PREFACE. 1x 
and the Larch for instance, are looked on as possessed of 
no varieties or difference in hardiness. 
So often does the formation of extensive plantations fall 
into incompetent hands, that it may be stated, that in the 
specifications for two of the largest plantations that the 
author ever knew to be formed by contract, and belonging 
to different noblemen, the American Spruce, a dwarf tree 
which only attains to about one-third of the size of the 
common or Norway species, was the only spruce mentioned, 
and the proportion required involved the planting of 
it in each plantation to the extent of several hundred 
thousands. 
It seldom falls to the lot of any one to raise plants and 
form them into plantations, and to be able to report on 
these plantations after they have_become valuable ; but the 
author of the following pages having begun business early 
in life, and formed several large plantations nearly forty 
years ago, can refer to them, standing in great vigour, an 
ornament to the scenery of the Highlands, mollifying the 
blast, and after paying every expense, yielding a revenue 
equal to that of the finest arable land in the country, where 
the ground previously to these formations was not worth a 
shilling an acre. 
At atime when timber throughout the country is every- 
where enhanced in price ; when woods and forests are fast 
disappearing, chiefly by the construction and maintenance 
of railways, and by the facility they afford for its transit 
from place to place, it is believed that this work will be 
appreciated. The favoured and distinguished approval 
already vouchsafed from time to time on the appearance of 
some detached portions of it, encourages the hope that it 
will be esteemed both by landowners and practical men, 
as pointing out the best mode of raising and extending the 
