120 



THE planter's GUIDE. 



footing of respectability to which no one will deny it is 

 entitled by its importance. 



In what, then, it may be asked, does a proper selection 

 of subjects consist A proper selection of subjects con- 

 sists, as I conceive it, (exclusively of picturesque considera- 

 tions,) in two things especially: first, in a judicious 

 adaptation of trees to their proper soils ; and secondly, 

 in" taking care that the trees so adapted possess as 

 great a share of the protecting or non-protecting proper- 

 ties as is fairly required by the situation of exposure, or 

 of shelter, in which the trees are to be placed. Of these 

 two points the former has already been sufi&ciently illus- 

 trated, in the course of the foregoing discussion on the 

 want of adaptation. As to the latter, it may be observed, 

 that much will depend, in applying it to practice, on the 

 particular objects of selection which the planter may have 

 in view. 



If liis object be single or detached trees, and such as 

 are intended to be set out in trying exposures, the acqui- 

 sition of the protecting properties must be the chief end 

 and aim of his selection ; and the trees must have made 

 the acquisition in sites as much exposed at least as those 

 to which they are to be removed. He may rest assured, 

 in this case, that his success or miscarriage will be in the 

 precise ratio in which his subjects may have obtained 

 these indispensable prerequisites. If fully obtained, their 

 progress will be visible from the beginning ; but if imper- 

 fectly, their progress will be retarded, until the deficiency 

 be made up. In other words, as planters do not always 

 follow nature in the choice of their subjects, they need 

 not be surprised if trees planted out in such exposures 

 (supposing them to live at all) should continue ten, fifteen 

 years, or more, in a stationary condition, struggling under 

 the unpropitious circumstances of cold and exposure to 



