THE RURAL SOCRATES. 37 



who have demonflrated that trees receive their princi- 

 pal nQurifhmcnt from the humid particles with which 

 the air is impregnated, and which the leaves draw in by 

 futftion. — Yet the fuccefs of thefe experiments made 

 by Kiiyogg, feems to point out one exception at leafl, 

 in. favor of fnch aromatic and refinons trees as have 

 fpines inflead of leaves, which may be pruned with lefs 

 hazard than other woods. I acknowledge that there 

 has not been fufficient time for a courie of experiments 

 capable of eflablifiiing this as a rule ; but at the fame 

 time I cannot help thinking that the opinion of a man, 

 who difplays in fo many inftances the greatefl difcern- 

 jnent, and whofe obfervations are fo totally free from 

 prejudice, merits a degree of attention which may ani-^ 

 mate us in the purfuit of more ample difcoveries.* 



Thus 



* The rea<3er, perhaps, will not be difpIeafeJ with o^fervirg the agree- 

 ment between what is faid above, on the nature and culture of trees, with 

 forre paffages drawn from the article /^rhre (irce) in the Encyciopedie, 

 f* The roots of tree*, and cf plants in general, ire analogous to the ftomach 

 " animals. It is there the firft and principal preparacion of the juices 

 •* picurs.** 



*♦ The culture of a tree, by pruning away part of its branches, contri- 

 " buies more than any other method of induitry to their luxuriancy ; fo 

 •* that it may be trcly faid, the more limbs they retrench in vegetable 

 " life, to a certain point, the more they multiply. Thofe who have never 

 •*feen a tree entirely ftripped of its branches to the very root, will ccnfider 

 <* it in this mangled lUte as incapable of recovery, and fit only to be 

 ** hewn down : yet if an oak, sn gIoi, a poplar, or any tree, uhofe trunk 

 <' rifes in a perpendicular diredion, is firipped of its branches from top to 

 «* bottom, it will throw out from the loweft amputated parts to the top, an 

 <• infinite number of buds every where ; which burfting into leaves round 

 <♦ a trunk thirty or forty feet in height, form a clothing of thick branches 

 ** that almoft conceals the body of the tree. — In the fame manner, a per- 

 f* fon who firft beholds a tree that has loft its head by a hurricane, or an 

 ** axe, clofe to the neck of ihe branches, wcuKi narurally conclude for fix 

 *' monihs after, that it was a dead trunk, whcfe vegetation could never be 

 ** renewed. But how great the furprife toobferve a tree in rhefc circum- 

 <* (dances (booting forth, below the wounded part, a profuuon cf young 

 <^' branches that form another head ! This (hews the almoft inexhaufliblc 

 <» refourccs of vegetable nature! For it may be confidently afferted, thas 

 '^' from the extremity of the branches to the root ef th€ tree, there is no 



** perceptible 



