320 
MANAGEMENT OF [chap. ix. 
shrubs, which can never be too often re¬ 
peated, or too strongly enforced, — it is, 
never to suffer them to be planted too 
thickly. This may appear a very simple 
rule, but it is one which it is very difficult to 
put in practice, as all the persons employed 
in planting are generally opposed to it. The 
nurseryman of course wishes to dispose of 
his plants, and the gardener to produce a good 
effect as soon as possible, nay, even the pro¬ 
prietor cannot help feeling the bare and deso¬ 
late appearance of a new plantation where the 
shrubs are placed at proper distances. There 
are but two remedies for this: either planting 
so as to produce an effect at first, and then 
thinning out half the plants, beginning the 
second or third year; or planting the shrubs 
at the proper distances, and covering the 
ground between them with some trailing 
plant pegged down. 
.Nothing can look worse than a row of 
tall trees which were evidently planted for a 
screen; but which, so far from answering the 
intended purpose, admit the light between 
their slender naked stems, which afford no 
more concealment than the open rails of a pal- 
