Upon a suitable soil, the Spruce Fir has always appeared to me, to be decidedly and incomparably the best nurse of the Oak. I have, for instance, often seen, on a clay soil, a Spruce Fir, and an Oak of twenty-five years growth, flourishing admirably, in close proximity with each other—even within a foot and a half. I do not think that this could be said of any other tree than the Spruce Fir; but besides this, there is almost always a very peculiar healthiness about the Oaks, where the Spruce has been planted and cherished as the principal nurse. There seems to be the best possible understanding between them—no struggling for pre-eminence—no blighting influence exercised by the one over the other. But the Spruce Fir is not found to flourish so well on some soils as on others: it will therefore, mostly, be advisable to unite with it, for a number of years, the _Larch_, which may be so placed as to be all weeded out during the course of thinning, which ought to commence in a few years after planting, and go on until there remains nothing but Oak in possession of the ground. In concluding my remarks on Planting, I cannot help referring to the specimens of sowing and thick planting, which may be seen on the extensive estate of the Duke of Portland, at Welbeck, and in that neighbourhood. It has always been His Grace’s practice, either to sow Acorns, or to plant Oaks, in alternate beds, having Larch between. If the Oaks were planted, they were put in _very thickly_; and although their progress was necessarily slower than it would have been, if they had been allowed more room, it cannot be doubted that His Grace had a great advantage in the almost unlimited choice which it gave him, of trees _of perfect form_, for the ultimate crop of timber. The system of _thick planting_ has been fully carried out: having prepared the ground well, His Grace appears to have never lost sight, for an instant, of the young trees that he had undertaken to rear: there has been no mistaken practice—no niggardly economy—no ruinous neglect, rendering all his previous care abortive, and sacrificing his large outlay at the commencement. When the Plantations have required attention, they have evidently had it. The admirer of fine timber will see, in the Duke’s Plantations and grounds, some of the most perfectly formed trees that can be conceived of, and that not on a small scale, but to an extent as comprehensive as that truly noble Duke’s genius, of whom it may probably be said that he unites, in his mind and person, as many of those qualities which constitute true Nobility, as any Gentleman of his day.