SECTION VI. 



433 



glowing colours ; and certain statements in his boolc,^ which, to say 

 truth, are neither the most able nor the most luminous, are very 

 adroitly turned against himself. In fact, they are made to prove that, 

 by means of trenching, he might have executed the work much 

 cheaper than by what is pertinaciously called " the Scotch system," 

 and thus have gone over the entire eleven thousand acres of Dean 

 Forest ! Flushed with this supposed advantage, Mr Withers forthwith 

 returns to the charge against the great author. " Why, Sir Walter, 

 (says he,) his opinions are more erroneous than yours, which is saying 

 a great deal, and may be some comfort for you to know. * This 

 surely beats every thing that was ever put into print !" (P. 40.) At 

 last, he sums up his argument with great eloquence and energy. " If 

 I were to cite all the authorities, urge all the arguments, and state all 

 the facts which could be brought forward in support of my position, 

 that trees planted on prepared land will grow faster, and come much 

 sooner to maturity, than trees planted on * the Scotch System,' the 

 present pamphlet would extend to as many volumes as your Life of 

 Napoleon." (P. 64.) May I be permitted to observe, with great deference 

 to Mr Withers, that indeed this does beat every thing that ever was put 

 into print ! 



Having proved to his own satisfaction, and that of his friends, that 

 the trenching system of planting is not only better but also much 

 cheaper than the pitting system, (which he still persists in calling " the 

 Scotch,") and the only one proper to be adopted by men of sense, the 

 next point to be examined is : Is it a system of general application, as 

 alleged by Mr Withers, and fitted for " the planting of waste lands," 

 — the object of Sir Walter's able essay ? As I conceive, it certainly is 

 not. The most judicious critics, and those most conversant with 

 woods, (such as the editors of the "Gardener's" and the "British Farmer's 

 Magazines,'') to have fully decided the point, in their reviews of Mr 

 Withers' pamphlets. All experienced planters will agree with them in 

 thinking that, in wild and mountainous regions, preparation must be 

 out of the question ; or wherever it would be obstructed by rocks, bogs, 

 inaccessible steeps, or unstable surfaces— all of which regions, being 

 nearly useless, might at a moderate expense, and by the pitting method, 

 be made eminently productive in wood. 



. But Mr Withers has a ready answer to this. Instead of an entire 



* "A Series of Facts, Hints, Observations, and Experiments on the different 

 modes of raising Young Plantations of Oak, for Future Navies," &c. &c. By 

 William Billington, Member of the Caled. Hort. Soc. Superintendent of Plant- 

 ing 11,000 acres of land in the Forest of Dean, &c. London, 1825. 



2 E 



