THE planter's GUIDE. 



107 



distribution of the roots, added to the balance of an 

 extensive top, from whatever quarter it may blow. 



During the first spring, when the sap begins to flow 

 abundantly upwards, if no severe frosts supervene to cut 

 down the slender spray of the top, not a branch or a 

 twig is found to decay. The sap ascends, by means of 

 adequate roots, in a sufficient quantity for the support of 

 both, and for enabling the leaves to perform their elabo- 

 rating functions. The leaves, therefore, though for 

 obvious reasons of a lesser size, and sometimes a lighter 

 colour than usual, during the first season vnwersally 

 clothe every part. After the first, or at all events after 

 the second year, under common circumstances, the deep 

 hue of health and the fulness of leaf which the tree 

 formerly displayed again return; and while its foliage 

 glitters in the sunshine, or floats on the breeze, no eye 

 can distinguish whether it has been two years or forty in 

 its new situation. Picturesque efi'ect or shelter, as the 

 planter's object chances to be, is in this way obtained 

 from the first. But no planter of experience will expect 

 shoots of much consequence to appear till the tree be 

 established in the ground. This of course requires four 

 or five years, at least in the climate of Scotland, after 

 which it usually shoots forth with vigour ; and the longer 

 it stands, according to the preservative system, it will 

 shoot with the greater vigour, as the experience of more 

 than thirty years has incontestibly proved. By this 

 statement, then, it appears that the system in question has, 

 in this country, the power of saving, and in some sort of 

 anticipating, forty years of the life of man — a large 

 portion, in any view, of that uncertain possession. And 

 thus, by following such a system, the immediate and full 

 efl'ect of wood is at once procured at a moderate expense, 

 as shall be made apparent in the sequel. 



