SESSILE-FRUITED OAK. 271 



the difference in height and size, so marked at an earlier 

 period, was now rapidly decreasing-, and in the course of 

 four or five years more, was not observable ; since then, 

 or up to the present time, an interval of four years, their 

 respective progress has been nearly on a par, though we 

 think we can discern a slight advantage in favour of 

 those in the untrenched ground ; so that, from this expe- 

 riment, it would appear that in less than thirty years, 

 all apparent advantages from trenching had disappeared, 

 and, we may add, that, in various other instances, where 

 we have been enabled to institute a comparison between 

 the growth of plantations on trenched and untrenched 

 ground, the result has invariably been the same, nor 

 have we been able to discover any marked distinction 

 even where high manuring has been added to the trench- 

 ing, its effects appearing to be merely temporary, and 

 not of permanent advantage to the tree. 



But, even allowing all the advantages as to rapid growth, 

 &c, attributed to trenching by its advocates and admirers, 

 to be true, the cost alone attending the operation must 

 always prevent its adoption upon an extended scale, and, 

 where profit is looked to, it is entirely out of the question, 

 as we feel assured that no growth, however extraordinary, 

 would ever repay the enormous expence incurred in raising- 

 timber upon this system, without taking into consideration 

 that a vast proportion of land, well adapted for planting 

 and the growth of timber, could not possibly, from the 

 nature of its surface, be subjected to this operation. 

 Trenching, therefore, may be considered not only an ex- 

 pensive and unprofitable preparation for growing timber, but 

 as money thrown away, inasmuch as it is attended by no 

 beneficial result, neither accelerating maturity, nor adding 

 to the value and quality of the timber when matured. 



