Withers on Planting. 4 1 



and if you want ocular proofs, come into this countrj', and I will show you 

 hundreds of them. I will show you plantations only four years old upon 

 prepared land, worth five times as much per acre as those planted upon 

 land of equal quality upon the Scotch system twelve years before. There 

 are many proofs given in my pamphlet, but as 1 do not wish to quote from 

 my own work I will pass them by. My excellent neighbour and friend, Mr. 

 Hardy of Letheringsett, who ranks below no man in the county for his suc- 

 cess in planting, and the taste and spirit he displays in the improvement of 

 his estate, will give you an opportunity of contrasting plantations upon pre- 

 pared and unprepared land : there you will see the former overtaking and 

 surpassing the latter though many years older. You may then go on to 

 Holkham and examine the splendid woods of Mr. Coke, ascertain the 

 enormous income derived from them of late years, and compare them with 

 the wretched-looking and profitless plantations of the same, or a greater age, 

 raised upon the Scotch system, with which our county abounds, but which, 

 out of delicacy to their owners, I will not here more particularly refer to. 



" I will not confine myself to Norfolk for illustrations of your favourite 

 Scotch style of planting, but will give you a specimen of its effects in a dis- 

 tant part of the kingdom ; exhibiting at the same time the injurious sys- 

 tem which prevails in our public forests, and affording a specimen of the 

 capacity of those under whose superintendence they are placed. I am en- 

 abled to do this from the publication of a Mr. Wm, Billington, which has 

 just fallen into my hands, but which bears the date of 1825. It appears 

 that he was appointed ' Surveyor-general of Dean Forest in the year 1 8 10 j ' 

 and he apologises for his publication on account of the great importance 

 (both to the nation and to most landed proprietors) of raising young oak 

 plantations ^ for future navies.^ He acknowledges, that ' the care and ma- 

 nagement of plantations in the first period of their groivth is by far the most 

 hnportant of all ; for as the human character is formed in the first ten or 

 twelve years, so it is loith forest plantations. If the greatest care and skill 

 are not used then to train them " in the way they should go " when young, 

 what can be done afterwards generally has but little effect, as the experience 

 of ages will testify.' 



" We shall see by and by what Mr. Billington's ideas of care and manage- 

 ment are. They are bad enough to be sure, but at any rate his opinion is 

 directly at variance with yours. He thinks (and I agree with him) that 

 every thing depends upon early care and management. You, on the con- 

 trary, consider it of no importance, for that whether trees be well or ill 

 managed when young, they will be of equal value at the age of ten or 

 twelve years, by which time, according to Mr. Billington, they will, if pre- 

 viously neglected, have become wholly worthless or irreclaimable. 



" On reading the introduction to Mr. Billington's work, I expected 1 

 had found an able fellow-labourer, who would assist me in the demolition 

 of the Scotch system ; but, to my great surprise, I soon discovered that he 

 was one of its staunchest advocates : and that, notwithstanding all he had 

 said about the importance of early care and management, he had in his offi- 

 cial capacity of Surveyor-general, during several years, allowed that system 

 of raising trees to be practised in a most injurious manner. I shall notwith- 

 standing enlist him into my service ; and although I cannot cite his autho- 

 rity in favour of good planting, I can hold him up as an example of that 

 which is bad, and produce his ' facts and experiments ' as evidence of the 

 complete failure of your style of planting." — (p. 14.) 



It appears that government made a contract for planting Dean Forest 

 with five-year-old oaks and other trees, and also acorns, and that the greater 

 number of them were destroyed by the growth of ferns, grass, broom, &c. 

 Every year a great many blanks required to be filled up ; — " the ground 

 was replanted over and over again — the grass and herbage, whins and 



