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THE planter's GUIDE. 



kind are comparatively so rare in tliis country, as three- 

 fourths of the extensive woods with which it is now 

 clothed have been planted in this way, and within the 

 above period. 



There is likewise another cause, which may have con- 

 tributed towards the same effect. About threescore 

 years since, as I am informed, and up to the time of the 

 last Avar, the nurserymen of Edinburgh were sometimes 

 in the habit of importing acorns from the Continent, which 

 came down the Elbe and the Rhine. These were usually 

 from the great German forests, which consist mostly of 

 upright Oaks. They were of a less hardy kind ; and 

 what is worse, they were decidedly inferior in respect to 

 wood to the English. This still further helped to deteri- 

 orate our plantations. Whether the same branch of trade 

 still subsists, I am not informed. But the above I take to 

 be the reason why we find among our upright Oaks of 

 from thirty to fifty years' standing, plainly two sorts ; the 

 one a much freer grower than the other — the former being 

 the produce of the British, and the latter of the German 

 seed. 



From these causes, and a want of botanical science 

 among our nurserymen, it is easy to see how the upright 

 species of Oak comes to prevail in our plantations. But 

 from whatever cause it may proceed, and in whichever 

 way our plantations may have suffered, it would be some- 

 thing worse than absurd to throw any blame on this 

 respectable class of men. Let that attach to the quarter 

 to which it belongs — the utter indolence and want of 

 science conspicuous among their employers. If nursery- 

 men be not respectable botanists, but mere dealers in the 

 articles which they sell, it is for want of proper encour- 

 agement to be otherwise. If they possess little knowledge 

 of the actual nature and properties of trees, and less desire 



