the transplanting machine, might yet be deterred from a due preparation of the soil by the seeming quantity of manure that is prescribed for it. But here is a noble and valuable compound, adapted to all soils and climates, and which may be applied at a very small expense, without encroaching on the stercoraceous collections of their farm-yards. There are comparatively few situations in this kingdom in which peatmoss of tolerable quality is unattainable on account of distance*—and it is fortunate that it is so, because we know no given substance that could supply its place. In many districts (as is seen in the present section) it costs, when made up with lime, according to the abovementioned method, not more than 6d. per cart-load; and there are others in which it may be had at a still smaller cost. But much depends on the skill and attention that are bestowed on making it up.

NOTE IV. Page 143.

I conceive that I have made a considerable improvement on the ordinary method of trenching or double-digging of ground, whether for horticultural or arboricultural purposes. Common gardeners' trenching is often a mere turning up and turning down of the soil, in regular strata, without effecting any pulverisation or comminution of the parts; and although it deepens, it generally does nothing more, especially when the trenching is done on grass-grounds. The method which I have practised with great effect, for twenty years, I can much recommend to others.

In trenching eighteen inches deep, (and any thing less is of little use,) instead of keeping the bottom of the trench eighteen inches wide—or, as it is generally done, only a foot-I would have it kept two feet wide; and instead of executing the two spits deep successively, with a regular shovelling after each, I would have three spits executed without any shovelling, but with a good Scotch spade, (as it is called,) of which the mouth is at least ten inches in length. The solid side of the trench is of course cut perpendicularly; but the loose side or face of the work should be kept at a slope of not less than an angle of fifty or sixty

* "In two-thirds of all the land in Scotland, (says an intelligent writer,) moss sufficient for making compost may be found within a mile. Unless it be in some parts of the counties of Edinburgh and Haddington, there is scarce one farm in Scotland, south of the Forth, but can have moss within five miles; and not one farm in a thousand but may find it within three miles."-Aiton's Treatise on Moss-Earth, p. 174.

degrees, in such a way, as that in throwing on the contents, the surface mould may crumble down, and in some sort mix with the entire mass excavated. When I thought of this method twenty years ago, the workmen objected to the execution of three spits deep, at the same price per fall (Anglicè, pole) as has been paid for two spits. But on persuading them to try, they discovered that, instead of being more, it was less laborious than the two spits with the two shovellings; and thus, after a little practice, I was enabled to add another inch, and sometimes two, to the depth of the work, for the same expense, and likewise to obtain a far greater comminution of the parts. Since that time we never trench according to any other method here; and the benefit resulting from it has induced others to adopt the practice. In the "Encyclopædia of Gardening," (§ 236,) there is an excellent style of trenching described for mixing soils, but on too extensive a scale for any thing but horticultural purposes of the most expensive sort.

THE trenching or deepening of ground is a practice of first-rate importance in Arboriculture, whether to trees during infancy in the nursery-ground, or after they have attained a more advanced age. In the present section, the benefit attending it has been so particularly insisted on, that no more could be necessary to be said upon the subject in this place, had not the public attention been particularly turned to it by a late writer, Mr William Withers, junior, of Holt, Norfolk.

This gentleman has lately published two pamphlets on the practice in question, the object of which is to show, that by trenching the ground previously to planting, and then keeping it clean for some years afterwards, greater progress will be made by wood of every sort, and consequently a greater return to the planter in ten or twelve years, than in five-and-twenty and thirty by the common method. The system is not new, having been well known in England for more than two centuries: yet the author, in the first pamphlet, makes out his statements in a manner so clear and satisfactory as to excite considerable interest; and as ingenious experiment is his forte, and not scientific inquiry, he corroborates the whole by an animated and confident appeal to his own practice. By all impartial persons who are acquainted with the subject, the account given by Mr Withers of his operations will be admitted to be extremely candid; and I agree with Mr Cobbett (See Reg. Nov. 1825,) that it is "neat, plain, unassuming, and full of interest."

The fact is, that the practice of trenching and manuring land for plantations, (as may be seen in section VII. of the present work,) had considerably attracted my own attention, about forty years ago. I have since made many comparative and pretty extensive trials of the deepening and the common method, which led to the same results as those stated by Mr Withers; and had not that gentleman brought forth his first pamphlet when he did, I probably should, ere now, have drawn up a similar tract myself, for the purpose of illustrating, to a certain extent, a similar practice.*

The principle of deepening and pulverising soils, to forward the growth of trees, is, as already said, far from being new. It is a mode of culture which was well known to the ancients. It was fully recognised and acted on in the days of Evelyn and Cooke; and it has, since their time, been familiar to every well-instructed gardener and nurseryman in the United Kingdom, down to the present period. The main use, therefore, of Mr Withers' pamphlet, is to show its superior advantages, and give it a more extensive application. Why it has so seldom been applied by landowners beyond the kitchen-garden and the shrubbery seems very surprising, since the slightest trial is sufficient to convince any gentleman, that plantations made on any land susceptible of culture may in this way certainly be more speedily raised, and probably more cheaply, than by any other method. The scientific principles on which the process should be conducted, and my anxiety to impress them on the minds of planters, are sufficiently shown in the present Section and Notes, whether for arboricultural or agricultural purposes, to which Mr Withers' able pamphlet may serve as a practical commentary. The most material point on which he has gone wrong, is the application of fresh-made dung, or "muck," to the roots of woody plants, which, on considering what I have stated, he will readily perceive to be both phytologically and chemically erroneous; and that the intervention of a green-crop, while it constitutes a superior practice, creates a vast saving of expense in executing the work. See Section VI. of my treatise (second edition) pp. 190, 200; also pp. 202-204, et seq. For all plantations in parks and pleasure-grounds, and even in many that are intended solely for profit, I highly approve of previous trenching and manuring, and keeping the ground clean with the hoe, but by

* If Mr Withers will take the trouble to peruse the next note, namely, No. V., being the last of the present Section, and the text to which it refers, he will see that I have had some experience in the business of trenching, and that I have long had occasion to apply it to some striking objects of utility as well as

ornament.

no means digging it with the spade for a few years—that is, in situations where the nature of the ground will admit, and where sufficient manure for a green-crop can be procured. Having for many years successfully followed this method myself, I can with the greater confidence recommend it to others. But, from the very nature of the thing, it is evident that it cannot be adopted for GENERAL PLANTING, or ever come into universal use. All men, however, will admit that Mr Withers is entitled to great praise for so earnestly pressing it on the public attention.

There is one thing, at which I have been rather surprised, in Mr Withers' pamphlet, and which cannot be passed over without notice by any person of intelligence—and that is, his denominating the ordinary or pitting method of planting, as every where practised, without any previous deepening of the soil, "the SCOTCH system ;" and for no other alleged reason, that I can discover, on the most attentive perusal of his publication, than that some Scotch contractors had executed about forty acres of plantation for Admiral Windham according to this method, and that the thing had turned out a total failure."

It is certainly very candid in Mr Withers to inform us that he knows nothing of Scotland or Ireland, and that his observations on wood, and his practice in raising it, are wholly confined to Norfolk. His pamphlet as clearly informs us that he knows nothing of general planting, or of its history and progress in Britain and the rest of Europe; and that the anatomy of plants and vegetable physiology have not come within the range of his studies. Now, in these circumstances, it would have been as well if he had not insisted on it, that the common and well-known style of executing general planting, in every country where it is known and cultivated, is peculiarly "the SCOTCH method ;" because the English, Irish, French, German, or any other national epithet, would have equally designated the practice. The Germans have about a hundred writers on woods and forests, (double the number that Varro enumerates in his time,) among whom M. Burgsdorf, Master-General of the Forests of Prussia, and M. Hartig, who held the same situation in the Principality of Solms, are the most celebrated. The French, in the same way, have nearly thirty authors on this subject, of whom MM. De Perthuis, Baudrillart, and Varenne-Fenille, are the latest and best. These, together with our own Evelyn and Cooke, Miller, Pontey, and Speechley, all treat of both the trenching and the pitting method; but not one of them ever made the notable discovery which has been made by Mr Withers, that the latter is peculiarly the SCOTCH method. On the contrary, they all mention both systems as practised in their different countries, and practised in each under different circum

stances, as it is in England.* Had some conceited Scotch gardener, now fattening in that country, committed this "fundamental error" in a public statement, and on the title-page of a book, we should not have been so much surprised, and attributed it merely to ignorance ; but as it is, it certainly must appear very striking in a person of Mr Withers' education and intelligence. By a statement so often and so confidently repeated, uninformed readers are led to believe that, in the arboriculture of Scotland, there are some strange and peculiar modes of executing large designs of wood, quite different from those known in England, and which its gardeners (who every where abound) are desirous, from some unintelligible motive, to introduce into the latter country. Whereas the truth is, as I have more than once stated in the present work, that it is to the English alone that the Scotch are indebted for any knowledge they possess of the useful arts, and of that of planting among others; that they are ambitious to practise, and do practise them, solely after the English methods; and if they ever venture on any improvements of their own, (which in this instance has not been the case,) that it is with becoming deference to such able instructors. It is therefore to be hoped that so judicious a writer as Mr Withers, when he next publishes on the same subject, will correct a statement which is unfounded in point of fact, and besides, rather savours of national prejudice-a feeling decidedly illiberal, and altogether out of fashion in the present day.

The very favourable manner in which Mr Withers' first pamphlet was received by the public was, of course, very gratifying to the author, and seems to have led him to assert the universal applicability of the trenching method. What was good for Norfolk, he naturally thought, could not well be bad for any other tract of country, whether the Highlands of Perthshire, or Yorkshire, or Connaught; and that whatever system of planting was calculated to produce (as Pontey expresses it) "the greatest weight of marketable wood," and to produce it soonest and cheapest, must necessarily be the best for all possible purposes, whether manufacturing, agricultural, or naval. Fully impressed with

* M. De Perthuis is of the opinion usually entertained in England, and also by Sir Walter Scott, that trenching with the spade is too expensive to be practised by the landowner, unless for plantations intended for ornament near the mansion-house. On sent que le défoncement ne peut être fait qu'à bras d'hommes ; et comme il occasionne une grande dépense au propriétaire, il ne peut guères employer ce moyen, lorsque ses facultés pécuniaires le lui permettent, que dans les plantations destinées à la décoration de sa maison.-P. 282. The French have likewise an odd way of cultivating plantations, en rayons, that is, in narrow strips for the trees, leaving the intervals uncultivated.