FART VIII. PICTURESQUE PLANTING. 531 



to be made, sowing will generally be found the most profitable 

 mode; and there are many cases (as in old moory pastures) 

 where a single furrow would be abundantly sufficient to pre- 

 pare the soil for this purpose. If acorns were to be sown, they 

 might be ploughed in ; or ash, beech, &c. might be sown im- 

 mediately after the ploughing, and then harrowed in. Thus, 

 thousands of acres might be planted under the expense of 20s. 

 per acre, that would prosper better than those which cost half 

 as many pounds*. — These remarks shew the superior advan- 

 tages of woods to other kinds of plantations. 



It is not my intention, however, to recommend the forma- 

 tion of them, exclusively of groves or coppices ; on the con- 

 trary, there are thin soils, with bad under-strata, where fir 

 groves are more profitable than any other kind of plantation : 

 and there are steeps and rocky banks, where no tree can be so 

 advantageously cultivated as the common ash ; and rich moist 

 places, where no plantation will turn out so profitable as osiers, 

 But, generally speaking, it may be safely asserted, that woods- 

 are the kind of plantation that ought to be most generally 

 formed ; and that though the kind of timber grown in these 

 woods must vary according to the consumption of different 

 places, yet that oak will be found the best and most profitable; 

 undergrowth. 



* See EmerkKs Culture of. Forests. 



