246 TREATISE ON 



poorefl lands Vitli fafety, and will of courfe fooner efFed all the 

 benefits that can be derived from them. 



I HAVE long thought we are more alarmed than hurt from 

 the common imprefTion of hard winters being fo generally bane- 

 ful to our hardy deciduous plantations, and believing that then 

 only the fnelter from Firs or other plants is mod materially ufe- 

 ful. That we have feen two or three winters which have hurt 

 liardy plants when young, or new planted out, mull be acknow- 

 ledged ; but the cafe is far from being common, and for one 

 lofs of that kind, v/e have fufhained many by the violence of the 

 winds in the fummer months, when the trees, pregnant with 

 their juices, and loaded vv^ith leaves, are fo heavy as to yield to 

 the tempeft, the roots at that time being an imequal balance to 

 their bodies, whence thefe roots are often torn afunder in the 

 growing feafon, bleed much, are apt to canker, and flowly, if 

 ever, recover; which, in the mofh violent winter ftorms, is fel- 

 domer the cafe, when the plants, much lighter, firmer in their 

 fiioots, and divefted of their leaves, lefs oppofe themfelves to, and 

 are more rarely conquered by the winds. 



It has already been mentioned, that the trees mufl be accom- 

 modated to the different foils on which they are planted ; and it 

 cannot be too much inforced, to make this obfervation with the 

 greaceft attention and judgment you have, or are capable of pro- 

 curing, over all the various parts of your intended vv^ood or fo- 

 reft, v/herein, I am forry to fay, we have hitherto been extreme- 

 ly defective. Notwithftanding then what has been faid on the 

 culture of the different trees here treated of, and the ftations Na- 

 ture has bcft adapted them for, it may not be amifs to repeat 



