326 On PUntationSy l2fc. Augv 



may have ruinous or little worth hardwood plantations under 

 twenty-five years old, whether in ftripes or more extentfive plots, 

 to reduce the timber trees to 20 or 30 feet dift.mce, to dig or 

 clean the intervals, and to plant them with acorns. In twelve 

 or fifteen years afterward.;, they would find the advantage. 



It is not my intention, however, to recommend the formation 

 of woods, exclufive of groves or coppices ; on the contrary, there 

 are thin foils with bad underftrata, where fir groves are more pro- 

 stable than any other kind of plantation : there are fteeps, and 

 rocky banjcs, where no tree cm be fo advantagoufly cultivated as 

 the common oak j and rich moill places where no plantation will 

 turn out fo profitable as ofiers : but, generally fpeaking, it may 

 be fafely aflerted that woods are the kind of plantation that ought 

 to be mod generally formed ; and that, though the kind of tim- 

 ber grown in thefe woods mull vary according to the confumpt of 

 different places, yet that oak will be found the belt and moll pro- 

 fitable undergrowth. 



But few, who plant, think of making one kind of plantation, or 

 rearing one kind of tree more than another. A certain fpace is 

 to be planted, and it is jult marked off, enclofed, and ftuck full 

 of trees, (no matter of what kinds), without any determinate ob- 

 ject in view. 



From this ncgle(^ alone, independent of all others, (fuch as 

 preparing the foil previous to planting, cultivating it afterwards, 

 training and thinning, &c.), few plantations yield one third of 

 the profit which they might do. iiut where the kind of planta- 

 tion to be formed is previouily fixed upon, then a proprietor, who 

 intends to lay out money in this way, can fiiy— Here I fhall plant 

 a wood — it will coft jull fo much at firll — ^in fo many years the 

 undergrowth will yield a certain fum — it will do fo always at the 

 return of the fame period — (o many timber trees will iland on . 

 each acre, which, at fuch a time, will yield fo much — and all 

 thefe returns is juft fo mxxch per cent, for the money which I have 

 laid out — and, after deducting every expence, my profits will 

 {land thus, &:c. 



Here I make a coppicc-^fuch a tree is the moil profitable to 

 plant — I can plant fo many acres for fo much, and they will yield 

 fo much per acre in fuch a time, and the fiime periodically after- 

 wards. 



Here, again, I plant a grove — it colls me fo much — in a certain 

 number of years I will commence thinnmg— -in fo many years 

 more I fhall have thinned out jull fo many trees, ;u fo much each, 

 and left fo many remaining on each acre -, — u- x I fow grafs feeds 

 among thefe trees, and next year it will afibrd (o much p.*r acre for 

 paiture, which it will coutinuv^ to do for fo many yearSj until at 

 taft I cut down the full crown timber; when each tree will afford 



