and roots from any further injury. The surface should then be made quite smooth, when the composition may be spread over the whole surface according to the directions. It should, however, be observed, that the composition, when employed for this particular purpose should have an equal quantity of the powder of alabaster mixed with the dry powder generally directed to be used after the composition is laid on, in order to render the surface harder, and of course better able to resist the bad effects of the dripping of trees, of rain, frost and snow. But this addition is by no means necessary in the usual application to the sides of trees.

In consequence of this process, the vigour of the roots will operate so powerfully in the course of the succeeding spring, that a considerable number of buds or branches will shoot forth round the stump, which, with proper care and attention, may be trained to many valuable purposes, either straight or crooked; for knee-timber, or other uses; and by retaining only so many of these shoots as are designed to grow for any particular intention, more than one half will be saved, in point of time, according to the proportions of common growth: for, if a young tree be planted in a soil equal in quality to the site of the old stump, the shoots growing from the latter, will, in eight or ten years, attain to a size which the single plant will hardly acquire in twice that period. There are also many useful purposes of husbandry, as hop poles, and other poles used on various occasions, for which a number of shoots may be trained from one stump, whose fertile juices will shortly rear a healthy and

numerous offspring around it. Very particular attention, however, should be paid to regulate their number, according to the size and vigour of the stump. It certainly would be proper to leave more of them at first than are intended to be reserved for final use, in order to draw up the sap; if too few are left, they will be liable to burst, from the superabundant flow of the juices from the old stock; to prevent which inconvenience, they should be cut away by degrees, always applying the composition as they are cut, and leaving the finest stem to produce the new tree, which will in time cover the old stump, and leave nothing but a faint kind of cicatrix at the junction of the old and new part of the tree. It is needless for me to insist on the great advantages which land-proprietors and farmers will derive from this method of managing their woods and coppice grounds, whereever they may be. In many counties of England, coppice or underwood, is an article in very great demand for charcoal, common fuel, or the purposes of particular manufactories, as well as to furnish a variety of articles for husbandry and domestic convenience.

Directions for making Mr. Forsyth's Composition for curing the Diseases, Defects, and Injuries in all kinds of Fruit and Forest Trees, and the Method of preparing the Trees and laying on the Composition.

"Take one bushel of fresh cow dung, half a bushel of lime rubbish of old buildings (that from the ceilings of rooms is preferable,) half a bushel

of wood ashes, and a sixteenth part of a bushel of pit or river sand: the last three articles are to be sifted fine before they are mixed; then work them well together with a spade, and afterwards with a wooden beater, until the stuff is very smooth, like fine plaster used for the ceilings of rooms.

The composition being thus made, care must be taken to prepare the tree properly for the application, by cutting away all the dead, decayed, and injured part, till you come to the fresh, sound wood, leaving the surface of the wood very smooth, and rounding off the edges of the bark with a draw-knife or other instrument, perfectly smooth, which must be particularly attended to; then lay on the plaster about one-eighth of an inch thick, all over the part where the wood or bark has been so cut away, finishing off the edges as thin as possible: then take a quantity of dry powder of wood ashes, mixed with a sixth part of the same quantity of the ashes of burnt bones; put it into a tin box with holes in the top, and shake the powder on the surface of the plaster, till the whole is covered over with it, letting it remain for half an hour to absorb the moisture; then apply more powder, rubbing it on gently with the hand, and repeating the application of the powder till the whole plaster becomes a dry smooth surface. And for trees cut down near the ground, to the dry powder just mentioned, an equal quantity of powder of alabaster must be added.

"If any of the composition be left for a future occasion, it should be kept in a tub, or other vessel, and urine of any kind poured on it, so as to

cover the surface; otherwise the atmosphere will greatly hurt the efficacy of the application.

"Where lime rubbish of old buildings cannot be got easily, take pounded chalk or common lime, after having been slaked a month at least. As the growth of the tree will gradually affect the plaster, by raising its edges next the bark, care should be taken, where that happens, to rub it over with the finger when occasion may require, (which is best done when moistened by rain,) that the plaster may be kept whole, to prevent the air and wet from penetrating into the wound.

"To the foregoing directions for making and applying the composition, it is necessary to add the following. As the best way of using the composition is found by experience, to be in a liquid state; it must, therefore, be reduced to the consistence of a pretty thick paint, by mixing it up with a sufficient quantity of urine and soap-suds, and laid on with a painter's brush; the powder of wood ashes and burnt bones is to be applied as kefore directed, patting it down with the hand.

"When trees are become hollow, you must scrape out all the rotten, loose, and dead parts of the trunk, till you come to the solid wood, leaving the surface smooth; then cover the hollow and even part where the canker has been cut out, or branches lopped off, with the composition; and, as the edges grow, take care not to let the new wood come in contact with the dead, part of which it may be sometimes necessary to leave; but cut out the old dead wood as the new advances, keeping a hollow between them, to allow the new wood room

to extend itself, and thereby fill up the cavity, which it will do in time, so as to make as it were a new tree. If the cavity be large, you may cut away as much at one operation as will be sufficient for three years. But in this you are to be guided by the size of the wound, and other circumstances. When the new wood, advancing from both sides of the wound, has almost met, cut off the bark from both the edges, that the solid wood may join, which, if properly managed, it will do, leaving only a slight seam in the bark. If the tree be very much decayed, do not cut away all the dead wood at once, which would weaken the tree too much, if a standard, and endanger its being blown down by the wind. It will, therefore, be necessary to leave part of the dead wood, at first, to strengthen the tree, and to cut it out by degrees as the new wood is formed. If there be any canker, or gum oozing, the infected parts must be pared off, or cut off with a proper instrument. When the stem is very much decayed, and hollow, it will be necessary to open the ground and examine the roots, which if cankered or injured must be cut away.

If an oak or an elm has been much bruised, and the bark is bound, shave off all the cankery part with a draw knife, and scarify the tree in as many places as may be necessary, then apply the composition with a painter's brush over the wounds, shaking the powder of wood ashes and burnt bones all over it."

Mr. Forsyth has sufficiently proved that when an oak loses its tap-root in transplanting, which in fact is usually cut off, it always produces fresh