12 



INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 



Planting may even be used as a means of prepar- 

 ing uncultivated land for agricultural improvement. 

 It may seem a very paradoxical fact, but it is never- 

 theless true, that w^ood, instead of impoverishing the 

 ground on which it is produced, enriches it. There 

 is very little of our waste land, that, if trenched or 

 ploughed, will carry even a moderate crop of grain, 

 unless it receive a considerable quantity of manure. 

 After bearing timber, however, the contrary is found 

 to be true. Every one who has seen old wood- 

 lands brought into cultivation must be aware of 

 this, though to others the assertion will, no doubt, 

 appear groundless. For my own part, I have seen 

 the fact, as it is here stated, so clearly exemplified, 

 that I consider it to be established as firmly as ex- 

 perience can establish any thing. Instead, however, 

 of detailing the particulars of any of the cases that 

 have fallen under my own observation, in confirma- 

 tion of the point, I subjoin the following instance, 

 an account of which was furnished me by a person, 

 on whose correctness I can depend. 



On a rising ground, not far from the village of 

 Ellon, a piece of ground, of a dry gravelly nature, 

 which had been lately cleared of a crop of full-grown 

 Scots firs, was trenched in a very partial and im- 

 perfect manner, the roots of the trees being scarcely 



