570 OBSERVATIONS ON THE DISEASES, &C. 



agriculture has made towards perfection in many 

 points, there is one particular and very interesting 

 branch of this science which improvement has not 

 yet embraced, viz. the growth of timber, and the 

 culture and management of plantations, both of 

 fruit and forest trees. 



The profession of a gardener has been the em- 

 ployment of my life ; and during a long succession 

 of years, it has been an object of my particular 

 study to investigate and discover the latent causes 

 of those various defects and diseases to which all 

 kinds of trees are more or less subject, and the in- 

 juries resulting from them, by obstructing the fer- 

 tility of fruit-trees, and diminishing the quantity, 

 as well as quality, of timber in forest-trees. 



Having acquired a competent knowledge of the 

 evil in all its appearances and effects, my attention 

 was directed toward the discovery of such a re- 

 medy as might not only counteract the progress of 

 these diseases in fruit and forest-trees, but also afford 

 nature such powerful assistance, that she might be 

 enabled to renovate, as it were, fertility in the 

 one, and sound timber in the other. Of my suc- 

 cess in these endeavours to promote the general 

 advantage of this country, in a matter so connect- 

 ed with its best interests, I have that clear con- 

 viction which, I trust, will be hereafter communi- 

 cated to every part of the kingdom where the ap-; 

 plication of my experience shall be made and pro- 

 secuted. 



