OF PLEASURE GROUNDS. 



365 



eluded from the young plantations, but even human 

 intruders of every description, with the exception of 

 those v^ho are under the necessity of entering for 

 the purposes of pruning or of cleaning. Half a 

 dozen of schoolboys will do more mischief during a 

 holiday, than an equal number of Highland wed- 

 ders. Nurses with children are scarcely less dan- 

 gerous while the trees have branches that can be 

 pulled off within five feet of the ground. These 

 observations may appear minute ; but I have known 

 very promising plantations nearly ruined by trans- 

 gressors of the two last denominations. Every twig 

 that is torn off, every rough handling that the bark 

 receives, and every unnecessary foot that hardens 

 the ground, has a tendency to injure and impede 

 vegetation. 



That the plantations should be kept perfectly 

 free from weeds during the first five or six years, is 

 absolutely necessary, if it is wished that the growth 

 of the trees be accelerated to the utmost. Five or 

 six hoeings will be requisite every summer. The 

 destruction of weeds is only one of the benefits that 

 will accrue from this labour. A still more important 

 one will arise from the frequent stirring of the 

 earth, than which nothing has a greater tendency to 

 invigorate plants of any description. It has been 



