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though certain failure is not contemplated by the sanguine 

 planter. With roots inadequate either to fix them in the 

 earth, or to furnish the supply of sap, which their new cir- 

 cumstances demand, they are incapable of extending them- 

 selves, either above or under ground. The leaves, from the 

 deprivation of shelter, cannot freely elaborate the sap ; and 

 the proper juice, on the other hand, is chilled in its descent, 

 from the want of leaves, and branches, and bark sufficient 

 to protect the sap-vessels. Meanwhile, the trees are vexed 

 by the winds from every quarter. They want side-boughs 

 to nourish and balance them properly. Gradually, they 

 become stunted and hidebound. The few branches they 

 have decay and drop off; and at last they are rooted out, as 

 a proof of the hopelessness of the art, and the inutility of 

 all attempts to cultivate it. A few plants perhaps, taken froin 

 the outskirts of the wood, and partly furnished with the 

 protecting properties, struggle on for ten or fifteen years, until 

 they acquire these properties to a certain extent ; and, begin- 

 ning then only to thrive, after half a lifetime of expectation, 

 they show beyond controversy, to the planter and his friends 

 how much more speedily trees might have been got up to 

 an equal size, from the nursery, or the seed-bed ! It is, how- 

 ever, perfectly obvious, that nothing less than a miracle, that 

 is, a counteraction of the course of nature for a special pur- 

 pose, could have effected any other results. 



The third and last error, or cause of miscarriage remaining 

 to be noticed, is the setting out of plants of too diminutive a 

 size into the open field. This error is not less frequent than 

 the others, and is usually committed by those, who condemn 

 the practice of large removals, or who are of opinion, that 

 "large trees and small possess similar properties, and are 

 therefore to be managed on similar principles." All thriving 

 wood, they say, whether in masses or open groups, must be 

 got up by means of small plants. Nature, according to these 

 planters, to a certainty produces wood of every sort, within 



