253 



will not l)egin to shoot forth with a vigour, which the most 

 sanguine planter could scarcely have anticipated. 



The next object, after attending to their cover, is to secure 

 the trees against injury from sheep and cattle. That rub- 

 bing, by either the one or the other, can affect the stability 

 of trees, or in any wise displace them, after being planted 

 in the manner described above, is out of the question. But 

 there is in the coats of those animals an oily substance, which 

 by continual friction is apt to stop up the minute pores of the. 

 bark, and prevent the admission of the sun and air, before 

 the epidermis has had time to be fortified, by age and expo- 

 sure, against its influence. Without entering into the inge- 

 nious speculations of Marsham, 'who found, that repeated 

 washings surprisingly forwarded the growth of all woody 

 plants, we are warranted in believing, that those owners of 

 parks, who continue to defend their trees aAdr sixty and 

 seventy years' growth (and there are some perflp who incur 

 that labour,) perform a work of supererogation : at all events, 

 it is a work of considerable expense, and of very little utility. 



The best, the most pleasing, and in many situations the 

 most profitable stock for a park, consisting of forty or fifty 

 acres, and upwards, is unquestionably sheep. Sheep love a 

 wide range of pasturage, and are not found fully to thrive, 

 or to be kept with facility, within a less extensive circuit 

 than the one just now specified. Unless your w^ood be of 

 considerable age, deer, independently of the great difficulty 

 of restraining them, prove extremely troublesome ; and black 

 cattle and horses, from their height, and uncommon fondness 

 for the tender shoots of most woody plants, would shockingly 

 disfigure the generality of removed trees, of which the effect 

 chiefly results from the beauty of their spreading boughs, at 

 from about four to seven and eight feet from the ground. 

 The browsing-line of the blackfaced sheep seldom reaches 

 to more than three, or three feet and a half above the sur- 

 face ; a height, which gives lightness rather than otherwise 



