APPENDIX. 



511 



trees were laid. Such was tlie expense of the operation. Now, if a 

 comparison be drawn betwixt this expense, and that of planting 

 groups of young plants ; enclosing, and keeping up the enclosures for 

 five-and-twenty or thirty years ; losing the value of the ground occu- 

 pied by the groups or belts, Sir Henry Steuart's system cannot be a 

 tenth of the expense of the common method. A few trees, of the 

 growth of thirty or forty years, produce at once that effect, for shelter 

 or beauty, that would occupy in young planting an acre or two of 

 ground. On the consideration of economy, therefore, Sir Henry's system 

 is most deserving of praise. But it is wrong to consider the practice of 

 transplanting large trees, as confined to mere ornament, in the forma- 

 tion of parks and pleasure grounds. 



" I have only farther to request the attention of the committee to the 

 progress that such trees have made as have been transplanted some 

 years in the park at AUanton. I remarked more particularly the in- 

 crease in circumference of the trunks of several of these trees, and the 

 generally thriving state and vigorous young shoots of those more 

 recently planted. The committee likewise will not pass over the great 

 disadvantages that Sir Henry Steuart has to contend against. The soil 

 of a great part of this park is most unfavourable for the growth of 

 trees. Some parts have a stiff and stubborn soil, others almost a dead 

 sand. The district of country is high, and exposed to violent west and 

 south-west blasts of wind. 



" I have taken the liberty of giving this outline of Sir Henry 

 Steuart's system, and of its utility to you and the other gentlemen of 

 the committee, as the result of actual observation, and a mature con- 

 sideration of the benefit that may be derived from it. I trust that the 

 Highland Society will soon be enabled to make more generally known 

 the details of Sir Henry Steuart's practice." So far Mr Laing Meason. 



The process of transplanting is beautifully simple. The trees having 

 been well selected, which is a point requiring much skill and judgment, 

 (for both its stem and branches must be well prepared to resist the ele- 

 ments, and be duly proportioned to each other,) undergoes the opera- 

 tion described by Mr Laing Meason, of having its roots cut, and is, by 

 the second or third year after, transported to its new situation, by a 

 very simple engine, called the transplanting machine. In detailing this 

 process, the committee had particular occasion to remark the openness, 

 patience, and candour, with which Sir Henry solved every doubt, and 

 replied to every question, which the details suggested. And, in general, 

 the committee have no hesitation to say, that the operation is attended 

 with no difficulty which may not soon be overcome by attention and 

 experience. They thought it best, however, not to attempt to describe 



