16 BEA.UTY AND SHELTER. 



hesitation as to thinning and pruning; the promo- 

 tion of jour hollys becomes the main object, and 

 every thing that interferes will readily give way. 

 Only cut down as the hollys spread, and in the 

 long run there will be as much timber as the ground 

 can carry. The timber may grow magnificent if 

 you will; the holly will thrive notwithstanding. 

 Nothing that grows will look so smiling and vigor- 

 ous under the shade of trees; it may be seen luxu- 

 riant where it has been chance-sown by the root of 

 an old oak; it never knows what it is to die under 

 any circumstances; it is peeled by bird-catchers, 

 to whose blackguard calling it seems indispensable, 

 still it lives; age seem unable to secure its decay; 

 it is literally ever green. The root, holding a per- 

 petual lease of the soil, is possessed of a reproduc- 

 tive vitality, and while the old stem is failing 

 through length of years, a numerous offspring 

 arise, which shelter in their bosoms the aged par- 

 ent, allowing no marks either of the infirmity or the 

 change of generations. The expence is nothing; 

 four shillings 1 worth (the price of a hundred good 

 plants) is enough for an acre. The hollys should 

 be placed, say twelve feet asunder, and so arranged 

 that one farther remote may divide the space be- 

 twixt the nearer two. 



A strip so furnished, though not more than thirty 

 or forty feet wide, will afford more beauty and shel- 

 ter than one of three times the breadth reared in 

 the common way; and it will also have this in- 

 comparable advantage, that no length of time will 

 produce the nakedness of a wretched row of poles ; 



