SECTION XL 



EXPENSE ATTENDING THE FOEEGOlNd OPERATIONS. 



On more than one occasion in the course of this Essay, 

 I have ventured to state that the art under discussion laid 

 claim to be one of " practical utility/' But it would ill 

 support that pretension if the principles it unfolds, and 

 the practice it recommends for giving immediate effect to 

 wood, involved an extravagant expenditure. For an art 

 to be generally useful, it must produce something better 

 than the gigantic feats and the costly wonders of former 

 ages. If the art in question possess any one merit above 

 another, it is that of lessening the expense of both present 

 and former practice, and bringing it within the reach of 

 any person of moderate fortune. 



Of all the rural luxuries which the landowner may 

 enjoy, there is certainly no one more exquisite than that 

 of obtaining at pleasure the command of wood ; and 

 every one we should think would rejoice at the endeavour 

 to render it a cheap luxury. The efforts, therefore, of those 

 must appear the more surprising, who for some years past 

 have laboured to mislead the public by exaggerating the 

 expense attending the preservative system;'" and as their 

 opportunities of information might he supposed the best, 

 so it places in a striking point of view either their 

 gratuitous malevolence or their extraordinary ignorance. 



* See the Report of the Committee of the Highland Society, which is given 

 in the Appendix. 



