MISCELLANEOUS ESSAYS. 



387 



trail it .5s. If you plant such moors, 

 you must calculate the progressive 

 increase of os. per annum, at com- 

 pound interest during the term 

 your trees are to stand ; such a cal- 

 culation will not turn out any in- 

 ducement to change sheep for tim- 

 ber. And here some considera- 

 tions deserve attention, relative to 

 the quality and value of planted 

 woods. 



Mr. Farquharson, of Invercauld, 

 has, in a very able memoir, print- 

 ed in Mr. Pennant's Tour in Scot- 

 land, observed upon the great dif- 

 ference in value between the firs 

 and pines of natural woods, and 

 those planted artificially. We are 

 apt, in calculations, to estimate a 

 larch or a fir to be worth, fifty or 

 sixty years hence, the price or va- 

 lue of a good larch or fir ; but they 

 turn out sometimes almost good for 

 nothing, except for the ndost infe- 

 rior uses. Larch growing in a state 

 of nature, on the Alps, is found to 

 be the most durable of all timber. 

 The late earl of Orford tried va- 

 rious species of wood in a lift of 

 posts and rails, in an exposed situ- 

 tttion,— and planted larch wai the 

 first that rotted. This tree, which 

 is justly a favourite for its rapid 

 growth, has not yet attained to a 

 maturity in England, sufficient to 

 ascertain its merit. As lo firs, they 

 have been found, when felled or 

 offered to sale in large quantities, 

 absolutely un:;alcable. Thus the 

 production of inferior sorts of wood, 

 in large quantities, becomes a spe- 

 culation of very questionable pro- 

 fit. 



As to oak, if felled at early 

 periods of its growth, the value 

 per foot is small, for no timber is 

 worse than sap oak. ; and if kept to 

 such an age, as to become an ob- 



ject of national defence, all our au- 

 thorities agree, that the profit les- 

 sens. 



I do not offer these considera- 

 tions as decisive of the question — 

 I only presume to call so much at- 

 tention to them, that they may be in 

 no danger of being overlooked. The 

 quality of pfoductioits that are to 

 occupy the soil for so many years, 

 to the exclusion of man and his 

 food, is a subject of consequence to 

 the individual who plants, and to 

 the nation whose population re- 

 ceives a prohibition. 



Convert all our wastes, to the 

 amount perhaps of twelve or fif- 

 teen millions of acres, into crops 

 of corn, or mutton, or beef, or 

 hides, or wool ; and let the plen- 

 ty be as great as a sanguine fancy 

 can paint it, the progressive pro- 

 sperity of the kingdom promises to 

 advance with a celerity, that shall 

 find consumption for the whole.— 

 Turn them to savage forests, pro- 

 ducing bad wood, and possibly bo 

 timber, or the best if yoU will, and 

 what comparison cAn thefe be be» 

 tween the two applications of the 

 soil? It is commonly said, that any 

 sort of planting would be prefera- 

 ble to the present waste state, 

 while under the torture of com- 

 mon rights ; but the comparison ic 

 vague : when enclosed and divided, 

 they will be ready for any applica- 

 tion, and it sUrely then becomes a 

 question, what that application 

 should be ? 



Landlords are apt to consider the 

 benefit of woods and plantations, 

 in a light that tends a little too 

 much to self-love. They receive 

 almost the whole of the gross pro- 

 duce of such — the nation has very 

 little more interest in them than 

 the amount of the landlord's re- 

 C c 2 ceipt ; 



