August 14, 1884. } 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
135 
"l--- 
COMING EVENTS 
s 
34 
Th 
Maidenhead Show. 
15 
P 
16 
s 
17 
Sun 
10th Sunday after Trinity. 
18 
M 
19 
TU 
20 
w 
Shrewsbury Show (two days). 
SPOILING TREES AND SHRUBS. 
F it could be made known how many thousands 
of acres of land occupied by plantations in this 
country are for all practical purposes wasted, 
and how many millions of trees that might have 
been both beautiful and valuable are spoiled by 
neglect, the figures would be nothing short of 
startling. There is not one acre of ground out 
of ten where the thinning of trees has been 
systematically conducted, and the result is a 
confused jumble of miserable examples of little or no value 
for timber, and only “ beautiful in the mass,” where each 
hides the other’s faults and deformities. 
As si3lendid evidences of shortsightedness there is surely 
nothing comparable to the woods of Great Britain. It is 
quite true that some owners of estates have been alive in 
time to the resources of the soil for timber production, and 
wise enough to engage experienced foresters and allow them 
to discharge their duties according to the dictates of expe¬ 
rience. The consequence of this enlightened policy is 
woodland at once profitable and creditable, instead of a mere 
wild waste of spoiled trees of no other use than for affording 
cover for game. Those few bright spots, really well managed 
plantations, bring out by the force of contrast the negligent 
state of the remainder. The observant man and thoughtful, 
who has some knowledge of the resources of land and the 
value of timber, wonders why such a deplorable state of 
things has been allowed to become paramount, and well 
he may. 
In innumerable instances the present owners of woods 
have been and are helpless in the matter. The evil has been 
of long growth—the growth of generations, and it has grown 
in too many cases beyond remedy. But cannot the crowded 
overgrown trees be thinned? Undoubtedly they can; but 
tall branchless trees, with hide-bound bark and few roots, 
cannot be improved by thinning. No matter how many 
may be removed, those left will remain unsatisfactory and 
decidedly less safe than before. 
There is a time when the violent thinning of long-neglecte^ 
plantations becomes even dangerous. Trees drawn up in 
thicket like* a lot of Bamboos, with only a few stunted 
branches and leaves at the top, make few roots, because such 
trees need but few, and when an opening is made into the 
mass by the removal of half or two-thirds of the “ poles,” 
those remaining are no longer able to resist the violence of 
the gales, and acres of trees may be laid low in a few 
hours by a passing storm. That has often occurred when 
trees too long neglected have been thinned too much, and 
will occur again if the same measures are adopted with belts 
and plantations that have been neglected for years. It may 
be that certain tracts are better cleaned thus summarily, 
because then a fresh start can be made in arboriculture, and 
the work conducted on sound principles ; but in not a few 
instances the removal of a sheltering belt of trees or a dis¬ 
tant plantation would be a serious loss. It is well, then, 
No. 216.— VoL. IX., Third Series. 
not to act hastily and thin long overgrown masses of trees 
“ with a vengeance.” 
While late and extreme thinning is seldom profitable, and 
may be disastrous, the importance of early thinning cannot 
possibly be over-estimated. Plantations well planted with 
trees naturally adapted to the soil, and systematically 
thinned, will increase in value yearly, while the individual 
specimens will be objects of admiration instead of, as in the 
case of examples in neglected groups, little short of eyesores. 
“ Woods are unprofitable ” is an oft-heard remark, but 
this is, in the majority of cases, because they are ill-managed. 
Initial mistakes in planting and immediate after neglect 
in tending are the origin of unprofitable and unsatisfactory 
plantations. Those mistakes are so common that they may 
be seen almost everywhere, and they should be regarded as 
evils to be avoided. 
All readers of this Journal may possibly not be greatly 
interested in the discussion of the subject under notice, but 
many of them are very directly, and others ought to be, for 
it has an immediate bearing on the management of parks 
and gardens ; and in these, or very many of them, tree and 
shrub-spoiling is far too prominent. Examples of thought¬ 
less planting and gross neglect in thinning are visible in half 
the parks, pleasure grounds, arboretums, and cemeteries in 
the country. In instances innumerable the destruction of 
what might have been handsome specimens is lamentable. 
In some cases the planting has been done in a higgledy- 
piggledy way, and this has gone on increasing until there is 
general confusion and spoiling all round. In other in¬ 
stances the trees have been disposed with thought, and had 
the idea of the planter been carried out by the timely re¬ 
moval of what was put in for shelter and immediate effect, 
the trees and shrubs intended for full development would 
now have been handsome specimens instead of miserable 
distortions or one-sided monstrosities. 
But whose fault is it that such negligence has been per¬ 
mitted ? Is there not a cause ? It is not easy to fix the 
fault nor to indicate the real cause of the evil in question. 
There is not a doubt that men are in charge of overgrown 
masses who fully appreciate the necessity of thinning, and 
indeed long to be able to accomplish the work ; but if they 
are not prohibited from “meddling with the trees” they have 
no means at their disposal for preventing ultimate failure. 
Some owners of pleasure grounds are actually so short¬ 
sighted as to prefer a tangled mass—a wild interlacing of 
branches, because it “ looks natural.” That is simply un¬ 
natural nonsense, for such false notions cripple and check 
the work of Nature, and impede the development of Nature s 
grandest ornaments—noble trees. By such fads and fancies 
Nature is stifled and true art murdered; and yet, forsooth, 
there are persons who indulge in such whims, who, in the 
most self-satisfied manner, regard themselves as “ leaders of 
taste.” This would be ludicrous if it were not serious. 
What will be the state of such overcrowded shubberies a few 
years hence ? This; Instead of splendid specimens that 
Nature furnishes when the chance is afforded, we shall have 
an arrangement that is fairly comparable with a lot of 
besoms stuck into the ground by their shafts bare stems 
and stumpy heads. That is what will be, must be, the result 
in a few years’ time in not a few public parks and private 
gardens if the present policy of inactivity is much longer 
indulged in. 
In the case of public parks, arboretums, and cemeteries, 
the unsatisfactory state of the shrubberies is possibly due to 
the conflicting opinions that find utterance at the “ board. 
These boards are composed of excellent business men, no 
doubt, but their knowledge of trees and shrubs is necessarily 
limited ; and they either cannot trust the gardener in whose 
charge the ground is, or they are tied by pledges of “ eco¬ 
nomy” to keep down expenses. But there is no true economy 
in failure. Either trees and shrubs are worth planting or 
not. Then if planted, where is the economy of permitting 
No. 1872VoL LXXI., Old Series. 
