264 PLEASURE-GROUNDS. [CHAP. IX. 



the persons employed in planting are generally 

 opposed to it. The nurseryman, of course, 

 wishes to dispose of his plants, and the gardener 

 to produce a good effect as soon as possible, 

 >iay, even the proprietor cannot help feeling the 

 bare and desolate appearance of a new planta- 

 tion, where the shrubs are placed at proper 

 distances. There are but two remedies for this : 

 either planting so as to produce an effect- at 

 first, and then thinning out half the plants, 

 beginning the second or third year ; or planting 

 the shrubs at the proper distances, and covering 

 the ground between them with some trailing 

 plant pegged down. 



Nothing can look worse than a row of tall 

 trees, which were evidently planted for a screen ; 

 but which, so far from answering the intended 

 purpose, admit the light between their slender 

 naked stems, which afford no more concealment 

 than the open rails of a paling. Mr. Loudon 

 observes, in one of the volumes of the Gar- 

 dener s Magazine, that the quickest way of 

 thickening a plantation in this state is, if the 

 trees are deciduous, to cut every alternate tree 

 down, in order that the stools of the fallen trees 

 may send up young shoots ; but, if any of the 

 trees have branches within six or eight feet of 

 the ground, the plantation may be thickened by 

 tying these branches to the stem, without cutting 

 down any of the trees. 



A weeping ash is a very ornamental tree on 

 a lawn, but unless it is well trained it loses its 

 effect. When trained to a wooden frame, the 

 hoops and rods of which it is composed are 

 seldom strong enough to sustain the weight of 



