27G MANAGEMENT OF FOEEST-TREES 



of building a house, or large pit, expressly for the purpose of 

 growing these kind of grapes, should other means fail. 



Too much moisture, either at the root or in the atmosphere, 

 and more especially after too much dryness, appears to me to be 

 the principal cause of the evil. Mr. Josling merely keeps the 

 inside of his vinery as dry as possible after the period when 

 cracking is to be apprehended. The construction of his houses 

 renders early forcing inexpedient ; and this being the case, long- 

 continued watering to keep down the red spider is not so 

 necessary. 



XXXIV. — On the Management of Forest-trees considered in 

 relation to the Durabilitij of Imiher. By George Lovell, 

 Gardener to the Marchioness of Hastings, F.H.S., at Efford 

 House. 



(Communicated August 27, 1849.) 



Recent appeals to the experience of those interested in the 

 durability of timber have shown that little sound knowledge 

 obtains on this subject. To arrive at anything satisfactory in 

 the matter an extensive series of experiments must be set afoot, 

 and the men who may put the machinery in operation must 

 leave the results of its action to be gathered by a future genera- 

 tion. We are, however, not prone to undertake investigations, 

 the results of which can never be known to us. However disin- 

 terested we may profess to be in pursuits involving the interests 

 of others, there is ever a self-interest or self-gratification lurking 

 at the bottom and acting as a mainspring to our exertions. It 

 is the necessarily protracted nature of such inquiries as the 

 present one, that renders real practical knowledge in connexion 

 therewith of so scanty a nature ; and it is because such results 

 are so protracted that so few investigations of important bearing 

 on the subject are ever instituted. 



But it appears to me that there are many points connected 

 witli the question which may be treated physiologically, and 

 from whicli we may gather useful results. 



With the management of the wood after the tree is felled I 

 have nothing to do ; there are no doubt many chemical processes 

 by which a greater immediate solidity may be induced, but such 

 means ever appear to me, like constantly physicking the human 

 subject, affording as it does unnatural stimuli for the time being, 

 but each successive dose only lays the foundation for an increased 

 rapidity of reaction — a speedy dissolution when it once sets in. 



That the constitution of modern grown timber is very far 

 inferior to that which we frequently find in ancient edifices, and 



