236 Retrospective Criticism. 



and last, though not least, I planted about a hundred bushes, as they were 

 called, which were ordered to be all of the common hawthorn. Here I tried 

 again to introduce a long list of new, beautiful, and curious thorns, such as 

 C'ratae''gus ^anacetifolia, C. coccinea, C. c. corallina, C. macracantha, &c. ; but all 

 my fine names were of no use whatever, my employer having read Sir. Henry 

 Steuart's Planter's Guide, and being determined not to be led by " the blind." 

 I therefore determined never more to mention anything new; feeling confident 

 that it is extreme folly to attempt to lead those who will not see. Sir Henry 

 Steuart very truly remarks that " the lords of the soil in this kingdom have, 

 from time immemorial, been good sportsmen, and, of late, they have become 

 knowing agriculturists and cattle-breeders ; and, as the tide of fashion has, not 

 long since, set in from the south in favour of the occupation last mentioned, 

 and flowed even to fulness, so we may hope that the knowledge of wood will, 

 ere long, have its turn." Who, I ask, but gardeners (notwithstanding their 

 being such blind guides), are to set in the wood fashion from the south ? It 

 always appeared strange to me, that a man of such abilities as Sir Henry 

 Steuart should speak in the manner he does of gardeners. He is certainly 

 taking the leading-strings out of the gardeners' hands, Avhen he tries to make 

 gentlemen believe that an old tree will grow just as well after removal as a 

 young one ; for this is certainly the blind leading the blind. To put Sir Henry 

 Steuart's assertion about gardeners to the test, let us suppose that a gentleman, 

 wishing to make some alteration in his grounds, had engaged a first-rate 

 gardener to lead him. The knowledge of this blind man would have directed 

 him to trench, mix, and pulverise the earth to the depth of 2 ft. | to convert 

 his abundant stock of peat earth into pabulum, or convertible matter, after 

 Lord Meadowbank's plan ; to apply it to the surface of the trenched ground ; 

 and to thoroughly mix the whole into one uniform mass. This part of the 

 work having been well executed, the blind gardener v/ould advise his employer 

 to get young trees from a nursery, that had been transplanted for three years, 

 at 3 ft. apart eyery way, and to pay the nurseryman three times as much money 

 for them as is generally charged for those plants grown in the usual way at 

 1 ft. apart. Had Sir Henry Steuart spent his money, directed by the blind 

 man's knowledge, in the above manner, he would have had more real beauty, 

 and more real property, in his woods, than there can be in them at present ; for, 

 had young trees been planted in 1816, on Sir Henry Steuart's estate, with the 

 same allowance of manure which he had given to old ones, they would by 

 this time have measured, if Quercus pedunculata, from 20 ft. to 30 ft. high ; if 

 Q. sessiliflora, from 30 ft. to 40 ft. high; and if the Chichester or Huntingdon 

 elm, in a favourable soil, from 40 ft. to 50 ft high. Indeed, I shall be within 

 the bounds of truth, when I assert that, had even the common English elm 

 been planted, at the above-mentioned time, about 5 ft. above the level, and 

 20 ft. from the lake, it would have measured 60 ft. high. — Agronome's Nephew. 

 Nov. 1. 1836. 



Forming Plantations with a View to facilitating their Aftermanagement. — I 

 quite concur with Mr. Archibald Gorrie, in his observations (see Vol. XII. 

 p. 237.) on my plan of " forming plantations with a view to facilitating their 

 aftermanagement," that no regular plan of thinning them is to be put in com- 

 petition with a thinning under the superintendence of a skilful forester. But 

 he must bear in mind, that three fourths of the plantations in England are 

 ruined for want of early thinning of any kind; that very few persons can have 

 the aid of skilful foresters ; and that a very large proportion of planters, either 

 for want of time or inclination, or from being too idle, cannot, or do not, in 

 fact, superintend such operations. It was for the use of that large class of 

 persons that my plan was promulgated. Further experience induces me most 

 strongly to recommend that plan of planting, with a view to subsequent ma- 

 nagement, to those who are not likely to be able to command a forester's aid, 

 or their own time. I have, this season, experienced the advantages of it in a 

 plantation of 16 acres, formed upon the plan recommended in Vol. X. p. 26. 

 This plantation, novt' of nine years' growth, required thinning this winter. It 



