PART II. OF COUNTRY RESIDENCES. 635 



above all husbandmen should be well-informed in his profession, 

 and assiduous in his duty ; for in his province trifles neglected 

 soon amount to immense sums. A plantation, by being neg- 

 lected, or improperly thinned, may turn out to be of scarcely any 

 value but as fuel, which, had it been properly attended to, might 

 have doubled the fee simple of the ground. Suppose a forester 

 to neglect every year planting a hundred trees which ought to 

 have been planted — in twenty or thirty years afterwards this 

 would be a loss of two hundred pounds annually, besides the 

 interest of that sum. Many things equally striking, both in 

 the rearing and sale of timber, might be brought to shew the 

 importance of the forester's office. These facts, together with 

 what I have seen at every place where timber is grown, and 

 heard from men of the greatest experience on the subject, con- 

 vince me of the importance of having a general inspector of 

 plantations and trees, such as I have mentioned in the Conclu- 

 sion to Planting : and as the preservation of a country resi- 

 dence, in regard to beauty, is intimately connected with this; 

 and as it appears to me that every other part of a rural abode 

 requires, and would be highly improved, both in beauty and 

 use, by such a general yearly or occasional inspector, it in- 

 duces me, though with considerable reluctance, to give it as 

 my decided opinion, " that every extensive country residence, 

 where the proprietor is not fully adequate to judge of these 



