GROWING GOLD. 57 



wood, as much as can be laid upon a waggon 

 for sixteen shillings, and the seller thankful 

 for customers at that price : very large and 

 perfectly sound trees are cut into billets for 

 sale and for home consumption." This is 

 also the case upon the estate of a nobleman 

 in a midland county: yet these noble lords 

 are large buyers of foreign timber, although 

 those very parts of their estates on which the 

 inferior timber is grown, would grow oak 

 timber of the best quality, under good manage- 

 ment. Each of these noblemen having very 

 large families, an increase of property is de- 

 sirable, although their estates are very exten- 

 sive; but even if this was not the case, as 

 patriots, they ought to grow large quantities 

 of an article on which the safety and 

 commercial greatness of the empire mainly 

 depend for their very existence ; and yet they 

 continue to plant the inferior wooded trees. 

 What are their agents about? Is timber 

 property or not ? It is to be feared these 

 noblemen have not disciples of Hoppus for 

 ''stewards''; perhaps they are like the late 



