not be of the most valuable and most appropriate figure, he must rank either with the negligent or the incapable. Ship timbers being generally required of greater depth than thickness, that is, broadest in the plane {25} of the curve, hedge-row is better adapted to growing them than the forest, especially when the trees are close in the row. The bend generally takes place across the row; and the bole of the tree acquires a greater diameter in that direction than in the line of the row. If the figure of the top of a tree be very elliptical in the horizontal plane, the cross section of the bole, instead of being circular, will also be elliptical (cake-grown). The lateral spread of the roots in thick planted rows being greater than the longitudinal, also tends to give elliptic bole, the stem swelling most on the sides where the strongest roots enter, which, of course, always occurs on the sides affording most nourishment. Forests intended for ship timbers might be planted and kept in rows a considerable distance apart, with the plants close in the row, and thus acquire the elliptic bole. This would also facilitate the bending; by being turned a little right and left alternately, they would spontaneously, from the weight of the top, and their inclination to avoid the shade of each other, increase the original bias. Were forests planted in close double rows, the plants thick in the row, with wide avenues or glades between, many of the trees would acquire crooked boles, and the crooked might be retained when thinning. Avenues of this description {26} would form agreeable diversity from the monotonous irregularity of the forest, and be highly picturesque. Were close triple rows planted with wide glades between, having spruce, larch, birch, or other trees of more rapid growth than the oak in the mid row, and oak in the side rows, the greater part of the oak would be thrown out into fine curves by the overshadowing top of the superior tree. After the oak had received a sufficient side bias, the central row, which of those kinds comes soon to be of value, might be removed. The easiest way to procure good oak knees is to look out in hedge-row and open forest for plants which divide into two or four leaders, from 3 to 10 feet above ground; and should the leaders not diverge sufficiently, to train them as horizontally as possible for several feet, by rods stretching across the top, or by fixing them down by stakes; see following figures. Figs. _a_, _b_, _f_, are drawn to a smaller scale than _c_, _d_; of course, a stem, after dividing, never extends in length below the division. {27} [Illustration]