110 



THE PRACTICAL GARDENER. 



on with respect to the mixture of different kinds. A longer 

 practice, and more experience, will discover better methods in 

 any science. That of planting is now widely extended, and 

 improvements in all its branches are introduced. We, there- 

 fore, having a better knowledge of soils, perhaps, than our 

 forefathers had, can with greater certainty assign to each tree 

 its proper station. We can, perhaps, at sight decide that 

 hero the oak will grow to perfection, there the ash, and here 

 again the beech ; and the same in respect to other trees. 



If, however, there happen to be a piece of land, of such 

 a quality that it may be said to be equally adapted for the 

 oak, the walnut, or the Spanish chestnut, it will be proper 

 to place such in it in a mixed way, as the principals ; because 

 each sort will extract its own proper nourishment, and will 

 have an enlarged range of pasturage for its roots, and con- 

 sequently may make better timber-trees. 



Although by indiscriminately mixing different kinds of hard- 

 wood plants in a plantation, there is scarcely a doubt but 

 that the ground will be fully cropped with one kind or other ; 

 yet it very often happens, in cases where the soil is evidently 

 well adapted to the most valuable sorts, as the oak, pcrliai)s 

 that there is hardly one oak in the ground for a hundred that 

 ought to have been planted. It not unfrequently happens, 

 too, that even the oaks, or other hard-wood trees which are to 

 be met with, are overtopped by less valuable kinds, or perhaps 

 such as, all things considered, hardly deserve a place. 



" Such evils may be prevented by planting with attention 

 to the soil, and in distinct masses. In these masses are in- 

 sured a full crop, by being properly nursed for a time with 

 kinds more hardy, or which afford more shelter, than such 

 hard-wood plants. 



" There is no rule by which to fix the size or extent of any 

 of thesL' masses. Indeed the more various they be in size, 

 the better will they please the eye of a person of taste when 

 grown up. They may be extended from one acre to fifty, or 

 a hundred acres, according to the circumstances of soil and 

 situation : their shapes will accordingly be as various as their 

 dimensions." In regard to the size of oak trees at their time 

 of planting, opinions are at variance, some advocating plants 



