CHAP, ii SYLVA 23 



planted in copses, and for ample woods, are suffi- 

 ciently defended by the mounds and their closer 

 order ; especially, if they rise of seeds : But where 

 they are expos'd in single rows, as in walks and 

 avenues, the most effectual course is to empale them 

 with three good quartet-stakes of competent length, 

 set in triangle, and made fast to one another by short 

 pieces above and beneath ; in which a few brambles 

 being stuck, secure it abundantly without that 

 choaking or fretting, to which trees are obnoxious 

 that are only single staked and bushed, as the vulgar 

 manner is : Nor is the charge of this so considerable 

 as the great advantage, accounting for the frequent 

 reparations which the other will require. Where 

 cattel do not come, I find a good piece of rope, tyed 

 fast about the neck of trees upon a wisp of straw to 

 preserve it from galling, and the other end tightly 

 strein'd to a hook or peg in the ground (as the 

 shrouds in ships are fastened to the masts) sufficiently 

 stablishes my trees against the western blasts without 

 more trouble ; for the winds of other quarters seldom 

 infest us. But these cords had need be well pitch'd 

 to preserve them from wet, and so they will last 

 many years. I cannot in the mean time conceal 

 what a noble person has affur'd me, that in his 

 goodly plantations of trees in Scotland, where 

 they are continually expos'd to much greater, and 

 more impetuous winds than we were usually acquaint- 

 ed with, he never stakes any of his trees ; but upon all 

 disasters of this kind, causes only his servants to 

 redress, and, set them up again as often as they happen 

 to be overthrown ; which he has affirm'd to me, 

 thrives better with them, than with those which he 

 has staked ; and that at last they strike root so fast, 



