Vill PREFACE. 
times, could not easily be supplied. To meet this desidera- 
tum, it was at one time intended to collect the papers as 
they stood in the various publications, and embody them ; 
this, however, was found unsuitable, as it would have 
occasioned numerous repetitions, and swelled the volume 
to too great a size; besides, the experience of upwards of 
a quarter of a century had, to some extent, changed the 
author’s views on subjects of importance. Many of the 
articles therefore have been re-written to adapt them to 
the present time, and some others have been added to 
make the work complete on the various subjects, from the 
harvesting of the seed to the felling of the full-grown 
timber. 
During the present century, not only have changes taken 
place, to some extent, in the opinions of writers on the 
best mode of cultivation and subsequent management of 
our timber trees, but in several instances the trees them- 
selves, with respect to some of the most common and 
useful species in cultivation, are changed, and are found to 
be less hardy and ill adapted to the climate of North 
Britain. This is more especially the case with the Scotch 
Pine and the Larch, and it arises from the importation, for 
many years past, of large supplies of foreign seed grown 
in warm districts on the Continent, which produce plants 
so tender that in this country they form a very precarious 
crop. 
It is a remarkable fact, that the same care is not mani- 
fested in the formation of timber plantations in general, 
which may last for a century, that is usually shown in the 
laying down of any of the common crops in agriculture. 
In the latter, though the crop is only to last for a season, 
the purity and the productiveness of the variety are care- 
fully attended to ; while in timber cultivation, Scotch Pine 
