180 
WASTE LAND PLANTING. 
are to be singled out, the difference would be 
in favour of those grown on inferior land. 
Men now-a-days scarcely need the sanction 
of antiquity to regard trees in their true light, 
as objects full of beauty and interest ; for 
every one who looks upon nature, whether 
seen in her high woods, her hanging drapery 
by the river's side, her wide-spreading park 
ornaments, her cultivated specimens in the 
pleasure-ground, or the rude forms as seen in 
the illimitable depth of forests, accords to 
them the important character which they 
everywhere claim. Yet no one, for instance, 
likes the oak less because it rose on the plains 
of Mamre ; or that a celebrated specimen, a 
holm oak, (Quercus ilex,) which grew in the 
Vatican at Rome, was accounted, according to 
Pliny, a sacred tree 1500 years before the 
Christian era. Nay, every one loves them the 
more, since they were " in old times the very 
temples of the gods ;" and this feeling is no- 
how more strengthened, than by a reference 
to their identification and appropriation in the 
classical lands of the ancients. Take Greece, 
for instance. There was the oak, the beech, 
the larch, the pine and cedar, filling her moun- 
tain heights with masses of verdure ; the 
poplar, lime and ash-tree, studding her valleys 
and plains ; her deeply-indented coasts fringed 
at this day with the laburnum, willow and 
laurel ; and the platanus, so famous in Lycia, 
scattered all over the country, but employed 
especially in forming groves and shady walks, 
near to the most celebrated buildings in Athens. 
Hence all these trees, and many others known 
to the Greeks, are so far associated with them; 
and consequently become, to many, objects of 
a deeper interest. As mere forms of beauty, 
apart from such associations, trees are by far 
the most important adjuncts to the face of 
nature. Our parks and pleasure-grounds 
abundantly attest this fact. What a weight 
of grandeur does England owe to her trees 
alone ! Enter the grounds of Sion, Whitton, 
Claremont, Cashiobury, White Knights, High 
Clere, Chiswick, Pain's Hill, and Purser's 
Cross, and the mind is filled with astonish- 
ment at the majestic structures around us. A 
strong roofing of branches, high overhead, 
from exotics as well as those which are indi- 
genous, reminds one of those temples at which 
cunning workmen have wrought long and 
patiently; but again, their height, spread, 
enormous tortuous ramification, and the thought 
is forbidden ! Take trees under a different 
aspect : let us consider them as clothing. 
Nature, in her more varied and rugged 
appearances, such as are seen throughout the 
highlands and straths of Scotland, growing, in 
some instances, on the very summits of the 
loftiest mountains, planting themselves amidst 
masses of slate which apparently bid defiance 
to the inroads of the cultivator, obtaining for 
themselves the surest footing on the face of 
steep precipices, and anon, studded over im- 
mense natural amphitheatres, looking down 
upon the sea. Craig-y-barns, Bruan Water, 
Loch Hoishnie, the Findhorn, and Suther- 
landshire, are the examples. Again, for illus- 
trations of deep woodland solemnity, Brasmar, 
Abernethy, Duthel, Rothiemnrchus, and other 
forest tracts on the Spey may be mentioned ; 
but these, though vast, are as nothing com- 
pared to some forests in foreign countries. 
Taking it for granted, then, that these pre- 
liminary remarks are sufficient to draw atten- 
tion to the importance of trees in every 
respect, it now becomes necessary to point out 
the precautions to be used before planting 
waste land ; the kind of trees to be planted, 
the mode of planting them, and their after- 
management. The world is full of uncer- 
tainty on most of these heads, and as the 
writer has had ample experience in these 
matters for the last twenty years, he trusts 
that the practical results here detailed will at 
least merit an attentive and patient hearing. 
It is of very little use planting trees where 
water stagnates : even the alder, which is the 
most aquatic British tree that we have, dis- 
likes it ; so that, in such parts as are satu- 
rated with moisture, large open drains should 
be made, and in cases where the subsoil is not 
sufficiently porous to allow the water to 
escape, smaller drains in connexion with the 
large one should be formed, so as to draw off 
the surface water. In some few instances, 
this is found to be ineffectual : in those cases, 
all that can be done is to ridge up the soil, so 
that parts of it at least may stand out of the 
water sufficiently to afford a footing for wil- 
lows, alders, poplars, and spruces. In the 
course of ten years, the roots, penetrating the 
subsoil, will serve in a certain measure to ren- 
der it more porous, and the fall and decay of 
vegetable matter from the branches will, in 
the course of time, create a surface soil suffi- 
cient to grow trees of a less aquatic descrip- 
tion. Such parts as assume the character of 
lochs, ponds, and basins, containing water to 
the depth of a foot or more, are beyond the 
province of the planter, and ought for the 
time to be left untouched. If of small extent, 
the loss is immaterial : if otherwise, extending 
to an acre or upwards, the feature becomes 
ornamental, and forms an agreeable contrast 
to the usually unvarying character of a forest. 
It is quite impracticable, as it is unnecessary, 
to attempt ploughing or trenching large tracts 
of waste land, as some writers suggest. The 
plants recommended in a subsequent part of 
this article require no such preparation ; and 
as they are the only trees which will grow on 
the lands here treated of, the practice is at 
