8 



INTKODUCTORY llEMARKS. 



The uncultivated grounds, in this part of the 

 country at least, are, in their present state, of ex- 

 tremely little value. On an average, they are not 

 worth above a shilling per acre, as pasturage either 

 for black cattle or sheep, nor do they yield more to 

 their proprietors. By turning them into wood- 

 land, however, their value, taking the best of them 

 with the worst, might be increased at least a hun- 

 dred-fold. An acre of land which is dry, and in its 

 natural state covered with thriving heath, though 

 it have no higher marks of fertility than appear in 

 the production of this hardy plant, will bring six 

 hundred Scots firs or larches to such a degree of ma- 

 turity in sixty years, that they will be worth, on an 

 average, ten shillings each, or three hundred pounds 

 Sterling in whole. This sum, divided by the age 

 of the trees, gives a rent of five pounds annually for 

 the land. Nothing will be to deduct from this for 

 the expense of planting, inclosing, and manage- 

 ment, as three or four thousand trees being at first 

 put into the groimd, those cut down from time to 

 time, in order to reduce the plantation to the ne- 

 cessary thinness, will do more than return the mo- 

 ney laid out with full interest. Supposing none of 

 the thinnings taken out the first five and twenty 

 years to be worth any thing, and that there are at 



