160 THE REARING OF 



a size worth cultivating with the view of becoming 

 ornamental lawn-trees. Upon this point, my expe- 

 rience points to quite a different conclusion. In 

 all high-lying situations in Scotland, where the 

 Scots and spruce firs are found to succeed well — the 

 former on the heights and the latter in the hollows 

 — the beech, elm, and ash will thrive well also, and 

 become trees of no mean magnitude. This I have 

 observed through Aberdeenshire, and other northern 

 parts in Scotland, as also on the highest-lying dis- 

 tricts in the south of Scotland ; therefore no pro- 

 prietor in Scotland, if he can produce upon his 

 estate Scots firs of good size, should hesitate to 

 plant the sorts of hard-wood trees above named. All 

 that he has to do, in order to insure success, is to 

 plant firs as nurses, along with the hard- wood, and 

 remove them by degrees as the others advance. 



It is allowed by all people possessed of good 

 natural taste, that firs, when planted in a mass, and 

 forming a plantation near to a gentleman's mansion, 

 without a proper body of hard-wood trees, give that 

 place a cold, heavy, alpine appearance, although it 

 may be situated in the most fertile part of the 

 country. And it is my opinion, that every proprietor 

 of land shoyld endeavour, as much as possible, to 

 cultivate all the different sorts of hard-wood within 

 the range of his home parks, which will give his 

 grounds a fertile and cultivated aspect, although 

 the situation he may occupy be naturally one of an 



