! 



APPENDIX. 



509 



This is so obvious, that the committee conceive it to be only the 

 purpose of the Society to ascertain, whether there is such and so great 

 an expense attending the process of transplanting, as to interdict its 

 being practised by country gentlemen of ordinary fortune, who are 

 neither willing nor able to bestow very large sums merely, or at least 

 chiefly, to attain external beauty. In this point of view, the Com- 

 mittee are strongly encouraged to hope, that the Transplanting system 

 can be adopted, with advantage in most circumstances, and at no extra- 

 vagant expense. There are, upon most properties, strips and clumps of 

 planting, in the taste which prevailed thirty or forty years ago, which 

 have been thinned out, and they now furnish trees, at eighteen or 

 twenty feet distance from one another. It is usually desirable to break 

 the formality of such clumps or strips, and in such a case, the subjects 

 for removal may be selected with advantage, both to the grounds which 

 are to be clothed, and to the plantations from which these individual 

 trees are to be removed. Many of Sir Henry's subjects have been 

 selected from such plantations as we have described. Where such do 

 not occur, he proposes to raise nurseries, where trees shall be trained 

 for the special purpose of transplanting. But this mode of rearing 

 subjects for future removal, your committee do not pretend to report 

 upon, as they had not time to examine its advantages and disadvantages. 



They cannot conclude this part of the subject better, than by an ex- 

 tract of a letter to their convener, from their experienced colleague, Mr 

 Laing Meason, who had an opportunity of witnessing the transplanta- 

 tion of several trees at Allanton House, and of forming a calculation as 

 to the expense of their removal. 



" I regret very much (says he) that it will not be in my power to 

 attend, as one of the committee appointed by the Highland Society, to 

 report upon the system and practice of transplanting trees of a large 

 size, as adopted by Sir Henry Steuart of Allanton. 



" As I, however, passed some days at Allanton, in the planting season, 

 and saw myself the whole process, I can with some confidence state 

 my opinion to you and the other members of the committee. It ap- 

 pears clear to me, that Sir Henry Steuart is the first person in this 

 kingdom who has adopted and practised, for years past, a rational 

 system to insure success in this hitherto difficult operation. The 

 system appears to be, to disturb the processes of nature in the growth 

 of the tree as little as possible, and, when disturbed, to provide an effica- 

 cious remedy. It will naturally occur to the members of the committee, 

 that it would be quite impossible to move the widely-extended roots of 

 a twenty or thirty year old tree, without rupturing many, however 

 carefully the earth were moved away ; besides, the labour of following 



