APPENDIX. 



515 



without draining the ground completely, by means of open drains if 

 requisite — as all trees require a bottom more or less dry, and wet land 

 in a plantation is so much waste or unproductive surface. On land 

 inclining only to moss or peat, if properly drained, the Ash will grow 

 well ; if the soil approach to the nature of a blackish loam, one third 

 part of Oak may be added. In a word, Oak and Ash are the staple 

 plants for useful woods, just as wheat and oats are staple crops in 

 husbandry. Other timber, if raised to a large size, may sell ; but these 

 two, even of very small dimensions, will always find a ready market. 



Allanton House, 

 IZth July 1816. 



RESUSCITATION OF OLD TEEES. 



"Dear Sir, — Agreeably to my promise, I shall now give you an idea 

 of my method of reviving or resuscitating old trees, which has often 

 succeeded with myself, and which I have recommended to others ; but 

 there is no account given of it in the notes on my treatise on the appli- 

 cation of the science of physiology to practical tree-culture, and particu- 

 larly in removing large trees, for ornament or use. 



"The decay of old trees, both in England and Scotland, has been a 

 subject of general complaint during at least a century ; and it is observed 

 with regret, that their place does not promise to be very speedily sup- 

 plied by existing woods and plantations. The general causes of the 

 decay of trees are twofold. The first proceeds from diseases to which all 

 woody plants are subject ; the second from extreme old age, but more 

 frequently from their having exliausted the pabulum within their reach. 

 The pathology of the vegetable tribe, in this respect, differs materially 

 from that of the human species. Among the sons of the forest, as among 

 us, there are no vicious efforts made by individuals, by means of disease, 

 to shorten life. There are no gourmands nor sensualists, by fatal indul- 

 gences and artificial luxuries, to bring on premature old age. The laws 

 of nature in trees are allowed fairly to operate, and their existence there- 

 fore may be reckoned on, and even prolonged by art, to an indefinite 

 period. It has been said that the roots of trees in a favourable soil will 

 go abroad in search of their food to a distance from the stem equal to 

 the entire height of the tree, taken from the ground ; and wherever 

 this is found to hold good, trees will live to a very great age, especially 

 in a deep and calcareous soil. 



