When young trees are planted out from the nursery, as soon as they begin to break in the Spring, they are cut down to three or four eyes, according to their strength, to furnish them with bearing wood: if this were not done, they would run up in long naked branches, and would not produce one quarter of the fruit which they do when this operation is properly performed. The same holds good in heading all kinds of old trees.

An opinion prevails, particularly in those parts where Apple trees are cultivated to any considerable extent, that trees never bear well after heading down, and that it frequently kills them. This may, no doubt, happen when they are improperly headed down all at once, by giving a sudden check to the sap, the few weak shoots not having strength to draw up what is supplied by the roots; and moreover not being capable of sheltering one another, they are chilled by the cold, and so rendered, at least, unproductive, if they are not totally killed. But if heading were done gradually, that is, if every other branch all over the tree were headed at a proper length, cutting as near to those parts where the shoots appear as possible, in the month of February or March, or even as late as May, in the course of the Summer they would throw out fine long shoots. These should not be shortened the first year unless it be necessary to shorten a few to fill up the head of the tree with bearing wood, and that should be done in the following Spring; cutting them to six or eight inches long, according to their strength.

In the next Spring after the first branches are headed, the remaining old branches may be cut out; and these will soon fill the head of the tree with fine bearing wood. In three years, if properly managed, trees so headed will produce a much greater quantity of fruit, and of a better quality than they did before the operation was performed.

PREFACE

ΤΟ

THE SECOND EDITION.

WHEN the first Edition of this work appeared in print, it became certainly at once a candidate for public favour, and an object of professional criticism. Its reception in the former character has been to me honourable and gratifying in the extreme*; and had Criticism exercised its talent with personal candour and liberality, its remarks on points of practice or hypothesis should have met with respect and attention from me; even though they had shown my positions to be erroneous; but its utmost severity would not have extorted a word of complaint. Nor shall I now trespass longer on the time or patience of the

* An impression of 1500 copies, in 4to., having been sold in little more than eight months.

Reader, than briefly to reply to a few points, which tend to affect, not so much my professional reputation, as my personal character.

Thomas Andrew Knight, Esq. in a pamphlet lately published, tells his readers that he has "suspected a Combination between Dr. Anderson and Mr. Forsyth." To be suspicious, is certainly not a quality that easily enters into the composition of a cultivated and an honourable mind; nor ought the serious charge of COMBINATION to be lightly made against men of fair repute.

"I believe," says Mr. Knight to Dr. Anderson, "that you are actuated [that is, in having recommended Mr. Forsyth's Experiments at Kensing. ton] by some motive of private interest, with which the Public are not acquainted [but which, it seems, Mr. Knight was determined should be no longer a secret]. Is Dr. Anderson quite sure, that he is not the concealed Writer, either wholly or in part, of his friend Mr. Forsyth's book, and the intended sharer of his Profits? And has not Dr. Anderson taken out a patent for a new kind of forcing-house, whose excellence his disinterested friend Mr. Forsyth stands forward to attest?"

Now considering that no part of the foregoing

* Intituled, "Some Doubts relative to the Efficacy of Mr. Forsyth's Plaster in filling up the Holes in Trees, &c. ascribed to it by Dr. Anderson and Mr. Forsyth: In a Letter to Dr. Anderson."

paragraph has any other foundation than in the creative fancy of Mr. Knight, the language in which it is conveyed does not appear to be quite so temperate, or so qualified, as might be expected from one Gentleman in addressing

another.

Dr. Anderson sees, no doubt, in what manner it is proper for him to treat an insinuation so illiberally made.*

*The Doctor has since publicly invited Mr. Knight to an amicable arbitration, in the following manly terms;

"SIR,

"To T. A. Knight, Esq.

"When I was first told that you had published a Letter addressed to me, on the subject of Mr. Forsyth's Treatment of Trees, I felt no anxiety concerning it, nor was at any pains to procure the book. I conceived that it was written by a Gentleman, and that of course it could contain nothing that was unbecoming one of that character to write; and, as what we had both said on that subject was before the Public, I felt no difficulty in abiding the decision of that Public concerning it. I am sorry, however, to find, on reading your book of late, that I had been in a mistake concerning you; and that you had there published such things as necessarily call upon me to take this public notice of them. It would be degrading to the character I bear, however, to multiply assertions unsupported by proofs, which might be contradicted in the same manner as I have experienced, without affording to the Public any adequate means of discriminating truth from falsehood. In order to avoid this futile kind of altercation, and to elucidate the truth at once, without danger of error, I beg leave to