2 



THE planter's GUIDE. 



at least for his posterity. Unacquainted with the 

 history, properties, and culture of trees, he naturally 

 enough sees with the eyes and hears with the ears of his 

 gardener ; and as the gardener, ninety-nine times in a 

 hundred, knows nothing himself, it is " the blind leading 

 the blind" in this important branch of rural economy. 

 Sometimes the forester is the operating person, which is 

 still more imfortunate ; for he is generally a mere lopper 

 and cutter of wood. In ordinary cases he is much worse 

 educated than the gardener, with equal pretensions as to 

 arboriculture, and equal ignorance. 



On the gardeners of Scotland it is not here intended 

 to throw the slightest reflection, miless for wandering out 

 of the line of their own profession. They are a class of 

 men possessed of superior intelligence as well as superior 

 respectability. They have done great honour to their 

 native country, both at home and abroad. But this very 

 intelligence should prevent them from engaging in a de- 

 partment for which they know they cannot have leisure, 

 if they duly cultivate their own, but which is often put 

 upon them by the indolence, and still more by the ignorance 

 of their employers. 



The fact is, that of all land produce Wood is the 

 least studied and understood by the landowners them- 

 selves, and by consequence the worst managed. To all 

 estates this subject must be of some value ; to many it 

 is of vast and vital importance, involving the interests of 

 more than one generation ; while to others it is the prin- 

 cipal and paramount source of their revenue. In an age, 

 therefore, when every thing useful and ornamental becomes 

 the subject of scientific investigation and general study, it 

 seems singular that arboriculture shoidd at once be so uni- 

 versally practised, and the physiological principles which 

 regulate it be so generally unknown. 



