256 on the climate of Rufsia. Deer 19. 
“¢ ath, The hawthorn is exactly in the same predicament 
here, although so common in fields in Scotland, 
“These facts point out a great difference between 
your climate and ours, and fhow the swperior advantages 4 
of Scotland with regard to planting. ’ 
They certainly do so: and in regard to making planta- 
tions, artificially, the advantage in favour of Scotland is 
still much greater than would appear at first view; for 
though the trees above named, and many others which 
thrive here, may be too tender to bear the rigours of the 
climate ; yet there are still a sufficient variety of trees 
which resist the greatest Rufsian cold, for answering all 
the useful purposes of life ; which, so long as the country is 
thinly peopled, and domestic animals few, spring up in 
abundance from seeds scattered by the hand of nature. 
But fhould these woods ever come to be extirpated, by the 
progrefs of improvement, and the multiplication of men and 
cattle, as in Britain, it would be then a matter of great 
difficulty, indeed, to make artificial plantations, compared 
to what we here experience. For in Rufsia, from the mo- 
ment the trees fhed their leaves, before which time few 
of them can be transplanted with safety, till they are in 
foll bud, if not in leaf, which is past the proper season 
for transplanting, the earth is bound up in frost, and in- 
accefsible, by reason of a thick bed of snow; so that. the 
_ time which can be appropriated to the operation of plant- 
ing must be wonderfully curtailed, in comparison of what 
it is here, where we have usually three months without 
frost in which that operation can be safely performed. 
This circumstance must preclude the establifhment of 
nurseries for young trees there, which of course must 
augment the difficulty. Hence, there is reason to fear, 
that, in time, wood in the neighbourhood of great towns, 
if ever the country fhould become tolerably peopled, will 
