216 



pay from L.15 to L.25 per acre : as the thinnings 

 would not sell all in one, two, or even three 

 years, so that the second, and even first thinnings, 

 must proceed gradually as the timber can be dis- 

 posed of to advantage, and the trees will always be 

 increasing in size and value, as the thinning goes 

 on ; we have still upon the ground, after the second 

 thinning, between 200 and 300 trees on each acre, 

 which, if allowed to stand till the age of thirty years, 

 each tree will be worth from 20s. to 30s. sterling ; but, 

 suppose them only to be worth 20s. a tree, in such a 

 part of the country as this they should bring much 

 more, but I say, suppose them only at 20s. a tree ; 

 there remains, besides what has been sold off, up- 

 wards of L.200 sterling of value of timber on every 

 acre. Is not this a profit enough to satisfy the most 

 avaricious mind ; and this is what experience has 

 enabled me to say, that I will be bound, the soil and 

 situation will produce much more than this estimate. 

 Such results I have experienced in my own time. 

 As one proof, I beg to call to the Most Noble Mar- 

 chioness's memory, the larch firs mentioned in the 

 Forester's Guide on the estate of Inverary ; these 

 trees have been since sold, and far exceeded my es- 

 timate of them, and these trees grow on a far less fa- 

 vourable soil and situation than this of Danhail moss. 

 This moss, I believe, is at present paying nothing to 

 the estate j it is surely worthy of being immediately 

 attended to ; it is already enclosed. The price of 

 larch fir plants is next to nothing : the whole could 

 be planted for a sum not worth naming, and after 

 the first three or four years, they will rush up like 

 mushrooms, not to mention the beauty and ornament 

 it will add to this estate. I should have mentioned, 



