Planting and Managing of Belts. 543 



that the pruning can scarcely be performed at too early an age. 

 It is not calculated to produce the picturesque, as nature will do 

 more in this, in ninety-and-nine cases out of a hundred, than 

 man can do with either the knife, the saw, or the bill-hook. 



The subject of thinning forests and plantations has also been 

 ably descanted upon, and I have no doubt that all the commu- 

 nications thereon have their merits according to local circum- 

 stances, the objects of all being to obtain good and useful timber. 

 Waving this subject, therefore, I beg to draw the attention of 

 your readers to that of the thinning of belts. Now, these are 

 generally planted either for the sake of shelter or ornament; 

 the longer, therefore, they can be made to sustain their office, the 

 better; and to accomplish this, not only is a judicious thinning 

 necessary, but a proper choice should also be made in planting 

 such sorts of trees as are disposed to feather themselves down 

 to the ground. The great secret, in the planting of belts and 

 the management of the trees afterwards, is to obtain and preserve 

 a mass of foliage through the whole plantation. The idea of 

 getting up a belt thickly planted with fast-growing trees, without 

 ever thinning them, is preposterous. I have seen most deplorable 

 instances of this, even to the destruction of the whole ; and at 

 the present day, in some parts of the country, you can scarcely 

 take a morning's ride without witnessing and lamenting faults of 

 this kind committed by either the planter or the proprietor. 

 Belts being narrow, a good breastwork should always be pro- 

 vided ; particularly on the sides upon which the winds are most 

 injurious : when this is not done, and the trees are left to them- 

 selves, their under branches will soon decay, and the winds, thus 

 having full scope, will do serious injury. The case is widely 

 different with single trees which stand exposed, as they get 

 inured to the vicissitudes of the weather ; and, besides that, they 

 have the advantage of a wider range for their roots, without any 

 competitors to dispute with them, which might draw more nutri- 

 ment from the soil. Single trees, consequently, soon become 

 more robust than trees in plantations, and are of greater stability. 

 I think the fir tribe is too often, even almost exclusively, made use 

 of in the planting of belts ; in cases where these trees are left to 

 themselves, their lower branches soon decay, and, in consequence, 

 admit light to be seen through the interval thus occasioned. 

 This should be always prevented, if possible ; and, to this end, 

 the wider the belt is the better : narrow .stripes of a few yards 

 in width effect but little, when compared to a belt of considerable 

 breadth ; and although the planting, &c, in respect to the 

 former, may be attended with less expense, the result in a few 

 years will be much less satisfactory in point both of beauty and 

 utility. 



Shortgrove^ Essex, 1834. 



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