Age, Size, Roots. 



58. Trees have their feelings too ; and, what must ine- 

 vitably be the consequence of taking* a young oak from a 

 warm coppice, and planting it on a naked common ? Plant- 

 ations in these situations are useful, ornamental, and, there- 

 fore, highly praiseworthy. But, then, the trees should be 

 raised for the purpose ; raised and managed with a view to 

 their destination. The acorns should be sown (as hereafter 

 directed), the young trees should be moved twice at least ; 

 and they should, at the last removal, be placed at a good 

 distance from each other ; and kept pruned np to a single 

 stem to the height of eight or ten feet, that being necessary 

 in this sort of planting, where the boughs must be out of the 

 reach even of a house. 



59. The mode of planting is this : the turfi^ taken from 

 the surface of a circle about six feet over, and it ought to 

 be eight, at least. The turf is laid on one side for the 

 present. Then a hole is trenched, three or four feet deep ; 

 and here the top mould ought to be kept at the top. Then 

 the tree, with its roots ready pruned, is planted, leaving the 

 bottom of the stem a foot above the level of this trenched 

 gromul. Then you begin to build, with the turf, a hank 

 round the hole. Then you take off the turf about fifteen 

 inches wide round the outside of the bank. Then dig up 

 the mould that lies under this turf, and put it into the sort 

 of bowl that you are forming with your turf. This will, 

 together with the turf just taken off, fill the earth up round 

 the stem of the tree to six or eight inches or a foot (accord- 

 ing to the height of the tree) higher than the bottom of that 

 stem; that is to say, the tree Avill stand so much deeper in 

 the ground than it stood before. This last is contrary to all 

 ordinary rules ; but we are here speaking of no ordinary case. 

 This is not merely planting trees, hut fencing them at the 

 same time and by the same act. Wooden guards round 



