CONTENTS.Page 1INTRODUCTION,PARTI.—STRUCTUREOFVESSELS.SECTIONI.—PLANK.5Figure, dimensions, and quality of timber suitable,7British trees suited for plank,8Directions for training and pruning plank timber,14SECTIONII.—TIMBERS,18Most suitable dimensions,19Figures of bends and crooks,21British trees suited for timbers,PARTII.—BRITISHFORESTTREESSUITEDFORNAVALPURPOSES.31Oak—Quercus,42Spanish Chestnut—Castanea vulgaris,48Beech-tree—Fagus sylvatica,50Scotch Elm—Ulmus montana,54English Elm—Ulmus campestris,58Red-wood Willow—Salix fragilis,63Red-wood Pine—Pinus,75White Larch—Larix communis, pyramidalis,78Investigation of the causes of the rot in larch,82Soils and subsoils most suited for larch,86Soils and subsoils where larch generally takes rot,88Remarks on open draining,90Bending and kneeing larch,94New plan of forming larch roots advantageously into knees,97Uses of larch, and value as a naval timber,PARTIII.—MISCELLANEOUSMATTERCONNECTEDWITHNAVALTIMBER.106NURSERIES,ib.Infinite variety existing in what is called species,107Injurious effect from selecting the seed of the inferior varieties for sowing,ib.Injurious effect from kiln-drying fir cones,108A principle of selection existing in nature of the strongest varieties for reproduction,109Injurious effect from the plants spindling in the seed-bed and nursery line,111Injurious effect from cutting the roots and from pruning,ib.A light soil and open situation best suited for a nursery,112Wide diverging root-leaders necessary to the large extension of a tree,114PLANTING,117Further observations on pruning,122Observations on timber,124Table of the number of sap-growths of different kinds of timber,126Remarks on laburnum,128Height to which trees may be trained of clear stem,130CONCERNINGOURMARINE,131Causes which befit Britain for being the first naval power, and the emporium of the world,133Utility of a system of universal free trade,134Absolute necessity of abolishing every monopoly and restriction on trade in Britain,135Our marine not represented in Parliament, and the consequences,136Insane duty on the importation of naval timber and hemp,PARTIV.—NOTICESOFAUTHORSWHOTREATOFARBORICULTURE.138Utility of a general review of these authors,140I.—FORESTER’SGUIDE,BYMRMONTEATH,140Advantage of converting our coppice oak into forest, and of saving our home oak in time of peace,142Plan, by Mr Monteath, of preparing peat soils for planting,143————— of covering bare rocky ground with timber,144————— of raising oak-forest or copse by layers,146Influence of our vernal eastern breeze on vegetation,148Cause why the trees of narrow belts seldom grow to large timber,150Observations on pruning and thinning,154Observations on the age at which the valuable part of oak bark is thickest,157Observations on the prevention of dry-rot,163II.—NICOL’SPLANTER’SCALENDAR,164Different influence of transplanting on herbaceous and woody vegetables,165Cutting the roots close in, injurious to some trees and not to others,167Mr Sang’s plan of raising forest from the seedin situ,168Reasons which render the planting of young trees preferable to sowingin situ,170Mr Sang’s directions for nursery practice; sowing the different kinds of forest trees in the seed-bed; removing the seedlings to the nursery line, and from thence to the field,178Remarks on transplanting,181III.—BILLINGTONONPLANTING,ib.An account of the management of the Royal Forests,182Reasons why government should rather purchase than raise timber, and that they should sell off the Royal Forests,185The Billingtonian system of pruning,187Remarks on planting soils not easily permeable by water,188Mr Billington’s directions for planting these soils,189————— ————— for clearing away weeds, and for cutting in or pruning the points of the branches,192IV.—FORSYTHONFRUITANDFORESTTREES,ib.Mr Forsyth’s surgery of trees, and the value of his composition-salve,193Manner in which a tree can be transformed from disease and rottenness to health and soundness,198V.—MRWITHERS,ib.Discomfiture of our Scottish Knights by Mr Withers,199Account of a number of facts and experiments by the writer, on the comparative strength of quick and slow grown timber—on the influence of circumstance and age in modifying the quality of the timber—on the difference in the quality of different varieties of the same species, and of different parts of the same tree,214Oak timber, moderately fast grown, so that it may be of sufficient size, and still retain the toughness of youth, best suited for naval use,215Mr Withers, his literary friends and Sir Henry Steuart equally imperfectly acquainted with the subject in dispute between them,217The Withers’ system neither necessary nor economically suited for the greater part of Scotland,221Fallacy of experiments on the strength of timber, from not taking into account the difference of tension of the different annual layers, and their position, whether flat, perpendicular, &c.,226VI.—STEUART’SPLANTER’SGUIDEANDSIRWALTERSCOTT’SCRITIQUE,227Importance of whatever may serve to amuse the second childhood of the wealthy,227The subject—the art of moving about large trees in general, merely a pandering to our wilfulness and impatience,228Intolerable dulness of the park and smooth lawn,229Delightful sympathies with the objects and varied scenery of ourpeopledsubalpine country,231Sir Walter Scott’s curious effort to give consequence to the art of moving about large trees,233Paroxysm of admiration of Sir Walter, at Sir Henry’s discoveries, with his hyperbolic figures of comparison,235Account of the writer’s practice in moving trees of considerable size,245Taste of Sir Walter Scott for “home-keeping squires,” practisers of the Allanton system,246What a British gentleman should be,249The Allanton practice described,254Quotation from Sir Henry Steuart’s volume, in which the philosophy of his practice is described,264Summary of Sir Henry’s discoveries,265Consideration of the accuracy of some of Sir Henry’s assertions regarding the desiccated epidermis of trees, and the elongation of the shoots of plants,282Sir Henry’s assertion that quick-grown timber is inferior to slow-grown, and that culture necessarily renders it softer, less solid, and less durable, not correct,287The present climate of Scotland, and of the Orkneys and Shetlands, inferior to a former,288That this may have been owing to these islands having once been a portion of the continent,289The recent advance and recession of the German Ocean, render a former junction with the continent not improbable,305Mr Loudon’s statement, of the effect produced by pruning on the quality and quantity of the timber, that trees produce the best timber in their natural locality, not supported by facts,307The apparent use of the infinite seedling varieties of plants,309VII.—CRUICKSHANK’SPRACTICALPLANTER,ib.Advantages of laying ground under timber, stated rather too high by Mr Cruickshank,310Mr Cruickshank’s account of the superior fertilizing influence of forest upon the soil,316Facts which in many cases lead to an opposite conclusion,316An examination into the causes which promote or retard the formation, or which tend to dissipate the earth’s covering of vegetable mould,324Account of an uncommon system of fallowing once practised in the Carse of Gowrie,325High manuring quality of old clay walls,ib.Formation of nitre the probable cause of the fertilizing quality of these walls,ib.The fertilizing influence of summer fallow may in part be owing to the formation of nitre and other salts,326That there is a deficiency of these salts in some places of the world, and an excess in others,327Ignorance of Mr Cruickshank regarding the location of certain kinds of trees,330Mr Cruickshank’s reprehension of the practice of covering fir seeds half an inch deep in England, and offorcingsuitable earth for nurseries where awanting,331Best method of transplanting seedlings in the nursery row,ib.Quotation worthy the attention of planters,334Error of authors on the location of trees, in inculcating a determinate character of soil as generally necessary for each kind of tree,335Further errors of Mr Cruickshank on the location of trees,338Adaptation of Scots fir to moist soils, even to peat-moss,340An account by Mr Cruickshank of the most economical and successful mode of planting moors and bleak mountains,343Method of planting by the flat dibble or single notch,344————— ————— by the double notch or cross-slitting,345Expense and comparative merits of each,346These methods of planting best adapted for a sterile country, where the weeds are small,347Practice by the writer of cultivating young plantation by the plough, suited for rich soil,348Best season for planting moist soils,349Manner in which frost throws up the young plant from the soil,351Mr Cruickshank’s plan of raising oak forestin situfrom the seed,352That although the bare plan given by our author, of sowingin situ, under the shelter of nurses, is good, his directions for executing it are not very judicious,353Advantages of this plan which Mr Cruickshank has not noticed,356That the power of ripening seed is not increased by shelter in proportion to the power of growing,357That the line of seed ripening, and not the line of growing, regulates the natural distribution of plants in respect to climate,ib.That oaks, under this plan of sowingin situunder shelter, can be extended to a climate inferior to the natural,358That oaks grown in the low country, and best climate of Scotland, appear not to ripen the seed sufficiently. Thence the probability that oak now would not even keep its present locality in the low country of Scotland, although it may “be taught to rise in our” alpine country,APPENDIX.363NOTEA.—That universal empire is practicable only under naval power,364NOTEB. On hereditary nobility and entail,369NOTEC. Instinct or habit of breed,370Nautical and roving disposition of the superior breed which has spread westward over the maritime provinces of Britain, and over nearly the whole continent of North America,371Influence of change of place,372Influence of civilization and confinement upon the complexion,373Difference of character between the population of the northern and southern maritime provinces of Britain,375That the middle and southern portion of the North Temperate Zone is not so favourable to human existence as the northern portion,376NOTED. Use of the selfish passions,377NOTEE. Injudicious measurement law of the tonnage of vessels, rendering our mercantile marine of defective proportions,378NOTEF. On the mud depositions or alluvium on the eastern coast of Britain,379Probability that a delta of this alluvium, a continuation of Holland, had at one time occupied the entire German Ocean,381Accommodation of organized life to circumstance, by diverging ramifications,388Retrospective glance at our pages,