56 



TRANSPLANTING FORESTS 



of some svirprising schemes^ which have been 

 executed by enterprising men in that way. — 

 Ladies and Gentlemen^ did you ever hear of 

 transiplanting a forest?'' 



A wondering negative was the reply. 

 The thing has been done^ and to a very 

 considerable extent/' said Mr. Longhurst. So 

 long ago as the time when Theophrastus^ the 

 ancient Greek writer on rural economy^ livedo 

 the Greeks were in the habit of removing full- 

 grown trees^ when it was their pleasure so to 

 do. The Romans moved elms twenty feet 

 high to their vineyards^ as supports for their 

 vines — so says Pliny; and Seneca^ I think, 

 tells us, that an entire orchard of full-grown 

 trees was removed near the villa of Scipio 

 Africanus ; and that, in a year or two, they 

 bore fruit as well as ever. I fancy this prac- 

 tice was afterwards neglected for ages, as im- 

 practicable, or useless ; but we hear of it 



