reason why they may not be preserved to the end of time, as well as that of animals. These shoots will be very beneficial in re-thickening old trees, which have become so thin of wood as to afford no protection against the fruit-destroying blasts. I am aware of an obstacle which will occur to many that the bark will again thicken, and become rigid, by exposure to the weather; but this is only the longitudinal, whose cohesion is preserved by the transverse, which, when once destroyed, either by nature or art, is never again replaced so that the same degree of stricture can never after take place; nor can the like receptacles be formed for the vermin. The longitudinal bark, when freed of the trans- leaves no cover. ; It is not, however, to be imagined that any means can be devised to enable the fruit to resist perfectly every possible attack of the weather, or supply the place of climate; but if any means can be discovered to make it stand the storm better, it is doing something. And if we can render the tree more healthy, the blossom will be stronger, to resist the attack of the vermin and if one kind of weather is more favourable to vermin than another, we may, therefore, properly say, that these means defend the tree and blossom against the weather. But will not a tree which is strong and healthy. resist the direct inclemency of the weather better than one which is weak and sickly? which we consider as a predisponent cause. So the cold wax does not yield to the seal, but melted, receives the impression from the slightest touch. Not that it is to be imagined that we can remove completely, all the causes which de stroy fruit; and if we could, it is more than probable it would cost us more labour to destroy the superabundant produce, than to moderate the effects of the destroying causes. Besides, it does not appear, though we could remove all these causes completely, either proper or necessary so to do. For, as every part of the creation, from the highest planet to the lowest invisible insect, vegetable and atom, seems dependent on another, it cannot be thought absurd to suppose that nature provides for loss in every individual part to support another. If it were otherwise, that beautiful harmony and connection between the parts which now exists, would be lost. But here we must stop, because we can never trace the chain of cause and effect to the extremity, either above or below, nor understand the prime and moving cause of all things; but if we can trace the causes of good and evil, so far as to enable us to promote the effects of the one, and prevent those of the other, we ought to be satisfied. In this view it becomes a necessary law of nature, that one part of the creation should, to a certain extent, destroy another. So, even the vermin may be necessary to destroy, to a certain extent, the produce of fruit trees. But when those become too numerous, and too powerful, it is the business of man to preserve the balance; and this seems to be all he has to do, and all he can do to check the operations of nature, when too violent, and to support and assist them when too weak; and for this purpose nature has endowed him with superior powers. By destruction, it must be understood I mean only change of form and place; absolute destruction or annihilation is nonsense. "Omnia mutantur, nihil interit." If trees, like animals, exhale any thing by the surface, noxious to themselves, as they certainly inhale something salubrious from the atmosphere, removing the rough, corrugated, dry bark, may be as necessary to their health, in these respects too, as cleanliness is to that of animals. Quere, May not forest trees be peeled with advantage? especially the oak, whose bark is so valuable in manufacture, and whose wood, to the wealth and defence of the nation? but which last is lost, being cruelly cut down for the sake of his bark before he is fit for this service. I had no forest trees to practise upon, but I have as little doubt of the |