DR. BUCKLAND’S ADDRESS. 15 
how small is the revenue from an acre of wortel berries ! 
Pointing on the map to the regions of barren unproductive 
slate-rock, he observed that there was none of the red 
oxide of iron there. Let the soil be red, and the soil 
never would be bad. The summits of Quantock and Ex- 
moor being blue slate were sterile; but the moment they 
came to Dunster Castle and Nettlecombe, where the soil 
was red and the climate mild, they found the finest oaks in 
England, oaks which were sent for from Liverpool to make 
the stern posts of the largest vessels, and purchased at 
immense prices, for they must have them. It was a 
geological cause which made these oaks worth 100 guineas 
each. They could not get such timber on the blue slate, 
and even if the soil were good the climate would spoil 
them; for where rocks where thrown up 1,800 or even 
only 900 feet, as on Dartmoor and Exmoor, if the soil was 
good the climate would prevent the trees from growing as 
in sheltered valleys. But where nature had been kind, 
man was indisposed to labour. Why was it that the 
Scotch were half a century ahead of us—that Scotchmen 
were to be found in every town in this kingdom, and in the 
British empire—that three-fourths of our oflicers in India 
were from Scotland—that the Scotchman was found at 
every court in the world—that English gentlemen preferred 
Scotch gardeners, and were getting 25 per cent. more from 
their estates when managed by Scotch bailiffs, or on the 
Scottish system? It was because the intelligent natives 
of that highly civilized land had the good sense to discover 
the value of education. Nature had made Scotland a sterile 
and therefore an improving country ; but the natives of the 
County of Somerset were in a state which deserved com- 
passion. In the Vale of Taunton and at Bridgwater the 
