303 



ply a vast portion of superfluous labour. It appears, how- 

 ever, that the Scotch have hitherto shown much less predi- 

 lection for anticipating the eflects of time in this department, 

 than the English ; and certainly they possess much less 

 the power of anticipating it, than that great and opulent 

 people. 



As to the present English practice, it seems to differ in 

 nothing material from that, which was known in the time 

 of Evelyn and Lord Fitzharding. If the facility and 

 dispatch of the methods employed be regarded as the 

 criterion, by which the expense is to be estimated, it will not 

 be difficult to decide between those methods hitherto adopted, 

 and the one recommended in this Essay. 



When the English planter has to remove a tree, the first 

 thing he does is, to cut or trench round the roots, a year, or 

 perhaps two years beforehand, and at the same time he lops 

 or lightens the top. This previous lopping I understand to 

 be according to the most approved practice. But by what 

 means he is then to ascertain the length or extent, to which 

 mutilation is to be carried, so as that he may proportion the 

 top (as Marshall directs) " to the ability of the root," I own, 

 I am unable to perceive, unless the tree be previously taken 

 up, and the size of the root clearly ascertained. But some 

 more judiciously lop the branches, in the interval between 

 the removal and the replanting ; and some also make no pre- 

 paration of the roots at all. In cutting them round, it is 

 held by operators of the greatest experience, that a mass oi 

 ball of earth, beyond which few or no roots are found to ex- 

 tend, of seven or eight feet in diameter, for the largest sub- 

 jects, is as much as can be properly carried away ; hence, 

 the one-half at least, or more probably two-thirds of a fine 

 head must be sacrificed. But it may just as well be so sac- 

 rificed ; as it is obvious, in the circumstances of the case, and 

 without roots adequate to its nourishment, that such a pro- 



