169 



No. LII. 



Stripes and Belts in a very hleak bare part of the 



country. 



The stripes and belts of planting on this estate, are 

 for the most part in a very rapid state of decay, and 

 if not remedied soon, will be nearly extirpated, and 

 others will show great gaps in them. One thing 

 much against them is, many of them have been too 

 narrow at first, and being totally neglected when 

 young, and having been pruned in the place of being 

 thinned, they have for the most part been reared up 

 more like poles than trees, and great numbers of 

 them never will be proper trees, either for shelter or 

 ornament, the very thing they are altogether required 

 for on the estate. Stripes or belts of planting for this 

 purpose, particularly where the ground is cold and 

 the country bare, and embellishment and shelter the 

 only object to be kept in view, should never be plant- 

 ed less than 120 feet broad, so as 4 or 5 trees may 

 be reared in the breadth, to maturity, at proper dis- 

 tances, and so as underwood may be reared up be- 

 neath them when large trees, which will not only 

 afford excellent shelter for game, but be very profit- 

 able, as it can be regularly cut every twenty years ; 

 besides underwood is particularly beneficial to the 

 growth and health of trees ; in stripes and belts of 

 this kind it keeps the soil moist and affords more 

 shelter. Some of these stripes which consisted wholly 

 of firs, and are rapidly decaying, it would be better 

 to cut out altogether and plant them anew. Others 

 of them, where mostly hardwood trees, and where 

 some of them are hkely to live, and maintain the re- 



