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NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 



no more be ignorant of the soils best suited to Ms trees, than a farmer 

 could be of those adapted to Ms wheat or his harley crops. But at the 

 end of the three months, he was reluctantly forced to acknowledge, that 

 In the existing circumstances, the analogy was not a correct one ; and 

 three persons not being to be found of adequate information, he paid his 

 money accordingly. During the course of the investigation, more than 

 twenty planters aspired to the honours of the competition, all confident 

 that they could easily gain him his bet. But when it came to the trial, 



the result was that one person only, in the county of , was able to 



fulfil the prescribed conditions ! 



It has been remarked above, that so little are country gentlemen, or 

 their gardeners, acquainted with either the planting or the management 

 of woods, that it is truly " the blind leading the blind" in this important 

 department of rural economy ; and I cannot refrain from adding another 

 anecdote, on the subject of soils, of which the facts came within my 

 own knowledge, 



A few months since, I was applied to by a friend to give him some 

 advice respecting his trees. Wood, he said, grew so badly about his 

 place, that, after the experience of forty years, he was almost discouraged 

 from the cultivation of it. On visiting the spot, I perceived that his 

 representation was but too well founded. As he felt a great partiality 

 to Limes and Sycamores, he had transplanted those two sorts of trees 

 all over his park, of eight and ten feet high, many years before ; and 

 that the work was executed in the best manner, he said, it was impossible 

 to doubt, as it was done under the direction of his own gardener, who 

 had extensive experience and knowledge of wood. But the gardener and 

 himself both assured me, that the soil and climate were " altogether 

 unfavourable to wood," however either might suit husbandry or green 

 crops. In proof of which they turned my attention to the trees, which 

 indeed appeared stunted and unhealthy, with leaves of a yellowish- 

 green colour, and growing about an inch or little more in a season. 



On examining the soil, the cause of my friend's want of success was 

 at once apparent. It consisted of a rich but thin clay, naturally inclin- 

 ing to damp in the substratum, from the retention of moisture. My 

 advice to him was very short ; " Grub up your Limes and Sycamores, 

 which you should never have planted ; and which, unless by a miracle, 

 could never grow to timber in such a soil. Replace them with Oak and 

 Beech, of at least five-and-twenty feet high, and of two and three feet 

 in girth, in order that they may be able to withstand the elements, and 

 within a few years you will have thriving wood. But let Oak be the 

 staple, whether of your plantations or your park- wood, with such a. soil.'* 



To get advice is one thing, to follow it is another. I know not 



