450 Cruichhank's Practical Planter. 



of their trees to be furnished with small branches and twigs, 

 and the top moderately thinned out, to let the leader get up. 

 On this hand, we are directed to cut every competing branch 

 at once off, close by the bole: on that, we are advised to 

 shorten, and wait till the bole increase to such a size as to 

 envelope the branch so shortened, that the evil of an abrupt 

 termination of the layers of wood, at the amputated place, 

 may be prevented ! 



Here we are informed, that the best way to season larch 

 wood, and keep it from warping, is to bark it a year or two 

 before cutting it down. There, again, that the only way to 

 season wood of every kind, and give it hardness and solidity, 

 is to immerse it in water immediately on taking it down. 



In the sizes and ages of the plants, the time of planting, the 

 majaner of pitting, the preparation of the land for receiving 

 the plants, and the effects of that preparation on the quality 

 01*, the timber when it comes to maturity, the opinions are 

 conflicting and perplexing. 



Without pretending to account for these discrepancies on 

 the subject of raising timber, we feel no difficulty in attribut- 

 ing them, in most cases, to hasty conclusions, drawn from ill- 

 digested premises. Hence, imaginary improvements are made 

 known, which lead the public astray, as the ignis fatuus does 

 the bewildered traveller, till he finds himself involved in a 

 quagmire of difficulties. 



Not a few of the late authors on planting discover a very 

 culpable ignorance of the writings of their predecessors : an 

 acquaintance with which might have enabled them to correct 

 their own mistakes and erroneous notions, and also have pre- 

 vented them from bringing forward much redundant matter, 

 and making themselves ridiculous in the world. 



The professed object of the last publication on planting 

 (Mr. Cruickshank's Practical Planter) is, to teach the world 

 " a new method of rearing the oak." That its author should 

 have imagined the method he recommends as " new," can 

 only be accounted for from his total ignorance of almost every 

 book on the subject of raising timber. Indeed, the identical 

 method of creating shelter for the pits of oaks which he speaks 

 of, is circumstantially detailed in Nicol's Planter's Kalendar 

 (p. 192 — 195.), a work which made its appearance in 1812. 



The methods of raising oak timber from acorns without 

 transplanting, and from transplanted trees, have each their 

 advantages and disadvantages. We have a curious contrast 

 of these in the work before us (p. 235.) : on the common 

 " method of cultivating it [the oak], the person who plants 

 scarce ever lives to see it arrive at a bulk large enough to 



