534 ON USEFUL AND BOOK I. 



can predict the future expense of such a plantation ? Or to 

 what advantage can it be turned ? The proprietor must feel 

 great difficulty in directing their general management, and 

 great uncertainty as to what they ought to produce ; nor has he 

 any kind of check upon either the manager, the buyer, or the 

 seller of his timber. But, by the mode recommended, he has a 

 certain object in view in every plantation — in every hedgerow 

 or single tree which he plants or may possess ; and all his ope- 

 rations tend to promote this object: in this way he acts, 

 though not with an absolute certainty of the profit and loss, 

 yet with such clear ideas, that he can never be at a loss 

 how to proceed, nor ever be greatly disappointed in his ex- 

 pectations. 



