FART Mill, PICTURESQUE PLANTING. 559 



peculiar property of deciduous groves, that the surface among 

 them is covered with pasture, the seeds of which should be 

 sown when the trees are about nine inches or one foot diame- 

 ter. Prior to sowing,, they should be kept free from weeds. 



SECT. II. OF PRUNING PLANTATIONS. 



Pruning, though not so important in plantations as thinning, 

 is of considerable use. It corrects the extravagancies of trees, 

 lops off their redundancies, and directs their produce into a pro* 

 per channel. Two trees of the same kind planted in similar 

 soils and situations, the one pruned, and the other left to na- 

 ture, may produce in an equal number of years the same 

 weight of timber: but the tree that was pruned would contain 

 the greater part of that timber, in an erect stem; while the 

 other, left to nature, would contain great part of it in arms and 

 side branches. Hence, if the object were ship-building, as is 

 most likely, the natural one was preferable; but if it were 

 wainscotting, the other was undoubtedly the most profitable 

 tree. But the larch, without any pruning, is the best for the 

 purpose of wainscotting; and the oak, without any pruning, is 

 the most proper for ship-timber. This, and other instances 

 that might be given, would seem to point out that trees, both 

 as to the quality of their Avood, and their mode of growth, are 



