OF THE COUNTY OF DOWN. 



CHAPTER X. 



.TIMBER, PLANTATIONS, AND WOODLANDS. 



THAT the county of Down is not a well wooded 

 country, muft be confefTed by every perfon, who has 

 traverfed it; and that Tome of the beft cultivated dif- 

 trifts moft deferve the reproach of nakednefs, cannot 

 be denied, but it is a reproach common to the reft of 

 the kingdom, with few exceptions. At a particular 

 period in the hiftory of this country, one of the great 

 objects of the government was to get the land cleared 

 of timber, as a neceflary ftep towards the civilization of 

 the inhabitants, and the improvement of the ground ; 

 this, like many other expedients, has been attended 

 with a lading difadvantage, and has left a foil, by 

 nature, particularly adapted to the growth of trees, bare 

 almoft to a proverb. After a country, once overrun 

 with wood, has by great exertions been cleared, it is 

 not an eafy matter to perfuade the inhabitants of the 

 necelfity of that production, to get free from which fo 



much 



