GROWING GOLD. 9 



if not prqfilahly planted, why not ? It is some- 

 what extraordinary that a subject of such 

 transcendent importance should have hitherto 

 escaped with so little inquiry ; and yet it is 

 not very surprising either when it is considered 

 how many persons have been appointed to the 

 management of timber albeit they have had 

 no more fitness for the office than " babes in 

 the wood." 



Appointments could be named little less 

 ridiculous than giving the command of an East 

 India ship to a music master, who had never 

 been afloat before. By such an arrangement, 

 the destruction of the ship might be calculated 

 upon with tolerable accuracy : the failure of 

 the growing crop of materials for ship building 

 is no less certain by the appointment of im- 

 proper persons to manage it. 



Pontey says, that " writing upon this sub- 

 ject is a thankless office, as owners of woods 

 and plantations will not confess their need of 

 any such instructor." The nobility and large 

 landow ners generally have persons to manage 



