126 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



away the people ; but we would occupy those lands with timber 

 which at present produce some mutton, and, with the expense 

 of planting, would produce a great deal. This is pretty much 

 the same thing; as the way to have people is to be able 

 to feed them ; and what food is yielded by a well-preserved 

 wood, I am yet to learn ! 



"'This fact is so clear, that we may safely accept it for 



a maxim. That the more wood there is in the 



kingdom, the fewer people there must necessarily be 



fed on the product of our own soil. This is 



demonstration. 



"'In a country circumstanced like this, abounding with the 



greatest commerce and manufactures in the world, and a 



population increasing rapidly in every quarter ; — in such a 



country to adopt the forest policy — to tread back the steps 



of national improvement — to bid forests once more breathe 



their browner horror over scenes applicable to the food of 



mankind — and take the same clothing which covered them, 



when Boadicea drew forth her barbarians from their bosoms, 



must seem a strange exertion of modern politics.' 



" Now, I can hardly persuade myself that Mr Young was 

 serious when he wrote the foregoing doctrine ; for, is there 

 anything in it hostile to the utility of plantations, to authorise 

 such a man to say that ' this is demonstration ' ? The passages 

 quoted, compared with Mr Young's usual style of writing, are 

 sufficiently declamatory ; and the only argument they contain, 

 seems to be a very fallacious and sordid one indeed, namely, 

 that planting must be abandoned, because it curtails the 

 quantity of superficies which might be devoted to tillage and 

 pasturage. But, surely, if there is an argument really meant 

 in this statement, it is a mere begging of the question. It 

 assumes that we cannot encourage planting trees, without 

 clothing the country with the 'savage robe of American wilder- 

 ness.' But is it possible to conceive that this could happen in 

 the 19th century, even though men should renounce all regard 

 to profit and emolument ? Is it likely that planting will exclude 

 the plough from all the untilled mountains of Scotland and 

 Wales, and from all the uncultivated commons of England ? 

 No, sir ; it will be safe to urge every argument for the increase 

 of planting, without any danger of its going beyond due limits. 



