45 



tage than in the culture of forest trees. I hare not written 

 this merely to intrude my opinions on the world, but to excite 

 attention — to raze out rotten opinion — to provoke inqniry— 

 to battle with prejudice — and to dispel the doubts and fears 

 which many gentlemen of large landed estates entertain. 

 I will not here discuss the beauty and value of trees, which 

 generally go together; but will confine myself more to their 

 actual improved value in solid cubic feet; and there is the 

 additional value derived in many instances from their shelter 

 in mountainous districts giving birth to a more valuable her- 

 bage ; and lastly, in many instances, affording shelter to the 

 domain. . ovjui o5 •: •• 



Agriculture in all its branches advances with rapid strides, 

 though yet capable of very great improvement. But while 

 agriculture advances, arboriculture remains stationary, — I 

 may indeed say retrogrades, since a very great majority of 

 the plantations of the present day are never likely to produce 

 the timber of former ages. 



The objects of horticulture, its kindred science, are studied 

 with every possible care and attention ; even mushrooms are 

 tended with a nurse's care ; while the oak, not only the 

 pride of England, but of the world, and from which we obtain 

 the chief material of our navy, the bulwark of our country, is 

 left to thrive or rot, almost unheeded and forgotten. Most 

 people think that when a tree is planted in the ground the 

 planter's care is ended : this is a very common and pernicious 

 error. It ought never to be forgotten, that a man may under- 

 stand the planting of a tree, while he is totally ignorant of its 

 culture : both are essential to the planter's ultimate success. 

 The former knowledge is common ; every gardener knows 

 something of it ; it is also diffused in books, in which he who 

 reads may be able to practise with tolerable success ; but this 

 is not, I apprehend, the case with the latter. 



There is great necessity for investigating this subject, when 



