62 GROWING GOLD. 



This is a case, in point, in which neither mo- 

 ney is required from the pocket nor land from 

 the rental (as stated in p. 5); and there are 

 many thousands of acres of wood land on which 

 the trees are equally thriftless, but which would 

 yield a surplus after a crop of young trees 

 had been planted, in the best manner, upon 

 the land. It appears that they who introduced 

 the fashionable trees in this place, disregarded 

 all the evidence which an examination of the 

 ancient oaks and thorns afforded them ; the 

 latter were evidently the natural nurses of 

 the seedlings of the former: why this indis- 

 putable law of nature was disregarded, and 

 the reverse became the general practice, 

 cannot satisfactorily be accounted for. In all 

 the ancient forests and woods, hazel, thorns, 

 and other dwarf trees were the nurses of 

 young oaks : in almost all the modern plan- 

 tations, fast growing large exotics (pines, &c.) 

 have been adopted. The tenacity with which 

 the fashion is adhered to amidst so many 

 failures is most extraordinary, but the im- 

 policy of it is becoming so obvious, that they 



