242 ON THINING AND FRUNNING TREES. 



Tlie method I would recommend to be pursued, is as follows ; 



1st, Make choice of such trees, as are likely to remain where 

 they are planted, and at each successive thinning, clear off a few 

 of their lower branches, Wych, Elm, Birch, Lime, &c. should be 

 trimmed to the lowest stem ; and the formal upright kinds, such 

 as the Horse-chesnut, Sycamore, Mountain-ash, &c. to the short- 

 est stem. 



2nd, Cut down from time to time, as occasion requires, such 

 other trees as appear to crowd these, by this means the adopted 

 plants will have room to bestir themselves, and they will be 

 found severally to form extensive and massy branches, calculated 

 at once for ornament and use, and one single tree, will eventu- 

 ally afford a screen equal to a hundred of these neglected skele- 

 tons we are at present confronted by wherever we turn oursel- 

 ves. I do not mean that plantations should be always equally 

 thinned : let the trees be occasionally at various distances ; 

 for instance, two, three, four, five, or more may stand in a group, 

 set from three to five yards from each other ; which, although 

 near together, may still become fine ornamental trees, provided 

 sufficient room be left all round to allow their branches to ex- 

 tend with freedom ; and indeed, in order to produce a proper 

 effect, and to have groups and masses of different sizes, different 

 distances must be adopted ; instead of which, we generally find 

 plantations almost totally neglected for the space of fifteen or 

 twenty years, and sometimes even longer, and that too, although 

 the trees were planted at first at no greater distance than three 

 or four feet from each other. Such mismanagement must ne- 

 cessarily cause the branches to decay and fall off ; and conse- 

 quently leave the trees little better than mere naked poles, but 

 miserably ill calculated to form a screen, and ornament the sur- 

 rounding landscape. 



The other day on a journey into Derbyshire, I was forcibly 

 struck with the necessity of something being immediately said 

 on a subject so important. 



I noticed on each side of the high road plantations that have 

 stood at least thirty years ; the trees were from three to four 

 feet distant ; in consequence of which they had long been di- 

 vested of their principal branches, which rendered them entirely 

 useless as a screen, for which purpose they appeared originally 

 to have been planted. I am not sure whether they did not be- 

 long to some nobleman, but, however, it is no uncommon thing 



