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THE planter's GUIDE. 



The discovery of these several varieties, if not distinct 

 species, we owe to the diligence of Mr George Don, 

 nurseryman at Forfar in the county of Angus. Several 

 years previously to the appearance of Mr Don's ingenious 

 paper, in the memoirs of the Caledonian Horticultural 

 Society, I had observed the spreading or horizontal Fir, 

 by the very same characteristics which he has noticed, 

 and set it down as a tree of first-rate picturesque 

 merit ; but I must acknowledge that the two other 

 kinds, besides the common Fir, had escaped my atten- 

 tion. Mr Don, therefore, is fairly entitled to the merit 

 of the discovery, and also for its application to the 

 most useful purposes. 



By his ingenious researches, it appears that the great 

 cause of the deterioration so visible in our Fir planta- 

 tions, independently altogether of soil and climate, is 

 that they consist almost entirely of the two kinds first 

 and last mentioned above, with few plants among them 

 of the second and third sorts. To this may be added 

 another cause, which operates also greatly in producing 

 the white, soft, and perishable wood generally in use, 

 and that is, the want of a proper age in the tree ; 

 but that is a disadvantage which is sure to attend all 

 trees planted merely for the purpose of nursing others. 

 There is good reason to believe, that were these two 

 hardy and aboriginal sorts planted in mountainous dis- 

 tricts in the south and north, and permitted to grow to 

 a proper age, they would equal the wood of Norway or 

 the Baltic ; and, indeed, the comparative trials that 

 have been already made of such timber, from the Duke 

 of Atholl's estates, and the best Dram or Memel logs, 

 have gone a great way to establish the fact. Dr Smith, 

 in his essay on the production of timber, asserts, that 

 he had seen Fir-wood in the North Highlands which. 



