146 



PLANTING OF WASTE LAND. 



by their situation, the advantage of shelter, while 

 the former are destitute of it. 



If shelter, then, has so great influence in pro- 

 moting the growth of trees, we have a very strong 

 reason for planting them much nearer to one ano- 

 ther than they will require to stand when they 

 reach their full maturity ; for the closer we plant 

 them, the sooner, it is evident, will they be in a ca- 

 pacity to defend each other from the winds. If 

 they be placed only four or five feet asunder, the 

 quicker growing kinds will be tall enough, in the 

 course of five or six years, to screen each other from 

 the weather, as effectually as if each of them were 

 surrounded by a stone and lime wall ; whereas, if we 

 put twelve, sixteen, or twenty feet between them, 

 they must remain exposed, and in consequence be 

 greatly retarded in growth for a much longer period, 

 or probably become so stunted and hide-bound as 

 never to grow freely afterwards. I have observed it 

 generally to hold good, that the plantations which 

 grow most quickly, are those which stand in need of 

 thinning by the time they are eight or ten years 

 old ; and I do not recollect a single instance of 

 young trees being in a thriving state where they 

 w^ere straggling and far asunder. I am, therefore, a 

 decided advocate for thick planting, and would ad- 



