wq/hing and rubbing the Stems of Trees. 1 3 
year’s growth was compleated, 3 ft. 9 in. ~th ; viz. in- 
creafe 1 in. T ^ths. The wafhed tree was laft fpring 3 ft. 
7 in. -r^ths, and in the autumn it was 3 ft. 9 in. f^ths ; , 
viz. increafe 2 in. ^ths, that is, one -tenth of an inch , 
above double the increafe of the un wafhed tree. As the . 
difference was fo great, and as fome unknown 1 accident 
might have injured the growth of the unwafhed tree, I 
added the year’s increafe of five other beeches of the fame 
age (viz. all that I had meafured), and found the aggre- 
gate increafe of the fix unwafhed beeches to be 9 in.-^ths, 
which, divided by fix, gives one inch and five -tenths and 
an half for the growth of each tree ; fo the gain by waffl- 
ing is nine-tenths and an half. To make the experiment 
fairly, I fixed on two of my largeft beeches, fown in 
1-741, and tranfplanted into a grove in 1749. The 
wafhed tree had been, from the firft year, the largeft 
plant till the year 1767, when its rival became and con- 
tinued the largeft plant, until I began towafh the other: 
therefore I fixed on the lefs- thriving tree as the faireft 
trial. The trees were nearly of the fame height and. 
fhape, fpreading a circle of about fifty feet diameter. I 
think it necefiary to mention thefe circumftances ; for I 
know by- experience, that a fhort and fpreading tree, 
having ample room, v/ill increafe twice or three times, 
and perhaps four times as much, as a tail ftnail-headed, 
tree. 
