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in some cases to touch one another, still they would become fine and orna- 

 mental, provided sufficient space were kept clear for them to throw out their 

 brandies freely, so as to give variety and richness to the landscape. 



Instead, however, of receiving timely attention in thinning and pruning, 

 we generally find plantations neglected for the space of fifteen or twenty 

 years, sometimes even for longer periods ; 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 necessarily cause the branches to decay, 

 and the trees to be little better than naked poles, ill adapted to form a screen 

 or ornament to the scenery amid which they are placed. We must guard 

 against the common bad practice of thinning a crowded plantation by 

 stripping every tree ahke of its branches, as an excuse for thinning, without 

 cutting down, until it is too late for any of them ever to assume their 

 proper character and beauty, and answer the end required. 



The general practice of introducing nurse plants, (as they are termed), 

 into plantations, seldom answers the purpose intended, and simply from a 

 want of early attention. The Itahan poplar and the larch, for instance, 

 are of such rapid growth, that in four or five years they will overpower and 

 materially injure almost every other kind of tree, particularly the oak and 

 the beech ; consequently, at that period, care should be taken to afford the 

 latter room, by lopping off the branches of some of the nurse plants, and 

 cutting down others, as the case may require. 



The Black Itahan Poplar should never be introduced, either as a nurse 

 plant, for shelter, or otherwise, except with a full determination upon its final 

 removal ; for it never commands admiration at any period of its growth : when 

 young, it does not harmonize with other trees, and as it advances in growth 

 it presents long naked limbs, and becomes disproportionate, top-heavy, and 

 at length so overbalanced as invariably to lean sideways, and frequently to 

 become nearly prostrate. It is to be seen blemishing our English scenery in 

 almost every part. I have frequently alluded publicly to this tree, as well as 

 to the poplar family generally, and not in vain, for much has been already 

 done in ridding us of them. I know none of the poplar family worthy of 

 introduction into scenery, (with the exception of the Lombardy, upon which 

 I have given my opinion in a former chapter). The interest created by 

 their catkin blossoms for a few days in a year is, I think, counterbalanced 

 • by the htter produced as they fall from the tree. 



