Mr Cruickshank censures the practice of covering fir seeds one-half

inch deep in England, referring the {330} demand there for Scots

plants to the seeds being thus buried in place of being sown, and

states that they should only be covered one-fourth of an inch, as is

the practice in Aberdeenshire. He also reprehends the author of the

Encyclopædia of Gardening, on account of some directions which this

author has given, to form, by forcing, a fine friable soil, suitable

for the delicate seeds of trees, where this does not previously exist.

Now, we should consider that the difference of climate between the

neighbourhood of London and Aberdeen would require a difference of

cover nearly equal to this; and that forcing a friable earth for

seed-beds was absolutely necessary, in the very adhesive clays around

London, and so general in the more recent formations of the south and

middle of England, although superfluous in the north of Scotland,

where sandy or light soil is sufficiently abundant. Seeds, under a

moist cloudy atmosphere, will vegetate without cover at all; but in

situations where the air is arid in spring, with much sunshine, a

covering of some depth is necessary, and that covering, where the

rudiments of the plant spring out weak and delicate, is required to be

soft and friable, a good absorber and retainer of moisture, and not

disposed to run together with rain, or crack with drought.

Mr Cruickshank gives an account of our different {331} forest

trees, neither very accurate nor interesting, but, luckily, not very

tedious. He then proceeds to treat of nursery, sowing, transplanting,

and choosing of plants, where many sensible, though some of them

common-place, observations occur, of much use to the generality

of planters. His views, however, of the proper manner of planting

seedlings in the nursery, are defective. The best method of planting

these—neither by laying, nor by dibbling—is first to stretch the

line and make a furrow, level in the bottom, as broad as the roots

may stretch, with the inner side straight and steep. One person then

holds the plant erect in its berth, from two to four inches from the

perpendicular side, according to the general size of the horizontal

roots, so that the fibres may be regularly spread; and another person

throws on the earth from the place of the next furrow; the placer of

the plants footing the earth to the roots as he proceeds, or after the

row is completed.

The following observations of Mr Cruickshank are worthy the attention

of planters:

“Proprietors should not attempt to raise seedlings, but purchase

them from professional nurserymen, and place them in a succession

nursery of their own. A proprietor may, in general, purchase seedlings

much cheaper than he can raise them; while the case {332} is just the

reverse with regard to plants of a greater age. In raising seedlings,

much skill and attention is requisite, which the professional man can

always command at a much more reasonable rate than the proprietor.

In the treatment of plants after they are removed from the seed-bed,

the rent of the ground is the chief source of expense, as any common

gardener will be able to manage them.”

“A general, and a very gross error, in purchasing plants, is to

consider those as best which are the largest in proportion to their

age. This absurd principle of selection makes those nurseries most

frequented by customers which least deserve to be so, such, namely,

as are situated in the richest soils, surrounded by the closest

shelter, and stimulated by the greatest quantities of manure. It is

necessary, no doubt, that plants should be of a size to suit them to

the situations for which they are intended; but if they have attained

this size sooner than the due time by being forced, they are in the

worst state imaginable for growing in a barren moor, or on the bleak

side of a mountain.”

“Plants are often much injured, though raised sufficiently hardy in

other respects, by being too much crowded in the nursery line.”—“The

surest method that I know of enabling those who have little {333}

experience, to ascertain whether plants, in the seed-bed, are too

much crowded or not, is to compare such as grow on the verge of the

alley with those in the interior. If the girt of the latter be equal,

or nearly so, to that of the former, the plants have sufficient

room.”—“When plants have stood for several years in nursery lines,

if they are too much crowded, many of their lower branches will be

sickly or withered, or the stems will be entirely devoid of branches,

excepting within a few inches of the top. This is a mark so plain that

no one can mistake.

“Care should be taken not to purchase plants which betray symptoms of

disease. When larches not more than three years old cast the whole,

or even the greater part, of their leaves, just when the winter

commences, it is a sure sign that they are in an unhealthy state, and

that many of them will die in the course of next season; for, under

this age, the larch should retain a considerable quantity of its old

leaves till spring.”—“There is also a minute white insect, which

is fatal to the larch in plantations, that sometimes attacks it in

the nursery after it enters its second year; on this account, it is

proper to examine the larch plants the summer previous to purchasing

them.”—“Scots fir maybe regarded as sickly, when the points of the

leaves become withered, or {334} when they change their naturally

dark colours into a faint yellowish green. Any vestige of withering

on the spruce or silver fir, is a sure prognostication of approaching

decay. Any kind of fir which has lost its leader may be considered

useless.

“When plants are packed up in mats for the conveniency of carriage,

strict orders should be given that those which carry their leaves in

winter be taken up when they are entirely free from moisture. If they

be pulled wet, they will heat and get mouldy in the packages. In the

course of a few days good plants are often spoiled in this manner.”

Mr Cruickshank does not swerve from the common foolish system, of

inculcating a determinate character of soil as generally necessary for

each kind of tree. We are angry with the dulness of the writers on

location of timber; they will not comprehend that a tree has two ends,

by both of which it draws moisture, though from different elements,

earth and air. The dullest clown is sensible he requires to drink more

under an arid sun than under a drizzling rain. The same holds of trees;

if there be little evaporation of moisture from the leaves, and if the

leaves, instead of exhaling, can frequently even imbibe water, from the

plant occupying an elevated situation, where the air the greater part

of the season {335} is cool, and nearly surcharged with moisture, the

most porous, driest soil (sufficiently damp in such a situation), will

generally be the most suitable; and trees of every kind will prosper in

sands, in which, under a dry atmosphere, they would not have survived

one summer; whereas in arid, warm, low country, the deepest, dampest

loams and clays are generally the best suited for timber, provided

water does not stagnate. And, besides, we have found varieties of the

same kind or species of tree, _some of them adapted to prosper in dry

air and soil, and others in moist air and soil_. Although the above

causes prevent a positive limitation of certain kinds of trees to

certain soils, yet there are some which have superior adaptation to

moist soils and others to dry; some whose roots, from their fibrous

soft character, can only spread luxuriantly on light, soft, or mossy

soils, and others, whose roots have power to permeate the stiffest

and most obdurate. The above explanations will account for much of

the incongruity which we find in authors regarding the adaptation of

certain kinds of timber to certain soils.

In describing the soils suitable for different kinds of trees, Mr

Cruickshank mentions, that “the Scots fir will thrive in very barren

situations, provided the soil be dry. Dryness is, in fact, the {336}

most indispensable requisite in order to produce a good crop of Scots

fir, and it is never advisable to plant this tree in very moist ground,

or where draining is necessary to carry off the surface water.”—“Stiff

land seems decidedly hostile to its growth.”—“On a deep rich soil

it grows very fast, attains a large size, and soon decays. In these

circumstances, its wood is spongy, and of inferior value.”—“The most

important precept that can be delivered with regard to this tree, is

never to plant it either in _wet_ or _very stiff_ land.”

“The larch is also a very hardy plant, and is sure to thrive on any

land that will answer for the Scots fir. It is, however, less delicate

in its choice of soil than the latter, and will grow in a much greater

degree of moisture.”—“This tree is one of the surest growers we have

in barren soils.”

“The spruce is as partial to moist land as the Scots fir is to dry;

and in this particular these two species stand directly opposed to one

another.”—“Spruce may indeed appear to thrive in a dry situation for

a few years; but by the time it reaches ten or twelve feet in height,

its lower branches will decay, and after that period it will make

little progress, but remain even a cumberer of the soil.”—“ Spruce

seems to be most partial to a cold stiff clay: it is, {337} however, a

very hardy plant, and not very nice in its choice of soil, provided it

have enough of sap.”—“I do not mean such as is deluged in winter with

stagnant water. This is incompatible with the growth of wood of every

kind.”—“The silver fir and balm of Gilead will answer in the same

kinds of land as the spruce.”—“They, together with the spruce, are

invaluable for where the soil is deep peat-moss, as neither the Scots

fir nor the larch will thrive in it.”

* * * * *

There is in the above quotations, in common with many of our opinions

(formed hastily upon a too partial acquaintance with facts), a

considerable proportion both of truth and error. Such sweeping

assertions will, however, generally command the assent and admiration

of the reader. From the enjoyment the mind has in forming clear

conceptions and reaching conclusions, from its love of order, and from

its disposition to cling to every thing like definite, unfluctuating

arrangement, to assist its limited powers of comprehension, we are led

away by the author, who reduces the character of natural phenomena to

great simplicity, although in reality exceedingly complicated.

Scots fir, it is true, has rather a superior adaptation to dry, sharp,

and rocky soils; yet there are many {338} situations of poor wet till

and clay, and even peat-moss ground, where it will be advantageous

to plant Scots fir in preference to any other kind of timber; for

this plain reason, that no other kind will thrive so well in those

cold moist moors. Both Larix and Abies have a much narrower range of

adaptation than Pinus sylvestris. Larch will not thrive in the dead

sand nor till flats of the low country, often not in the dead sand and

till of rising grounds, in both of which the Scots fir, if allowed

sufficient room for side branching, will reach good-sized timber. There

is a considerable formation of peat-moss near Dunmore, in which the

Scots fir has shown superior adaptation to the Norway spruce. We have

also seen, in the moss of Balgowan, Perthshire, fine thriving Scots

firs, many of them two feet in diameter, growing in very moist, rich,

mossy loam,—so moist, that although in a rather protected situation,

a number of the trees, while young, had been laid on their sides by

the wind, and were growing luxuriantly in the form of a quadrant of

a circle, with as much as six and eight feet of the stem upon the

level ground, affording a curve sufficient to reach from the keel of a

vessel to the deck at midships. We examined the timber of several of

these, and found it superior to the average of home P. sylvestris. The

superior {339} quality of the timber may be ascribed to the richness

and moisture of the soil, and to the full branching of the trees from

their rather open arrangement. There is nothing which conduces so much

to the good quality of Scots fir as exposure. Under the great shelter

of the close _planted_ woods, the timber is soft and porous, without

much resin; but under great exposure, especially to dry air, the timber

is hard, close, and resinous. This is, however, considerably modified

by the soil.

The quality of natural grown timber is considered superior to the

planted. Is this occasioned by the former having generally more

branches and leaves in proportion to the length of the stem, and being

more exposed than the latter? Can root fracture at transplanting,

or the kiln-drying of the cones, have any influence to diminish the

strength of the fibre or quantity of resinous deposit? We have been

told by several old people, in the neighbourhood of Dunsinane, that

Scots fir plants, brought more than half a century ago from Mar Forest

to Dunsinane Wood, succeeded much better than some which had been

procured from nurseries, and also produced better timber.

Clay is assuredly _not_ the proper soil for spruce and silver fir;

their exceedingly numerous, soft, fibrous, moss-like rootlets, require

an easy damp soil. {340} We have tried a number of kinds of abies,

in both dry and moist clay, and have found they did not grow so

luxuriantly (thrive so well) as Scots fir or larch. The silver fir

shewed superior adaptation to any of the other kinds of abies.

Almost in every instance where we have seen the silver fir and Norway

spruce (by far the best spruce for Scotland) growing together, the

former was the superior. The timber, in the lower part of the stem, is

harder than that of the spruce, but freer and more porous in the upper

part. It is probable that the silver fir will not thrive in so elevated

or so moist a situation as the spruce, but in all favourable soils it

merits a preference.

We now come to a very important part of our author’s volume—an account

of the most economical, and, as he says, the most successful, mode

of planting moors and bleak exposed mountains, but which is brought

forward by him under no limitation to place. To the invention of this

method, our author lays no claim; he merely describes the practice in a

clear and judicious manner.

“The most proper time for removing firs from the nursery to waste

land, is when they are two years old.”—“The experience I have had

enables me to say, with as much confidence as I can speak on {341}

any point whatever, that the longer any fir is allowed to remain

in the nursery after it has attained two years’ growth, so much

the less chance is there of its success when removed to its final

destination.”—“At this period (two years’ growth) larches may be

obtained transplanted, as it is customary to put considerable numbers

of them out into nursery-lines when they are one year old. Such plants

have better roots than those that have remained in the seed-bed till

they are of the same age; but as their price is considerably higher

than that of the latter, it is somewhat doubtful whether they are so

much superior in quality as to compensate for the greater expense. At

all events, healthy larches from the seed-bed have never failed to

give satisfaction when properly planted in soil suitable for them.

Other species of fir are scarce ever transplanted in the nursery till

they are two years old, so of this age there is no choice left but to

take them from the seed-bed.”—“Birch, alder, and mountain ash, succeed

well when removed from the nursery in their second year.”—“Beech

and plane do not succeed well unless they have stood some time (two

years at least) in nursery lines, after having been removed from the

seed-bed.”

“The pitting system of planting should be {342} adopted in every

instance in which the plants exceed two years old.

“The expense of planting was much reduced by the introduction, about a

century ago, of the notching system. Of this there are two varieties,

the oldest of which may be described as follows:—One person makes a

notch in the ground, or rather two notches crossing each other, with

a common spade, raising the sod by bending down the handle of the

instrument, till the notch become wide enough to receive the roots of

the plant. An assistant, with a bundle of trees, slips the root of

one into the aperture thus made for its reception. The spade is then

withdrawn, and the closing of the sod on the root is assisted by a

smart blow of the heel of the planter. In this way two persons, well

practised in the work, will put into the ground between five hundred

and a thousand per day.

“This system was much simplified about fifty years ago, and rendered

so expeditious, that it seems in vain to look for its receiving any

further improvement. Instead of the spade, an instrument of nearly

the same shape, but so small that it can be wrought with one hand as

easily as a common garden-dibble, was introduced, and is now known by

the name of the Planting-iron. With this, a notch is made in {343}

the ground to receive the root; and owing to the portability of the

tool, and its occupying but one of the hands, the person that works it

requires no assistant, but, carrying a parcel of plants in a wallet

before him, he singles out one with his left hand, inserts it in the

notch, withdraws the implement, fixes the plant with his heel, and

proceeds with as much apparent ease as if he were performing the

operation in the soft ground of the nursery. In this way of planting,

the workman goes forward in such a line as he can judge of by his eye;

and as it is extremely difficult to see the plants after they are put

in, especially if the heath is pretty long, he sets up poles in the

first line, to enable him to keep the second a due distance from it;

and in planting the last mentioned, he removes these poles into it as

he comes opposite to them, which then serve as his guide in planting

the third; and thus he proceeds till he cover the whole ground. The

lines thus formed are necessarily so zig-zag, that when the trees grow

up, they do not seem to have been planted in rows.

“In this way, an expert workman will plant between three and four

thousand young plants a-day, and do it so perfectly, that the fault

will not be his if a single individual of the whole number fail to

{344} grow. I have assisted in planting, according to this plan,

upwards of three thousand acres in Aberdeenshire; and, in all that

extent, I know not of a single instance of failure, where the plants

were in a healthy state when put into the ground, of the proper age

and varieties, and suitable for the soil.”

“To plant well and expeditiously in this way, requires considerable

dexterity on the part of the workman; and where raw hands are

employed, it will be necessary to have some person to teach and

superintend them.”

Mr Cruickshank disposes of the old cross system of slit planting

by the spade, with very little ceremony; as it would almost seem,

without being able to appreciate its merits. It is, in fact, a totally

different mode of planting from that by the flat dibble-planter or

planting-iron, and is well adapted for all plants with horizontal

roots, and which have stood from one to three years in the nursery

line. By first striking the spade in perpendicularly, as deep as the

turf-soil, by again striking it in at right angles to the end of

the first cut, in the form of a T, and bending back the spade, the

turf-soil is raised from a horizontal bed, and the first cut opened so

wide as to admit the root, which {345} inserted and drawn a little

along by an experienced hand, and well tramped down, has its rootlets

disposed over the horizontal bottom almost as regularly and well

adjusted for growing, as can be done by pit-planting. This practice

is sometimes performed singly, a clever workman managing the spade

with one hand and the plants with the other, and inserting 1000 each

day. The plants suited for this system are fully double the size of

those suited for the flat-dibble system, and are purchased at about

one half more price, thus enhancing the cost of planting to £1, 10s.

or £2 per acre; but in many situations, especially where the herbage

grows freely, affording an earlier growth, and more regular success,

sufficient to balance the greater expense ten times over.

Although the cross-system of slitting is the best for commanding

general success, yet wherever the flat dibble planting can be depended

on, it merits a preference, as from the smallness of the plants, the

roots receive less fracture and derangement in the woody state, and the

process comes nearer to raising from the seed _in situ_.

The expense of each system per acre, will be nearly as follows:— {346}

_By Cross-slitting, or the Double Notch._

3000 larches and Scots firs, from one to three years transplanted,

at 5s. L.0 15 0

500 hard wood, from one to three years transplanted,

at 12s. 0 6 0

4 days of one superior planter, or of two ordinary

planters, at 3s. 0 12 0

―――――――――

L.1 13 0

_By the Flat Dibble, or the Single Notch._

4000 larches or Scots firs, from the seed-bed, or one year

transplanted, at 2s. 6d. L.0 10 0

1000 hard-wood plants, 0 7 0

1 1/2 day of a planter, at 2s. 0 3 0

―――――――――

L.1 0 0

Although our author speaks so confidently of the success of

transplanting out firs at one and two years of age, yet this must only

be taken under limitation to the country in which his experience has

lain,—the barren mountains and moors of Scotland, where the vegetation

of the heaths is extremely slow, and the herbage both thin and short.

Were these small plants used in the superior climates of England and

Ireland, where the vegetation of the grasses, and {347} other natural

occupiers of the soil, is very luxuriant, there would scarcely be one

in a hundred that would ever be seen after the first spring, unless

a very expensive cultivation to check the weeds were resorted to. To

effect economical planting in these soils, it is necessary to have the

plants sufficiently large, not too close together, and placed in rows,

that a mower may be able to distinguish them among the herbage while

he cuts it down; or what is much better, that the spade or plough[65]

culture may be {348} practised, and potatoes, turnips, or other green

crop, raised among them, without the plants being overwhelmed. In case

of grass production, the oftener during the season the young plantation

is mown, the more advantageous, as well that the plants may be the more

easily distinguished, as that the lower branches may not be smothered,

nor the soil so much exhausted and dried by the blooming and seeding

of the herbage; of course, a short scythe is required, and also a very

careful mower.

Speaking of the best season for planting, Mr Cruickshank states:—

“In wet and swampy soils, as well as in land, whether dry or moist,

whose surface is bare, I would be inclined to prefer the spring. Wet

land swells to such a degree, that plants which have not had time to

take a firm hold with their roots, are almost {349} inevitably thrown

out.”—“These remarks have reference only to the system of planting by

notching: when the pitting system is adopted, it fixes the plant so

thoroughly, as to render the utmost power of frost incapable of doing

them any injury.”—“The utmost limits of the planting season may be

estimated from the middle of October to the middle of March.”—“I am a

decided advocate for thick planting, and would advise that no fewer

than 3000 trees per acre be planted in good land, nor a less number

than 4000 when the soil is of a middling or inferior quality.”

Mr Cruickshank must surely have had little acquaintance with soft,

spongy, close-bottomed soils, or he would not have asserted that

pit-planted trees are not subject to be thrown. If planted in the early

part of winter or autumn, trees of the usual size, which have remained

from one to three years in the nursery line, are very frequently

thrown from such soils. This is caused by the freezing earth first

catching fast hold of the plant at the surface, and afterwards swelling

underneath from the enlargement of the freezing water in its pores,

and from the open crystallized _honeycomb_ arrangement which takes

place by congelation. As the stem is fast to {350} the ground at the

surface, and the earth subsequently enlarged underneath as far as the

congelation proceeds, the roots below the congelation must of necessity

be drawn upwards to the distance which the ground has swelled after

the stem was fixed to the surface. The earth, on thaw, first loses

hold of the plant at the surface, and then falls away as it contracts.

Each successive frost and thaw during winter thus raises the plant a

certain space, till by spring it often is so far extracted, as to fall

over on its side. When the plant has stood a season, there is generally

a tuft of herbage around its stem, which prevents the freezing in a

considerable degree; and the roots having fixed in the lower earth,

resist the pulling up so much, that the hold which the frozen earth has

of the stem at the surface gives way, sometimes pulling off a portion

of the bark, and the earth rises around the stem in place of pulling

the tree.

Instead of the season for spring planting being over by the middle of

March, we think that, in many of our wet moors, it should then only

be commencing, especially under the pitting system. However, planting

should never be deferred a day later in spring than what is absolutely

necessary to render the ground sufficiently dry for the process. {351}

Mr Cruickshank’s opinions regarding pruning and thinning are generally

not very incorrect. His commencing sentence on pruning, that “most

deciduous trees, if left to themselves, have a tendency to grow with

short trunks, containing little timber, and to waste their strength

on large unwieldy tops,” would, however, lead us to form a different

conclusion. The very tall, clean, straight, deciduous trees, in the

American forests, give a sufficient answer to this. We like his remark

respecting thinning, that “it is only efficacious when applied as a

preventive, not as a cure.”

Mr Cruickshank next brings forward his plan of raising oak forest,

which appears to have been his own invention, although invented before.

Whenever mice and other gnawers (glires) are not very abundant, it,

if properly executed, would seem to be the best method of raising oak

forest; and, indeed, in many situations, the only practicable one. Mr

Cruickshank’s method coincides nearly with Mr Sang’s, only he does not

carry his system of protection so far as Mr Sang, in first raising

belts of the most hardy kinds of timber, distributed to windward of,

and intersecting the place intended to be planted, in such a manner as

to afford the best possible shelter from the coldest most destructive

{352} winds. Mr Cruickshank, who has never carried his plan into

execution, except in an experiment embracing a few yards, directs that

the ground intended for oak forest should first be planted with Scots

fir and larch, about 4000 to the acre, by the single-notch process,

previously described, which can be accomplished under L. 1 per acre. As

soon as these have risen to four feet in height, he prepares patches

about two feet square and ten feet distant in the interstices, by

digging the soil over, and mixing a spadeful of slaked lime carefully

with the mould, taking out a tree whenever the interstices do not suit

for the patches. He then plants, in the end of March or beginning

of April, five acorns in each patch, about an inch deep, one in

the centre, and the other four in the angles of a foot square, and

gives them no farther attention for two years, except removing any

overhanging low fir branch. He then goes over the patches, cutting out

all the supernumerary plants, a few inches below the surface, leaving

the most promising one on each patch, being very careful not to disturb

any of its roots in cutting out the others. As these oak plants extend

in size, he gradually removes the fir.

Excepting the bare plan itself, which is certainly very plausible,

there is nothing in the description {353} of the practice—the

preparation of the patches of ground to receive the seed and the

subsequent management—which merits attention. His very particular

interdiction of the use of manure is, to say the least of it,

injudicious—as if it signified to the plant whether it were forced by

the use of lime, or by a little putrescent manure, both of which Mr

Withers would consider very advantageous; or as if there were much fear

on our poor exposed wastes of erring on the side of rendering the plant

delicate from over luxuriance; its constitution, on the contrary, would

rather be strengthened. Mr Cruickshank, in directing the removal of

the fir nurses, one thousand per acre to stand till they have reached

twenty-five years, fit for roofing of cottages, and similar purposes;

and five hundred till they have reached thirty-five years; his dividing

a slaked boll of lime into five hundred spadefuls; and his bestowing no

hoeing or weeding upon his seedlings, would show, without his admitting

it, that he had never practised this mode of forming plantation.

Prefacing this system of rearing oak forest, Mr Cruickshank in rather

a clever manner points out its advantages, and also the disadvantages

and consequent failures of _planting_ young oak trees in exposed

situations. But after all his eulogy, we think he has {354} left

something unsaid. The great disadvantage attending transplanting oaks

to situations not very favourable to their growth, is, that the plant

which, under any circumstances, receives irreparable and often mortal

harm, from the severe injuries of removal, has to contend, in this

mutilated condition, at the same time with the uninjured occupiers of

the soil (the nurses or the native weeds), and with the unpropitious

situation; whereas, when the plant springs up from the acorn a native,

especially when it is assisted at first by weeding or hoeing, the part

above ground being always in proportion to that below, and receiving

due nourishment, it contends with the occupiers on more equal terms,

and encounters the sterility of the soil, or the severity of the

climate, with all its natural powers unimpaired.

As it is the natural condition of the seedling to grow up under the

shelter of the parent tree, so also does it happen, that it rises under

this shelter with greater luxuriance and vigour than when exposed to

the evaporation, and parching sun, and battering wind, of the bare

country.

We have admired the beautiful, straight, luxuriant, shoots of the

young hollies, thrown out under shelter, and have compared them with

the dry stunted shoots of the young holly in the open country, though

in the former case their roots had to contend {355} with the roots

of larger trees, and in the latter they had the soil to themselves.

Experience has proved, that in exposed bleak situations, shelter is

necessary to young plants. Transplanted oaks among the roots of young

trees, so large as to afford sufficient shelter, very frequently do not

succeed, at least without the utmost care in the transplanting, and a

considerable deal of labour to prevent the roots of the shelter trees

from starving the transplanted ones, unless a very propitious moist

summer follow the transplanting. Raising from the seed, which obviates

all this, seems therefore the only conveniently practicable way. Yet it

must be owned, that the system of raising forests _in situ_ from the

seed, appears, as yet, much more successful on paper than on our hills

and moors.

In endeavouring to confute the opinion, that the oak will not grow

throughout Scotland, but in the milder and more propitious situations,

Mr Cruickshank adduces the well-known fact, that large oak timber is

found in almost every peat-moss.

This is a fact worth tracing to its cause. Under Nature’s own conduct,

trees advance considerably further into elevated or cold inhospitable

regions, than they would otherwise do, by means of the mutual shelter,

and of the more hardy kinds acting as an advance guard. Yet there is a

limit to this, as the {356} power of ripening seed is not increased

by shelter in proportion to the power of growing—perhaps not at all;

we instance the Spanish chestnut, which has scarcely ever been known

to ripen seed in Scotland. Seed-grown trees will, therefore, under

Nature’s arrangement, not be found extending much beyond _the line of

seed ripening_. From nuts, acorns, and other seeds, fully developed,

being found in elevated mosses in this country, other causes than

shelter appear to have existed.

Before this country was so much overrun by men and oxen, a great deal

of timber had existed, covering much of the superior land which is now

under tillage. This consisted chiefly of the oak, Scots fir, birch,

hazel, and alder,—the oak extending northward and to elevations, and

ripening seed, and attaining to a size which it does not now do, either

wild or cultivated, in the same latitude, neither here nor in any other

portion of the world; which, along with some other facts, lead to the

supposition, that the climate has changed a little,—in part, possibly,

as we have before stated, from the gradual formation of peat, to which,

overthrown oak forest, from the abundance of the tannin principle, has

a great disposing influence, even under a warmer climate than present

Scotland. The highest latitude to which a tree, or any other kind of

plant, reproducing by seed, {357} naturally extends, depending on the

ripening of the seed, and also on the power of occupancy, is however

different from that where it will grow, when ripe seeds are procured

from the coldest place where they ripen, and all the competitors

removed; and under the system of shelter belts, hardy pine nurses, and

seeds from the nearest place where they ripen, we have no doubt that

oaks may be extended to a colder situation than Nature herself would

have placed them in. For the higher more bleak portion of the country,

we would recommend acorns grown in Scotland, in preference to those

imported from England. We have several times observed wheat, the seed

of which had been imported from England, sustain blight and other

injuries in a cold moist autumn, when a portion of the same field, sown

of Scots seed, at the same time as the other, and under the very same

circumstances, was entirely free from injury. English acorns are also

frequently heated in the casks in which they are imported, which must

impair their vigour[66]. {358}

The part of Mr Cruickshank’s volume which we have analyzed, does

not extend much beyond the first half: this portion is well worth a

perusal. We have merely glanced over the remainder: it is a make-up

scarce worth noticing. The language, on the whole, is easy and plain;

and although the volume contains a considerable number of errors, in

the pointing out of which we have not been sparing, yet will it form an

excellent planter’s assistant to people who have ground to plant, and

are ignorant of the process of planting.

* * * * *

We have now brought before the reader a pretty fair picture of the

Forestry of the present day. Some may wonder that the written science

of arboriculture should be so imperfect and inaccurate; but the

knowledge of the art, and the power of communicating that knowledge,

are of so different a {359} character, it not unfrequently happens,

that those write who cannot act, and those who can, are incompetent

to write—sometimes unwilling; besides, correct opinions on this

subject, as on most others, are only just beginning to be formed.

We have endeavoured to assist in disentangling the correct from

the erroneous. It is impossible for the most wary always to avoid

misconception of facts, but man merits the name of rational only, when

he evinces a readiness to break from those misconceptions, to which

the narrow-minded, the proud, the vain, and the creature of habit

and instinct, cling so obstinately. As a friend, we have stood on no

ceremony with our brother arboriculturists. We have laid ourselves open

to their criticism, and we hope they will shew as little ceremony with

us.

ENDNOTES TO PART IV.

[36] This repetition of our directions on pruning is

intentional—“Carthago est delenda.”

[37] The coniferæ have a weaker or more connected vitality than most

other trees—the whole individual participating in the injury of any

part. Perhaps this arises from the liability of resinous juice to

putrescency—any putrid affection in one spot of the more vital part of

the tree spreading quickly over the whole.

[38] Transplanting having an opposite influence on the young of

herbaceous and woody vegetables, in the former when not already rising

into stem, retarding, and the latter accelerating or furthering

development of the reproductory parts, is a good lesson to reasoners

from analogy. The root-fractured herbaceous plants repairing the injury

almost immediately, and before the rudiments of the reproductory parts

have time for expansion, the greater quantity of moist nourishment

afforded by the unsought newly stirred soil, produces a flush of

radical leaves, which react to further the extension of the roots. The

new rootlets have again more connexion to promote the growth of the

radical leaves, and to induce offsets—_tillering_—from the sides of the

bulb, than to nourish or mature the core part, from whence the stem

arises—a certain comparative extension and maturity of the core being

necessary to the rising of the stem. Thence seeding can be retarded,

and life in annuals be continued, _ad libitum_. On the contrary, in

woody vegetables of perennial stem, the reparation of the root-injury

takes place slowly, and the evaporation from the stem and elevated

branches and leaves exhausting the little moisture afforded by the

inadequate root-suction during an entire season, gives time and bias

for the germs to pass into reproductory instead of productory organs

even the first season.

[39] We rather think Mr Sang mentions this.

[40] They say a better management has lately been established. This may

be followed for a short time in the high stream of the agitation, or

while the present heads of management remain in power; but the system,

we fear, contains the seeds of evil, which, like the weeds, will soon

overwhelm the alien good.

[41] The inferior growth of the part of a hedge which was pruned

before the vegetation had begun, may be ascribed to the vital action

having been checked at the commencement by the destruction of the buds

necessary to stimulate this action; and being deprived of this first

strong impulse, life had remained languid throughout the season, the

roots never recovering their proper suction or foraging power;—when the

pruning was later, a sufficient stimulus had already been given.

[42] Vide Sir Walter Scott.

[43] The want of the annual layers of cellular tissue of wood, exterior

to and separating the annual lineal tubes, is so complete in some cases

of slow growth, that the timber seems only a light congeries of tubes,

without arrangement; hence the age of the tree cannot be determined but

by a section of the root-bulb, where the growths are larger, and the

deposits regular.

[44] The climate of a country in regard to annual steadiness, can be

pretty accurately determined by the appearance of the annual layers

of trees, especially of the pine tribe; and in a new settlement where

great difference of size of layer, and of resinous deposit is observed,

we may be pretty certain the seasons are not steady, or that insect

depredations or blights occur; and a reserve of food ought always

to be retained. By careful inspection of the nature of the annual

wood deposit, or of the locality with regard to moisture, it may be

ascertained, whether the irregularity has been owing to difference of

temperature, or of moisture. In warm climates the irregularity will

generally depend on drought and moisture, and in cold climates on

heat and cold; though sometimes the depredations of insects, such as

locusts, or of blights, may be the cause.

[45] Though we give this experiment, we admit that little dependence

can be placed upon a single fact. The trees must have been different in

variety, and probably in sex, both of which may occasion a discrepancy.

[46] The time the weight is in suspension, must be attended to. A beam

will support a much greater weight during a minute than during an hour;

and two beams may be found, the one capable of supporting the greatest

weight during a minute, and the other the greatest during an hour.

[47] We shall not here introduce the interminable discussion of

dry-rot, as it remains to be proved that moderately fast grown young

timber is at all more liable to dry-rot than small-growthed old,

provided the sap-wood be entirely removed.

[48] In fairness, it may be proper to explain, that the greater part

of the trees we have thus cultivated have been of _Pyrus_, although

we commenced the practice with common forest trees—yet the pear and

apple vary nothing from the oak and ash in the primary stage of life,

in as far as respects the extension—we can also profit fully as much

by raising apple timber of proper fast grown variety, as by any other

timber; and have it in our power to sell this timber to machine-makers

at double the price of oak of the same size.

[49] We think Sir Henry would find some of the failures of which he

owns he cannot well ascertain the cause, but occurring especially in

beech and oak, to be owing to a number of the lower roots, which are

by far the tenderest, being bruised by the weight of the tree itself,

when he turns it repeatedly over from the one side to the other, in

order, by throwing in earth beneath it, to raise the root on a level

with the surface of the field, the whole weight of the incumbent mass

resting upon these soft roots. The oak, and still more the beech, are

exceedingly susceptible to injury from cutting or bruises, and die far

inward from the laceration. The wounded lower roots, especially when

any vacuity is left not filled close in with earth, where mouldiness

might generate in a dry situation, or when soaking in moisture for a

part of the season, will become corrupted; the putrefaction thence

gradually extending upward into the bulb, will contaminate the whole,

and the second or third year after planting, the tree will be dead.

[50] We understand freezing the earth around the bulb is an old

practice.

[51] We particularize the oak, cork-tree of arid warm Spain, and

much of the timber of New Holland. Owing to the hot parching air

in the latter place, the epidermis becomes dried to such a degree,

that contracting by the drought, and bursting by the swelling of the

enveloped stem, it peels off like the old skin of a serpent, and

is often seen hanging upon the tree in large shreds like tattered

garments. In several kinds of trees, we have counted regular annual

rings of desiccated bark; in some kinds this appeared a growth or

deposition, in others, mere parched exuviæ. Trees attain some age

before the _exuviæ_ commence; the _deposit_ begins the first season,

even in sheltered situations. The cork-tree, and the small-leaved

elm, shew the greatest annual deposit of dry bark. The former does,

and the latter is said to belong to warm arid countries; both form a

better nonconductor of heat than any other dry bark we are acquainted

with—infinitely better than the bark exuviæ of trees which approach the

polar regions.

[52] We do not pretend to explain how it is, that one kind of climbing

plant follows the sun in its convolutions, and another traverses his

course. There surely cannot be any thing in a habit acquired in the

southern hemisphere.

[53] In proceeding further on in Sir Henry’s volume, we have noticed an

excellent observation quoted from Du Hamel: “The extension of the shoot

is inversely as its induration, rapid while it remains herbaceous,

but slow as it is converted into wood. Hence moisture and shade are

the circumstances, of all others, the most favourable to elongation,

because they prevent induration or retard it.” Although quoting this,

Sir Henry recurs to his old opinions, and proceeds to observe, “Trees

so circumstanced, push upward to the light; and from the warmth

which their situation affords, their stems being thin and slender in

proportion to their height, they are destitute of strength to resist

the winds.”

[54] We do not mention temperature, because we are not in possession

of facts sufficient to lead us to form an opinion on the subject.

Judging from animal analogy, of which our author is so fond, we

notice, that those animals exposed in open atmosphere, have generally

warmer blood than those who lurk in holes,—even than those of the same

species who happen to live under shelter. Now evaporation takes place

from animals as well as from vegetables, and the consequent cold is

more than balanced by the heat of what may be termed the vital fire,

which, like most other fires, burns brightest on exposure to a current

of atmospheric air, being increased either by the result of the new

chemical combinations having less capacity for heat, or by the stimulus

of the fresh moving air exciting the vital action. Of the general

influence of close forest on temperature, we are also not very well

assured; but the few facts which observation has afforded, lead to the

opinion, that to the northward of 50 deg. Lat. forests have higher

temperature than bare country; that from about 50 to 30 degrees Lat.

forests are cooler in winter and warmer in summer; and that nearer

the equator, forests are generally cooler than bare country. But the

temperature is regulated so much by the position of seas and lakes, in

combination with the prevailing currents and strength of currents of

the air—by the configuration of the country,—moisture and cloudiness of

the atmosphere and quantity of rain,—by the composition, arrangement,

and colour of the soil,—by the lower vegetable cover, and even by the

nature of the forest itself, whether deciduous or evergreen, that

particular facts must be very carefully weighed to enable us to reach

general conclusions. It is generally understood, that forests render

the climate moister.

[55] Our experiments have not yet been carried so far, as to determine

if, by any arrangement of drying or exposure, they may be seasoned

to sustain intense frost, which may affect them differently from

moderate frost, either by causing complete congelation of all their

structure (moderate freezing appearing only to congeal their fluids,

but not entirely the containing vessel, at least only partly congealing

the mass), or by killing the vital principle itself through nervous

affection. The potatoes became green from the exposure to the light,

and we rather think acquired greater hardihood of constitution, or

greater vitality or excitability by the exposure, thence greater power

to resist the cold, independent of the disposition they acquired by

desiccation to endure it.

[56] Is the rending of the stems of trees, during intense frost,

internal only, and occasioned by the alburnum expanding more by

congelation than the drier mature wood? or, is it external, and caused

by the contractile effect of the dry air and cold on the alburnum

rendering it insufficient to surround the mature wood, which, from

dryness and want of living susceptibility, may not contract so much.

[57] The fineness of vessel or fibre of the Siberian crab, may be

induced by the arid warm air, the continued radiation of heat and

light upon the portion above ground, and the coldness of the ground

around the roots during the short summer in Siberia, where the air

and surface of the ground is warm, and vegetation progressive, while

the ground remains frozen at a small depth. Like all varieties of

plants habituated to colder climate, the Siberian crab developes its

leaves under less heat than varieties of the same kind which have been

habituated to milder climate.

[58] We have not taken Sir Henry in the literal sense. Timber is well

known to decay sooner in a warm than in a cold country, _cæteris

paribus_.

[59] See Appendix F.

[60] The preliminary sentence is very vaguely worded; we suppose,

“increasing the annual circles,” means increasing them in thickness,

not general contents of length multiplied by thickness. But even in the

latter sense, we hold pruning tends generally to diminish the annual

circles.

[61] It is a theory of Mr Sheriff, Mungo’s Wells, that all plants have

excrementitious deposit from the roots, the deposit from one kind

affording a good manure to another kind. Thence the advantage of mixed

grasses and legumes in pastures, and of the rotation of different kinds

of crops.

[62] Vegetable soil is sometimes buried deep under volcanic mud, sand,

and ashes, or mixed with the subsoil by earthquakes. In some districts

of South America, the country, from being fertile, has been recently

reduced to sterility, by the vegetable mould being so much scattered

through the subsoil by repeated upheavings and tossings about by

earthquakes, as to be out of the reach of plants.

[63] There is a deposition from the atmosphere of saline matter going

on at the surface of the earth, either evaporated from the ocean, and

falling with the rain and dews, or formed by gaseous combinations—most

probably both. In countries where the quantity of rain is insufficient

to wash this saline accumulation away into the ocean as fast as it is

formed, it increases to such a degree as almost to prevent vegetation,

only a few of what are termed saline plants appearing. This saline

accumulation in warm dry countries, bears considerable analogy to

tannin deposit in cold countries.

[64] The matured timber of the larch, in some cases, remains for a

considerable time stained before the rot proceeds rapidly; in other

cases, the rot makes quick progress; in this rapid decomposition,

certain kinds of fungi assist greatly. When once seated, they seem

to form a putrid atmosphere or tainted circle around them, either by

their living exhalations, or corrupt emanations when dead, which is

poisonous to the less vital parts of superior life, and also expedites

the commencement of decay in sound dead organic matter, such as timber,

thus furthering the decomposition so far as to render it suitable food

for their foul appetite, and paving the way to their further progress.

How their seeds enter into the heart of a growing tree having no

external rottenness, is not very obvious, unless they are inhaled or

imbibed by the root tendrils: from the resemblance which the growth

of some of them has to fermentation, it is not even very improbable

that the animalcules of supposed molecular or inferior life, have,

of themselves, a disposition to unite into some of these aggregates

without the presence of any disposing germ.

The modifications of material attractions, by the varied germs of

superior life—the fixity of some of these deposites after life is

gone—the resolution of these into inferior animalcular, or even

molecular, life—and the instrumentality of zoophytes of the lower order

of organization, in hastening this decomposition by the balancing

of the attractions of this secondary life, afford a wide field for

investigation. Those uncouth sportings of nature quickly appear and

disappear as _material_ spectres, feeding on corruption, and mocking at

primary life.

[65] We have raised crops among young trees (as well timber as fruit

trees), not four yards apart, by plough culture, and have found the

process, after the ploughmen and horses were accustomed to it, not

much more expensive than common cultivation, and the crop, till the

trees became too close, scarcely inferior. By means of a long _muzzle_

to the plough standing out towards the left side, and a driver to the

horses beside the ploughman, we succeeded in getting the two first

furrows lapped a little over each other in the row of trees, where

the gathering of the ridge commenced (we gathered up at every other

row). In the row of trees where the finishing of the ploughing of the

ridge occurred, we were obliged to leave a stripe of ground about two

feet wide, to be dug by the spade. The horses required to be yoked in

file, and to drag by ropes (traces) rather than by chains, as the bark

of the trees was liable to be rubbed off by the latter. The more to

guard against rubbing, we had the _swingletree_ constructed so that

the trace-ropes came out from a hole in the ends, without any hook.

In harrowing the ground, one man is required to lead the horses, and

another to direct the harrows. In rich soil, under cultivation of green

crop, in this manner, trees progress very rapidly, and from the open

arrangement acquire very healthy constitutions. Of course, when not

coniferæ, the plants require a little more attention to train to one

leader and equality of feeders, than when close planted. We should

consider plough cultivation of young woods, provided ploughmen as

expert and careful as the Scots could be obtained, much more worthy the

attention of the English planter than the Withers’ system (trenching).

Need we mention, that in green crop, every thing depends upon plenty of

manure and of well-timed plough and horse hoe labour? Excepting in the

case of larch, we should dread no injury to the trees or timber from

plenty of manure.

[66] We are indebted to our friend Mr Gorrie, Annat Garden, for the

fact, that English acorns throw up a much more luxuriant stem than

the Scots; they forming a step of several inches when planted next

each other in the nursery line. We should consider this to arise from

the largeness of the rudiments of the plant, and greater quantity of

garnered nourishment in the English acorns, which are nearly double

the size of the Scots, our present climate being insufficient for

the proper development. This leads to the question, will the greater

luxuriance balance any tenderness from want of acclimatizing? Would the

oak keep its present locality in Scotland if left to nature? A careful

inspection of the most elevated peat mosses in which remains of timber

exist, and a comparison of the size of the seeds found there, with that

of those of the present day, grown the nearest to this in situation,

would resolve the question of refrigeration.

APPENDIX.

{363} APPENDIX.

NOTE A.

It is only on the _Ocean_ that _Universal Empire_ is practicable—only

by means of _Navigation_ that all the world can be subdued or retained

under one dominion. On land, the greatest numbers, and quantity of

materiel, are unavailable, excepting around the spot where they are

produced. The most powerful army is crippled by advancing a few degrees

in an enemy’s territory, unless when aided by some catching enthusiasm;

its resources get distant—communication is obstructed—subjection

does not extend beyond the range of its guns, and it quickly melts

away. The impossibility of dominion extending over a great space,

when communication is only by land, has often been proved. The rule

of Cyrus, or Alexander, the Cæsars, the Tartar conquerors[67], or

Bonaparte, did not extend over a tithe of the earth; and we may

believe, that, by some of these chiefs, dominion was {364} extended as

widely as under land communication could be effected—further than under

it could be supported.

On the contrary, when a powerful nation has her warlike strength

afloat, and possesses naval superiority, independent of being

unassailable herself, every spot of the world, wherever a wave can

roll, is accessible to her power and under her control. In a very short

time she can throw an irresistible force, unexhausted by marches, and

with every resource, upon any hostile point, the point of attack being

in her own choice, and unknown to the enemy. In case of her dependent

dominions being scattered over the two hemispheres, her means of

communication, and consequent power of defending these and supporting

authority, are more facile than what exists between the seat of

government of any ordinary sized continental kingdom and its provinces.

Were a popular system of colonial government adopted, many islands and

inferior states would find it their interest to become incorporated as

part of the Empire.

NOTE B.

There is a law universal in nature, tending to render every

reproductive being the best possibly suited to its condition that

its kind, or that organized matter, is susceptible of, which appears

intended to model the physical and mental or instinctive powers, to

their highest perfection, and to continue them so. This law sustains

the lion in his strength, the hare in her swiftness, and the {365}

fox in his wiles. As Nature, in all her modifications of life, has a

power of increase far beyond what is needed to supply the place of what

falls by Time’s decay, those individuals who possess not the requisite

strength, swiftness, hardihood, or cunning, fall prematurely without

reproducing—either a prey to their natural devourers, or sinking under

disease, generally induced by want of nourishment, their place being

occupied by the more perfect of their own kind, who are pressing on

the means of subsistence. The law of entail, necessary to hereditary

nobility, is an outrage on this law of nature which she will not pass

unavenged—a law which has the most debasing influence upon the energies

of a people, and will sooner or later lead to general subversion, more

especially when the executive of a country remains for a considerable

time efficient, and no effort is needed on the part of the nobility to

protect their own, or no war to draw forth or preserve their powers

by exertion. It is all very well, when, in stormy times, the baron

has every faculty trained to its utmost ability in keeping his proud

crest aloft. How far hereditary nobility, under effective government,

has operated to retard “the march of intellect,” and deteriorate the

species in modern Europe, is an interesting and important question.

We have seen it play its part in France; we see exhibition of its

influence throughout the Iberian peninsula, to the utmost degradation

of its victims. It has rendered the Italian peninsula, with its

islands, a blank in the political map of Europe. Let the panegyrists

of hereditary nobility, primogeniture, and entail, say what these

countries might not have been {366} but for the baneful influence of

this unnatural custom. It is an eastern proverb, that no king is many

removes from a shepherd. Most conquerors and founders of dynasties

have followed the plough or the flock. Nobility, to be in the highest

perfection, like the finer varieties of fruits, independent of having

its vigour excited by regular married alliance with wilder stocks,

would require stated complete renovation, by selection anew, from among

the purest crab. In some places, this renovation would not be so soon

requisite as in others, and, judging from facts, we would instance

Britain as perhaps the soil where nobility will continue the longest

untainted. As we advance nearer to the equator, renovation becomes

sooner necessary, excepting at high elevation—in many places, every

third generation, at least with the Caucasian breed, although the

finest stocks be regularly imported. This renovation is required as

well physically as morally.

It is chiefly in regard to the interval of time between the period of

necessary feudal authority, and that when the body of the population

having acquired the power of self-government from the spread of

knowledge, claim a community of rights, that we have adverted to the

use of war. The manufacturer, the merchant, the sailor, the capitalist,

whose mind is not corrupted by the indolence induced under the law of

entail, are too much occupied to require any stimulant beyond what the

game in the wide field of commercial adventure affords. A great change

in the circumstances of man is obviously at hand. {367} In the first

step beyond the condition of the wandering savage, while the lower

classes from ignorance remained as helpless children, mankind naturally

fell into clans under paternal or feudal government; but as children,

when grown up to maturity, with the necessity for protection, lose the

subordination to parental authority, so the great mass of the present

population requiring no guidance from a particular class of feudal

lords, will not continue to tolerate any hereditary claims of authority

of one portion of the population over their fellow-men; nor any laws

to keep up rank and wealth corresponding to this exclusive power.—It

would be _wisdom_ in the noblesse of Europe to abolish every claim or

law which serves to point them out a separate class, and, as quickly as

possible, to merge themselves into the mass of the population. It is

a law manifest in nature, that when the use of any thing is past, its

existence is no longer kept up.

Although the necessity for the existence of feudal lords is past, yet

the same does not hold in respect to a hereditary head or King; and the

stability of this head of the government will, in no way, be lessened

by such a change. In the present state of European society, perhaps no

other rule can be so mild and efficient as that of a liberal benevolent

monarch, assisted by a popular representative Parliament. The poorest

man looks up to his king as his own, with affection and pride, and

considers him a protector; while he only regards the antiquated feudal

lord with contempt. The influence of a respected hereditary family,

as head of a country, is also of great utility in {368} forming a

principle of union to the different members, and in giving unity and

stability to the government.

In respect to our own great landholders themselves, we would ask, where

is there that unnatural parent—that miserable victim of hereditary

pride—who does not desire to see his domains equally divided among his

own children? The high paid sinecures in church and state will not

much longer be a great motive for keeping up a powerful family head,

whose influence may burthen their fellow-citizens with the younger

branches. Besides, when a portion of land is so large, that the owner

cannot have an individual acquaintance and associations with every

stream, and bush, and rock, and knoll, the deep enjoyment which the

smaller native proprietor would have in the peculiar features, is not

called forth, and is lost to man. The abolition of the law of entail

and primogeniture, will, in the present state of civilization, not

only add to the happiness of the proprietor, heighten morality, and

give much greater stability to the social order, but will also give a

general stimulus to industry and improvement, increasing the comforts

and elevating the condition of the operative class.

In the new state of things which is near at hand, the proprietor and

the mercantile class will amalgamise,—employment in useful occupations

will not continue to be held in scorn,—the merchant and manufacturer

will no longer be barely tolerated to exist, harassed at every turn by

imposts and the interference of petty tyrants;—Government, instead of

forming an engine of oppression, being simplified and based on morality

and justice, will {369} become a cheap and efficient protection to

person and property; and the necessary taxation being levied from

property alone, every individual will purchase in the cheapest market,

and sell the produce of his industry in the dearest. This period

might, perhaps, be accelerated throughout Europe, did the merchants

and capitalists only know their own strength. Let them, as citizens of

the world, hold annual congress in some central place, and deliberate

on the interests of man, which is their own, and throw the whole of

their influence to support liberal and just governments, and to repress

slavery, crime, bigotry—tyranny in all shapes. A Rothschild might

earn an unstained fame, as great as yet has been attained by man, by

organizing such a power, and presiding at its councils.

NOTE C.

The influence of long continued impression, constituting instinct or

habit of breed, is a curious phenomenon in the animal economy. Our

population in the eastern maritime districts of Britain, descended

principally from the Scandinavian rover, though devoted for a time

to agricultural or mechanical occupation, betake themselves, when

opportunity offers, to their old element, the ocean[68], {370} and

launch out upon the “wintry wave” with much of the same home-felt

composure as does the white polar bear. They roam over every sea and

every shore, from Behring’s Straits to Magellan’s, with as little

solicitude as the Kelt over his own misty hill, overcoming, in

endurance, the native of the torrid zone under his vertical sun, and

the native of the frigid among his polar snows.

To what may we ascribe the superiority of this portion of the Caucasian

breed,—may it arise in part from its repeated change of place under

favourable circumstances? Other races have migrated, but not like this,

always as conqueror. The Jew has been a stroller in his time; but he

has improved more in mental acumen and cunning—not so much in heroism

and personal qualities: his proscribed condition will account for this.

The Caucasian in its progress, will also have mingled slightly, and,

judging from analogy, perhaps advantageously, with the finer portion

of those whom it has overwhelmed. This breed, by its wide move across

the Atlantic, does not seem at all to have lost vigour, and retains

the nautical and roving instinct unimpaired, although the American

climate is certainly inferior to the European. It is there rapidly

moving west, and may soon have described one of the earth’s circles.

A change of seed, that is, a change of place, within certain limits

of latitude, is well known {371} to be indispensable to the more

sturdy growth and health of many cultivated vegetables; it is probable

that this also holds true of the human race. There are few countries

where the old breed has not again and again sunk before the vigour of

new immigration; we even see the worn out breed, chased from their

homes to new location, return, after a time, superior to their former

vanquishers, or gradually work their way back in peace, by superior

subsisting power: this is visible in France, where the aboriginal

sallow Kelt, distinguished by high satyr-like feature, deep-placed

sparkling brown or grey eye, narrowed lower part of the face, short

erect vertebral column, great mental acuteness, and restless vivacity,

has emerged from the holes of the earth, the recesses of the forests

and wastes, into which it had been swept before the more powerful

blue-eyed Caucasian; and being a smaller, more easily subsisting

animal, has, by starving and eating out, been gradually undermining

the breed of its former conquerors. The changes which have been taking

place in France, and which, in many places, leave now scarcely a trace

of the fine race which existed twenty centuries ago, may, however, in

part, be accounted for by the admixture of the Caucasian and Keltic

tending more to the character of the latter, from the latter being a

purer and more fixed variety, and nearer the original type or medium

standard of man; and from the warm dry plains of France (much drier

from cultivation and the reduction of the forests), having considerable

influence to increase this bias: In some of the south-eastern

departments, {372} more immediately in the tide of the ingress of the

Caucasian, where the purest current has latest flowed, and the climate

is more suitable, and also in some of the maritime districts, where the

air is moister, and to which they have been seaborn at a later period,

the Caucasian character is still prominent. Something of this, yet not

so general, is occurring in Britain, where the fair bright-blooded race

is again giving place to the darker and more sallow. This may, however,

be partly occasioned by more of artificial heat and shelter and other

consequences of higher civilization. There seems to be something

connected with confinement and sedentary life, with morbid action of

the liver, or respiratory or transpiratory organs, which tends to this

change under dry and hot, and especially confined atmosphere. Perhaps

imagination is also a worker here; and the colour most regarded, as

snow in cold countries, black among colliers, white among bleachers,

or even the dark colour of dress, may produce its peculiar impression,

and our much looked-up-to Calvinistic priesthood, from the pulpit,

disseminate darkness as well as light.

Our own Kelt has indubitably improved much since, _par necessité_,

he took to the mountain; but, though steadily enduring, when there

is mental excitement, he has acquired a distaste to dull hopeless

unceasing labour, and would fare scantily and lie hard, rather than

submit to the monotonous industry of the city operative, or the toil of

the agricultural drudge. Though once a fugitive, the Kelt is now, in

moral courage and hardihood, equal {373} perhaps to any other, yet he

still trembles to put foot on ocean.

Notwithstanding that change of place, simply, may have impression

to improve the species, yet is it more to circumstances connected

with this change, to which the chief part of the improvement must be

referred. In the agitation which accompanies emigration, the ablest

in mind and body—the most powerful varieties of the race will be

thrown into their natural position as leaders, impressing the stamp

of their character on the people at large, and constituting the more

reproductive part; while the feebler or more improvident varieties will

generally sink under the incidental hardships. When a swarm emigrates

from a prosperous hive, it also will generally consist of the more

adventurous stirring spirits, who, with the right of conquerors, will

appropriate the finest of the indigenæ which they overrun; their choice

of these being regulated by personal qualities, not by the adventitious

circumstances of wealth or high birth—a regard to which certainly tends

to deteriorate the species, and is one of the causes which renders the

noblesse of Europe comparatively inferior to the Asiatic, or rather the

Christian noblesse to the Mahometan.

It has been remarked, that our finest, most acute population, exist in

the neutral ground, where the Caucasian and Keltic have mixed, but this

may arise from other causes than admixture. Our healthiest and poorest

country borders the Highlands, and the population enjoy more of the

open air. Our eastern population, north of the {374} natural division

of Flamboroughead, are also harder and sharper featured, and keener

witted, than those southward, who may be styled our fen-bred. There is

no doubt more of Keltic blood mingled with the north division; but the

sea-born breeds have also been different, those more northerly being

Scandinavian, and the more southerly consisting of the native of Lower

Germany and the heavy Fleming. The placid-looking Englishman, more

under the control of animal enjoyment, though perhaps not so readily

acute, excels in the no less valuable qualities of constancy and bodily

powers of exertion; and when properly taught under high division of

labour, becomes a better operative in his particular employment, and

even will sometimes extend scientific discovery further, than his

more mercurial northern neighbour, who, from his quick wits being

generally in advance of his manual practice, seldom attains to the

dexterity which results from the combination of continued bodily

action and restricted mental application. There exists, however, very

considerable intellectual capacity in this English breed, but it too

frequently is crushed under the preponderance of the animal part,

affording that purest specimen of vulgarity, the English clown. But,

independently of climate and breed, a great part of the low Englander’s

obtuseness is referable to his being entailed lord of the soil, under

poor-rate law, contravening a natural law (see note B), so that, when

unsuccessful or out of employment, he, without effort to obtain some

new means of independent subsistence, sinks into the parish {375} or

work-house labourer. On the contrary, the Scotsman, with no resource

but in himself, with famine always in the vista, as much in his view

as a principle of action in material affairs as his strong perception

of the right in moral, and also under the stimulus of a high pride,

leaves no means untried at home; and, when fairly starved out of his

native country, among various resources, often invades the territory

of his more easy-minded southern neighbour, where his acuteness seldom

fails to find out a convenient occupation, in which manual dexterity is

second to economy and forethought—his success exciting the wonder and

envy of the dull-witted native.

It would appear, that the finest portion, at least apparently so,

of the north temperate zone, between the parallels of 30° and 48°

latitude, when nearly of the level of the ocean, is not so favourable

for human existence as the more northern part between 50° and 60°,

or even the torrid zone. The native of the north of Europe has a

superior development of person, and a much longer reproductory life

than the native of the south, which more than counterbalances the

earlier maturity of the latter in power of increase. Independent of

the great current of population setting south in the northern part of

the temperate zone, there seems even to be some tendency to a flux

northward, from the confines of the torrid; but this arises rather from

the unsteadiness of the seasons, and consequent deficit of food, at

particular times, than from a steady increase of population. {376}

NOTE D, p. 4.

Our milder moods, benevolence, gentleness, contemplation—our refinement

in sentiment—our “lovely dreams of peace and joy,” have negative

weight in the balance of national strength. The rougher excitement of

hatred, ambition, pride, patriotism, and the more selfish passions,

is necessary to the full and strong development of our active powers.

That Britain is leaving the impress of her energy and morality on a

considerable portion of the world, is owing to her having first borne

fire and sword over these countries: the husbandman tears up the glebe,

with all its covering of weeds and flowers, before he commit his good

seed to the earth. Life and death—good and evil—pleasure and pain, are

the principles of impulse to the scheme or machine of nature, as heat

and cold are to the steam-engine, thus moving in necessary alternate

dependence. Our moral sense, our perception and love of good, could not

exist without the knowledge of evil; yet, we shudder at the truth of

evil being part and portion of nature.

NOTE E.

There cannot be a more striking proof of the necessity of a better

representation of the marine interest, than the fact, that our trading

vessels are constructed of an {377} unsuitable figure, owing to the

improper manner of measuring the register tonnage. In order to save a

little trouble of calculation to the surveying officer in gauging the

contents of the vessel, the law directs him merely to take the length

and breadth at the widest place, and from these lines, by a regular

formula, to compute the tonnage; the vessel paying the charges for

lights and harbours, and other dues, in proportion to this measurement.

The result is, that, in order to lessen these dues individually, our

vessels are constructed deep in proportion to breadth, consequently are

sluggish sailers, and not nearly so safe and pleasant sea-boats as they

otherwise would be—many a ship, especially with light cargo, getting

on her beam-ends and foundering, or not standing up under canvass to

weather a lee shore. The influence of this absurd measurement law is

the more unlucky, as the ship-owner, from a deep vessel being, in

proportion to the capacity of the hold, cheaper than one of shallower

or longer dimensions, is already more disposed to construct his vessel

deeper than is consistent with the safety of the seamen and security

of the ship and cargo, the particular insurance of a deep vessel not

being greater than that of one of safer proportions. The injurious

effect from vessels being constructed on the principles of avoiding

tolls or dues, rather than for sailing, will occur to every one. We

need not say that all this flows from the ignorance or carelessness of

the constructors of our Parliamentary acts, consequent to defective

representation. {378}

NOTE F.

In the case of the upper carse on the Tay Firth, there is evidence,

both from its vestiges and from records, that it had occupied, at

least, the entire firth, or sea-basin, above Broughty Ferry, and

that about 50 square miles of this carse has been carried out into

the German Ocean by the strong sea-tide current, a consequence of

the lowering of the German Ocean, and of the deepening of the outlet

of this sea-basin at Broughty Ferry, apparently by this very rapid

sea-tide current. This carse appears to have been a general deposition

at the bottom of a lake having only a narrow outlet communicating with

the sea, and probably did not rise much higher than the height of the

bottom of the outlet at that time.

An increase of deposition of alluvium, or prevention of decrease, may,

in many cases, be accomplished by artificial means. The diminution of

the carse of the Tay was in rapid progress about sixty years ago, the

sea-bank being undermined by the waves of the basin, the clay tumbling

down, becoming diffused in the water, and being carried out to sea,

by every ebbing tide, purer water returning from the ocean the next

tide-flow. This decrease was stopped by the adoption of stone embanking

and dikes. A small extension of the carses of present high-water level,

in the upper part of the firths of Tay and Forth, has lately been

effected, by forming brushwood, stone and mud dikes, to promote the

accumulation. {379} In doing this, the whole art consists in placing

obstructions to the current and waves, so that whatever deposition

takes place at high-water, or at the beginning of the flood-tide, when

the water is nearly still, may not again be raised and carried off.

Notwithstanding this accumulation, and also the prevention of further

waste of the superior carse, the deepening of the Tay Firth, formerly

carse, and of the gorge at Broughty Ferry, seems still in progress,

and could not, without very considerable labour, be prevented. In the

case, however, of the sea-basin of Montrose, a little labour, from

the narrowness of the gorges, would put it in a condition to become

gradually filled with mud. Not a great deal more expenditure than what

has sufficed to erect the suspension-bridge over its largest outlet,

would have entirely filled up this outlet, and the smaller outlet

might have been also filled to within several feet of high-water, and

made of sufficient breadth only, to emit the water of the river, which

flows into the basin. The floated sand and mud of this river, thus

prevented from being carried out to sea, would, in the course of years,

completely fill up the basin.

From some vestiges of the upper carse, as well as of the lower or

submarine carse, in situations where their formation cannot easily be

traced to any local cause, it seems not improbable that the basin of

the German sea itself, nearly as far north as the extent of Scotland,

had at one time been occupied with a carse or delta, a continuation

of Holland, formed by the accumulation of the {380} diluvium of the

rivers which flow into this basin, together with the molluscous exuviæ

of the North Sea, and the abrasion of the Norwegian coast and Scottish

islands, borne downward by the heavy North Sea swell.

In the case of the delta of Holland having extended so far northward,

a subsidence of the land or rising of the sea, so as to form a passage

for the waters round Britain, must have occurred. The derangement,

at several places, of the fine wavy stratification of these carses,

and the confusedly heaped-up beds of broken sea-shells, shew that

some great rush of water had taken place, probably when Belgium was

dissevered from England. Since the opening of the bottom of the gulf,

the accumulation may have been undergoing a gradual reduction, by

more diffused mud[69] being carried off from the German Sea into

the Atlantic and North Sea, than what the former is receiving—the

same process taking place here as has been occurring in the basin

of the Tay. The large sand-banks on the Dutch and English coast,—in

some places, such as the Goodwin Sands, certainly the heavier, less

diffusible part of the former alluvial country, and portions of these

alluvial districts being retained by artificial means,—bear a striking

resemblance to the {381} sand-banks of the sea basin of the Tay—the

less diffusible remains of the removed portion of the alluvium which

had once occupied all that basin, and to the remaining portion of the

alluvium also retained by artificial means.

* * * * *

Throughout this volume, we have felt considerable inconvenience, from

the adopted dogmatical classification of plants, and have all along

been floundering between species and variety, which certainly under

culture soften into each other. A particular conformity, each after

its own kind, when in a state of nature, termed species, no doubt

exists to a considerable degree. This conformity has existed during

the last forty centuries. Geologists discover a like particular

conformity—fossil species—through the deep deposition of each great

epoch, but they also discover an almost complete difference to exist

between the species or stamp of life, of one epoch from that of every

other. We are therefore led to admit, either of a repeated miraculous

creation; or of a power of change, under a change of circumstances,

to belong to living organized matter, or rather to the congeries of

inferior life, which appears to form superior. The derangements and

changes in organized existence, induced by a change of circumstance

from the interference of man, affording us {382} proof of the plastic

quality of superior life, and the likelihood that circumstances have

been very different in the different epochs, though steady in each,

tend strongly to heighten the probability of the latter theory.

When we view the immense calcareous and bituminous formations,

principally from the waters and atmosphere, and consider the oxidations

and depositions which have taken place, either gradually, or during

some of the great convulsions, it appears at least probable, that the

liquid elements containing life have varied considerably at different

times in composition and in weight; that our atmosphere has contained

a much greater proportion of carbonic acid or oxygen; and our waters,

aided by excess of carbonic acid, and greater heat resulting from

greater density of atmosphere, have contained a greater quantity of

lime and other mineral solutions. Is the inference then unphilosophic,

that living things which are proved to have a circumstance-suiting

power—a very slight change of circumstance by culture inducing a

corresponding change of character—may have gradually accommodated

themselves to the variations of the elements containing them, and,

without new creation, have presented the diverging changeable phenomena

of past and present organized existence.

The destructive liquid currents, before which the hardest mountains

have been swept and comminuted into gravel, sand, and mud, which

intervened between and divided these epochs, probably extending over

the whole surface of the globe, and destroying nearly all living {383}

things, must have reduced existence so much, that an unoccupied field

would be formed for new diverging ramifications of life, which, from

the connected sexual system of vegetables, and the natural instincts

of animals to herd and combine with their own kind, would fall into

specific groups, these remnants, in the course of time, moulding and

accommodating their being anew to the change of circumstances, and

to every possible means of subsistence, and the millions of ages of

regularity which appear to have followed between the epochs, probably

after this accommodation was completed, affording fossil deposit of

regular specific character.

There are only two probable ways of change—the above, and the still

wider deviation from present occurrence,—of indestructible or molecular

life (which seems to resolve itself into powers of attraction and

repulsion under mathematical figure and regulation, bearing a slight

systematic similitude to the great aggregations of matter), gradually

uniting and developing itself into new circumstance-suited living

aggregates, without the presence of any mould or germ of former

aggregates, but this scarcely differs from new creation, only it forms

a portion of a continued scheme or system.

In endeavouring to trace, in the former way, the principle of these

changes of fashion which have taken place in the domiciles of life,

the following questions occur: Do they arise from admixture of

species nearly allied producing intermediate species? Are they _the

diverging ramifications_ of the living principle under modification

of {384} circumstance? Or have they resulted from the combined

agency of both? Is there only one living principle? Does organized

existence, and perhaps all material existence, consist of one Proteus

principle of life capable of gradual circumstance-suited modifications

and aggregations, without bound under the solvent or motion-giving

principle, heat or light? There is more beauty and unity of design

in this continual balancing of life to circumstance, and greater

conformity to those dispositions of nature which are manifest to us,

than in total destruction and new creation. It is improbable that

much of this diversification is owing to commixture of species nearly

allied, all change by this appears very limited, and confined within

the bounds of what is called Species; the progeny of the same parents,

under great difference of circumstance, might, in several generations,

even become distinct species, incapable of co-reproduction.

The self-regulating adaptive disposition of organized life may, in

part, be traced to the extreme fecundity of Nature, who, as before

stated, has, in all the varieties of her offspring, a prolific power

much beyond (in many cases a thousandfold) what is necessary to fill

up the vacancies caused by senile decay. As the field of existence

is limited and pre-occupied, it is only the hardier, more robust,

better suited to circumstance individuals, who are able to struggle

forward to maturity, these inhabiting only the situations to which

they have superior adaptation and greater power of occupancy than

any other kind; the weaker, less circumstance-suited, being {385}

prematurely destroyed. This principle is in constant action, it

regulates the colour, the figure, the capacities, and instincts; those

individuals of each species, whose colour and covering are best suited

to concealment or protection from enemies, or defence from vicissitude

and inclemencies of climate, whose figure is best accommodated to

health, strength, defence, and support; whose capacities and instincts

can best regulate the physical energies to self-advantage according

to circumstances—in such immense waste of primary and youthful life,

_those_ only come forward to maturity from the strict ordeal by which

Nature tests their adaptation to her standard of perfection and fitness

to continue their kind by reproduction.

From the unremitting operation of this law acting in concert with

the tendency which the progeny have to take the more particular

qualities of the parents, together with the connected sexual system in

vegetables, and instinctive limitation to its own kind in animals, a

considerable uniformity of figure, colour, and character, is induced,

constituting species; the breed gradually acquiring the very best

possible adaptation of these to its condition which it is susceptible

of, and when alteration of circumstance occurs, thus changing in

character to suit these as far as its nature is susceptible of change.

This circumstance-adaptive law, operating upon the slight but continued

natural disposition to sport in the progeny (seedling variety), does

not preclude the supposed influence which volition or sensation may

have over the configuration of the body. To examine into the {386}

disposition to sport in the progeny, even when there is only one

parent, as in many vegetables, and to investigate how much variation

is modified by the mind or nervous sensation of the parents, or of the

living thing itself during its progress to maturity; how far it depends

upon external circumstance, and how far on the will, irritability and

muscular exertion, is open to examination and experiment. In the first

place, we ought to investigate its dependency upon the preceding links

of the particular chain of life, variety being often merely types or

approximations of former parentage; thence the variation of the family,

as well as of the individual, must be embraced by our experiments.

This continuation of family type, not broken by casual particular

aberration, is mental as well as corporeal, and is exemplified in many

of the dispositions or instincts of particular races of men. These

innate or continuous ideas or habits, seem proportionally greater

in the insect tribes, those especially of shorter revolution; and

forming an abiding memory, may resolve much of the enigma of instinct,

and the foreknowledge which these tribes have of what is necessary

to completing their round of life, reducing this to knowledge, or

impressions, and habits, acquired by a long experience. This greater

continuity of existence, or rather continuity of perceptions and

impressions, in insects, is highly probable; it is even difficult

in some to ascertain the particular stops when each individuality

commences, under the different phases of egg, larva, pupa, or if much

{387} consciousness of individuality exists. The continuation of

reproduction for several generations by the females alone in some of

these tribes, tends to the probability of the greater continuity of

existence, and the subdivisions of life by cuttings, at any rate must

stagger the advocate of individuality.

Among the millions of _specific varieties_ of living things which

occupy the humid portion of the surface of our planet, as far back

as can be traced, there does not appear, with the exception of man,

to have been any particular engrossing race, but a pretty fair

balance of powers of occupancy,—or rather, most wonderful variation

of circumstance parallel to the nature of every species, as if

circumstance and species had grown up together. There are indeed

several races which have threatened ascendency in some particular

regions, but it is man alone from whom any general imminent danger to

the existence of his brethren is to be dreaded.

As far back as history reaches, man had already had considerable

influence, and had made encroachments upon his fellow denizens,

probably occasioning the destruction of many species, and the

production and continuation of a number of varieties or even species,

which he found more suited to supply his wants, but which, from the

infirmity of their condition—not having undergone selection by the

law of nature, of which we have spoken, cannot maintain their ground

without his culture and protection.

It is, however, only in the present age that man has {388} begun

to reap the fruits of his tedious education, and has proven how

much “knowledge is power.” He has now acquired a dominion over the

material world, and a consequent power of increase, so as to render it

probable that the whole surface of the earth may soon be overrun by

this engrossing anomaly, to the annihilation of every wonderful and

beautiful variety of animated existence, which does not administer to

his wants principally as laboratories of preparation to befit cruder

elemental matter for assimilation by his organs.

* * * * *

In taking a retrospective glance at our pages from the press, we notice

some inaccuracy and roughness, which a little more timely attention to

_training_ and _pruning_ might have obviated; the facts and induction

may, however, outbalance these.

We observe that Fig. _d_, p. 27, from the want of proper shading,

and error in not marking the dotted lines, does not serve well to

illustrate our purpose. This figure is intended to represent a tree

of a short thick stem, dividing into four branches, springing out

regularly in the manner of a cross, nearly at right angles with the

stem. These branches cut over about three or four feet out from the

division, form each one wing of a knee, and the stem, quartered

longitudinally through the heart, forms the other wing. It is of great

advantage to have four branches rather than two or three, as the stem,

divided into four, by being twice cut down the middle, forms the wings

nearly square; whereas, when divided {389} into two, the halves are

broad and flat, and a considerable loss of timber takes place; besides,

the two branches afford a thicker wing than the flat half of the stem

does when squared. When the tree separates into three branches, the

stem does not saw out conveniently; and when divided, the cleft part

is angular, and much loss of timber also takes place in the squaring.

When the stem divides into four branches, each of these branches

coincides in thickness with the quartered stem, and the knees are

obtained equally thick throughout, without any loss of timber. The four

branches, at six or eight feet above the division, may with a little

attention be thrown into a rectangular bend, and thus give eight knees

from each tree. Knees are generally required of about eight inches in

diameter, and three and a half feet in length of wing; but when they

are to be had thicker and longer, a foot or more in thickness, and

from four to ten feet in length of wing, they are equally in request,

suiting for high rising floors or heel-knees.

The directions for forming larch roots into knees after the tree is

grubbed, are also not very explicit. The stem of the tree is cut over

nearly the same distance from the bulb as the length of the root spurs;

this quartered through the heart (in the same manner as above), forms

one wing of the knee, and the four spurs form the other wings. The

same advantage results from having four regular root-spurs in larch,

as in having four regular branches in oak: the two processes are quite

similar, only the roots in the one case, and the branches in the other,

form one wing of the knees. {390}

We have given no directions for the bending of plank timber. In larch,

the wind generally gives the slight necessary bend to a sufficient

proportion; and in oak, the trees frequently grow a little bent of

their own accord.

A foot-note has been omitted, stating, that the plan of bending young

trees, by tying them to an adjacent tree, intended to be soon removed,

belongs, as we are informed, to Mr Loudon.

We regret that our allusion to the lamented Mr Huskisson was printed

off before we knew of his death.

* * * * *

Since this volume went to press, there has been some changes of

scenery on the political European stage, _even rivalling_ what has

ever been accomplished of sylvan metamorphosis on the face of nature

by Sir Henry Steuart. The intense interest excited by these efforts

towards the regeneration of man, has completely thrown into shade our

humbler subject—the regeneration of trees. We have even forgot it

ourselves in the hands of the printer, while yet unborn. These sudden

transformations altering the political and moral relations of man,

also render a number of our observations not quite apposite, and our

speculations, some of them, rather “prophetic of the past.” They, by

obliterating national distinctions, and diminishing the occasions for

going to war, will, it is hoped, bring the European family closer

into amity. At any rate, they have completely thrown out the {391}

calculations of our politicians regarding the balance of power and

international connection as natural allies and foes, and bind the

French and the British together by ties on the surest principle of

friendly sympathy, “_idem velle atque nolle_,” which no Machiavellian

policy of cabinets, nor waywardness of political head, will be able to

sunder.

We had intended to bring out Naval Timber and Arboriculture as a

portion of a work embracing Rural Economy in general, but this is not a

time to think of rural affairs.

ENDNOTES TO THE APPENDIX.

[67] The very extended sway, the state of civilization considered,

of the Tartar, was evidently the consequence of the great facility

of communication from the plain open surface of the country, and the

equestrian habits of the people.

[68] The habit of breed is apparent in many places of the world. Where

a fine river washes the walls of some of the internal towns of France,

scarce a boat is to be seen, except the long tract-boats employed in

the conveyance of fire-wood—nobody thinks of sailing for pleasure. The

Esquimaux, and the Red Indian of North America, inhabiting the same

country, shew an entirely distinct habit of breed. The Black and the

Copper-coloured native of the Australian Islands, are equally opposed

in instinctive habit.

[69] The sea water from Flamborough-head, southward to the Straits

of Dover, is generally discoloured with mud; and during every breeze

takes up an addition from the bottom, which is an alluvium so unstable

and loose, that no sea vegetation can hold in it. From not producing

herbage, the general basis of animal life, few fishes or shells can

find support in it.

FINIS.

ERRATA.

Page 10, top line, _for_ they _read_ the branches

18, line 13. from bottom, _for_ under _read_ within

18, line 8. from bottom, _for_ long _read_ in length of wing

22, _insert_ f _at fig. on right-hand side of wood cut_.

26, line 8. from bottom, _for_ 5 _read_ 3

57, line 4. from top, _for_ any _read_ many

78, line 11. from top, _for_ latitude _read_ altitude

87, line 9. from top, _dele_ may also in some degree

—, line 10. from top, _for_ diminish _read_ diminishing

—, line 11. from top, _for_ increase _read_ increasing

205, line 12. from top, _dele_ generally esteemed

206, bottom line, _for_ lineal _read_ large

218, line 5. from bottom, _for_ ground _read_ portion

220, line 7. from bottom, _after_ soil _insert a semicolon_

222, line 14. from top, _for_ latterly _read_ laterally

223, line 13. from top, _for_ falling _read_ felling

242, line 12. from top, _for_ into _read_ in, to

280, line 14. from top, _for_ the _read_ this

285, top line, _after_ n _insert_ o

300, line 2. from bottom, _dele_ of

327, line 6. from bottom, _for_ that dew, _read_ dew, that

331, line 10. from bottom, _for_ root _read_ row

372, line 14. from top, _for_ tend _read_ tends

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE.

Original spelling and grammar have been generally retained, with some

exceptions noted below. Original printed page numbers are shown like

this: {52}. Original small caps are now uppercase. Italics look _like

this_. Footnotes have been converted to endnotes labeled 1–69, and

moved to the end of the appropriate book division—i.e. Introduction,

Parts I–IV, or Appendix. The transcriber produced the cover image

and hereby assigns it to the public domain. Original page images are

available from archive.org—search for “onnavaltimberarb00matt”.

Page iii. Changed “EDINDURGH” to “EDINBURGH”.

Page xiv. Changed “and and” to “and”.

Page 216. Changed “in in” to “in”.

Page 218. The phrase “3s. per do.” was changed to “3s. per load,”.

Page 325n. Changed “coutnries” to “countries”.

Page 326. Changed “Eygpt” to “Egypt”.

Page 346. Ditto marks in the first table, “do.   do.” were changed to

“, from one to three years transplanted,”.

Page 351. Changed “unweildy” to “unwieldy”.

Page 386. Changed “mpressions” to “impressions”.

Page 391, ERRATA. The errata have been applied to the text in the

proper locations. The correction for page 327 l.6 from bottom had

already been applied in the edition which is the basis for this

transcription. The correction for page 331 l. 10 from bottom cannot

be applied, as there was no “root” or “row” on that line. There was,

however, a “row” on line 8 from the bottom, so perhaps the correction

had already been applied.