OF FOREST-TREES. 



71 



vine, planted among the rocks and pumices of the so remote and CHAP. nr. 

 mountainous Canaries? ^— 



This for the encouragement and honour of those who improve their 

 countries with things of use and general benefit : now, in the mean time, 

 how have I beheld a florist, or meaner gardener, transported at the casual 

 discovery of a new little spot, double-leaf, streak or dash extraordinary in 

 a Tulip, Anemone, Carnation, Auricula, or Amaranth ! cherishing and 

 calling it by his own name, raising the price of a single bulb to an enor- 

 mous sum, till a law was made in Holland to check that TuUpamania ; 



" cularly Sir George Savile, who has many thousands now growing in his plantations at 

 " RufFord ; so that in the next generation, it is probable there may be sufficient for the article 

 " of trenails, which alone would be a considerable improvement in the building of ships. 

 " At present, the choicest pieces only of the very best Oak timber are applied to that 

 " purpose ; and as the Oaks of Sussex are generally reckoned the best in England, most 

 " ship-wrights (even those in the north) have their trenails from thence : and the de- 

 " mand for them is so great, that trenail-making is there become a considerable manufac- 

 " ture. 



" The Locust-tree is not only valuable on account of the excellence of its timber, but 

 " its leaves also are useful, and afford wholesome food for cattle *. I knew a gentleman 

 " in New England that sowed several acres for that purpose, which proved a good summer 

 " pasture for cows ; it is excellent in that country, where the grass is very apt to fail, 

 " from being burnt up by the summer droughts. — Hogs are extremely fond of it, and horses 

 " seem to like it. 



" The metliod of propagating the Locust-tree in New England is by seeds, suckers, or 

 " sets, as Willows are here ; but the first method is the best, as those plants raised from 

 " seeds, are found to thrive better and produce larger trees than the others. The seeds 

 " are first sown in a nursery, and then planted out young into the places where they are to 

 " remain. 



" Jonathan Acklom, Esq. of Wiseton, has now in his garden a Locust-tree, which, as 

 " three feet from the ground, is four feet ten inches in circumference, and sixty feet high : 

 " also another of nearly the same height, but not so thick; and in his nursery are several 

 ''young plants from the seeds of these trees. They are both, at this time, (July 1782,) full 

 " of flowers, and likely to produce many seeds, if the remainder of the summer prove favour- 

 " able. They were raised from seeds brought from North Carolina in 1742, so are now just 

 " forty years old." 



• There is a dissertation upon this property of the Acacia, in one of the foreign Literary Journals ; I think it 

 is the Memoirs of the Imperial Academy at Vienna» 



K2 



