t ^4 3 



pofitlon by a fervant, till I crofled the feme 

 with a pen and ink 5 my felf driving in a 

 Ihiall nail, at that inftant, a fufficient way 

 into the bark, right under the part fo crofled, 

 that I might know exadtly where to make 

 the like girt again, with the fame ftring, 

 when I fhould think proper to make proof, 

 how much more the bark-Jlit Oaks were 

 grown in their circumference, than thofe 

 which were not. Note, the faid girting 

 was about fix feet from the ground. 



The event of which experiment at one 

 year's end, happily was this — That two of 

 them that were bark-Jlit^ were grown more 

 in content of the ground, than two others 

 that were not : And between one which 

 was fo flit, and another not, I found but 

 very little difference 5 this I impute to fome 

 better inner ftratas of earth, the unflit one 

 had met with ; becaufe on further like ef- 

 fays, the flit had ever the advantage. Still 

 any like Mechanitiaii when^bout to recon- 

 noitre fuch difference, mufl: avoid being led 

 incurioufly into the delufion of thinking, that 

 every fuch tree, is precifely at all times fo 

 much grown in the round, as the whole 

 content of the feveral fiffures when put to- 

 gether, 



