Planting 

 specimen 

 trees. 



Tree 



guards. 



Arrange- 

 ments of 

 the units in 

 a planta- 

 tion. 



PLANTING FOR LANDSCAPE EFFECT. 



a little well-rotted manure (never raw manure) or leaf mould placed in the bottom. 

 On this the roots of the tree should be spread out in a natural manner, and the stake 

 to which the tree is to be tied well driven in, while there is no danger of driving it 

 into the roots as there would be if it is put in as an after- thought. The hole may then 

 be filled up with the same mixture of turf, mould and manure, and well trodden down, 

 and, if at all dry, watered freely. The turf may be relaid over the whole of the roots 

 except for a distance of eighteen inches round the stem, which should be kept clear of 

 grass until the tree has become thoroughly established. 



It is better that the crown of the roots should stand up above the surface a little 

 than that the stem should be buried. If only a few inches are covered, the tree will 

 surfer seriously, while, if buried deeply, it will almost certainly die within a few years. 

 Some trees, such as poplars and willows, form fresh roots if not too deeply buried, but 

 the majority of other kinds eventually succumb to fungoid attacks between the surface 

 of the ground and the roots. 



In the home park, specimen trees will have to be guarded, and this is best done 

 by three or four stout posts driven into the ground and connected by rails at a sufficient 

 distance from the stem to keep cattle from browsing on the smaller twigs. Trees with 

 pendulous branches sweeping the ground are not, for this reason, suited to park planting. 

 Instead, those with strong clean stems from eight to ten feet high, with the branches 

 rising above this height, are to be preferred. 



It is impossible to lay down even approximate rules for general application as to 

 the distances apart at which trees should be planted. While, on the one hand, in the 

 open country, half-a-dozen beech may monopolize half-an-acre of land, in a smoky 

 district, a large number of such things as will grow would be necessary to furnish the 

 same area. Circumstances will differ in every case, and it can only be repeated that 

 any formality or spottiness in the arrangement should be studiously avoided. It is 

 related of Robert Marnock that he once horrified an up-to-date forester by taking a 

 bundle of Scotch firs and throwing them with all his strength broadcast, requesting him 

 to plant each on the exact spot where it happened to fall. Downing, too, in his book 

 on landscape gardening says, " A friend of ours at Northampton, who is a most zealous 

 ' planter, related to us a diverting expedient to which he was obliged to resort, in order 

 ' to ensure irregular groups. Busily engaged in arranging plantations of young trees on 

 " his lawn, he was hastily obliged to leave home, and intrust the planting of the groups 

 "to some common garden labourers, whose ideas he could not raise to a point sufficiently 

 " high to appreciate any beauty in plantations, unless made in regular forms and straight 

 " lines. ' Being well aware,' says our friend, ' that if left to themselves I should find 

 " all my trees, on my return, in hollow squares or circular clumps, I hastily threw up a 

 " peck of potatoes into the air, one by one, and directed my workmen to plant a tree 

 " where every potato fell ! Thus, if I did not attain the maximum of beauty in group- 

 " ing, I at least had something not so offensive as geometrical figures.' ' 



This was written when popular taste was suffering the inevitable reaction from 

 Capability Brown's clumps and belts, and it is impossible to take it literally, but 

 it points the way to the method on which naturally arranged plantations should be 

 constructed. 



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