OF FRUIT AND FOREST TREES. 



203 



well as accumulating honour and Avealth, to the nation, what 

 language can sufficiently deplore that want of public spirit, and 

 that strange inattention to the preservation and increase of this 

 staple tree, which suffers such numbers of stately oaks to go 

 to decay ; in which disgraceful state they remain to upbraid 

 their possessors, as foes to the commerce and naval glory of 

 the kingdom 1 



Various experiments have also been made on other forest- 

 trees, as ash, limes, chesnuts, and sycamores, that had received 

 the several injuries to which they are exposed ; as well as many 

 of the resinous kinds, such as the cedar of Lebanon, and others 

 of the pine tribe ; in all of which I have experienced a degree 

 of success that exceeded my most sanguine expectations. 



As I feel a strong solicitude to render my experiments of the 

 most extensive advantage to the community, and in particular 

 to the proprietors of landed estates throughout the kingdom, 

 I beg leave to recommend to their particular attention, that all 

 forest-trees, whether felled v/ith a saw or an axe, may be cut 

 near to the ground ; at the same time carefully preserving the 

 stump and roots from any further injury. The surface should 

 then be made quite smooth when the composition may be spread 

 over the whole surface according to the directions already 

 given. It should, however, be observed, that the composition, 

 when employed for this particular purpose, should have an 

 equal quantity of the powder of alabaster mixed with the dry 

 powder generally directed to be used after the composition is 

 laid on, in order to render the surface harder, and of course 

 better able to resist the bad effects of the dripping of trees, of 

 rain, frost, and snow. But this addition is by no means neces- 

 sary in the usual application to the sides of trees. 



In consequence of this process, the vigour of the roots 

 will operate so powerfully in the course of the succeeding spring, 

 that a considerable number of buds or branches will shoot forth 

 round the stump, which, with proper care and attention, may 

 be trained to many valuable purposes, either straight or crook- 

 ed, for knee-timber, or other uses ; and, by retaining only so 

 many of these shoots as are designed to grow for any particular 

 intention, more than one half will be saved, in point of time, 

 according to the proportions of common growth: For if a 

 young tree be planted in a soil equal in quality to the site of the 

 old stump, the shoot growing from the latter will, in eight or 

 ten years, attain to a size which the single plant will hardly ac- 

 quire in twice that period. There are also many useful pur- 

 poses of husbandry, as hop-poles, and other poles used on va- 

 rious occasions, for which a number of shoots may be trained 



