ADVANTAGES OF PLANTING. 



3 



rate of wages, would maintain fifty thousand la- 

 bourers and their families, or between two and three 

 hundred thousand individuals, be retained in the 

 comitry, instead of going, as at present, to add to 

 the riches and prosperity of other nations. 



It is not, however, by regarding the planting of 

 our uncultivated moors as a means of mere pecu- 

 niary saving, that its national advantages are most 

 conspicuous. A still clearer view of its utility, may 

 be seen in the evils that threaten us, if our forests 

 are not speedily improved and rendered more exten- 

 sive. Their present state is such, that, were our 

 foreign intercourse cut off, they would be completely 

 exhausted in the course of four or five years. This 

 would be the case, even if every sort of timber an- 

 swered every purpose alike ; for, of some sorts, we 

 have not a sufficient quantity to last half that time. 

 Our oak, for instance, would scarce stand out two 

 years, supposing us to be, as at present, in a state 

 of profound peace, and our navy requiring no addi- 

 tion to its strength. One hundred and eighty thou- 

 sand cubic feet, or between four and five thousand 

 tons of this sort, are consumed in building a ship of 

 seventy-four guns. There are not so many ftdl 

 grown oak trees in Scotland, as would build two 

 ships of this size ; and the royal forests in England 



A 2 



