Retrospective Criticism. 405 



a piece of silk dyed with it. [It was a delicate pink.] The dyers here per- 

 suaded me that the colour could only be extracted by a spirituous menstruum ; 

 but Mr. Watts informs me it can be extracted equally well by boiling in 

 water. The tree grows in many of our West Indian islands, especially in 

 Dominica ; and this new property will add enormously to its agricultural and 

 mercantile value, when once sufficiently known. This wood, on friction or 

 by heat, exhales a delightful aromatic odour ; and hence might answer for 

 fans, and other uses, to which the costly sandal wood of the East is applied. 

 — W. Hamilton. Oxford Place, Plymouth, May 20. 1834. 



Art. IV. Retrospective Criticism. 



The Horticultural Society at Hackney, (p. 324.) — Observing that G. Geddes 

 wishes it to be thought that he is a member of the Stamford Hill Horticul- 

 tural Reading Society, and that he complains of the treatment of the Horti- 

 cultural Society established here, I beg to observe that no such person belongs 

 to the Society, and that the communication was made without their sanction. 

 — W. Adamson, Jan., Hon. Sec. to the Stamford Hill Horticidtural Reading 

 Society. Stoke Neivington, July 8. 1834. 



Planting Oaks a Year or two before the Trees intended to nurse them, 

 (p. 295.) — I observe that Mr. Bree intends to plant oak trees two or three 

 years previous to putting in firs as nurses ; and, having entertained the same 

 opinions regarding the treatment of oak plantations for these last ten years, I 

 need hardly say that I cordially agree with what Mr. Bree has expressed on 

 the subject, and I sincerely rejoice that the experiment is about to be made ; 

 and that, too, by one so well qualified to give it a fair trial. Had circum- 

 stances permitted, and opportunity been afforded, this experiment should have 

 been attempted years ago ; entertaining, as I do, not the slightest shadow of 

 a doubt as to the successful issue thereof. I am not only convinced that 

 young oak trees will maintain their vital principle uninjured without the help of 

 nurses, but that the aid of every agent necessary to constitute durable timber 

 will be more liberally communicated in the absence of nurses than with them. 



It is quite a mistaken notion to imagine, as some seem to do, that the art 

 of rearing oak timber consists in stimulating the germinating powers beyond 

 the natural impulse ; and thus, by artificial means, forcing on the tree to a 

 precocious maturity. Such a course is certainly not the best calculated to 

 promote longevity, or impart solidity to vegetable bodies. The man who 

 plants oak, plants not for his own benefit, but for that of future generations ; 

 and, if this is (as it ought to be) his real intention, he cannot act more con- 

 sistently than to retard the growth of his plants,, rather than to encourage it 

 by undue means. I cannot, by any exercise of my mind, conceive why such 

 an opinion should have rooted itself so firmly in the minds of many eminent 

 planters, as, that young oaks will not live in " the Land of the Oak," without 

 sheltering them, almost to suffocation, with larch, Scotch pine, and spruce fir. 

 That the progress of an oak plantation will be slower without shelter, I 

 readily grant ; but this I am foolish enough to think an advantage of con- 

 siderable magnitude, when durability of timber is the object in view. Let 

 me not be understood as deprecating the use of shelter altogether : it is not 

 the use, but the abuse, of shelter that I denounce. It may be said, that be- 

 tween no shelter at all, and the abuse of it, where and how is the medium to 

 be found ? Truth generally exists between two extremes ; one extreme is, that 

 of no shelter at all ; and those of your readers who feel interested in the ques- 

 tion, and who have access to Cruickshanks's Practical Planter, will find the 

 other, if they turn to p. 221. of that work; where we are informed that the 

 plants (Scotch pine and larch) are to be put in at the distance of 4 ft. from 

 each other; that no oaks, or rather acorns, are to be planted until the Scotch 

 fir and larch shall have risen to the height of about 4 ft. from the ground ; 

 when they will be in a condition to afford complete shelter to every thing 



Vol. X. — No. 53. ff 



