DECEMBER. 



179 



eulogistic preface to his Royal Master. It further states, that the said 

 William Forsyth did most successfully apply the same composition to divers 

 Oak, Elm, and other trees suffering from disease and decay in the Royal 

 pleasure grounds at Kensington, which were also restored to perfect health 

 and soundness, as is testified to in a report signed by no less than eleven noble- 

 men and gentlemen, who were directed to examine and report on the same to 

 my Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury, and which said composi- 

 tion would, it was stated, save old England some hundreds of thousands of 

 pounds by converting rotten old Oaks into sound timber. 



The sequel to all this was a reward to William Forsyth, gi-anted by Parlia- 

 ment to the amount, it is said, of £3000 ; about which we can only say 

 that William Forsyth was an uncommon lucky fellow, that " his lines" had 

 indeed " fallen in very pleasant places ;" and that it was well he did not live in 

 these degenerate times of parliamentary reform. But this, however, may be 

 doubtful ; for as sure as there is nothing new under the sun, so there will always 

 be people ready enough to be gulled, particularly when the invention smacks 

 of a scientific discovery. It appears to me that old William Forsyth's dis- 

 covery after all was nothing like so dashing an exploit as completely stripping 

 off the bark of a tree for the purpose of restoring it to health by M. Robert ; 

 and yet we are told this plan has been largely tried in France," and thus the 

 Commissioners of Woods and Forests have given M. Robert permission to 

 operate on some trees in England. We hope for the sake of our national 

 credit as arborists, that these trees are neither very numerous nor very 

 valuable, or we may be paying too dear for an experiment, which, if carried 

 out in its entirety, would inevitably consign them to the sawpit. Apvopus of 

 new inventions, it is not long ago that we had brought before us the notice of 

 a discovery made by a Frenchman to facilitate all the processes of vegetation 

 by means of an artificial atmosphere in an extraordinary degree ; and so far 

 did his enthusiasm carry him, that he offered to conduct the experiments free 

 of expense, excepting that we were to hermetically seal the house against the 

 external atmosphere before he commenced his experiments — which was politely 

 declined, although the offer was to obtain a crop of Grapes in three months 

 instead of six. 



But now as to this invention of M. Robert, which embraces the question 

 of how far the bark of trees may be removed without injury. We may in the 

 first place premise, that the attack of insects, which are supposed to cause the 

 decay of the Elms near London and Paris, is entirely owing to a cessation of 

 vigour, or of that particular condition of health which produces incipient 

 decay; and this condition may exhibit itself in an altered state of the juices or 

 sap of the trees before any external difference can be discovered. Plants, like 

 animals, when, in full health are not attacked, by reason that the peculiar' food 

 on which the insects feed is not then formed ; but directly this change takes place, 

 through the component parts of the sap becoming altered by a change in its 

 chemical combination so as to fit it for insect food, then the foliage and bark 

 of the plant are at once instinctively attacked by various classes of insects, 

 which find a food ready formed to their liking, and which they never leave 

 while the tree exists. The period during which a tree may live under these 

 conditions depends on its powers of vitality and other causes to which we need 

 not here advert, as it is merely a question of time ; for generally speaking a 

 cure can only be effected by completely restoring the health of such trees, 



wood ashes, and a sixteenth part of a bushel of pit or river sand. The three last articles are 

 to be sifted fine before they are mixed ; then work them well together with a spade and 

 afterwards with a wooden beater until the stuff is very smooth— like fine plaster used for the 

 ceiling of rooms." 



