has written con arnore upon this, his favorite 

 topic; and Mr. Steplions, of Edinburgh, author 

 of " The Book of the Farm," a work which 

 ought to be in the hands of everj' agriculturist 

 of the new school who is emulous to meet the 

 emergency of the times by the relinquishment 

 of ancient prejudices, and the adoption of new^ 

 and improved modes of culture. 



They who have candidly penised '' Tlie 

 Woodlands" of the late William Cobbett, mu.=t 

 acknowledge that his directions, whether in all 

 cases con-ect or not, are precise, and intelligible 

 to all. Its style is clear, its rules simple and per- 

 spicuous; and, as the author really begins at the 

 beginning, any one who is desirous to do the 

 work of planting effectually, may confide at 

 lea.st in the rules which are there laid down for 

 the prepaiation of the land, because there is no 

 mystification in them. 



It is certain that the beauty of English .scene- 

 ry is mainly dependent upon the multitude of 

 its hedges and hedge-row trees; but, as was 

 proved by a late writer on the Agriculture of 

 Devonshire, the counti'y suffers severely by 

 these ornaments ; utility and productiveness are 

 thus sacrificed; and, therefore, as we ^vould 

 have things put in their right places, we at once 

 urge the abandonment of all those harborers of 

 vennin, which cause the waste and deteriora- 

 tion of agi'icultural grain crops, in more ways 

 Ukiu one, withont any redeeming qualification, 

 insomuch as the timber and undei-wdBd about a 

 farm are, in tliejn.selves, of no renmnerative 

 value wliatever. 



But timber is a source of wealth: trees are 

 glorious objects; aiul plantations adorn a coun- 

 try': therefore we would place them inappro- 

 priate situations, and grow them when there to 

 perfection ; but, to do so, the preparation of the 

 land is a consideration of first-rate importance. 



Trees ought, in fact, to be grown in woods ; 

 also, as screens or belts for protections ; and in 

 group.s, or positions, where, placed singly, they 

 iiiay constitute a prominent and striking "feature 

 of park scenery-. The late Rev. William Gilpin, 

 in tliat interesting book. " The Forest Scenery," 

 has afforded many striking examples of the ef- 

 fects of grouping, chiefly with a view to picfur- 

 estjite bean/}/ : and we recommend the perusal 

 of it to every one interested in the art of plant- 

 ing, for that express object. 



But beauty cannot consi.st with stunted de- 

 fonnity ; therefore we must, in the first place, 

 study the soil and its effectual preparation ; and 

 upon these points our best writers are perfectly 

 agreed. 



Cobbett insists chiefly upon the thorough 

 trenching of the land to the depth of at least two 

 feet, reversing the .surfaces if the soil be good to 

 that extent ; but he justly qualifies this position 

 by observing that tlie soil may be .»uch, in re- 

 spect to its subsoil, "as to bring to the toj) .some- 

 thing in which hardly anything will ever strike 

 root — as, for instance, clear chalk, or pure sand, 

 or gravel, or clay." When this is the case, the 

 to[) mould must be kept at top ; " but still the 

 trenching is alvai/s to he performed, for die 

 ground must be moved and turned to the depth 

 of two feet." Mr. Withers is not content with 

 trenching or deep plowing ; he adds manure to 

 tlie amount of twenty loads per acre, and says 

 that. '■ when you manure, you never want to fill 

 up, for all the trees are sure to take, and in.stead 

 of filling up, you may, after the third year, take 

 out and transplant at least a tenth part of them." 

 (Memoirs, 1^27.1 

 (479) 



Mr. Withers's ." Letter to Sir Henry Steuart, 

 Bart., on the Improvement in the Q,uality of 

 Timber" — 1829 — is a very valuable treatise, and 

 worthy of being better known. 



It is, perhaps, needless to revive the subject 

 of a conti'oversy which once was carried on most 

 strenuously between the advocates of effectual 

 preparation of land by deep trenching, and oth- 

 ers who ■were content to open holes in the 

 ground for each individual tree. "The cheap, 

 hole-digging, short-sighted Scotch system," as it 

 was called some twenty years ago. was " calcu- 

 lated to bring upon those who adopted it only 

 loss and disappointment," that in this day of 

 philosophical inquiry and chemical research, we 

 have little cause to make farther allusion to that 

 which experience must have disqualified. But 

 it cannot be \^'rong or invidious to inquire into 

 the causes by which deep comniiuution of soil 

 will contribute to the permanent advantage of 

 every species of vegetation. 



Without farther entering into the mechanical 

 processes of trenching, already described in the 

 first part of the articles upon '-Orchards," it will 

 be relevant to insist upen the agencj- of those 

 chemical constituents of soil — loams especiallv — 

 which never entered into the calculation of the 

 earlier writers. Our forefathers knew nothing 

 of analysis ; they had no idea of the existence of 

 the phosphates, silicates, and alkalies, which 

 modern Chemistry has brought to light. But 

 now we know, and the knowledge is widely 

 diffused — thanks to the enlightened German 

 chemi.st, Liebig! — that, by the breaking up and 

 the pulverization of earths, a volume of salts — 

 Usually termed the inorganic constituents of 

 land — is distributed through the staple earth, 

 and afford to timber those salts, the presence of 

 which was deemed inexplicable. 



Thus the thousands of tons of pearl and pot- 

 ashes, that have been articles of commerce to 

 an extent almost unlimited, are now understood 

 to be derived from the soil, and distributed only 

 through (not formed or created in) appropriate 

 vessels of the vegetable tissue. The laboration 

 of the ground, therefore, is now proved, beyond 

 question or doubt, to be indispensable, not only, 

 as was supposed, to the first advances of young 

 trees, but to their future progress towards per- 

 fection. 



Trenching is, in no case, labor lo.st ; and even 

 ^vhere a single tree only is to be planted, to pro- 

 duce a particular effect, the hole to receive it 

 ought to be prepared upon the principles of 

 trenching— that is, by opening and comminuting 

 the earth to a very con.siderable extent and 

 depth, so as to insure good drainage, and the 

 free tracings and extension of the root.s, laterally, 

 through a number of feet around the bole of the 

 tree. 



They who have traveled extensively, and wit- 

 nessed the wretched progress of young trees 

 that have been planted in holes so small as to 

 require their roots to be, as it ^verc. screwed in- 

 to the ground, will want no other monitor to in> 

 press the great, undeniable truth, that early and" 

 effectual preparation is the only guarantee of 

 succes,s. Let any one try the experiment upon 

 a couple of gooseberrj' bushes, by planting one 

 in a narro^\' hole, and the other by expanding 

 its roots in a soil worked and made permeable 

 to tlie extent of a square yard, and the difference 

 of the re.sults will be .sufficiently establi.shed be- 

 fore the lapse of two entire seasons. The soil 

 shall be the same — a free unctuous loam — and 

 the sites contiguous ; yet one tree will be stunt- 



