THE planter's guide. 



3 



The lords of the soil in this kingdom have from time 

 immemorial been good sportsmen. Of late they have 

 become knowing agriculturists and cattle-breeders ; and 

 as the tide of fashion has not long since set in from the 

 south in favour of the occupation last mentioned, and 

 flowed even to fdness, so we may hope that the know- 

 ledge of WOOD will ere long have its turn. Could 

 the most speculative, forty years since, have anticipated 

 that the pedigree, form, and fat of sheep and bullocks, 

 should in the present day have become an interesting 

 study with the gay and the fashionable ^ By a revolution 

 in things as unexpected, we may conceive it possible that 

 a little botany and vegetable physiology, together with a 

 thorough acquaintance with planting and arboriculture, 

 may at length engage the attention of those who are most 

 interested in their success. Probably it will be found that 

 no nobleman or gentleman will make a worse sportsman, 

 a less scientific farmer, or a less successful cattle-dealer, for 

 having some conversancy with wood, or being able to 

 detect the ignorance of his own gardener or forester ; and 

 should a knowledge of painting, or the principles of land- 

 scape be added, their elegant and attractive character will 

 surely not derogate from these more popular acquirements. 



Trees are without doubt the most beautiful objects 

 that adorn the surface of the earth. They are nearly the 

 most important production of the A^egetable kingdom to 

 civihsed man. Without trees, the mountains and the 

 plains, the lakes and the rivers, would want their brightest 

 ornament ; and without them, also, the most useful and 

 the most elegant arts would be destitute of materials. 

 Nature, in the beginning, bountifully supplied the earth 

 with trees and forests ; but a large proportion was neces- 

 sarily cleared away, to admit of the cultivation of the earth. 

 In process of time, as the wants of men multiplied, 



