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ON USEFUL AND 



BOOK r. 



planted in their room ; especially if the plantation be intended 

 for a wood: but this case can rarely occur y except in situa- 

 tions near the sea; for the larch is at once the most valuable 

 tree, and the one that will endure the most severe inland expo- 

 sure. Nurse plants have long been introduced into planta- 

 tions; and although they have, in almost every instance, ten- 

 ded to suffocate and overpower the principal trees, rather than 

 promote their growth, the object is good ; the bad consequences 

 resulting from the practice have arisen from improper manage- 

 ment. At all times> however, they have a tendency to exhaust 

 the soil, and deprive the principal tree of its proper nourish- 

 ment. For this reason, they should be planted with great cau- 

 tion. In most situations, the principal trees, if planted suffi- 

 ciently thick, will shelter one another; they may not indeed be 

 so tall at the end of a certain period of time, as if they had been 

 " drawn up" by nurses ; but they will be much more strong and 

 hardy, and better calculated to produce durable timber, and 

 resist the weather ever afterwards. Where ornament is an ob- 

 ject of consideration,, this mode should almost always be fol- 

 - lowed ; for the incongruity produced by mixing nurse trees y 

 which are generally of spiry forms, with other round-headed 

 trees, is quite incompatible with picturesque beauty or va- 

 riety. Such plantations, from their spiry outline, though old, 

 always appear young, without giving any of those ideas of 



