74 



1 published in the Forester's Guide, on the necessity 

 of rearing underwood in belts, and the injurious plan 

 of pruning firs, will not be uninteresting to my read- 

 ers, and no doubt this, as well as some other extracts 

 from it, would have appeared in that work, had it hap- 

 pened to fall into my hands before I published it ; but 

 I regret that I only saw it a short time ago : — 



His lordship says, " At first one is astonished 

 that in the cultivation of parks, or of addition to 

 parks of the most considerable proprietors, and of per- 

 sons whose rank and consequence, lead to ex- 

 pect that they have the best information of the 

 damage which threaten sometimes to be irrepar- 

 able, is often inflicted in the rearing of the young 

 timber. The park of Duddingstone, near Edin- 

 burgh, has belts of oak and other trees, which 

 should rise to the first magnitude, from the breadth 

 of the belts, the warmth of the climate, and the great 

 depth and richness of the soil ; but these belts have 

 seemingly, with great care, been kept cleaned, not 

 only of all underwood, but the lateral branches of 

 the trunks have been cut off, and the winds in sum- 

 mer and winter pass through them without impedi- 

 ment in all directions. Hence, trees that, if toler- 

 ably treated, ought to have risen to the height of 

 from 80 to 1 20 feet, and should have already 60 to 

 70 feet, will, in all probability, never attain to half the 

 size that they should have attained. Had the lateral 

 branches been left for a time with due subordination 

 in size and position upon the trunks, the sap would 

 have been invited by their loving principles, to as- 

 cend to the summits of the trees, — their temperature 

 would have been preserved as warm as the climate 

 admitted of, and the sward below being aiso darken- 



