50 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



As an evidence of the advantages resulting from 

 the cultivation of pines, we may mention a portion of 

 Culloden Muir, near to the spot where the battle was 

 fought, in 1746. It slopes to the north-east, and is 

 exposed to the cold blasts of the Moray Firth. The 

 subsoil is a deep bed of clay-and-sand gravel ; and the 

 surface, where not planted, very barren, with not more 

 than an inch of mould, and that of the very worst 

 quality. A portion was inclosed and planted, about 

 seventy years ago, by the celebrated Lord President 

 Forbes. The successive thinnings had more than 

 repaid the enclosing and planting; and when the 

 timber was cut down, about twenty years since, it 

 yielded several times as much rent per acre, for every 

 year it had stood, as the unplanted part of the muir 

 let for at the time when it was cut down. 



Large plantations of pines have been made in 

 England during the last thirty years; and thus, some 

 of our barren lands, which were formerly utterly 

 worthless, had become valuable additions to the na- 

 tional wealth. Sometimes these plantations have been 

 formed without due investigation; and through this, 

 some species of fir, which are useless except for fuel, 

 have been raised in large quantities. On the other 

 hand, the properties of the several species have been 

 accurately studied by some planters ; and experiments, 

 upon a large scale, have been made to determine the 

 relative value of the various sorts. At Dropmore, in 

 Buckinghamshire, a place which, thirty years ago, 

 was a most desolate and barren heath, Lord Gren- 

 ville has formed the most valuable fir plantations; 

 and he has established a garden of the genus pinus, 

 in which he has collected almost every known species 

 from all quarters of the globe. The late Bishop 

 Heber, who was honoured with the friendship of that 

 justly venerated nobleman, had a commission from 

 him to search out any new species of the pines of 



