OF FOREST-TREES. 



25 



4. But to pursue this to some farther advantage, as to what concerns CHAP, 

 the election of your seed, it is to be considered, that there is a vast ^"^^ 

 difference in trees even of the same growth and bed, which I judge to 

 proceed from the variety and quality of the seed : This, for instance, is 

 evidently seen in the heart, procerity, and stature of timber ; and there- 

 fore choose not your seeds always from the most fruitful trees, which are 

 commonly the most aged and decayed ; but from such as are found most 



solid and fair. Nor, for this reason, covet the largest acorn, &:c. but 

 (as husbandmen do their wheat) the most weighty, clean, and bright. 

 This observation we deduce from fruit-trees, which we seldom find to 

 bear so kindly and plentifully from a sound stock, smooth rind, and firm 

 wood, as from a rough, lax, and untoward tree; which is rather prone to 

 spend itself in fruit (the ultimate effort, and final endeavour of its most 

 delicate sap) than in solid and close substance to increase the timber. 

 And this shall suffice, though some haply might here recommend to us 

 a more accurate microscopical examen, to interpret their most secret 

 schematisms, which were an over nicety for these great plantations. 



5. As concerning the medicating and insuccation of seeds, or enforcing 

 the earth by rich and generous composts, &c. for trees of these kinds, I 

 am no great favourer of it ; not only because the charge would much 

 discourage the work, but for that we find it unnecessary, and, for most 

 of our forest-trees, noxious ; since even where the ground is too fertile, 

 they thrive not so well ; and if a mould be not proper for one sort, it may 

 be fit for another. Yet I would not, by this, hinder any from the trial, 

 what advance such experiments will produce : In the mean time, for the 

 simple imbibition of some seed» and kernels, when they prove extraor- 

 dinary dry, as the season may fall out, it might not be amiss to macerate 

 them in milk or water only, a little impregnated with cow-dung, &c. 

 during the space of twenty-four hours, to give them a spirit to sprout 

 and chet the sooner; especially if you have been retarded in your 

 sowing without the former preparation : But concerning the mould, 

 soiling, and preparations of the ground, I refer you to my " Treatise of 

 Earth," if what you meet with in this do not abundantly encounter all 

 those difficulties. 



6. Being thus provided with seeds of all kinds, I would advise to raise 

 woods by sowing them apart in several places destined for their growth, 

 where the mould being prepared (as I shall show hereafter) and so quali- 



Volume I. L 



