34 TRACTS ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS, &c. 



Nicol remarks, in his Treatise on Planting, that " h* who plants 

 " too thin, with the idea of saving trouble in thinning, deviates 

 " as widely from the right path, as he who thins none at all." 



Relying, therefore, upon established practice, and such good 

 authority it seems advisable to plant trees at the rate of 2000 to 

 an acre ; which is something less than five feet asunder. The 

 thinning of the plantations would, in a few years, well repay the 

 trouble, by the ample supplies of fuel they would produce ; and 

 by leaving the choicest trees to attain their full growth, they would, 

 m the course of 20 or 25 years, be of very great value in affording 

 excellent timber upon the farms, either for sale, or for the purpose 

 of erecting buildings. 



Let us now suppose the possibility of forming plantations of 

 pineasters, upon 600 acres of the St. Helena mountains ; and that 

 2000 trees are planted upon each acre, and of which 500 timber 

 trees shall be produced, (four or five and twenty years hence) 

 from each acre, or in all 300,000 timber trees. 



Suppose also that the average superficial feet in each of those 

 timber trees, to be no more than 150 feet, which, from 300,000 

 trees, would be 45,000,000 superficial feet ; and rated at 4d. (the 

 recent price of imported American timber) wouW be, in value, 

 seven hundred and fifty thousand pounds. This is at the rate of 

 no more than 50 shillings for each timber tree, exclusive of vast 

 quantities of fuel from the thinning of the plantations, and from 

 the lopping of the timber trees at the time they are cut down. 



In regard to the Mimosa Myrtifolia, or Botany-bay willow, 

 there are at Plantation-house several young trees that were raised 

 from seed sown on the 20th January, 1810, and afterwards trans- 

 planted. The largest is 9 or 10 feet high, a beautiful shrub now 

 in blossom, and covering a space of about 8 feet in diameter. This 

 sort of Mimosa attains the height of 20 to 25 feet. 



