40 



THE planter's GUIDE. 



inquired why he so succeeded 1 and that knowledge, 

 enlarged by reflection and confirmed bj examples, would 

 probably have led him to some general theory that bore 

 on practice, and suggested systematic improvement. Had 

 he been more acquainted with vegetable physiology and 

 the anatomy of plants, he would have seen that trees 

 growing in close woods and trees standing in the open 

 field are endued with very difi'erent properties ; and that 

 something of firmer stamina and greater magnitude than 

 what the strength of two or three persons could transport 

 was necessary for park- wood, which we expect is to grow 

 vigorously, and resist the elements in open exposures.''^ 



His judicious method, however, of preparing the pits ; 

 of putting his trees into the ground ; of applying the 

 mould, when so put ; of preserving, distributing, and 

 dividing the roots, obviously results from an attentive 

 study of the difficulties of the art, and, as he himself 

 states, from " real practice."t Still his subjects, like 

 those of his predecessor Boutcher, were drawn mostly 

 from close plantations, for the purpose of thinning them. 

 They were, in the same way, conveyed on "men's 

 shoulders;" sometimes also on handspikes, and on par- 

 ticular occasions on " high timber- wheels.'' The roots 

 he cut and multiplied in the same careful manner as is 

 directed by Evelyn and Boutcher, but without the numer- 

 ous removals recommended by the latter ; from whose 

 treatise, however, he seems to have taken the whole of 

 that process. 



For the removal of saplings of twenty feet high, and 

 from nine to twelve inches in girth, his plan is of con- 

 siderable use. In forming side-screens near the mansion- 

 house, in which grove and underwood are frequently 



* Rur. Ornam. vol. i. pp. 360, 361. f lb. pp. 43, 356-361. 



