has been directed by many, otherways the most respectable authors. I must acknowledge this doctrine has a very specious. appearance at firft view: I adhered to it early in life, and it is fo seemingly confiftent with Nature, that I am not surprised it has been generally adopted by young planters; at the fame time, I cannot account for those who have had much practice, and long experience, not expofing the errors of it.

In the following fheets I have given fome examples, from frequently repeated experiments, of the ill effects I have felt by planting young and tender feedlings in the pooreft foils, and the greater fuccefs attending thofe that were well-grown, on the fame, or in fimilar fituations. The confequences of raifing plants on poor hungry land, are no lefs fatal than planting the feedlings in fuch, and should as much as poffible be avoided. I have mentioned, in the culture of many trees, the neceffity of promoting their vigorous growth at firft, in order to their becoming stately and handfome; nor can this be effected by any other means than being early nurfed in generous foils, for whatever future purposes they are meant, or to whatever fituations they are destined; and that if they are but barely fupported from infancy on meagre ground, they will never afterwards become strong, though removed to that which is rich and feeding. The caufes for this, when the fubject is fearched to the bottom, are demonftrably plain: From their harsh and unfriendly food they contract difeafes, which, if not immediately mortal, are certainly incurable; they neceffarily have bad roots, they are hide-bound, and their branches weak and crooked: in fhort, though they may long languifh in the ftate of bushes, they will never arrive to the magnitude of what may properly be called

trees.

But though I have advifed trees to be raised on good land, let it be understood, I mean that only which is naturally fo, and not what has lately been forced and pampered with dung, or at leaft before that dung has been mellowed and reduced to the confiftence of earth, fuch being yet more baneful to trees in general, than even the pooreft foils.'

As a farther fpecimen of Mr. Boutcher's method of planting, we fhall add what he fays on the ufeful fubject of hedges, contained in his chapter on Thorns.

The wind is the great enemy of new planted thornhedges at any confiderable fize; but by the judicious performance of what has here been directed, from which the root will be a full balance for the body, it cannot poffibly have the smallest ill effect. Every gardener of common understanding, in order to fave several years growth, juftly enquires after old hedges, (I mean fuch as are not, from age or other circumstances, in a decaying state), in order to cut them over to effect that defirable

end.

end. I need not mention, that fuch grow more in one year than a young thorn in three or four; and if they grow freely without any preceding culture, when cut over, and removed at the fame time, (which by the bye must be no fmall violence done them at an advanced age) I am at a lofs to find out a reason why, having been cultivated fo as to give them ten times the number of roots they poffibly can have in their wild state, without wounding them, the common deftruction of old trees, and brought them to fuch a proportion of body as thofe roots will keep fufficiently fteady; I fay, thefe circumftances confidered, from what foundation can a doubt arife, that thornhedges immediately fencible will not fucceed? Strange, that in a country which boasts of abounding with the best gardeners in Europe, fuch fimple effays of their art (and which could not fail of answering the intention) fhould not be frequently executed for the benefit of such as are willing to bestow a little more than common expence, and chufe (if I may be allowed the expreffion) to overtake time, or at any rate to repair what has been loft, by the immediate poffeffion of what, to a fober virtuous mind, is amongst the most agreeable and rational enjoy ments!

I cannot leave this fubject, without taking notice of, and warning against the baneful practice of almoft univerfally clipping our hedges thick, and broader at top than bottom. This, in my time, has rendered of little benefit the greatest part of the fences within my knowledge, which, properly trained, would have been the highest ornament, and most solid improvement our fields are capable of receiving. How a practice fo glaringly oppofite to nature, and even common fenfe, fhould be adopted in a country devoted both to the study and practice of planting, is frange to imagine! but unluckily it requires no proof that fuch is the cafe. The under parts of the hedges so trained, are quite deprived of the benefit of the rains and dews, thofe indifpenfable fupports of their strength and verdure, and are in fome degree fmothered, from whence the weakest branches annually perifh, till at laft the bottom becomes quite naked, which no future care or induftry can repair but by cutting them over, or at least reducing their height, and pruning them close to naked trunks. This, though a certain, is yet a tedious cure; and to expofe one's fields to their original cold and defenceless state, after for many years beftowing as much as, properly applied, would have made them continue beautiful and fencible for ages, muft be a mortifying circumftance to any man, but, the shortness of life confidered, doubly fo to one advanced in years: Let it then be invariably obferved, from the first clipping, till your hedges arrive at their intended height, that you make them gradually REV. Jan. 1776.

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taper from the bottom, till they become quite sharp at top, in form of a razor. This too is faving money, as the apparatus of ftanding-ladders, fcaffolds, &. neceffary for cutting the tops of high hedges, becomes expenfive, and, with the hands required conftantly to move them, will coft much more than clipping both the fides, which can eafily be performed, to the height of fifteen feet, by a man ftanding on the ground, with the affiftance of spring-fhears.

• Many have been the arguments with men of more words than reflection and obfervation, whether or not it is necessary to continue the practice of clipping hedges till old, where ornament is not required, and that are only the boundaries or divifions of corn or grafs fields. Good gardeners, I am well perfuaded, never difputed on this fubject; for if the greater warmth hedges afford to the grounds around them conftitute their greater value in this cold climate, I fhould think no fenfible man can hesitate to give an extraordinary preference to those that are clipped; the reafons for which are too apparent to require further explanation. I have never feen hedges, growing for a number of years rude, that were either warm in winter, or close at bottom, which proceeds from a very natural cause. The thorn tree, when under no difcipline, grows in a loofe ragged manner, with heavy and spreading tops, which, for want of air and moisture, deftroy many of the under branches, and when planted in loofe or wet lands, the winter winds difplace and disfigure them extremely; fo that, all circumstances confidered, I could never difcover any well-founded argument againft clipping them but the expence, which, if annually done after a proper manner, in the months of July and Auguft, will be fmall in proportion to the pleasure and benefit you will otherways derive from them.

Digging and keeping clean a border on each fide of your hedges, at leaft for a few years, will also be well-bestowed labour, as it will much accelerate their growth, and contribute to their speedily thickening at bottom.

Many improvements may likewife furely be made on common practice, in the difpofition and manner of planting our young thorn hedges. Some lands indeed are fo thin and meagre as not to produce tolerable fences without a greater depth of foil, but hardly any are fo bad (very wet grounds excepted) as not to nourish thorns in fuch a degree as to become fencible, by an addition of foil, though of the fame quality, well blended together, and expofed to the fummer's fun and winter's froft.

Without proceeding immediately, however, on this subject, I cannot help taking notice, that the common method of laying our thorns on the fides of banks above ditches, and raif

ing

ing bulwarks of turf over them, is an abfolute oppofition to every principle of nature I am capable of difcovering. I have often been told, but was never in the leaft convinced, of the utility of this practice; nor can I poffibly believe, that a plant compreffed in this manner, without its roots readily partaking of the heavenly influences, can be equally nourished with one growing on a level loofe furface that freely enjoys them all. But without further endeavouring to demonftrate the abfurdity of hedges in this fituation, let us fee the effects of it, and let any confiderable extent of fuch that are warm, fightly, and fencible, argue in their defence. On this appearing, I shall gladly acknowledge my error: In the mean time, I can fhow, in most counties of the kingdom, large tracts of land fo inclofed, and where, in the most confiderable eftates, there is not a fingle park that will confine cattle, without many gaps being made up with paling, or dead bruih-wood, the laft of which increases the evil, as nothing is more contagious to the living branches than being mingled with dead ones; neither can hedges fo planted be with eafe clipped from the bottom of the ditch, or when any of the plants perifh, can they again be properly inferted. But what is worft of all, if the foil is not an obftinate clay or till, the earth annually moulders away; so that, in a few years, one fide of their roots are left naked and expofed to the weather, whence too, from the weight of the tops, the winds often bring down both hedge and bank. In fhort, from the general furvey I have made over moft parts of the kingdom, I cannot help thinking that method of inclofing has more retarded the advantages which muft have arifen to judicious farmers from a better fyftem, than all the other blunders I know put together. It has likeways, by exhibiting a bad example, deterred many from inclofing at all, and put others on building ftone-walls at great expence, though neither fo beautiful, nor improving to the fields around, as lofty hedges well trained. I fhall therefore endeavour to give some few hints, that, if skilfully executed, will certainly promote their usual growth and thickness, and that at little, if any greater, expence than attends the common practice.

In order to inclofe a dry thin foil, mark out the fides of your ditch four feet wide; raife the turfs from the furface fixteen inches fquare; leave a fcarfment of eight inches within the top of the ditch, and lay them with the green fide downwards; three rows of turfs will exhauft the furface of the ditch, when lay a line of Sweet Briars three or four years old (that have been tranfplanted), from a foot to eighteen inches afunder, and cover them with the beft earth below the turf, laying the remainder, so far as good, immediately beyond their roots, fo

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that a deep border of the best foil that the place will afford, to be afterwards planted with thorns, may be formed. Procure turf from the adjacent grounds, till you raife the bank eighteen inches higher, and lay another line of tweet briars, placing them fo that every plant may be above the interstices of the former line. Thefe being alfo properly covered, finifh your ditch to the depth of four feet, and as narrow at bottom as a man can ftand to heave the foil over the bank: Proceed then to complete the bank, which, for an immediate outward fence, ought to be four feet high; and lay the highest row of the turfs with the green fide upwards, which will focneft make them unite, and confolidate the whole. The common practice is to make thefe banks flupe in the fame proportion the fides of the ditches do; and the argument for it is, that they stand the weather better. But if the turfs are well laid, and foundly clapped together with the back of a spade, there is not the fmalleft danger of their failing at that height, and therefore I would advite them to be laid within fix or eight inches of being perpendicular: My reafons for which are, that I mean this bank, with the fweet briars planted on it, as foon as possible to hang over that fide of the ditch under it, to prevent violent rains from washing it down, and which, by giving it the ufual flope, cannot fo foon be affected. It will alfo be a better defence against cattle, who often make attempts to get over ditches and banks that have too eafy a flope; but from this pofition they have no footing, and when the fweet briars are grown two years, cattle in the bottom of the ditch cannot raise their heads without being oppofed by them, which they will not attempt a fecond time. A fheep-park thus inclofed, will, in three or four years, confine thefe animals no lets effectually than the higheft wall, as they, and indeed horfes or cows, cannot bear the touch of them. No perfon in ordinary circumstances need fcruple the expence of the fweet briars, as there is not any plant more easily or expeditiously raised; but if you have them not, and do not choose the trouble or delay of raifing them, they may be purchafed for a few fhillings per thoufand. The briars abound with fo great a quantity of penetrating roots and fibres, as foon to render any bank they are placed upon impenetrable as a wall; and there is no plant yet difcovered fo proper for filling up the gaps of old hedges of all kinds, where plants of the fame fort with thefe hedges will not fucceed. But I fhall proceed to the inner fide of the bank.

Having furnished this with the beft earth you can procure, flope it fo gradually as that the rains may not wash it down, to about three feet below the level of its top, which is allowing a foot of forced foil above the furface, for a border to receive the

thorns.