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SECTION V. 



Note I- Page 152. 



The important principle here touched upon is not so fully illustrated 

 as it might have been. If the reader have attentively considered, first, 

 the principles promulgated, and next their development and application 

 in the selection of subjects, the conclusions which he should arrive at 

 will necessarily follow. In the words of the text, " he may rest assured, 

 in this case, that his success or miscarriage will be in the precise ratio, 

 in which his subjects may have obtained the Protecting Properties. If 

 fully obtained, the progress of the trees will be visible from the begin- 

 ning ; but if imperfectly, their progress will be retarded, until the defi- 

 ciency be made up." Yet, as the errors most commonly committed 

 by planters, and the ill success that attends them, usually result from an. 

 improper selection of subjects, I shall say a few words upon it liere, by 

 way of practical commentary. 



Nineteen times in twenty, or, much more probably, ninety-nine times 

 in a hundred, planters, who remove large trees, select their subjects 

 injudiciously. Perhaps, more correctly speaking, they make no select- 

 tion at all, according to any preconceived principle, or rule of choice. 

 Supposing a man carefully to take up and plant a tree so selected, which 

 has tolerable roots, it necessarily follows, that it must have tolerable 

 branches. But it may happen, from the circumstances in which it has 

 been placed, that it is deficient in stoutness of stem, and, what is still 

 worse, it may have no proper thickness and induration of bark, to pro- 

 tect the sap-vessels. We shall further suppose, that he has only cur- 

 sorily perused the foregoing pages ; and without altogether denying the 

 correctness of the principles laid down (because no man, attentively 

 viewing natural causes and effects, can deny them), he considers this 

 as a pretty fair experiment of the efficacy of the Preservative system. 



What, then, happens ? The roots being not extensive, and the stem 

 slender, it is soon discovered, that without propping, the tree cannot 

 stand. This is thought very strange, indeed, in the new system, which 

 professes to discard all such unsightly appliances. We will next sup- 

 pose, that the props are applied with duo diligence and success for two 



