56 
ON THE MANAGEMENT OF FOEEST TEEES. 
warmest, and therefore most likely to promote the recovery of the plants from the injuries they 
have received. But without disputing that a warm earth may be beneficial to newly planted 
specimens, where the conditions of the atmosphere are likewise suitable, it seems tolerably 
certain that, when such a favourable atmospheric state cannot be had, warmth at the roots 
is of little or no value, and might probably be injurious by stimulating the plant unduly ; 
while it is also pretty clear that an element of such doubtful utility as bottom-heat in 
out-door autumn planting, cannot at all compensate for the absence of those important and 
essential atmospheric conditions which we have already described as existing in the month 
of November, but which can very rarely be present at an earlier period. For this reason, 
then, in brief, we must still consider the time already specified as the most appropriate. 
ON THE MANAGEMENT OF FOREST TREES. 
By Henry Bailey , Nuneham Parle, Oxford. 
Of late, those arts which relate to rural economy have made rapid advances, aided materially 
by the happy union which has been effected between “ science and practice.” I allude more 
particularly to the primeval and patriarchal occupations of Horticulture and Agriculture, 
which have within the last twenty years undergone great changes ; old and absurd practices' 
have been discarded, and others adopted more in accordance with those immutable laws, 
which, the more accurately they are investigated, evince the power, wisdom, and design of 
an all- wise and beneficent Creator. 
Could “the rude forefathers of the hamlet” again revisit this terrestrial scene, what 
would be their astonishment to see waving crops of golden grain, growing in rich luxuriance 
on tracts of land, which they had deemed irreclaimable ? — to see what they knew only as 
barren wastes, converted into fertile fields, yielding abundance to the community, profitable 
investment to the occupier, and permanent employment to the labourer ? Or, on the other 
hand, could those Horticultural worthies of a past age, Mawe, Abercrombie, &c., just take 
a peep into our forcing-houses and witness the treatment of plants by modern gardeners, so 
dissimilar to their own (I allude to low night- temperatures) — could they do this, surely 
their “ hair would stand on end,” and they would be converts to the opinion of some of our 
scientific friends, “that seeing ” is not always “ believing.” 
There is, however, a twin sister of these arts, whose productions, beautiful, varied and 
useful as they are, do not secure for her that consideration to which she is so justly entitled — 
Alas! for poor Sylva ! she pines for patronage, her priests are ruthless, and her altars “ few 
and far between,” while those of Ceres, Flora, and Pomona, on every hand, are loaded with the 
offerings of the princely, the noble, and the affluent of the land. Few are the writers since 
Evelyn, who have dilated upon the advantages to be derived from planting ; still fewer are 
the proprietors who have derived the advantages they might have done if more skill had 
been exercised in the management of their woods. To attempt to descant upon the useful- 
ness of the Arboricultural art, would be superfluous ; it may, however, be remarked, that it 
is a pursuit which has engaged the attention of the best, the wisest, and greatest of men in 
all ages of the world. 
The cultivation of Trees, then, is still an object worthy of the attention of our great 
landed proprietors, whether we regard it as having for its ultimatum the purposes of orna- 
ment or shelter, or the varied uses to which the products of Trees may be applied ; but it 
is as yet little understood by those whose province it is to practise it — or by the gene- 
rality of those who are most interested in its efficient performance. Woods and Plantations 
are but too generally consigned to the care of mere labourers, men who know nothing of 
the philosophy of their business ; who, from long practice, can guess pretty accurately the 
number of cubic feet in a piece of timber, and tell the value of a standing pole of under- 
wood ; but who know nothing of the picturesque beauty of Trees, never heard of vegetable 
