50 



eight or ten yards high : these had drawn each other up 

 to their ruin : a high wind broke in upon and laid them 

 nearly level with the ground : the axe was then put in re- 

 quisition, and the plantation is now no more. This must be 

 the fate of a great number in England. I heard a gentleman 

 once assert that full three-fourths of the young trees of the 

 present day will never arrive at maturity. A nobleman in my 

 own neighbourhood has observed to me, that he had great 

 pleasure in planting, but could not^ give orders to cut them 

 away ; this, I fear, influences many others, and is a most mis- 

 taken clemency. One very great evil I will mention as 

 most destructive to a wood; it is admitted that when the 

 trees are too close, many ought to be taken out ; but the 

 owner refuses to do it because wood is selling at a low price, 

 and year after year he allows his trees to remain injuring 

 each other ; he would, however, add more to the value of the 

 estate if he cut a number out and allowed them to rot on the 

 ground. Another vile practice I will here name : the owner 

 of a wood wants money, and directs his agent to cut down 

 some wood, who obeys his master's directions, and cuts away 

 the best trees, those which will produce the most money being 

 always the most healthy and thriving. In this way I have 

 known one wood treated, which exhibits at this day a most 

 miserable spectacle. 



There is, perhaps, no greater hindrance to the proper 

 management of plantations than game, particularly where it 

 is the hobby of the owner, who rides it full gallop. A hobby, 

 Sterne has said, is the most useful animal in the world, so 

 long as the owner only rides it at a gentle canter. I might 

 as well get permission to pull down the mansion as to enter 

 with the axe one of these pet covers, which are generally, 

 when arrived at twenty years of age, so crowded and drawn 

 up that they are little better than hop-poles, and, having 

 no underwood, cease to be even good covers for game. 



