GROWING GOLD. 71 



are sitting in their drawing rooms, and hearing 

 the report of guns from the poachers, in their 

 home covers, they do not require to be told 

 the amoimt of such an annoyance. Rearing 

 pheasants to supply some covers near London 

 might be made a source of great profit, as 

 fourteen shillings per dozen have been given 

 for the eggs of those birds, in order to rear 

 young ones for such places, to the great en- 

 couragement of poaching in the provinces. 

 But we are digressing too far. 



On the north east side there is a planta- 

 tion principally of oak, originally planted four 

 feet apart, but it has been thinned irregularly, 

 therefore it does not grow so well as if it had 

 been planted thirty inches apart, or less ; every 

 oak tree makes more head, the stems are small 

 and short in proportion ; but what appears 

 extraordinary, is, the edges of the plantations 

 are thinnest of trees ! This is exactly contrary 

 to every principle that experience furnishes, 

 but it does not imply that the trees should 

 be cleared away in the middle for a Potato 



