of planting Wafte Lands. 363 
As I have ftated my concern at the general 
decreafe of timber trees in the kingdom, and 
the. extent of land fo admirably adapted for 
the purpofes of planting now lying wafte, it is 
but juftice to mention, that there are fpi- 
rited individuals, both.in England and Scot- 
land, who have raifed noble plantations of trees, 
ina ftate of annual improvement, on land which 
before produced little or nothing, being of fo 
poor a quality that an acre of it would fcarcely 
afford maintenance to a fingle fheep: on fuch 
are now growing thoufands of valuable trees, 
rapidly advancing to profitable timber.— Among 
the foremoft of thefe, may be ranked the plan~ 
tations of the Earl of Fife, ‘in the counties ‘of 
Aberdeen, Banff, and Moray in North Britain. 
This nobleman, in the fpace of thirty years, 
has planted feven thoufand acres of bleak inhof- 
pitable moors, and covered with beautiful forefts 
a large extent of country’on which a fingle 
tree never grew before; and where it was a2 
general opinion, that trees could not thrive 
“from the poornefs of the land, and its vici- 
nity to the fea coaft. Another fpirited under- 
taking of the fame kind in the North of Eng- 
land, at Butsfield on Lanchefter Moor, in the 
Abeihity of Durham, has been executed by Mr: 
White of Retford, in Nottinghamfhire. — 
Accounts of both thefe plantations, and their 
increafe, are detailed in a letter from the owners, 
: addrefled 
