186 



terity must be truly ungrateful, which 

 thwarts or defeats such benevolent design.* 



That the foregoing digression is not 

 causeless, will appear, by considering the 

 wretched state of plantations, generally. 

 Their three essential properties are, Or- 

 nament, Shelter, and Use ; and, 

 therefore, we see clearly to what points 

 their management should tend. They are 



* The treatment of the two poplars continued the 

 same for two seasons longer, viz. until 22nd Sept. 

 1807, when they were again measured, and it was 

 found that the dimensions of the former were the same 

 as before, while the latter had increased in girt to three 

 feet one inch. It had of course, in four years, consi- 

 derably more than doubled its size, while the former 

 had produced nothing but small branches, except a 

 trifling increase the summer after it was scarified. 

 This experiment certainly furnishes abundant matter 

 for reflection ; probably the attentive reader will like- 

 wise find instruction in it : it is, at any rate, a striking 

 proof of the quick growth of the Black Italian Poplar 

 in a situation generally considered as improper for 

 the species, viz. on a dry hill, the soil of which is not 

 more than a foot deep with a strong clay bottom. 



