where the top soil is good, and the bottom of an ́opposite quality, plant, and thereby give the roots the full enjoyment of the productive part of the soil; or, under these last circumstances, sow, and tap the young plants as they stand (with a tapping instrument), and thereby check their downward tendency, as well as strengthen their horizontal

roots.

By this method of treating seedling plants, the chief advantage of planting is obtained. The dispute, therefore, seems to rest entirely upon this question: Which of the two methods is least expensive? To come at this, there are two things to be considered the actual expence of labour and other contingent matters, and the loss of time in the land occupied. With respect to the former, sowing is beyond comparison the cheapest method; but, in regard to the latter, planting may seem to gain a preference; for the seed bed is small, compared with the ground to be planted, and while that is rearing the seedling plants, this continues to be applied to the purposes of husbandry. However, if we consider the check which plants in general receive in transplantation*, and if (as

*We have known an instance of transplanted Oaks remaining upon the ground so long as eight years before they began to move. And let us hear what MILLER says upon this subject; we have no reason to doubt his speaking from

we shall hereafter shew) the interspaces of an infant Wood may, for several years after sowing, be still cultivated, to advantage, the preference, we conceive, is evidently, and beyond all dispute, on the side of sowing.

WITH respect to the arrangement of Wood Plants, the preference to be given to the row, or the random culture-rests in some measure upon the nature and situation of the land to be stocked with plants. Against steep hangs, where the plow cannot be conveniently used in cleaning and cultivating the interspaces, during the infancy of the Wood, either method may be adopted; and if plants are to be put in the quincunx manner will

his own experience, though he does not particularize it.— "When Oak trees are cultivated with a view to profit, acorns should be sown, where the trees are designed to grow; for those which are transplanted will never arrive to the size of those which stand where they are sown, nor will they last near so long. For in some places where these high trees have been transplanted, with the greatest care, they have grown very fast for several years after, yet are now decaying, when those which remain in the places where they came up from the acorns are still very thriving, and have not the least sign of decay. Therefore, whoever designs to cultivate these trees for timber, should never think of transplanting them, but sow the acorns on the same ground where they are to grow; for timber of all those trees which are transplanted is not near so valuable as that of the trees from acorns.” (Art. QUERCUS.)

be found preferable to any. But in more level situations, we cannot allow any liberty of choice: the drill manner is undoubtedly the most eligible; and, with this method of raising a Wood, we begin to give our directions.

LAYING OUT LANDS FOR WOODS. But before we enter upon the immediate subject, it will be proper to premise, that, previously to the commencement of any undertaking of this nature, it is adviseable that the spot or spots intended to be converted into Woodland, should be determined upon, the quantity of land ascertained,—and the whole (whether it be entire or in detached parts, and whether it be ten acres or a hundred) divided into annual sowings.

THE exact number of these sowings should be regulated by the uses for which the Underwood is intended. Thus, if, as in Surrey, stakes, edders, and hoops are saleable, the suite ought to consist of eight or ten sowings; or if, as in Kent, hop poles are in demand, fourteen or fifteen sowings will be required; and if, as in Yorkshire, rails be wanted, or, as in Gloucestershire, cordwood be most marketable, eighteen or twenty sowings will be necessary, to produce a regular succession of annual falls.

MANY advantages accrue from thus parcelling out the land into sowings: the business, by being divided, will be rendered less burdensome; a certain proportion being every year to be done, a regular set of hands will, in proper season, be employed; and, by beginning upon a small scale, the errors of the first year will be corrected in the practice of the second, and those of the second in that of the third. The produce of the intervals will fall into regular course; and, when the whole is completed, the falls will follow each other in regular succession.

Ir it be found convenient to hasten the business, two or three divisions may be sown in one year, the separate falls being marked by the first cutting. This, though by no means equal to regular sowings, corresponding to the intended falls, is much better than hurrying over the whole business at once; a piece of rashness, which no man, who works upon an extensive scale, should be guilty of.

THE principal objections to raising Woodlands, in this progressive manner, is the extra trouble in fencing. However, if the sowings lie detached from each other, the objection falls; if, on the contrary, they lie together, or in plots, let the entire plot be inclosed at once; and, if it contain a number of sowings, some subdivisions will be

necessary, and the annual sowings of these subdivisions may be fenced off with hurdles, or other temporary contrivance. If the adjoining land to be sown be kept under the plow, little temporary fencing will be wanted.

before we enter

IT be further necessary, may upon the business of sowing, to give some directions as to FENCING; for, unless this be done effectually, that will be labour lost.

In raising a Wood, from seeds, it is not only necessary to fence against cattle and sheep, but against hares also, especially if they are numerous. Nothing less than a close fence is adequate to this purpose. Where the soil will admit of it, a ditch, bank, and dwarf paling, may be raised, in the manner already described, under the article FENCES; except that, instead of a stake-and-edder hedge, a close paling should be set upon the bank, in the following manner.

BEFORE the bank be finished, the posts, about five feet long, should be put down, their lower ends being first charred (superficially burnt), to prevent their decaying. One rail is sufficient. To this the upper ends of the pales are nailed, their lower ends having been previously driven into the crown of the bank. The pales should be about