201 



stools for growing, so as trees may be reared up from 

 them ; fill up all blanks with Spanish chesnut and 

 spruce firs, to give a variety to the look of the belt 

 as well as embellishment and shelter. 



No. LXVIII. 



Farm on Dumfries E state ^ Ayrshire. 



The two young stripes of planting on this farm, 

 planted in 1815, is at present full and very thriving. 

 I am still at a loss to discover the design of planting 

 the larch and Scotch firs in small groups across the 

 stripe ; had the designer but cast a single glance to 

 some of the stripes on this estate planted thirty years 

 ago, where the same plan is adopted, it would have 

 spoken more than volumes the impropriety of such 

 a plan. In almost the whole of such stripes, the larch 

 are falling into decay, and the stripes and belts show- 

 ing numerous melancholy instances of gaps and 

 blanks through them. As I had occasion often to 

 observe before, this is not at all a soil nor situation 

 for larch firs ; as soon as it can be overtaken, say 

 next season if possible, the firs should be thinned out 

 ten feet, plant from plant, and oak, Spanish chesnut 

 and plane put in betwixt them ; after these plants 

 are six feet high, the whole larch firs may be cut, 

 but some of the Scotch firs may be reared up. The 

 old clump of firs on this farm is dreadfully exposed, 

 in which case, nothing can be thinned out of it, but 

 allowed to thin itself \ take away the trees as they die, 

 fill up blanks with the aforesaid hardwoods. 



