THE planter's GUIDE. 



115 



informed writers, Boiitclier and Marshall, as we have 

 akeadj seen, regard the art as mainlj applicable to "the 

 thinning of nurseries or plantations," and recommend it 

 accordingly for that purpose. 



It is not necessary to dwell long on so unhappy a 

 system of selection. The trees being transferred to a 

 climate colder by several degrees than that in which they 

 were trained, and with the peculiar conditions and pro- 

 perties adapted to the latter, internally decline. The 

 usual lightening or mutilating of the tops affords no 

 alleviation or remedy from without. In such a situation 

 the mechanical effect of wind would be sufficient of itself, 

 without any other cause, to ensure their miscarriage. 

 Yet as they carry leaf, and show no immediate symptoms 

 of decay in the outset, their ultimate, though certain 

 failure is not contemplated by the sanguine planter. 

 With roots inadequate either to fix them in the earth, 

 or to furnish the supply of sap which their new circum- 

 stances demand, they are incapable of extending them- 

 selves either above or underground. The leaves, from 

 the deprivation of shelter, cannot freely elaborate the sap ; 

 and the proper juice, on the other hand, is chilled in its 

 descent, from the want of leaves, and branches, and bark, 

 sufficient to protect the sap-vessels. Meanwhile, the 

 trees are vexed by the winds from every quarter. They 

 want side-boughs to nourish and balance them properly. 

 Gradually they become stunted and hidebound. The 

 few branches they have decay and drop off ; and at last 

 they are rooted out, as a proof of the hoplessness of the 

 art, and the inutility of all attempts to cultivate it. A 

 few plants, perhaps, taken from the outskirts of the wood, 

 and partly furnished with the protecting properties, 

 struggle on for ten or fifteen years, until they acquire 

 these properties to a certain extent ; and beginning then 



