Pontey versus Cruickshank* 675 



Art. XII. Pontey s " Forest Pruner" versus Cruickshank's " Prac- 

 tical Planter" on the Subject of pruning Fir Trees. By A York- 



SHIREMAN. 



Sir, 



In common with the reading and thinking part of mankind, 

 it is with me, as I am happy to find it is also with yourself, a 

 subject of unfeigned regret that book-making, in contradis- 

 tinction to book- writing, is daily becoming much too prevalent 

 the inevitable consequence of such practice is, on the one hand, 

 by their conflicting contents, to distract the public attention ; 

 while, on the other, their unpardonable repetition of super- 

 annuated and long exploded dogmas tends only to disgust. 



There is another practice also, and that not the most 

 honourable, with which these modern babblers stand charged, 

 — an instance of which, in addition to the one. I am about to 

 complain of, you point out in your review of Mr. Cruick- 

 shank's Practical Planter, — viz. whenever they attempt to 

 palm upon the world what they would wish to have believed 

 as original and good, they generally misquote those authors 

 whose writings seem to stand in the way of such theories being 

 received. 



Among the description of modern book-makers just alluded 

 to, Mr. Cruickshank (as shown in p. 456, 457. of your Maga- 

 zine) stands, I think, deservedly preeminent. 



It is not, however, my present intention to observe upon 

 that gentleman's Practical Planter, further than as it applies to 

 Mr. Pontey's book called the Forest Pruner, the principles of 

 which are, as have been proved by thousands (myself among 

 the rest), invaluable. If, then, in the course of my observa- 

 tions, I happen to show that Mr. Cruickshank, in his Practical 

 .Planter, is attempting to retail old and exploded errors to the 

 public as his own (for it does not appear he gives us more 

 than his ipse dixit for it) ; and, to support his assertions, has 

 misquoted that passage in Pontey's Pruner which appears to 

 oppose them ; by putting your readers upon their guard 

 against such malpractices, I shall have rendered the state some 

 service : for, to say the least of such acts, wherever duplicity is 

 practised, the result can never be honourable to the parties, 

 and rarely beneficial to the public. 



In order, however, to enable your readers to put a proper 

 value upon the assertions in the Practical Planter, and the 

 demonstrated proofs given by Mr. Pontey in his Pruner, it 

 seems necessary to premise that Mr. Cruickshank acknow- 

 ledges his practice to have been confined chiefly to one situa- 

 tion (at Careston, the seat of the Earl of Fife) : its whole length 



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