251 



tion, wliicli will also strikingly expedite the labourof finishing. 

 As soon as the figure pleases the eye from every side, the 

 shows are put on round the stem, and nearly two yards out 

 from it (that is, for trees of five-and-twenty and thirty feet 

 high,) to the thickness of six inches at the centre, and four 

 at the extremities ; beating down the shows with the spade, 

 to prevent the wind from taking hold of them ; after which, 

 they will soon consolidate, and completely exclude drought. 

 The grass-seeds are then sown and raked in, over the re- 

 mainder of the prepared surface, and of more than ordinary 

 thickness ; and these, on the roller being passed over them, 

 will rapidly spring up, and greatly assist in retaining mois- 

 ture. To turf such considerable spaces, as is done by some, 

 would be an intolerable labour, without being either so effec- 

 tive, or so handsome in the execution. 



By the above directions it is not meant that the shows 

 shall remain longer on the surface, than during the first 

 season. No tree, treated according to the preservative system, 

 is known to die after the first year, if during that year it 

 carry a healthy though small leaf, the oak and the beech 

 perhaps excepted ; which two species (from causes not yet 

 fully ascertained, but probably owing to a peculiar sensitive- 

 ness of drought) sometimes fail in the second year. In the 

 course of the second year, then, the circular spaces round 

 the stem, which have been covered with shows, are to be 

 lightly pointed over with the spade, and kept with the hoe 

 for four or five years, until the trees shoot freely. It would 

 be extremely injudicious to allow the spade to be used at all, 

 after the first season ; as the minute and capillary absorbents 

 of the root immediately rise to the surface, and must suffer 

 more or less even from the hoe, whatever caution may be 

 employed. In respect to the oak and the beech, it would be 

 prudent to allow the shows to remain upon those trees for 

 two years complete, and delay all stirring of the earth round 

 them, until the third summer. 



