THE planter's GUIDE. 



127 



have been planted here, which are desirable as accom- 

 paniments to water. Likewise they are useful in massing 

 up with tall trees ; in the formation of low skreens, while 

 distant objects may be seen over their heads ; and occa- 

 sionally in breaking a hard outline, which should always 

 be fringed with both trees and bushes. 



Before taking leave of so important a discussion as the 

 selection of subjects, it may be asked what, in point of 

 size, are to be regarded as the best subjects for removal, 

 in accordance with the principle above enunciated To 

 this it may be replied, that, if ordinary judgment be 

 exercised, and flagrant errors avoided, preference will 

 greatly depend on the choice and circumstances of the 

 planter. Size oflfers, to successful removal, no actual 

 impediment, further than increased expenditure. The 

 same principles apply to the largest trees, just as well as 

 to the least. But it is material to notice that size implies 

 greater labour and contingency, and, by consequence, 

 more powerful machinery ; and both rise in a ratio far 

 more accelerated than might at first be conceived to 

 correspond with the increased dimensions of the trees. 

 My own operations as to size having been of a limited 

 sort, (the subjects seldom exceeding thirty-five or thirty- 

 six feet high, and in the stem from fifteen to eighteen 

 inches in diameter,) I do not presume to prescribe to 

 what height others should go, because it is altogether 

 arbitrary ; but I may with confidence recommend below 

 what height they should never descend. No subject, in 

 my judgment, should be selected for removal, of which 

 the girth of stem is less than from eighteen inches to two 

 feet, or, in other words, whose diameter does not extend 

 to six or eight inches at the least, reckoning at a foot 

 from the ground — the height of the tree being supposed 

 from fifteen to eighteen feet. Any subject possessing a 



