BOOK III. 



CULTURE, &c. OF PLANTATIONS. 



965 



6922. Hedge-rows frequently require to be altered in direction to improve the form, 

 or increase the contents of farm-enclosures. ( fig. 662.) Generally, and especially in 



662 



flat arable lands, this is done by eradicating such as are in unsuitable directions (a), and 

 substituting others (6) in parallel, or at least in straight lines ; but in rising grounds, and 

 where the surface will be improved by shelter, it frequently happens that a crooked 

 hedge is superseded by two straight ones, and the interval (c) filled up with plant- 

 ation. The advantage of straight-lined fields to a farmer is very considerable ; and when 

 this object is procured in the latter way, an improvement is produced both useful and 

 ornamental. 



6923. Ornamental plantations are no less frequently neglected than such as are considered chiefly useful. 

 Clumps, belts, and screens which have become thin, because they have not been thinned, are almost every- 

 where to be met with. " In those neglected plantations," says Lord Meadowbank, " where daylight may 

 be seen for miles, through naked stems, chilled and contracted by the cold, the mischief might, perhaps, 

 be partially remedied, by planting young trees round the extremities, which having room to spread luxu- 

 riantly, would exclude the winds, and the internal spaces might be thickened up with oak, silver firs, 

 beeches, and such other trees as thrive with a small portion of light. When once the wind is excluded, the 

 weakest of the old trees might be taken out, and the others left to profit by the 

 shelter and space that is afforded." (Life of Lord Kaimes, by Tytler.} One of the 

 most hopeless cases of improvement in this department is that of an old clump of 

 Scotch pines (fig. 663.), from which scarcely any trees can be taken without risking ^ 

 the failure of the remainder. The only way is to add to it, either by some scattered 

 groups in one direction, or in various directions. Where a clump consists of hard * * 

 wood, either entirely or in part, it may sometimes, if effect permits, be reduced to 

 a group, by gradually reducing the number of the trees. The group left should be 

 composed of two or three trees of at least two species, different in bulk, and some- 

 what in habit, in order that the combined mass may not have the formality of the 

 clump. 



6924. Scattered trees in ornamental scenery otherwise of very good shapes, and very 

 well managed as to pruning, destroying the browsing line, &c. individually, are often, 

 from want of thinning in some places, and thickening in others, deficient in massiness 



Ct fl 



(Jig. 664.) ; the obvious remedy is to thin out some (a), and plant others, so as to de- 

 stroy the straggling non-cooperating appearance which such trees present, and produce 

 something of grouping, massiveness, and character. (Jig. 665.) 



6925. Wounds, bruises, casualtie-s, and defects of frees. Small wuunds, such as are 

 required to be made by judicious pruning, easily heal up of themselves ; large wounds, 

 by amputations of branches, above six inches' diameter, should, if possible, never be 

 made. Even wounds of six inches' diameter, or under, will heal quicker by the appli- 

 cation of any material which excludes the air and preserves the wood from corruption; 

 and we agree with Sang, in recommending coal-tar, or the liquor produced from coals 



3 Q 3 



