20. TREATISE a 



I have ever fince raifed of thefe kinds. The French Elm, planted 

 in fuch foil as has been here dired:ed for it, I think a beautiful 

 tree ; it grows faft, and the wood, though not quite fo hard as 

 that of the Englifh and Scots, is yet a valuable timber, and not 

 much inferior to them. The Dutch Elm, tho' inferior in beauty 

 and elegance of form to that, is, notwithftanding, a very va- - 

 luable tree, and, in this climate, and much of the foil of Scot- 

 land, ought to be highly cheriflied, and become a common plant : 

 amongft us, as it will fucceed in wet obftinate clay, where no tree 

 I know of equal ufe, and few but aquaticks, will grow freely, 

 but in fuch places it will foon become a ftately tree; and though 

 the wood is not equal to the other mentioned kinds, it is ftill 

 a ufeful wood, and is often indifcriminately fold to the carpenter 

 with them, from their near refemblance. 



In Scotland, the dealers in, and manufadlurers of timber, are 

 partial, or ignorant with regard to the Scots Elm, believing it 

 better. wood than the Englifli: But this, to my experience, is by 

 no means the cafe; for having cut down many of thefe trees, I 

 have frequently weighed a cubic foot of the one and the other, 

 cut at the fame time, and ahvays found the Englifh the clofTeft 

 and moft ponderous. 



I HAVE fold Englifh Elms of my own railing, at twenty-four - 

 years growth, for a guinea the tree, and thefe not pick'd from ? 

 quantities, but a whole line of them, above fixty in number : : 

 They were generally about eighteen inches diameter, a foot above - 

 grovmd, and forty feet high. 



