HOW TO GROW GOOD TIMBER. 267 



But we must not be led astray by the poetical 

 emotions which are sure to rise up within us at the 

 contemplation of forest trees; we shall therefore 

 confine ourself, in this treatise, more particularly to 

 a general description of the genera and species of 

 trees usually grown in Great Britain for timber, with 

 an explanation of some of the principles connected 

 with the growth of timber. 



Timber in a country where trees are almost, if not 

 wholly, planted, affords a subject for consideration 

 very different from that of wild aboriginal forests ; 

 in the former we have to consider our subjects as 

 objects for cultivation, and that with a view of yield- 

 ing profit or pleasure, or both, whilst the study of 

 trees in the forest would naturally resolve itself into 

 a botanical and physiological inquiry into specific 

 forms. While, therefore, we would not here neglect 

 the latter, our arrangement of trees and their history 

 will have more particular reference to their cultiva- 

 tion, a subject which will probably address itself 

 more especially to the landlord than to the tenant 

 farmer. 



In the main, then, the primary object of growing- 

 trees is that of profit, whilst a secondary — or with 

 some even primary — consideration will be that of 

 ornamentation ; and we admit that, apart from any 

 other consideration, a landed estate without timber 

 would be as bare, cold, and comfortless as a house 

 without furniture ; at the same time, too many trees, 

 and these in themselves awkwardly grown and stuck 

 about in all sorts of awkward positions, would be like 

 an over-furnished and ill-regulated mansion. 



We would, then, have that kind of thought exer- 

 Y 2 



