hfsome old men of my acquainiaiico. A I'-w days a£fo, 

 J for the first time, met with the memoirs of (he Phila- 

 delphia Agricultural Socict}', which fiom various sour. 

 ces ami high Agricultural authority, estahlishcs the fact 

 in a manner, not to be douhted. The honorable Ri(;!)ard 

 l^eters labors the stilyjcct handsomely, and !)as collec- 

 ted a great variety of letters and extracts to prove the 

 oircumstance. My idea of the regular, gradual and nui- 

 form course of nature in the change of soils, being the 

 j^reat and leading cause (though eeriainly not the only 

 ca^use) of the succession of trees, seems not to occur to 

 Mr. Feters or any of his highly intelligent correspond- 

 ent?. He labors to prove by the analogy of trees, the ne- 

 cessity of a succession of crops. 'I'his no doubt is sound 

 argument, and amongthe best modes of establishing the 

 iiecessit}' of a change ; but let the change be made with 

 eound discretion according to the nature of the plant and 

 of the soil. 



]lcre follow some Extracts on the subject, very much 

 in point, to prove the Succession of Trees. 



Extract of a letter from Johh Adlujj, Esq. of Havre 

 dc Grace, Maryland, dated Sept. 16, 1807. 

 " As to your query respecting a rotation or succes- 

 sion of forest trees, 1 am as well satisfied of it in my 

 own mind, as if I had lived to see the whole change 

 for centuries back , and althougli it may be dlfiicult ilo 

 give the information that may be satisfactory', 1 have no 

 doubt that I. could convince any person as to the fact, 

 were he to travel over the country with me. 1 first took 

 tlic idea in the summer of 1788, when I was surveying 

 lands south of the great bend of Susquehanna, between 

 that river and the Delaware, in what is called the beech, 

 and sugar maple country. Jn the cour.«c of my survey- 

 ing, 1 traversed some places consisting of a few acres 

 each, growing red and white oak trees of a!i enormous 

 ^ize, none being less than 1() feet in circumference, five 

 feet above the ground, and generally from 40 to 50 feet 

 10 the branches; some few red oaks were 22 feet in 



