On the Planting of Forest-Trees. 291 



stem; which, if the thinnings be well-timed, will perhaps be all 

 the pruning that the resinous trees will require, except the occa- 

 sional shortening of a false leading shoot, to prevent trees from 

 forking ; taking care that the rule with regard to the quantity of 

 head be observed as nearly as possible. The oaks, chesnuts, &c. 

 will require more attention, and should be treated in the manner 

 previously stated for such trees. The final distance of larch and 

 other resinous trees should not be less than 16 feet ; and oaks, &c. 

 will require nearly double that space. This must be considered 

 at the time of planting, and borne in mind during the operation of 

 thinning. As all plantations are objects of taste, it will be de- 

 sirable so to manage them as to have the most agreeable effect. 

 The outsides of most plantations present a hard compact outline, 

 or verdant wall. To avoid this disagreeable effect, the thinning 

 on the outsides and along the drives, should be commenced so 

 early as to allow a double rank of the final trees to take their full 

 natural growth, by which depth and variety would take place of 

 the too common monotony, without any material sacrifice of ulti- 

 mate profit. With regard to the bulk of the plantation, as well 

 as to woods in general, the rule I have given for regulating both 

 the progressive and final distance of trees is the best that 1 can 

 suggest, and it is the result of long and attentive observation of 

 the actual condition of trees so circumstanced. The very intelli- 

 gent author of the article on planting in the ' Library of Useful 

 Knowledge ' states that there is a beech-tree in Woburn Park 

 which contains 400 feet of timber, the stem of which measures 50 

 feet to the boughs, and the head 50 more ; and an oak, contain- 

 ing 492 feet of timber, whose stem measures 50, and the head 40 

 feet : both sufficient proofs that trees will attain great magnitude 

 with the proportion of head suggested. 



I cannot quit this subject without strenuously insisting upon 

 the most constant and careful attention to it in the progress of 

 plantations — the neglect of which yearly inflicts enormous loss 

 both upon indisdduals and the public ; an opinion in which I am 

 sure I shall be borne out by a survey of the timbered districts of 

 the kingdom by any enlightened cultivator of trees. A more 

 pressing need has long since taught the gardener and the farmer 

 the necessity of giving each plant a suitable space to enable it to 

 produce the desired result, and the proper distances are assigned 

 to all the plants of our gardens and fields ; but either the more 

 easy circumstances of the landed proprietor, or the comparative 

 remoteness of the result — perhaps both combined — have, gencr 

 rally speaking, deprived trees of the same reasonable manage- 

 ment. The maxims of the garden and the cultivated field have 

 not been carried into our woods and plantations, at least in a suffi- 

 cient degree -, and the condition of most of the latter would lead 



