OF FOREST-TREES. 



289 



In the Scottish Highlands are trees of wonderful altitude (though not cH. XXI 1. 

 altogether so tall, thick, and fine as the former) which grow upon places "^-"^""^ 

 so inaccessible, and so far from the sea, that, as one says, they seem to be 

 planted by God on purpose for nurseries of seed, and monitors to our 

 industry, reserved, with other blessings, to be discovered in our days 

 amongst the new-invented improvements of husbandry, not known to our 

 southern people of this nation. Did we consider the pains they take 



" which should be prepared ready to receive them, for they should be immediately planted as 



they are drawn up, because their tender roots are soon dried and spoiled at this season of 

 " the year. This work should be done, if possible, in cloudy or rainy weather, and then 

 " the plants will draw out with better roots, and will soon put out new fibres again ; but 

 " if the weather should prove clear and dry, the plants should be shaded every day from 

 " the sun with mats, and now and then gently refreshed with water. In drawing up the 



plants, there should be great care taken not to disturb the roots of the plants left re- 

 " maining in the seed-beds ; so that if the ground be hard, the beds should be well watered 

 " some time before the plants are thinned, to soften and loosen the earth ; and if after the 

 " plants are drawn out, the beds are again gently watered to settle the earth to the roots of 

 " the remaining plants, it will be of great service to them ; but it must be done with great 

 " care, so as not to wash out their roots, or lay down the plants. The distance which 

 ^' should be allowed these plants in the new beds, may be four or five inches, row from row, 

 " and three inches in the rows. 



" Let the plants remain in the seed-bed till the spring twelvemonth, by which time they 

 " will be fit to transplant where they are to remain for good : for the younger the plants 

 " are when planted out, the better they will succeed ; for although some sorts will bear 

 " transplanting at a much greater age, yet young plants planted at the same time will, in a 

 " few years, overtake the large ones, and soon outstrip them in their growth ; and there is 

 " this advantage in planting young, it saves the expense of staking, and much watering, 

 " which large plants require. I have often seen plantations of several sorts of Pines, which 

 " were made of plants six or seven feet high, and at the same time others of one foot high 

 " planted between them, which in ten years were better trees than the old ones, and much 

 " more vigorous in their growth ; but if the ground, where they are designed to remain 

 " cannot be prepared by the time before-mentioned, the plants should be planted out of 

 " the beds into a nursery, where they may remain two years, but not longer ; for it will 

 " be very hazardous to remove these trees at a greater age. 



" The best season to transplant all the sorts of Pines is about the latter end of March 

 " or the beginning of April, just before they begin to shoot ; for although the Scotch Pine, 

 " and some of the most hardy sorts, may be transplanted in winter, especially when they 

 " are growing in strong land, where they may be taken up with balls of earth to their 

 " roots ; yet this is what I would not advise for common practice, having frequently seen it 

 " attended with bad consequences ; but those which are removed in the spring rarely fail. 



" Where these trees are planted in exposed situations, they should be put pretty close 



Volume I. X X 



