33.4 
it will be well if the effect fhould prove as great 
as the intention is gracious; and it would certainly 
be happy for the poor in many, perhaps in moft 
parts of England, if a mode fimilar in the hoped- 
for effect could be fpeedily adopted for their relief; 
for, it is very certain, the {carcity and high price of 
fuel is in moft places a fource of wretchednefs al- 
moft equal to the want of bread. 
A mind duly impreffed with thefe fentiments—the 
ftrange neglect of cultivating wood in a country 
where many, many thoufands of acres, which in their 
prefent condition afford no profit worthy of notice 
either to the owner or occupier, therefore, moft af- 
furedly, none to the public—cannot help being filled 
with aftonifhment and difguft. In this county 
alone the quantity of land of this defcription is im- 
menfe. The fum total of fuch land in Great-Bri- 
tain muft amount to fome millions of acres. But 
it has been objected, “ that planting wood has been 
fo far from being confidered as an improvement, 
that much hath been grubbed up, the ground 
cleared, and converted into arable or pafture.”’ 
The practice was prudent, if the land was proper 
for either, and muft be attended with great ad- 
vantage; but that is no reafon why land fhould not 
be planted with wood, when, from its fituation and 
prefent condition, it is known to be good for little 
or nothing elfe; and perhaps it is more than pro- 
bable, that thofe very lands fo cleared, have been 
VOL. VII, D » ameliorated 
