Cruichhank's Practical Planter. 451 



Tender its timber useful for any of the purposes for which 

 oak is required. But," adds he, " let it be treated according 

 to the above directions, and, in SO or 35 years after the acorn 

 is put into the ground, the tree will be in a state of maturity 

 to qualify it, not, perhaps, for becoming the principal timbers 

 of a large ship, but, at least, for boat-building, and all lighter 

 and more minute parts of naval architecture." 



What he can have meant by this piece of composition it is 

 not easy to say : but, if we follow his " directions," that is, to 

 leave 500 of his larch and pine nurses on each acre of his oak 

 wood, till they are from SO to 35 years old, it will be marvel- 

 lous enough if his oaks, of nearly the same age, should be fit 

 for the minutest purposes he speaks of. Scotch pine and 

 larches, 30 to 35 years of age, will have risen to 40 or 45 ft. 

 in height, and their side-branches will have met : so that his 

 young oaks from the acorns, from 27 to 32 years old, must 

 be in the worst plight either for cutting for the purposes of 

 " naval architecture," or remaining for forming a crop of oak 

 timber on the land. 



Perhaps he may be inclined to say, in this case, what he 

 does in another, namely, " It is but fair, however, to allow, 

 that, on this point, my opinion is founded rather on a careful 

 calculation than on actual experience ; " and, we think, it might 

 be very appropriate, with the exception of the word " care- 

 ful." Indeed, his experience in the forest seems to be con- 

 fined to a very short period ; for, its whole length he fixes at 

 fourteen years, which, he says, were chiefly employed in the 

 nursery. 



Had the author not informed us to the contrary, we should 

 have said that most of the matter in his book, on general 

 planting, was a desultory collection from the Planter's Ka- 

 lendar: but it is made to appear that he had never seen that 

 work in his life ; nor ever learned anything of its contents till 

 his book was written, and, most likely, in the press.* 



However, there are many useful observations in its first 



* " Since writing this work, I have learned that the plan of raising oaks 

 from the acorns, in the spots where they are intended to remain, has been 

 recommended by authority far superior to mine, viz. by Dr. Yule in the 

 Horticultural Memoirs, and by Mr. Sang in the Planter's Kalendar" (p. 209. 

 note.) 



At p. 28. " certain English writers " are condemned, and Pontey and the 

 Encyclopaedia of Gardening quoted. Now, on the supposition that the 

 arboriculture of the Encyclopaedia was read, which it must have been in 

 order to write p. 28., how can Mr. Cruickshank plead ignorance of what 

 is therein stated from Sang, Yule, and others, respecting raising the oak 

 from the acorn, till after he had written his work ? The Practical Planter 

 and its honest author must cut rather an awkward figure till these blunders 

 are publicly acknowledged and cancelled. — E. D. G. 



G G 2 



