£ 309 ) 



N° II, 



To: the Honourable the Commissioners of the Land Revenue, 



Royal Gardens y Kensington,, April 24, 1789.- 



Honoured Sirs,. 



To the letter you have been pleafed to honour me with; 

 I beg in general to fay, that,, from many years attention to 

 fruit and foreft trees, I have obferved every wound,, bruife, or 

 injury ; even the wanton cutting of the initials of a name on 

 the bark of a tree has been attended with mifchief, and often 

 brought on the deftruclion of the tree, especially if old. In 

 particular I beg to fay, that, if a tree be young, Nature will 

 exert herfelf to recover from the injury; but, if the tree be 

 old, it will ceafe to grow about the injured part, will not in- 

 creafe in fize, the wound will daily increafe,. and in time 

 deftroy ail the timber of the tree. 



In anfwer to the fecond queftion, I beg to fay, that oak- 

 trees are equally liable to decay and detriment, as all other 

 trees, though their decay will be pro port ionably flow, as they 

 are iefs porous than many other trees of our ifland though 

 I ihould add, that after oak-trees are fo far decayed as to hold 

 water, their decay is as rapid as mod other trees. In anfwer 

 to the queftion, 44 Do you know any means by which fuch 



detrir 



