450 



ON USEFUL AND 



BOOK I. 



we shall find, of clear profit, in particular instances, all the inter- 

 mediate sums between forty shillings and three hundred pounds 

 sterling an acre yearly ; and this annual return commences, 

 in some kinds of plantations, the second or third year after 

 planting (such as osier plantations, which in many places 

 yield from 15 to 30/. per annum;) or in ten, fifteen, or twenty 

 years, as coppices or fir groves, which are very lucrative 

 plantations ; but the highest sums can only be expected to 

 Commence thirty or forty years, or more, after planting ; and 

 even then, the value of other products is included in connection 

 with the timber, as the resin of the pine and fir tribe, the bark 

 of the oak, the sugar of the maple, &c. In general, however, 

 it may be safely asserted, that no kind of plantation, if properly 

 made and kept, will be longer than ten years before it yield re- 

 turns; and that some annual profit will be obtained more or 

 less afterwards, from the thinnings and primings, until the 

 trees shall be finally cut down. From the various authors that 

 have made these measurements and calculations, and also 

 from a number of places both in England and Scotland, there 

 is the most conclusive evidence, that planting is equally profit- 

 able with agriculture, except perhaps in particular circum- 



degree of -knowledge of the subject himself — While noticing this, however, I can- 

 not avoid acknowledging my obligations to all the other reviewers for their candour 

 and liberality. See the Farmer's Magazine, Imperial, Critical, Anti-jacobin, and 

 Annual Reviews. The in stance alluded to is a contrast ; and all contrasts afford 

 exercise to the mind— sometimes instructive— often agreeable ; and always amusing. 



