xlii 



PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 



In these circiimstanceSj then, it is proper to dechxre that the 

 whole of the practical part of the present work, and especially 

 that which relates to the taking up, transporting, and planting 

 of trees (that is, Sections YIII. and IX., and apart of Section VII. 

 also,) has been composed solely for the information of my own 

 coimtrymen, and is intended to suit the narrower designs, and 

 more limited means, of the Scottish planters. Should the great 

 planters of England, therefore, honour these pages with their 

 notice, they will have the goodness altogether to pass over 

 these sections, as inapplicable to them^ and to the greatly 

 larger and more important style of their works. 



In conclusion, I must be permitted to observe, that the 

 limited system here advocated stands perhaps on as high 

 ground, in respect of Evidence for its success, as any new 

 theory ever brought before the public. When the reader 

 refers to the able " Report of the Highland Society of Scot- 

 land" on the woods at Allanton House, (which appears in the 

 Appendix,) and there finds the mention of feet and inches," 

 as referring to the height or the girth of the trees, he will of 

 course reflect, that all size in the growth of plants is merely 

 relative^ and is to be judged by their relative advantages of 

 soil and climate : hence, a shoot of two or three feet long, 

 which removed trees are found to exhibit in some of the 

 openest exposures of Lanarkshire, must correspond to six or 

 eight feet at least in Hampshire or Devonshire, and so in pro- 

 portion in other English climates. 



This being premised, I will beg leave, with becoming- 

 deference, mider the shelter of a well-known name, and on a 

 far higher topic, to put in my claim to offer some practical 

 proof in favour of my system. When the late ingenious Dr 

 Kitchiner published his scientific and excellent work, The 

 Cook's Oracle," he broadly stated, that " It was the only Eng- 

 lish cookery-book, written from the real exjperiments of a 



Housekeeper^ for the henefit of Housekeepers That he had 



not given one receipt that had not been proved in his own 

 kitchen ; which had not been approved by several of the most 

 accompHshed cooks in the kingdom ; and had not, moreover, 

 been eaten^ with unanimous applause, by a committee of taste, 



