PREFACE. 



xi 



wish to see a fund raised for its improvement, and 

 were I to sketch a plan for this end, I could not 

 produce one of more certain and beneficial effects, 

 than that of planting and otherwise improving its 

 unprofitable wastes. If a subject so very obscure 

 as the Author, might, with the profoundest respect, 

 drop a hint to his most illustrious Sovereign, he 

 would think the improvement of the uncultivated 

 crown lands an object highly worthy of His Majes- 

 ty's royal attention. In the crown lands at Stirling 

 there are three acres of waste or unproductive land 

 to one of every improved acre. These wastes do 

 not bring ten shillings per acre in their present 

 neglected state. Now, the whole of this land 

 would carry oak, or any kind of timber trees to 

 maturity, and from its vicinity to sea carriage, being 

 within one mile of Stirling shore, it would pay in 

 planting, at an average L.8 per acre of annual 

 rent, in place of not paying ten shillings. But 

 this is only a small, and indeed a very small por- 

 tion of such crown lands, which I could under- 

 take, in the course of a few years, to put into such 

 a state as would fully realize the above estimate. 

 The improvement of waste lands, to whomsoever 

 belonging, is certainly an object highly worthy the 

 attention of the British legislature. There is as 

 much waste land in Britain and Ireland to improve, 

 as in process of time would provide a fund sufficient 

 to pay the national debt, or remain applicable to any 



