312 NOTICES OF AUTHORS. 



has treated this subject with some ingenuity, and on 

 which he appears to have bestowed considerable care. 



Those who have never had an opportunity of 

 seeing old woodlands brought into cultivation, will 

 scarce credit what has now been advanced, that the 

 soil should be enriched by the production of wood, 

 w^hen the experience of ages has proved that it is 

 always exhausted by other crops." — " Trees draw their 

 nourishment from a much greater depth than any 

 of the grasses, roots, or different kinds of grain raised 

 by the agriculturist. Most of the latter derive the 

 w^hole of their subsistence from the part of the soil 

 that lies within a few inches of the surface ; but the 

 former, from the superior strength and magnitude 

 of their roots, are enabled to penetrate much farther, 

 and extract food from the very rock which forms the 

 substratum of a great portion, both of our cultiva- 

 ted and uncultivated grounds. This, though it 

 does not account for lands being positively enriched 

 by wood, makes it, at the same time, far less surpriz- 

 ing that trees should grow to a large size, and yet 

 not exhaust the upper part of the soil in so great 

 a degree as most of the crops cultivated by the far- 

 mer. 



" There is another circumstance which gives 

 ground in wood a great advantage over that in til- 



