THE planter's GUIDE. 



37 



The principal English authors who of late years have 

 treated of the art are Boutcher and Marshall ; and being 

 both men of practical skill, as well as various knowledge, 

 what they have written is deserving of particular consi- 

 deration. About the time when Brown's reputation was 

 at its height — that is, between 1750 and 1780 — Boutcher, 

 nurseryman in Edinbm^gh, one of the most intelligent 

 arboriculturists that this country has produced,'"' with 

 the view of promoting the fashionable art of the day, 

 struck out what he conceived to be a considerable im- 

 provement in the method of removing large trees of all 

 sorts. His theory was to equalise, by a gradual and cer- 

 tain process, the roots and the branches of trees relatively 

 to each other, so as to enable both to perform their func- 

 tions successfully, and at any given period. 



With this view he commenced his training on plants 

 just out of the seed-bed, and began to fit them, from the 

 second year, for their ultimate destination in the lawn or 

 park. After standing in the nursery, in the ordinary 

 way, for a few years, they were removed to a second 

 nursery ; on which occasion extraordinary care was taken 

 to prune, dress, and shorten the roots. There they stood, 

 two and three feet distant, for three or four years more. 

 A third nursery, at still more open order, next received 

 them, for a like space of time. A fourth, a fifth, and 

 even a sixth removal succeeded, leaving the plants no less 

 than ten or twelve feet asunder, but increasing in strength 

 and symmetry stiU more than they increased in height. 

 At each and all of these reiterated removals the roots, as 

 well as the branches, were shortened and pruned with 

 extraordinary accuracy, and every attention was bestowed 

 to multiply and invigorate the former. "When twenty 



* See Note II. on Sect. I. 



