580 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part III. 



breadths, depending on a variety of circumstances, but chiefly on the facility which these 

 seeds afford for being caiTied to a distance by the wind, the rain, and by birds or other 

 animals. At last that species which had enjoyed a maximum of natural advantages is 

 found to prevail as far as this maximum extended, stretching along in masses and irregular 

 portions of surface, till circumstances changing in favor of some other species, that 

 takes the precedence in its turn. In this way it will be generally found, that the 

 number of species, and the extent and style of the njasses in which they prevail, bears 

 a strict analogy to the changes of soil and surface ; and this holds good, not only with 

 respect to trees and shrubs, but to plants, grasses, and even the mossy tribe. 



Sect. V. Of the Culture of Plantations. 



S678. Most men consider a tree when once planted, as done with; though, as every 

 one knows, tlie progress and products of trees, like those of other plants, may be 

 greatly increased or modified by cultivating the soil, pruning, and thinning. 



SuBSECT. 1. Of the Culture of the Soil among Trees. 



3679. With respect to the culture of the soil, it is evident, that young plantations 

 should be kept clear of such weeds as have a tendency to smother the plants ; and though 

 this is not likely to take place on heaths and barren sites, yet even these should be 

 looked over once or twice during summer, and at least those weeds removed which 

 are conspicuously injurious. In grounds which have been prepared previously to plant- 

 ing, weeding, hoeing by hand, or by the horse hoe, and digging or ploughing, become 

 necessary according to circumstances. The hoeings are performed in summer to 

 destroy weeds, and render the soil pervious to the weather ; the ploughing and diggings 

 in winter are for the same purpose, and sometimes to prepare the soil for spring crops. 

 These, both Pontey and Sang allow, may be occasionally introduced among newly-planted 

 trees ; though it must not be forgotten that relatively to the trees, the plants composing 

 such crops are weeds, and some of them, as the potatoe, weeds of the most exhausting 

 kind. Sang uses a hoe of larger size than usual (fig. 455 d.) 



3680. In preparing lands for solving woods, Sang ploughs in manure, sows in rows six 

 feet apart, by which he is enabled to crop the ground between, with low growing early 

 potatoes, turnips, and lettuce ; but not with young trees as a sort of nursery, as they prove 

 more scourging crops than esculent vegetables ; nor with grain, as not admitting of 

 culture, and being too exhausting for the soil. Marshal, and some other authors, how- 

 ever, approve of sowing the tree seeds with a crop x)f grain, and hoeing up the stubble 

 and weeds when the crop is removed. 



3681. Pontey observes, " that wherever preparing the soil for planting is thought 

 necessary, that of cultivating it for some years afterwards, will generally be thought the 

 same ; slight crops of potatoes with short tops, or turnips, may be admitted into such 

 plantations with advantage for two or three years, as they create a necessity for annually 

 digging or stirring the surface, and tend very materially to accelerate the growth of the 

 plants. It may be objected, that such crops must impoverish the soil, and no doubt but 

 such is the fact, so far as common vegetables are concerned ; but as to the production of 

 wood, its support depends, in a great measure, on a different species of nutriment ; and 

 hence, I could never observe, that such cropping damaged it materially." {^Profit. 

 Plant, p. 153.) 



3682. Osier plantations, for baskets, willows, and hoops, require digging and cleaning 

 during the whole course of their existence ; and so do hedge-rows to a certain extent, 

 and some ornamental plantations. 



SuBSECT. 2. Of the Filling up of Blanks or Failures in Plantations. 



3683. Filling up blanks is one of the first operations that occurs on the culture of 

 plantations next to the general culture of the soil, and the care of the external fences. 

 According to Sang, " a forest plantation, either in the mass form or ordinary mix- 

 ture, should remain several years after planting, before filling up the vacancies, by the 

 death of the hard wood-plants, takes place. Hard-wood plants, in the first year, and even 

 sometimes in the second year after planting, die down quite to the surface of the ground, 

 and are apparently dead, while their roots, and the wood immediately above them, are 

 quite fresh, and capable of producing very vigorous shoots, which they frequently do 

 produce, if allowed to stand in their places. If a tree, such as that above alluded to, be 

 taken out the first or second year after planting, and the place filled up with a fresh plant 

 of the same kind, what happened to the former may probably happen to the latter ; and 

 so the period of raising a plant on the spot may be protracted to a great length of time ; 

 or it is possible this object may never be gained. 



3684. The filing up of the hard-wood kinds in a plantation which has been planted 

 after trenching, or summer fallow, and which has been kept clean by the hoe, may be done 



