438 



NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 



of a quality oiot inferior to what in its natural state it would obtain ; or, 

 in other words, it will correspond with that degree of quality and quan- 

 tity of timber which the nature of the species admits of being obtained : 

 but culture, in this case, must be applied with cautious discrimination 

 and a sound judgment. That, on the other hand, if trees be in a better 

 soil and climate than are natural to them, and, at the same time, that the 

 annual increase of wood be promoted by culture, (as already said,) it 

 will be a decided disadvantage, and deteriorate the wood. In the same 

 way, if trees be in their natural state, the annual increase of timber 

 obtained by culture will injure its quality in a degree corresponding 

 wdth the increased quantity. 



Sixthly. That such appears to be a correct, though condensed view 

 of the operation of those general laws respecting growth which govern 

 the whole vegetable kingdom, and especially their effects on woody 

 plants, and of the salutary restraints which science dictates to be laid 

 on artificial culture, of which pruning, as well as manuring, forms a con- 

 stituent part, as has been explained above at so much length. That it 

 is by a diligent study of the peculiar habits of trees, and the characters 

 of soils, illustrated and regulated by facts drawn from general expe- 

 rience, that rash or ignorant systems of arboriculture are to be best cor- 

 rected, and science brought most beneficially to bear on general practice. 



If the foregoing propositions be fairly deduced, as I conceive them to 

 be, from facts, and be also consistent with phytological principles, it fol- 

 lows that the pitting s^^'stem, as already practised by most nations, (but 

 w^hat Mr Withers confusedly calls the Scotch method,) if duly regula- 

 ted by science, must be the best system for " the planting of waste 

 lands," or, in general, for large designs of wood, and especially for the 

 royal forests, where the qualitv of the timber is the main object. 

 That if the system of culture, by means of trenching and manuring, 

 were, as is proposed, to be universally introduced into those forests, it 

 would create a great national loss by deteriorating the value of this im- 

 portant part of the public property — although particular spots in these, 

 as in all extensive woodlands, might be advantageously managed by it, 

 under pecidiar circumstances. 



Further, it follows that Sir Walter Scott, in his able essay on " The 

 Planting of Waste Lands," has committed no "fundamental errors" 

 (as alleged by Mr Withers) by advocating the pitting system of planting, 

 but that such errors most obviously have been committed by Mr Withers 

 himself ; that he has done this, by endeavouring to give general and 

 indiscriminate currency to a system which, how excellent soever for 

 many purposes, cannot, any more than other systems of arboriculture, 

 be properly practised unless under the control of science. 



