PREPARING GROUND. 195 



withal very damp : Probably, next adjoining is a 

 quarter of an acre of ftrong clay foil : On an ex- 

 pofed point, perhaps, a few falls of fandy, worth- 

 lefs foil ; and fo on. It will readily occur, that 

 the Birch and the Poplar fhould divide the mofTy 

 part ; the Oak and the Spanifh Chefnut the clay- 

 ey foil ; and the Mountain Sorb its own expofed 

 fituation. The Willow and the Alder might alfp 

 find a place in the lower and damper part of fuch 

 a varied furface ; and thus may each kind re- 

 fpeftively occupy their own native foils in fmall 

 unequal maffes or groups, which would produce 

 a far more perfect variety, and probably yield 

 much more pleafure to a true tafle, than any ge- 

 neral mixture in the ordinary way. From the va- 

 rious nature of the foil here fuppofed, the nurfes 

 could not, probably, be all larches : Spruce fir 

 would be found to be a better nurfe in the low- 

 fituated places : And if the copfe were intended 

 as, a cover for game, near a refidence, Hazels in 

 abundance fhould be planted as nurfes. 



It is, perhaps, hardly necefifary to notice, that, 

 in the ground prepared for fowing a mixed copfe, 

 the nurfes fhould be introduced, as above recom- 

 mended for the oak copfes* Indeed, land intend- 

 ed for a mixed copfe to be raifed from feeds, may- 

 be treated in all refpeds as if intended for an oak 

 wood, as far as regards the fheltering of the young 

 plants, 



N % PLANTING 



