PREFACE. 



1 . It will be unnecessary for me to say^ here, any 

 thing about the manner, in which the divers parts 

 of this work will be arranged, seeing that that has 

 been so fully described in the title of the work 

 itself. Nor need I say any thing about the profit 

 attending the planting of trees ; because, occasions 

 enough will, hereafter, offer for the doing of that ; 

 and, besides, the profit depends upon the judicious 

 application of the means which the planter may 

 possess. I shall, therefore, here confine myself to 

 a few remarks, on what appears to me to be the 

 defects in all the works of this kind which I have 

 ever seen. They all leave something, and some- 

 thing of import mce too, untold to us. They begin 

 in the middle of the subject very frequently, and 

 end, as frequently, somewhere about where they 

 ought to begin. Many years ago, I wished to 

 know, whether I could raise Birch trees from the 

 seed, I looked into two French books and into 

 two English ones, without being able to learn 

 a word about the matter. I then looked into the 

 great book of knowledge, the Encyclopedia Bri- 

 TANNiCA : there I found, in the general dictionary, 

 " Birch Tree, see Betula : Botany Index." I 



