PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 



xlr 



the numerous persons of distinction, especially from the southern 

 comities of England, whom curiosity or incredulity has lately 

 attracted to this place, I believe there is not one who has not 

 been both pleased and surprised with the effects produced by 

 the removal of wood of every sort, and all seem desirous to 

 rival them in their own practice. But as it appears to me 

 that there are several circumstances which might retard the 

 progress of the art, and render the efforts of its most zealous 

 pupils abortive, I shall beg leave shortly to state them, for the 

 information of those who may feel interested in its success. 



In the first place, it is to be regretted that, owing to the low 

 condition of the art of planting in general, whether of great 

 trees or small, the principles of phytology had not earlier been 

 applied to it. Like digging or ploughing, it is still apt to be 

 considered as a mechanical art^ and no scientific investigation 

 is thought necessary to illustrate, or to regulate it. In Sections 

 III. IV. y. VI. VII., I have done what I could to supply 

 these defects ; but no general effect appears to have been pro- 

 duced by it. Even the periodical reviewers, who have bestowed 

 on the work so much flattering encomium, have not treated 

 planting as an art of science. 



The second circumstance which I shall mention is, the want 

 of knowledge in the selection of subjects, as also in the prepa- 

 ration of the soil. Whatever progress planters may have made 

 in other things, the important business of selecting subjects is 

 nearly as little known and appreciated by them, as it was 

 before the publication of this Treatise. Among more than a 

 hundred gentlemen, and their gardeners or overseers, with 

 whom since that period I have conversed — all professing to have 

 studied, and many to have practised the art with accuracy — not 

 one appears to me to possess the remotest idea of the principles 

 of selection. 



Of the preparation of the soil they seem to know equally 

 little ; and two only of the whole number consider either the 

 one or the other as attended with any difficulty: yet it is such 

 preparative processes that are the foundation and corner-stone 

 of the edifice to be raised, and the indispensable conditions of 

 the results contemplated. I find, however, that the manage- 



