44 DISTRIBUTION OF 



SECTION II. DISTRIBUTION OF THE YOUNG TREES, 



SO AS TO SUIT THE DIFFERENT SOILS AND SITUA- 

 TIONS IN A NEW PLANTATION. HABITS AND PECU- 

 LIARITIES OF THE VARIOUS SPECIES. 



Next to the draining of the soil, nothing is of more 

 importance, in order to insure the future welfare of 

 any young plantation, than the proper adaptation 

 of the different sorts of trees to the various soils 

 and situations therein. This is a point in arbori- 

 culture which has all along been too little attended 

 to by planters in general; and the not attending 

 to this point, is in a great measure the reason 

 that we at the present day see very many of 

 our home plantations, in Scotland, mere eye-sores 

 rather than ornaments. I have often regretted 

 very much to see larch and Scots firs of thirty 

 years' standing in an unhealthy and dying state, 

 where if beech, or any other of the native sorts of 

 hard-wood trees, had been planted, they would un- 

 doubtedly have proved both useful and ornamental ; 

 and again, as often have I seen stunted-looking hard- 

 wood trees striving for existence, where if firs or 

 pines had been planted instead, all would have been 

 well ; which at once shows the low state of arboricul- 

 tural knowledge among us. Upon a little reflection, 

 it must appear evident to every inquiring man inter- 

 ested in the welfare of our home plantations, that a 

 forester, in order to be one profitably, must be per- 



