into the mode of treatment which is cer- 

 tainly necessary, if we ever liope to see 

 our cyder counties regain tliat celebrity 

 which for many years has so much de- 

 clined as to be now nearly extinct. 



A tree we shall then endeavour to 

 consider as one of those bodies formed 

 by nature, and as a link of that grand 

 chain on which the welfare of the world, 

 and all that it inherits, depend. It is com- 

 posed of roots which terminate in small 

 fibres, and these are furnished with tubes 

 that attract and take up the food of the 

 plant from the earth ; and these tubes 

 being extended upwards into the trunk 

 of the tree, are found to exist in the 

 softer parts of the wood, known to 

 botanists by the name of alburnum^ but 

 which is more familiarly distinguished in 

 the oak and other timber trees by the 

 name of sap-xcood. 



It has always been a subject of dispute 

 with naturalists as to what constituted 

 the true pabulum or food of vegetables, 

 and it would be foreign to our subject to 

 pretend to explain its composition j but 



