OF FOREST-TREES:

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4. But to pursue-this to some farther advantage, as to what concerns chap. i.the election of your seed, it is to be considered, that there is a vast w*'*-'difference in trees even of the same growth and bed, which I judge toproceed from the variety and quality of the seed: This, for instance, isevidently seen in the heart, procerity, and stature of timber; and there-fore choose not your seeds always from the most fruitful trees, which arecommonly the most aged and decayed; but from such as are found most

solid and fair. Nor, for this reason, covet the largest acorn, &;c. but(as husbandmen do their wheat) the most weighty, clean, and bright-This observation we deduce from fruit-trees, which we seldom find tobear so kindly and plentifully from a sound stock, smooth rind, and firmwood, as from a rough, lax, and untoward tree; which is rather prone tospend itself in fruit (the ultimate effort, and final endeavour of its mostdelicate sap) than in solid and close substance to increase the timber.

And this shall suffice, though some haply might here recommend to us amore accurate microscopical examen, to interpret their most secretschematisms, which were an over nicety for these great plantations.

5. As concerning the medicating and insuccation of seeds, or enforcingthe earth by rich and generous composts, &c. for trees of these kinds, Iam no great favourer of it; not only because the charge would muchdiscourage the work, hut for that we find it unneCefsary, and, for mostof our forest-trees, noxious; since even where the ground is too fertile,they thrive not so well; and if a mould be not proper for one sort, it maybe fit for another. Yet I would not, by this, hinder any from the trial,what advance such experiments will produce: In the mean time, for thesimple imbibition of some seeds and kernels, when they prove extraor-dinary dry, as the season may fall out, it might not be amifs to maceratethem in milk or water only, a little impregnated with cow-dung, &cc.during the space of twenty-four hours, to give them a spirit to sproutand chet the sooner; especially if you have been retarded in yoursowing without the former preparation: But concerning the mould,soiling, and preparations of the ground, I refer you to my “ Treatise ofEarth,” if what you meet with in this do not abundantly encounter allthose difficulties.

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6. Being thus provided with seeds of all kinds, I would advise to raisewoods by sowing them apart in several places destined for their growth,where the mould being prepared (as I shall show hereafter) and so quak-

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