THE ELM. 97 



The elm has been always considered as one of the 

 trees which can be most safely transplanted after 

 attaining considerable size. Evelyn gives several 

 accounts of trees of this species being thus removed 

 into other soils. Upon this subject we may properly 

 enter into some detail, as the public attention has 

 been recently much fixed on a practical plan for the 

 transplantation of large trees. 



Though timber trees be among the most delight- 

 ful ornaments with which any country can be graced, 

 they are ornaments which, generally speaking, a 

 man cannot procure for himself. If they be raised 

 from seed, or planted as saplings, the grandson of 

 the planter is probably the first that can enjoy their 

 beauty, and walk under their shade. Hence a method 

 of transplanting full-grown timber is a very desirable 

 art. Nor is it desirable only for merely ornamental 

 purposes, for the shelter which trees afford to the 

 soil is one of the surest means of increasing the 

 warmth and fertility of a country; and many districts 

 have been converted from bleakness and sterility, to 

 productiveness and value, by plantations of timber. 

 This is particularly the case where the wind blows 

 over those cold surfaces of heath and morass, which 

 occur in the northern parts of the island of Great 

 Britain. The subject has not been investigated with 

 that attention which its importance merits, but ap- 

 pearances render it highly probable that the spawn of 

 mosses and lichens are wafted by the winds; and that 

 if these winds are not purified from the pestilent 

 spawn, they spread a noxious vegetable growth over 

 what would otherwise be fertile land. In many places 

 we have seen belts of plantations act as a sort of 

 filter for the winds. The trees next to a marshy 

 heath have been covered with lichens, so that no part 

 of the bark was visible; while in the interior of the 

 belt, and on the side most distant from the barren 



VOL. II. 9 



