428 



NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 



The fact is, that the practice of trenching and manuring land for 

 plantations, (as may be seen in section VII. of the present work,) had 

 considerably attracted my own attention, about forty years ago. I have 

 since made many comparative and pretty extensive trials of the deepen- 

 ing and the common method, which led to the same results as those 

 stated by Mr Withers ; and had not that gentleman brought forth his 

 first pamphlet when he did, I probably should, ere now, have drawn up 

 a similar tract myself, for the purpose of illustrating, to a certain 

 extent, a similar practice.* 



The principle of deepening and pulverising soils, to forward the 

 growth of trees, is, as already said, far from being new. It is a mode 

 of culture w^hich was well known to the ancients. It was fully recog- 

 nised and acted on in the days of Evelyn and Cooke; and it has, 

 since their time, been familiar to every well-instructed gardener and 

 nurseryman in the United Kingdom, down to the present period. The 

 main use, therefore, of Mr Withers' pamphlet, is to show its superior 

 advantages, and give it a more extensive application. Why it has so 

 seldom been applied by landowners beyond the kitchen-garden and the 

 shrubbery seems very surprising, since the slightest trial is sufficient to 

 convince any gentleman, that plantations made on any land susceptible 

 of culture may in this way certainly be more speedily raised, and pro- 

 bably more cheaply, than by any other method. The scientific prin- 

 ciples on which the process should be conducted, and my anxiety to 

 impress them on the minds of planters, are sufficiently show^n in the 

 present Section and Notes, whether for arboricultural or agricultural 

 purposes, to which Mr Withers' able pamphlet may serve as a practical 

 commentary. The most material point on which he has gone wrong, is 

 the application of fresh-made dung, or " muck," to the roots of woody 

 plants, which, on considering what I have stated, he will readily per- 

 ceive to be both phytologically and chemically erroneous ; and that the 

 intervention of a green-crop, while it constitutes a superior practice, 

 creates a vast saving of expense in executing the work. See Section VI. 

 of my treatise (second edition) pp. 190, 200 ; also pp. 202 — 204, et seq. 



For all plantations in parks and pleasure-grounds, and even in many 

 that are intended solely for profit, I highly approve of previous trench- 

 ing and manuring, and keeping the ground clean with the hoe, but by 



* If Mr Withers will take the trouble to peruse the next note, namely, No, 

 v., being the last of the present Section, and the text to which it refers, he will 

 see that I have had some experience in the business of trenching, and that I 

 have long had occasion to apply it to some striking objects of utility as well as 

 ornament. 



