THE planter's GUIDE. 



289 



through the eyes and hears through the ears of his 

 gardener. The gardener knows no more of trees than 

 what he cursorily picks up during a twelvemonth, or two 

 at the most, spent in the nursery-gardens of Edinburgh 

 or Glasgow ; so that it is truly " the blind leading the 

 blind" in this interesting branch of rural economy. 



It seems, therefore, to be a matter of some moment, 

 not only to the transplanting art, but to that of planting 

 in general, to inquire a little in this place into the 

 history, properties, and uses of the best known forest- 

 trees, as they are adapted to the climate of Britain. 

 Few persons have the leisure or the industry to ransack 

 the voluminous treatises of Cook and Evelyn, Miller, 

 Hanbury, Marshall and others ; and fewer still are 

 enabled to discriminate between what is solid and super- 

 ficial, practical or fanciful, in those treatises ; or to detect 

 the errors or idle traditions which one writer, without 

 inquiry, too frequently copies from another. 



In the following compressed view of the nature of 

 forest trees, freed from the rubbish of technical discussion 

 on the one hand, and the detailed operations of the 

 nurseryman on the other, the country gentleman will, 

 perhaps, find a useful manual. It will give him, within a 

 few pages, the principal facts relating to the subject 

 which lie scattered over many volumes, added to some 

 others which I myself have been able to elicit by con- 

 siderable practice and observation. Thus he will learn, 

 with little labour, what it is most important for him as a 

 planter to know, both as to the nature and preparation of the 

 soil and the properties of trees. He may, if he so inclines, 

 obtain the results, without paying the price of experience. 



With this view, I will proceed to examine in their 

 order our principal forest-trees.''' I will shortly describe 



* Note I. 



T 



