OF PLEASURE GROUNDS. 



367 



a sufficient quantity of air and light into the plan- 

 tation, they ought not to be cut down ; but, so soon 

 as this method becomes impracticable, the thinning 

 process must be immediately commenced, and go on 

 gradually from year to year, till the trees at last 

 stand at the distances which they will finally re- 

 quire. 



Thus a hasty sketch has been given of a method, 

 that, if properly executed, will be the means of rais- 

 ing trees for ornament much more expeditiously 

 than is usually attained. Few persons, perhaps 

 none, may have had the opportunity of seeing the 

 efficacy of this mode of treatment put to the proof 

 designedly, and on a tolerably large scale ; but 

 many have observed how much more rapidly a plant 

 grows up into a tree, if allowed to do so in the nur- 

 sery, than in ground in that condition in which it is 

 usually set apart for wood, with a view either to or- 

 nament or profit. Many must have likewise ob- 

 served, that some varieties grow much more quickly 

 than others, and that a healthy plant, of any kind, 

 makes far quicker progress than a sickly one of the 

 same description. Now, the method which has just 

 been sketched out, is simply this, — to make the land, 

 by artificial means, as like that of the nursery as 



