OF FRUIT AND FOREST TREES. 397 



decay : and with confidence I can assert, that I 

 have succeeded so well with His Majesty's fruit- 

 trees, that by cutting out the diseased and dead 

 wood, the trees have produced more and finer fruit 

 in two and three years, than a tree newly planted 

 will in thirteen or fi^urteen years ; and this advan- 

 tageous circumstance is equally visible in the expe- 

 riments I have made on Elms, where nothing re- 

 mained but the bark. The Oak, from experience, 

 I find equally as curable as any other tree ; the 

 bark may be restored, and the trees rendered as fit 

 for the navy, as though they never had been 

 injured. 



In answer to the third question, I say that I am 

 able to *' suggest a complete remedy for the de- 

 fects ;" and that remedy I suppose to be known 

 only to myself, as it is not a secret drawn from 

 books, or learned from men, but the eflPect of close 

 application, and repeated experiments. As to un- 

 dertaking the application of the remedy, I must 

 request you will have the goodness to permit me to 

 say, that as a servant of His Majesty, I do not 

 think myself at liberty to form any engagement 

 that must inevitably call me for a time from His 

 Majesty's service in his Royal Gardens at Kensing- 

 ton ; but should His Majesty be graciously pleased 

 to think my services would be productive of a na- 

 tional good, and will condescend to permit me to 

 be absent, I shall with the greatest pleasure and 

 alacrity engage in the undertaking. 



