I 



INTRODUCTION. 



It redounds very much to the general honour of the British 

 nation, as well as to the particular credit of the Society for the 

 Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce, and 

 several other Associations for the Advancement of Agricul- 

 ture, &:c. that the face of the country has, in the course of the 

 present century, received so much improvement, and such ad- 

 ded beauty. 



The premiums and honorary marks of distinction held 

 forth by these societies have excited a spirit of emulation, or 

 suggested a spirit of improvement, among persons of every 

 rank of life, which have been productive of many discoveries 

 of no common benefit in their present effects, and of great 

 promise from their future consequences, to the community at 

 large. 



But, notwithtsaiiding the strides which modern agricul- 

 ture has made towards perfection in many points, there is one 

 particular and very interesting branch of this science which 

 improvement has not yet embraced, viz. the growth of timber, 

 and the culture and management of plantations both of fruit 

 and forest-trees. 



The profession of a gardener has been the employment 

 of my life ; and during a long succession of years, it has been an 

 object of my particular study to investigate and discover the 

 latent causes of those various defects and diseases to which ail 

 kinds of trees are more or less subject, and the injuries result- 

 ing from them, by obstructing the fertility of fruit-trees, and 

 diminishing the quantity, as well as quality, of timber in for- 

 est-trees. 



Having acquired a competent knowledge of the evil in all 

 its appearances and effects, my attention was directed toward 

 the discovery of such a remedy as might not only counteract 

 the progress of these diseases in fruit and forest-trees, but also 

 afford nature such powerful assistance, that she might be enabled 

 to renovate, as it were, fertility in the one, and sound timber 

 in the other. Of my success in these endeavours to promote 

 the general advantage of this country in a matter so connected 



