99 



But puts Whigs and Tories in each others ears, 

 And make them agree like wasps and bees. 



To observe once for all, the forester, before begin- 

 ning to thin or prune this or any other plantation, 

 should earnestly pause and hold a consultation, not 

 only with his employers, but within his own breast, 

 deliberately asking himself for what future purpose 

 or design is the plantation intended. Is it for cop- 

 pice, say solely for profit, or to rear up trees to 

 maturity, that will in the end bring the most money 

 to the estate — or is it to rear trees to stand to per- 

 fection for generations, as ornamental on the estate 5 

 and according to the different propositions fixed on, 

 his conduct in planting, pruning, and thinning should 

 be regulated. 



I beg leave here to state, that whenever the situa- 

 tion for a plantation is fixed on, the future purpose 

 it is intended to serve on the estate should always be 

 determined on and planted accordingly, and a fixed 

 data laid down for its future government ; without 

 which, the planter, but particularly the forester or 

 rearer up of the plantation, is like a pilot on board a 

 ship, in the midst of the ocean, without either com- 

 pass or helm. The want of this fixed rule, with a 

 strict attention to the plants to suit situation and 

 soil, has been the ruin of many a plantation, and the 

 waste of much money to a proprietor who plants 

 either with a view for ornament, screen, shelter, or 

 profit, not to mention the great loss or waste of time 

 in a proprietor's getting his plantation to become a 

 wood scenery, or to serve the purpose for which he 

 intended them, which not being like any other crop, 

 sown in spring and reaped in autumn, may not 

 be in his lifetime ; of course, it not only is a great 



