20 
PLANTING OF THE MODE. 
it is indebted. Now, the former character of 
Dartmoor as a tract of country being subtracted, it 
assumed the climate before alluded to, and it is 
consequently presumable, that if its original cha¬ 
racter could be restored to it,- an amelioration in 
the latter circumstance would be effected. But, it 
is manifest that partial proceedings of agriculture 
and planting will always be marked either by 
limited success, or by discouraging failures, because 
the surrounding atmosphere and unqualified steril¬ 
ity, preponderate against it. The marked success 
of these undertakings so ardently wished for, will 
probably follow only on measures pursued generally 
and simultaneously on this tract. * 
Picturing to ourselves Dartmoor in its former garb 
of wood and verdure, it will immediately occur, that 
its elevated site would then be equally productive 
of cold, as now, and that the greater amount of 
moisture, which the trees would naturally accumu¬ 
late, might even render the cold greater, did not 
* The Duke of Athol has been most successful in his planta¬ 
tions of Larch in the Highlands of Scotland. Timber of unusual 
size, and quality has been grown in vast abundance on tracts of 
ground previously of extremely slight profit, and quite as expo¬ 
sed, barren and rocky as Dartmoor, the reputed u Nazareth.” 
I understand that the very rich pasturage of Guernsey is 
situated on granitic sand, or debris. 
It is always desirable that plantations of timber should be 
protected during the first few years of growth by an interspersion 
of fir trees, which help greatly to shelter and protect the rest 
from the beating and blighting influences of wind. These should 
not be suffered to remain after the trees principally designed to 
be grown have acquired some height, for then the firs by the 
closeness of the plantation will assist in accumulating wet, so 
injurious when abundant, to the qualities of most trees. Larch 
certainly does not prosper in the South Hams, and probably from 
this very capse,but on the plan recommended in the text I should 
conclude it might answer well on Dartmoor. 
