PART VIII. PICTURESQUE PLANTING. 533 



a grove, ever be made to assume that character. The idea of 

 forming and preserving a distinct character in plantations is 

 never attended to by planters — a certain space is to be planted, 

 and it is filled up with trees at random. From this neglect 

 alone, independently of all others, (such as preparing the soil 

 previously to planting, cultivating it afterwards, training, thin- 

 ning, &c\), few plantations yield one-third of the profit which 

 they might do. But were the kind of plantation to be formed 

 previously fixed upon, a proprietor intending to lay out money 

 in planting might proceed with a degree of certainty un- 

 practised at present. In planting a wood, he might calculate 

 upon the first cost — the period when it would make the first re- 

 turn of undergrowth — the distance of time between the periodi- 

 cal returns of the same — the number and value of the timber- 

 trees upon each acre — and finally, the expenses and profit of 

 the whole. 



In planting coppices or groves, the same general ideas of 

 original expense, commencement of profit, increase of value, 

 and final advantage, may easily be obtained by first determining 

 on the kind of plantation. But, in place of this, if all these 

 different kinds of plantations, and the species of tree suitable 

 to each, are mixed together, as is always done, no calculation 

 approaching to any degree of certainty can be made. Who 



