PART VIII. PICTURESQUE PLANTING, 



565 



neither beauty nor timber; and none being found so strong as to 

 take the lead and destroy the rest, they grow in this manner until 

 they are so crowded as to exclude air and moisture. Then, unless 

 previous aid has been given, the whole plantation dies toge- 

 ther. Instances to corroborate this will be seen in several parts 

 of Perthshire and Yorkshire, and near the road between Glas- 

 gow and Hamilton. In most plantations the fir tribe has been 

 introduced either for ornament or shelter. Where thinning is 

 practised, too large a proportion of these firs are left. Hence, 

 from their comparatively quick growth, such plantations have 

 a disagreeable sameness throughout; and as most of them are 

 made in the same manner, this appearance extends over the 

 whole island. The plantations where thinning is principally 

 requisite are those intended for groves. In woods and copses, 

 none require to be taken out but the nurse plants, where any 

 have been planted. Plantations of the fir tribe should be gra- 

 dually thinned, beginning after they have been five or six years 

 planted, and continuing for ten or twelve years; after that time 

 thinning becomes pernicious. The trees thinned out should 

 always be grubbed up by the roots; for when these are al- 

 lowed to remain, they check the progress of the remaining 

 trees. Plantations of firs are sometimes, and very properly, 

 left without thinning, and cut wholly down as a crop when fif- 

 teen or twenty years old. This is generally the most profitable 

 mode of planting on thin, bare soils in the neighbourhood of 



