xii 



CONTENTS. 



The Billingtoiiiau system of priming, . P." 185 



Remarks on planting soils not easily permeable hy 



water, . . . . .187 



INIr Billington's directions for planting tliese soils, 188 

 ■ — — — . for clearing away weeds, and for cut- 

 ting in or pruning tlie points of the branches, . 189 



IV. — Forsyth ox Fruit and Forest Trees, . 192 



Mr Forsyth's surgery of trees, and the value of his 



composition-salve, . . . . ib. 



Manner in which a tree can be transformed from 

 disease and rottenness to health and soundness, 193 

 v.— Mr Withers, . . . . .198 



Discomfitm'e of our Scottish Knights by Mr Withers, ib. 



Account of a number of facts and experiments by 

 the writer, on the comparative strength of quick 

 and slow grown timber — on the influence of cir- 

 cumstance and age in modifying the quality of 

 the timber — on the difference in the quality of 

 different varieties of the same species, and of dif- 

 ferent parts of the same tree, . . .199 



Oak timber, moderately fast grown, so that it may 

 be of sufficient size, and still retain the toughness 

 of youth, best suited for naval use, . .214 



Mr Withers, his literary friends and Sir Hem'y Steu- 

 ai't equally imperfectly acquainted with the sub- 

 , -ject in dispute between them, . . .215 



The Withers' system neither necessary nor econo- 

 mically suited for the greater pai*t of Scotland, . 217 



Fallacy of experiments on the strength of timber, 

 from not taking into account the difference of ten- 

 sion of the different annual layers, and their posi- 

 tion, whether flat, perpendicular, 6cc. . .221 

 VI. — Steuart's Planter s Guide and Sir Walter 



Scott's Critique, .... 226 



Importance of whatever may serve to amuse the se- 

 cond childhood of the wealthy, . . .227 



