FOR YOUNG TREES. 29 



tions, I have, in almost all cases, found damp to be 

 the principal cause, and therefore recommended an 

 efficient course of open draining as the only means 

 by which they could be reeovered ; and wherever 

 my plan for the recovery of the health of such 

 plantations has been put into operation, a recovery 

 has been the result, excepting in some cases where 

 the trees were too old and stunted to indulge any 

 hope of their recovery. Since I came to be forester 

 at Ai-niston, I have, by draining alone, brought 

 several young plantations into health, which, before 

 that operation was done, were fast going back ; and 

 from experience I find, that if the constitution of 

 trees under twenty years old be not too much in- 

 jured by the effects of dampness, they will show 

 signs of recovery the second year after the ground 

 is drained about them, — that is to say, as soon as 

 the young roots begin to draw nourishment from 

 the dry and improved soil. 



Draining is quite as necessary for the profit- 

 able rearing of young trees, as it is found advanta- 

 geous in the profitable growing of corn, wliich we 

 now see so much improved every where by that 

 most excellent art. Such as our corn fields were 

 fifty years ago, such are the most of our plantations 

 of the present day. 



Twenty years ago, it was considered a piece of 

 superfluous work to drain land where young trees 

 were to be put in ; therefore it is not to be won- 



