PART VIII. PICTURESQUE PLANTING. 477 



it, by others; but if we advert to its mode of growth (see 

 page 44), we shall find that either of these methods would 

 prove ineffectual. Pruning could not succeed, because in the 

 larch and, fir tribe one stem constantly takes the lead ; and in 

 this stem alone is contained the timber. Shade might produce 

 a crooked enough stem ; but in regard to strength, or timber 

 produce, it would evidently be so deficient as to be totally 

 unfit for naval architecture. I have recommended bending 

 as preferable to every other practice ; and as this may per- 

 haps, at some future period, be deemed of public importance^ 

 I* shall add a few remarks respecting the mode that I think 

 ought to be adopted. 



In the first place, suppose a plantation planted in regular 

 rows, fifteen feet apart, and the same distance in the row; and 

 grown from fifteen to twenty years. In bending them, begin with 

 the first row, and let every other tree be bent down in different 

 degrees, and tied to the intermediate one which remains erect, 

 or to the ground, as shewn in Plate XIX. fig. 1. After having 

 grown in that situation seven or eight years longer, it may be 

 bent backwards, and either tied to itself, as in the middle tree- 

 of fig. 3, or to the tree on the other side, or to any of the trees 

 around it, as may be found necessary. After the rope has held 

 the tree in that situation for a few years longer, it will have an 

 appearance something like fig. 2. ; a form that will afford knee- 



