A Treatise on Forest-Trees: Containing Not Only the Best Methods of Their Culture Hitherto Practised, but a Variety of New and Useful Discoveries, the . for Removing Most of the Valuable Kinds o

A Treatise On Forest-Trees by William Boutcher is a comprehensive 18th?century manual on forestry and gardening. The work compiles extended experiments and practical rules for propagating, transplanting, pruning, and managing a wide range of forest trees, including deciduous and evergreen species. It covers topics from nursery management, laying out hedges, and improving soils to advanced techniques such as grafting, inoculation, and layering. The text emphasizes the best practices for raising trees to various sizes for ornament, shelter, fruit, and timber, and it provides step?by?step methods for transforming overgrown plantings into vigorous, well?formed stocks. Throughout, Boutcher argues for improved cultivation, careful selection of sites and soils, and a public?spirited approach to plantations, hedges, and woodland development, with attention to economic returns and national improvement. The treatise also includes dedicatory and prefatory material that situates forestry within broader agricultural and national concerns of the period.