84 On the Native Forests of Aberdeenshire. 



do\vn of the trees by heavy falls of snow, and our present planta- 

 tions equally show, that seldom any extensive or very fatal injury 

 may come from this. Even granting that a feAv trees should be 

 now and then destroyed by the snow, would it not be infinitely 

 better to apply an after remedy for the evil, by planting a young 

 tree in place of the broken one, than by planting more than enough, 

 to ensure the early destruction of all, especially considering with 

 what facility and dispatch the most extensive plantations of thin 

 planted trees might be examined, to have their deficiencies, if any, 

 supplied } And it forms no material objection to this plan, that, in 

 that case, there would be a young tree in place of one of equal age 

 with that destroyed ; for as it is only during a few early years of 

 their growth that the trees are liable to suffer from snow,' only a 

 few years would be lost at the Avorst. 



Another objection to the thin planting is, that the trees, instead 

 of forming tall clean trunks of serviceable wood, will be apt to run 

 too much into branches, assuming the appearance of bushes instead 

 of trees. This, it must be acknowledged, will take place for some 

 years ; but it will be in the appearance only, and not in the real- 

 ity. The young trees at the skirts of the native forests, which ge- 

 nerally come up thin on the ground, at least at first, continue close- 

 ly feathered with branches for several years ; and this circumstance 

 is probably the cause of, or at least closely connected with, their 

 future great health and long endurance ; for these numerous 

 branches, covered with foliage, are the lungs of the plant, supply- 

 ing it Avith vigour to establish itself firmly in the soil. But then, 

 in the mean time, the leading shoot is not idle, but making as large 

 additions to the height yearly, as that of a more confined tree could 

 make, perhaps larger. The lower branches at last wither, and die 

 upwards in succession, and at last the beautiful stems and clean 

 wood of the aged trees, clearly demonstrate that no injury had 

 arisen from the branches that so long clothed them in their youth. 

 The large trees at Haughton, standing most of them much more 

 remote from each other than it is here proposed to plant, and many 

 of them even, properly speaking, solitary trees, have yet most of 

 them lofty stems of very clean serviceable wood, rising, without a 

 branch, much above the brushwood that surrounds them, and high- 

 ly fit for all the ordinary purposes of deals or rooffing. 



It is an objection of very trifling moment, that the young plan^ 

 tation would for a few years look very meagre from not concealing 

 all the ground. This temporary deformity of thin planted wood, 

 is probably one reason for the almost universal adoption of thick 

 planting. Most of the early plantations having been made in the 

 immediate neighbourhood of gentlemen's residences, as much with 

 a view to ornament as utility, it may have been desireable to make 

 the trees cover the ground as speedily as possible, for which pur- 

 pose thick planting would naturally be had recourse to. But in 

 the course of a very few years, the healthy and natural aspect of a 

 thin plantation would form a much finer object than the unnatural 



