330 TRANSACTIONS OF KOYAL SCOTTISH ARCORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



beauty. To achieve tliis it may be necessary to depart in a great 

 measure from those arbitrary rules which a study of Nature would 

 inculcate, because here as well as under the former head, local 

 circumstances, general utility, and the physical asj^ect of the 

 ground, must all exercise an influence on the course which it is 

 necessary to adopt. In proceeding practically to the carrying out 

 of these ideas, it is necessary to consider and settle the quantity 

 of ground to be planted, bearing in mind always only to plant the 

 least valuable land, and also to consider and arrange the forms 

 those plantations should take, and their relationship to each other, 

 BO as to produce, as much as possible, a proper balance in the 

 landscape, while at the same time having them so distributed as 

 to render not only mutual shelter, but also shelter to the culti- 

 vated land around them. 



In planting a large extent of country, the primary object is not 

 so much landscape effect, although that ought to be very promi- 

 nently kept in view, as the profitable covering of the less fertile 

 land, the sheltering of neighbouring arable land, and, in short, 

 devoting the ground as a whole to the most useful and profitable 

 purposes. 



Having fixed the locality and extent of the different planta- 

 tions, the next step is to arrange definitely the form or boundaries 

 of each. "We may here premise that anything opposed to utility 

 is bad taste, because otherwise the main object would be sacrificed 

 to the less. "While irregular boundaries in a state of wild nature 

 are generally the rule in a waste and uncultivable country, it 

 would be eminently bad taste alongside of good arable land, where 

 such an arrangement would entail much extra expense in the 

 working and cultivation of the soil. In this case, therefore, 

 straight boundaries along cultivated fields are by no means ugly 

 or out of taste. Small groups or individual trees ought also to be 

 avoided on such ground, as tending to incommode pi'ofitable 

 cultivation, besides producing unprofitable timber. The ground 

 selected for planting should generally be the least valuable ; but 

 even at the sacrifice of a portion of the more fertile the planta- 

 tions should be in good large masses, so distributed as to produce 

 a pleasing effect, while at the same time laid out with the view to 

 produce the best timber. Nature generally plants the valley, and 

 leaves the hill tops bare. "We would, however, reverse this so 

 far by planting the hills and leaving all the valleys or lowlands 

 fit for cultivation bare of trees, while at the same time any 



