6 S Y L V A BOOK i 



else expect little from them : And whenever you sow, 

 if you prevent not the little field mouse, he will be 

 sure to have the better share. See cap. xvm. 



4. But to pursue this to some farther advantage ; 

 as to what concerns the election of your seed, it is to 

 be consider'd, that there is vast difference, (what if I 

 should affirm more than an hundred years) in trees 

 even of the same growth and bed, which I judge to 

 proceed from the variety and quality of the seed : 

 This, for instance, is evidently seen in the heart, 

 procerity and stature of timber ; and therefore chuse 

 not your seeds always from the most fruitful-trees, 

 which are commonly the most aged, and decayed ; 

 but from such as are found most solid and fair: Nor, 

 for this reason, covet the largest acorns, Gfc. but 

 (as husbandmen do their wheat) the most weighty, 

 clean and bright : This observation we deduce from 

 fruit-trees, which we seldom find to bear so kindly 

 and plentifully from a sound stock, smooth rind, and 

 firm wood, as from a rough, lax, and untoward tree ; 

 which is rather prone to spend itself in fruit, (the 

 ultimate effort, and final endeavour of its most delicate 

 sap,) than in solid and close substance to encrease the 

 timber. And this shall suffice, though some haply 

 might here recommend to us a more accurate micro- 

 scopical examen, to interpret their most secret schema- 

 tismes, which were an over-nicety for these great 

 plantations. 



5. As concerning the medicating and insuccation 

 of seeds, or enforcing the earth by rich and generous 

 composts, Gfc. for trees of these kinds, I am no great 

 favourer of it ; not only because the charge would 

 much discourage the work ; but for that we find it 

 unnecessary, and for most of our forest-trees, noxious; 



