540 MULL. AGRICULTURE. 



intermixed with birch and hazel, show that care and 

 attention, if care and attention to this object were either 

 fashionable or profitable, might again restore these woods 

 to a respectable appearance. Yet oak can scarcely suc- 

 ceed in these islands in any situation as an object of 

 profit, except as coppice ; since even where there is shelter, 

 either the shallowness of the soil on the declivities, or the 

 boggy nature of the low lands, are inimical to its rapid 

 growth. Ornament may be readily procured from birch 

 and from alder, which flourish in most similar situations ; 

 but where the process of enclosing must be the expensive 

 forerunner of such operations in a country highly stocked 

 with cattle, it is too much to expect that planting for mere 

 ornament will be attempted, where so few proprietors 

 have a permanent or a favourite residence. Larch, fir, 

 and other woods have indeed been recently planted in 

 the northern parts of the island, and where a peninsular 

 situation or other favourable geographical circumstances 

 render enclosure cheap, there is no question but that 

 ultimate profit as well as contingent ornament u ill result 

 from these undertakings. Yet I must remark that the 

 two former trees seem less adapted to the insular si- 

 tuations than almost any others ; nearly the whole genus, 

 as far as it has yet been tried in similar soils and 

 exposures, being checked after a very few years growth, 

 and ultimately destroyed. The planes, noted for their 

 indifference to the effect of winds, seem unfortunately 

 to be nearly unknown throughout the whole country. 

 The preservation however of even alder and birch, is 

 an object of rural economy too much neglected here 

 as elsewhere ; since the utility of both for cask staves, 

 and of the latter for all the usual architectural purposes 

 of the country, stamp a considerable value on them 

 The transportation of birch from Airdnamurchan and 

 other shores where it abounds, to the naked isles of 

 Tirey and lona, and to the whole chain of the Long 

 isle, at a considerable expense of labour or freight 



