230 



THE planter's GUIDE. 



season, according to tlie species of the trees planted. As 

 soon as they are properly established in the ground, which, 

 situation and circumstances considered, may be by the 

 fourth, or fifth, or sixth year, a top-dressing should be 

 applied, consisting of earth and coal-ashes, such as has 

 been described at p. 217, of which the ingredients are 

 thoroughly mixed, and the surface should then be ulti- 

 mately laid down with grass seeds. Thus a general 

 chemical action being excited throughout the compost, the 

 most propitious period will be seized for giying an extra- 

 ordinary stimulus to plants just recovering from the process 

 of removal ; and there are few trees so treated, that from 

 thenceforward will not begin to shoot forth with a vigour 

 which the most sanguine planter could scarcely have 

 anticipated. 



The next object, after attending to their cover, is to 

 secure the trees against injury from sheep and cattle. 

 That rubbing, by either the one or the other, can affect 

 the stability of trees, or in any wise displace them, after 

 being planted in the manner described above, is out of the 

 question. But there is in the coats of those animals an 

 oily substance, which by continual friction is apt to stop 

 up the minute pores of the bark, and prevent the admis- 

 sion of the sun and air, before the epidermis has had time 

 to be fortified by age and exposure against its influence. 

 Without entering into the ingenious speculations of 

 Marsham, who found that repeated washings surprisingly 

 forwarded the growth of all woody plants, we are warranted 

 in believing, that those owners of parks who continue to 

 defend their trees after sixty and seventy years' growth 

 (and there are some persons who incur that labour) per- 

 form a work of supererogation : at all events, it is a work 

 of considerable expense and of very little utility. 



The best, the most pleasing, and in many situations 



