FOR NEW PLANTATIONS. 13 



prove a continual eye-sore, and if well laid off it 

 will prove a constant source of pleasure. 



The method of laying out plantations in the 

 form of strips, so often to be met with in Scotland, 

 gives a poor and mean appearance to a gentleman's 

 estate, particularly when found about the home 

 grounds. The form in which they have generally 

 been made is in straight lines, from twenty to 

 thirty yards broad. In such narrow belts of wood 

 the trees are very seldom found in good health; 

 and, upon a little consideration of the matter, this is 

 not to be wondered at — because, from the narrow- 

 ness of such strips, the proprietors were always 

 afraid to thin them, wishing to keep them in a 

 thick state, in order to give as much shelter as 

 possible, and the natural consequence is, from 

 being left too thick, the one tree soon kills the 

 other. And even where such strips have been 

 well managed, it cannot be expected that they 

 could produce either good healthy timber or make 

 a good shelter ; for, being so narrow, the trees 

 never come to shelter one another. But it is a 

 happy circumstance in the history of arboricul- 

 ture, that few such strips are now planted : gentle- 

 men are now beginning to see the impropriety 

 of such a method of raising plantations ; and now, 

 almost in all cases of good management, we see the 

 old-fashioned narrow strip giving place to the well 

 defined, extensive plantation, which is, indeed, the 



