I 



TRACTS ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS, &c. 193 



keep up that spirit for planting- which has happily this year shewn 

 itself, by many applications for trees from the Plantation-house 

 garden. Seven thousand one hundred and eighty-four tine young 

 plants have, within these few days, been distributed in various 

 parts of the island. These will very soon determine the best sites 

 for the plantations. That number, and about four thousand 

 transplanted during the years 1811 and 1812, make, collectively, 

 an addition of above 11,000 pineasters to this island: the value 

 of these, in twenty years, according to the following computation, 

 may be estimated at about c£12,500. sterling. 



I will suppose a landholder to establish a plantation of only 

 two acres upon land at present useless : and according to Mr. 

 Miller's directions, that he places the trees at the distance of four 

 feet. In this case, each acre will contain 2722 trees, say 2500, or 

 5000 in the two acres. 



After nine years growth the thinning of the plantation 

 would yield 2500 trees, about 18 feet high ; and worth 

 as timber and fuel 10«. each, or - - - <£1,250 



2500 trees of standing timber, at twenty years growth, 



estimated at 40«. each _ _ _ _ 5,000 



Total value of two acres at 20 years growth ^6,250 



But if we take a more enlarged view of the proposed plantations, 

 the advantages will appear immense. Supposing then that the 

 old planting law, requiring one acre in ten to be planted with 

 trees, so often repeated, )iut never attended to, had been enforced; 

 and that those trees had been pineasters, and planted twenty years 

 ago. The quantity of land thus planted would have been 600 

 acres, having 1250 trees of standing timber upon each acre, or 

 750,000 trees upon the GOO. These, at twenty years growth, are 

 certainly undervalued at St. Helena, when reckoned at only 40*. 



