wet, and marshy for willow or poplar to thrive; but Selby,? whose opinion of the tree as an ornamental one was better than my own, states as the result of his own experience, that the nature of the roots of the alder causes the tree to attract and retain the moisture in the soil, to such an extent that it will convert into a morass, land which, if drained and planted with other trees, might be rendered dry and productive. He adds that from experiments he has made he is “ fully convinced that a plantation of alders would soon render the ground (even if previously of tolerably sound and dry quality) soft and spongy, and in time convert it into a decided bog.” I cannot learn that this observation has been confirmed by others, and am inclined to doubt its being of general application.

1 Hough, Trees N. States and Canada, 131 (1907).

? British Forest Trees, p. 218 (1842).