steuart's planter's guide. 



lets, and packed in our prepared mould ; we have 

 noticed that mutilating the top of certain kinds of 

 trees was very pernicious, particularly of the heech 

 and the oak ; we have invariably turned round the 

 heaviest branches to the west ; we have mulched 

 and watered the first summer, and have hoed around 

 the plants for years afterwards ; conveyance by a 

 two-wheeled timber-drag has been long in use (we 

 have employed the axle and wheels of a common 

 cart) ; many, before Sir Henry, have prepared the 

 roots by previous cutting ; what planter of experi- 

 ence is ignorant of all this ? We grant Sir Henry 

 has done all this well ; much of it must have oc- 

 curred to himself, as it has done to us, as it will do 

 to any person of ordinary acuteness and observation, 

 but does this merit the name of discovery, or compa- 

 rison with steam and gas ? 



We shall now give some little attention to a sub- 

 ject on which we consider Sir Henry's claim to the 

 rank of philosophic discoverer solely rests, and which 

 he introduces to our notice certainly with sufficient 

 prefatory flourish, under the designation of his new 

 principle," " his rational theory," which he predicts 

 will raise transplanting of trees of considerable size 

 to the rank of a useful art, it being thus founded on 

 fixed principles. In order to bring the matter fairly 



