better to break the force of any sudden tempest. All these measures are to be taken at some convenient time between November and April; but in situations of particular exposure, it would be prudent, on account of the winds at the vernal equinox, to postpone the trenching until that trying season be past.

In the month of April the whole surface must be well dunged for a potato crop, if possible with fermented peat compost, which is the best; or if that cannot be commanded, with good farm-yard manure; and this, with a crop of flax, or barley, or early oats, and with one of hay immediately following, will more than cover the entire expense of grubbing up, trenching, and otherwise preparing the nursery. By the end of the fourth year, the trees that were considered as the handsomest, and were left with the largest solid spaces round them, and the longest roots, may now be removed, and others in succession, as they are found to acquire the necessary prerequisites. Should there be then regular transplanting work going forward, it will supersede the necessity of the second thinning.

But in any transplanting nursery judiciously formed, it is not to the spade only that trees are to be indebted for complete preparation. The axe and the hedge-bill must likewise do their office; and both are advantageously to be employed in fashioning the tops to whatever shape or character may be desirable. Most trees growing freely are disposed to assume the conical form. To render them tall and spiral, so as that distant objects may be shown between, or under their boughs, it will be proper to cut away all the lowermost branches, or such others as seem from their luxuriance to rival the leading stem, leaving one stout or main leader pre-eminent above the rest. It will be advisable also, to displace the branches of the sides in general, and suffer no more to remain than are judged

ter.

necessary to contain proper vessels in sufficient number, in order to convey down the descending sap. In the same manner, if low and spreading subjects be required to crown, for example, some bold eminence, or clothe its sloping sides the leader or leaders of the top may be headed down, for that or similar objects; and by skilfully repeating the operation from time to time, we shall produce or continue what has been called the clump-headed characLet it not, however, be imagined that the mutilating, or what is usually called the "lightening," of the tops of trees is by any means intended. The system here recommended is radically and characteristically PRESERVATIVE, and one of its striking merits consists in carefully seconding, not counteracting the laws of nature. Her exuberant efforts, indeed, may be sometimes discreetly restrained, or specially directed, without producing those unhappy consequences which never fail to flow from undue violence, under whatever name it may be allowed to operate. It is by the former method alone, that the scientific planter will communicate to his trees that particular character which best suits his purpose, and thus be enabled to confer both intricacy and variety on his landscapes.

In ordering the useful nurseries here attempted to be described, the size will, of course, depend on the scale of the place, and the wants of the owner. Two acres, or three at most, would probably suffice as a repository of transplanting materials for pretty large places, with the addition of such single trees as may always be found in plantations of extent. But it is not necessary, nor would it at all times be practicable, to set apart such a space of woodland in one spot. More divisions, however, of this sort of training ground are just as good as fewer, if the requisite quantity be obtained on the whole, and be the extent what it may, provided a competent degree of healthful

exposure, but likewise relative shelter, can be commanded at pleasure. The great point of judgment and difficulty lies in the opening up. A slow and gradual, yet ultimately a full exposure, should be given to the plantation; but we should neither chill the trees by too sudden a transition to cold, from the former temperature of the wood, nor yet, by too timid a style of thinning, continue the existence of the non-protecting properties.

Perhaps it may appear a recommendation to some, should they be persuaded to undertake this novel cultivation of woodland, that the benefits resulting from it are not wholly confined to the removal of trees. If the ex

tent of the tree nursery thus formed be two or three acres, and the trees themselves of from twenty to thirty years growth, then there will stand on the ground probably more than three hundred plants per acre, after the first thinning. Now, supposing that the landowner, who had formed the nursery, should change his mind as to transplanting, and wish to dedicate the space to ordinary woodland purposes, it is to be observed that he has as yet put himself to little or no expense by this arboricultural improvement. The culture which he has bestowed upon the plantation has already made its return by ample remunerating crops; and to whatever purpose he may think

proper to turn it, the ground will still give him tolerable crops of hay for some years to come. But after all, on comparing it with his plantations of a corresponding age, it will be found that he has strikingly benefited, not deteriorated, the trees; for they will yield him more vigorous and valuable wood than he could have obtained by any other given method.

SECTION VIII.

TAKING UP AND TRANSPORTATION OF THE TREES.

IF there be any one thing more than another in the removal of trees, that places the superiority of the preservative system in a striking point of view, it is the management of the roots. Few planters, in the taking up of trees, make much account of roots, provided that a large mass or ball of earth only adhere to them. Marshall, one of the most judicious writers who has treated the subject, in giving directions on this point, says that the length of the roots, properly speaking, should not be less than the fourth part of the whole height of the tree; although probably, from a want of the means of extricating them from the soil, he did not contemplate the possibility of applying the rule to trees of any magnitude. Had he been better acquainted with vegetable physiology, he would have seen that, by the law of nature, roots and branches must in every case be relative and correlative; and that the standard of judging with respect to roots is not the height of the plant, but the actual length of the side branches. If we mean that our subjects should fully possess the protecting properties, in respect to those two important conservative organs, they must possess them relatively in such proportions as nature confers on all trees which are found to thrive in open exposures.

* See Rural Ornament, vol i. p. 367.

Roots spread themselves in the ground in a way nearly analogous to that in which branches spread themselves in the air, but with a far greater multiplicity of ramification. From the principal root proceed the buds that give rise to the primary rootlets; and these again. give off finer ramifications, which are the true absorbents of the root. To take up such minute and diminutive shoots on the preservative principle, in any thing like an entire state, is obviously impossible with the arboricultural implements now generally in use. Hence it became necessary to have something more effective, and the tree-picker was some years since invented for this purpose, and is now used in Scotland by many persons who have witnessed its extraordinary utility in my practice. This implement is of very simple structure, resembling the pick used by miners, but with only one point or prong, which forms an angle somewhat more acute with the handle, than in the miner's pick. See Plate IV., Fig. 4. The head, which is of iron, and fifteen inches long in the prong, is made extremely light, as also the wooden handle. The length of the latter is two feet and a half, the entire implement weighing no more than about four and a half pounds. In fact, it can scarcely be made too light for the purpose in question.

From what has been said in the foregoing section, respecting the preparation of trees, it is apparent that those which have been cut round are more easily taken up than those that have never been so prepared. The trench made during this operation serves as a sure guide, to show the point to which the fibrous elongation has extended; whereas, in subjects which have undergone no such preparation, the roots must be judged of from other, and sometimes more uncertain circumstances. Every experienced workman is aware, in examining a tree that