365 



or three years; and meanwhile, that the roots and fibres, being com- 

 paratively undisturbed, extend under ground for five or six years more. 

 As to the branches, lew or none having decayed in the beginning, the 

 tree, by the second year, has probably carried a good leaf, but has made 

 no shoots of any sort. 



Now this tree, as it is not in possession of all the protecting proper- 

 ties, can develop those which it possesses, only in an inferior degree ; 

 therefore, " its progress must be retarded (as the text has it), until the 

 deficiency be made up." If it chance to be in a situation relatively 

 sheltered, and in a favourable soil, it will, after five or six years more 

 in this climate, begin to obtain the proper stoutness of stem, and thick- 

 ness of bark, which it should have had in the beginning : but if the 

 exposure be great, whatever be the soil, ten or twelve years still may 

 elapse, ere " the deficiency be made up." Thus, in the last mentioned 

 case (which is by far the more common of the two), after about eighteen 

 or twenty years, the tree, having struggled under the unnatural circum- 

 stances of cold and exposure, to generate provisions, which warmth 

 and shelter, in the previous plantation, or transplanting nursery, would 

 have speedily conferred on it, at length surmounts the evils incident to 

 injudicious selection, and begins to shoot forth with proper vigour. — 

 Such at least is its progress in the climate of Scotland. 



This is no exaggerated picture, but a plain statement of facts, such 

 as always occur, when the laws of nature are disregarded, and the de- 

 velopment of the properties she confers are checked in their progress. 

 The above illustration of the doctrine set forth in the text, that " we 

 must wait tiU the deficiency be made up," is given on the supposition, 

 that the tree has tolerable roots and branches, but is without the other 

 prerequisites. But, on a supposition that the tree possessed the other 

 protecting properties, and that roots or branches were deficient, there 

 would be a corresponding result ; and no vigorous progress could in the 

 same way be expected from the plant, until the deficiency was made 

 up, in like manner. 



