Vi PREFACE. 



ures in question could not, in every case, be 

 occasioned either by climate or soil, as was 

 commonly supposed ; and he began to sus- 

 pect that the fault lay in the mode of cul- 

 tivation. In this opinion he vras confirmed 

 by what he had observed to take place in 

 • the nursery ; and as soon as circumstances 

 afforded him opportunity, he put his sur- 

 mises to the proof, by certain very simple, 

 but, as it appeared to him, decisive experi- 

 ments. The result of these first led him to 

 conceive the idea of writing a short treatise 

 on the culture of oak, and he intended, at 

 first, to confine his remarks to that subject 

 only. After becoming acquainted, however, 

 with the expensive manner in which plant- 

 ing in general, but especially the planting of 

 firs, is carried on in certain districts, he 

 thought it would be useful to give an ac- 

 count of the far more economical methods, 

 which he had h imself seen extensively, as well 



