260 ON THE CONSERVATION OF 



the soil itself, or the application of the seed to the ground. It may 

 be partly owing to our climate, hut chiefly to the vast supplies of 

 coal with which our island is favoured, that the British nation 

 throughout the globe is known as the most regardless of the value 

 of forests ; and in many foreign parts, emigrants from onr shores are 

 now feeling the want of timber, for shelter, shade, or climate adjust- 

 ment, which their own reckless indifference has destroyed. The 

 proper conservation of individual old trees fosters a general feeling 

 for a careful attention to the growth and treatment of groups, 

 plantations, and forests, and leads to a better acquaintance with a 

 branch of Arboriculture too little understood at the present day. 



In considering the question of the conservation of large trees, the 

 subject naturally divides itself into two heads, each of which in its 

 mode of treatment is entirely distinct from the other. 1st, Conser- 

 vation may be directed towards the maintenance and development 

 of trees in progressive vigour — to old large timber trees still enjoying 

 health, and whose grateful shade, or graceful outline, in sweeping 

 arms, it may be desirable to foster for amenity or picturesque effect 

 in the landscape or park. Or, again, 2d, It may be requisite that 

 steps be taken for the conservation of some old gnarled bare trunk, 

 whose hollow stem and blasted head bear witness to the flight of 

 many centuries, and around whose venerable form cluster memories 

 and associations of historical or family interest or traditionary lore, 

 which it is well to keep alive in the minds of a countryside by the 

 preservation of the trees themselves, whose very names refer to the 

 events their presence commemorates. 



The steps to be recommended for the conservation of old trees, 

 under either of the foregoing heads, are naturally much alike, and 

 simply embrace measures of a remedial nature, taking in both 

 instances due cognisance of the elementary principles of vegetable 

 life in the tree. If trees were, in the early stages of their growth, 

 to receive that care and attention which their importance demands, 

 and which their ultimate value will show to have been necessary, 

 there would be little need for the adoption, in later years, of measures 

 to promote their progressive vigour and ultimate recovery from 

 premature decay or decline. Early and fearless thinning, so that 

 the young tree may find ample scope and free air for the develop- 

 ment of its youthful form, is one essential requisite too often 

 neglected, and the oversight of which is one of the most fruitful 

 sources of early decline in old trees. In trees, as in the animal 

 kingdom, the true secret of success in promoting a full physiological 



