5^6 Modes of securing newly planted Trees against Wind. 



Gulliver among the Lilliputians, who was held down, not by 

 the thickness, but the number, of the ligatures they employed. I 

 have, for instance, on my grass-plat a young crimson thorn, 

 the head of which is handsome, but large in proportion to the 

 size and strength of the stem. Loath to cut it in, I first tried 

 three stakes and a requisite bandage. It soon got liberty. I 



all six. Still there was 



then added three others, 

 a tendency to loosen the 



making in 



bandage 



& c > 



and, by conse- 

 quence, a risk of chafing. 

 Then I caught a sight of 



the prospectus of your 



Suburban Gardener, in the 



which is depicted a tree, 



whose branches are tied 



to its own body, and thus 



made to weep against its 



will. The device found 



favour in my eyes, and I 



forthwith resolved to set 



the Lilliputians and you 



to work about my thorn ; 



and I must needs say, you 



have both played your parts 



to admiration. Here you 



are (Jig. 1 36.) pulling away 



in right down earnest. 



And do not you think, Sir, such a mode of fastening a young 



tree is pi'eferable to driving a nail into the bole ? I know it is; 



for the cords, being fixed to the stakes, keep the top so steady, 



that, though we have had some heavy storms, I have never seen 



the least tendency in it to break loose. And then only look 



at the opportunity it affords of training a tree in the way it 



too clumsy. It 

 a very little dis- 



should go. My cord, by the by, is drawn 

 need not be thicker than whipcord, and, at 

 tance, is not visible. As to its injuring the tree by impeding 

 circulation, Mr. Thorn may make himself perfectly easy ; for 

 the branches should not, and need not, be tied down (especially 

 at first) so tight as not to allow some little play, of course not 

 enough to hazard any thing like chafing. How, indeed, should 

 circulation be impeded, when the cord, being tied in a pretty 

 large noose, has a bearing only on the upper part of the bough 

 to which it is attached ? So much for a tree which happened 

 to be already previously well staked ; but I have every reason 

 to believe that the cords alone, made fast to very short foot- 

 stakes, would have been equally effective. Indeed, all my other 

 trees and shrubs, where fastened at all, are so fastened. I will 



