49 



idiiproved value of that which is left standing, which every 

 succeeding year increases, if not in number, in value : and if 

 any one will observe a young wood in which the trees are 

 very close on the ground, he will always find the finest at the 

 outside, where more air and light is obtained. 



If trees are planted, and too many are kept on the ground 

 and allowed to stand without any being taken away, a morti- 

 fication of the root takes place, the whole plantation suff'ers 

 in health and becomes stunted in growth, and moreover 

 there is no mode of thinning it afterwards to keep a proper 

 crop of trees on the ground. 



If an acre of ground contain a certain quantity of organ- 

 izable matter, and 4840 trees are planted at one yard asunder, 

 each tree obtains a proportional part of it ; if half are taken 

 away, each tree will obtain a double portion and grow so 

 much the quicker, and a tree of thirty inches circumference 

 will be of more value than two trees making the same quantity 

 of wood jointly. As a farmer would calculate how many 

 head of cattle his pasture will keep, so may I calculate how 

 many trees my land will support. A little learning is said to 

 be a dangerous thing, and I know not that it can be more ap- 

 plicable than in the observations made to me by some few with 

 whom I have conversed, viz., that trees will bring up each 

 other when planted close. I will not deny this position as to 

 a certain number of years, but afterwards they will inevitably 

 try to kill each other, and generally succeed. Trees may be 

 kept crowded or apart, according to the object aimed at in 

 their cultivation, — as for hop-poles, or as saleable under- 

 wood ; but I must be always understood to speak of raising 

 timber, and it is that alone for which I use my pen. I observed, 

 for many years a plantation of two or three acres, near 

 Blackburn, in Lancashire, principally composed of Spruce 

 and Scotch firs, planted at three or four feet apart, — which 

 were allowed to remain at the same distance, — and perhaps 



VOL. II. E 



