xviii PREFACE. 



plant, after {landing fome time, it will become bliflered, which 

 blifters will contain vermin, and thefe vermin, by eating the 

 roots, occafion a fefter, that, communicating with the juices 

 in the body, will contaminate it alfo, make it become fcabbed 

 and hide-bound, to a degree no remedy will cure, — and in this 

 ugly (late the tree grows annually weaker, till it perilli. This 

 infe6lion, however, does not foon difcover itfelf, as, for fome 

 years, from the abundance though groffnefs of its food, it will 

 make prodigious fhoots, — and, from thefe unnatural flioots, they 

 are boafted of as fine healthful plants, without refledling on tlie. 

 latent poifon in their veins, 



I KNOW not if I may be Indulged in venturing to make fome 

 diftant comparifon between thefe plants (animated as they feem 

 at firft with the rank firey particles of new dung) and a man who 

 drinks excelTively of brandy, or other fpirituous liquors : The one 

 exults for a time in immoderate, tho' falfe wit and gaiety; the 

 other feem to fmile in the difplay of a no lefs extravagant 

 growth ; but both, in the long run, become difeafed, faint, and. 

 languid. Whether I am right in this obfervation, I fliall not pre- 

 tend to determine; but I certainly believe lam, in thinking a nur- 

 feryman, who is guilty of this fraud, more hurtful to the Public, 

 and better intitled to banifhment, than fome poor rogues I have 

 known undergo that fentence : Such charadlers, however, I know ; 

 but it is my bufinefs only to expofe bad pra(ftices, not bad 

 men. It is thefe, and other circumftances of ill management, 

 that have chiefly founded the common report, of trees raifed on 

 good foils not afterwards fucceeding in that which is worfe, — tho' 

 there is nothing I can with more confidence alTure my readers of, 

 than that I have had very many of the clearefl demonflrations to 

 the contrary, where the plants were cultivated with judgment. 



