General Instructions. 



haiul, and that those from tree-planthig are distant ; but, 

 though the actual pecuniary receipts from tree-planting may 

 be distant; and, though they were (which is not the case) 

 always very distant; still the returns, as to increase of value 

 of property, are not more distant, and, indeed, not so 

 distant, as those from the sowing of corn 5 for, the moment 

 your trees are in the ground, your land is increased in 

 value ; and, were it to be sold, would sell, in porportion to 

 the worth of the plantation, for more than it would have 

 sold before. If the trees have had a year or two of growth, 

 that growth makes a further addition to the value of the 

 land ) and so on for every year, until the trees be fit for cut- 

 ting down. If, indeed, it be immediate annual income that you 

 want; if you cannot afford to wait for the effects of plant- 

 ing, that is a very good reason for not planting at all; but 

 it is no reason for planting in what is called a cheap manner. 



13. There is another cause for this cheap planting, which 

 is the more difficult to counteract as it arises out of a feel- 

 ing which is almost natural to the heart of man ; namely, a 

 desire to possess a great extent of plantation. Men in general 

 like to talk, aye, and even to tJwik, of the number of acres 

 which they have of land, or of any thing growing on land. 

 Nevertheless, as it is perfectly notorious, that it is better to 

 have one acre cf good crop of wheat, than a hundred acres 

 of crop which does little more than equal the amount of 

 the seed, why may not one acre of good plantation be worth 

 more than a hundred of bad plantation ? 1 have seen more 

 than a hundred acres, which was planted about twenty-five 

 years before I saw it, planted with firs, birch, and other 

 such things, costing, in trees and planting, about 3/. 10.^. 

 an acre. So that, besides the fencing (an expensive thing), 

 here was the sum of 350/. There had been no actual re- 

 ceipts from it ; and the trees, if cut down and sold, would 



