to force them rapidly up, they are so tender and delicate, that when planted out on a bare bleak exposed waste, a great number of them pine for a year or two, and afterwards die. Another advantage arifing from the intending planter rearing his own plants is, that they are at hand when wanted. In place of fending, perhaps, ten or twenty miles for a load of young trees, which, when arrived, cannot be all planted for feveral days; when the nursery is on the premifes no more plants need be taken up in the morning than can be planted in the course of the day. In short, whoever intends to improve any confiderable extent of waste lands by planting, will do well to establish a nursery of healthy vigorous young trees adapted to the various foils which he intends to plant. By using this precaution his expence will be extremely moderate compared to what it would otherwife be, while the chance of fuccefs will also be infinitely greater.

The best methods of planting, pruning, and thinning plantations, are fo fully detailed in other publications, that it is unneceffary here to enter on a particular defcription. The advantages refulting from improving wafte lands by planting are well known, and very fenfibly experienced by many individuals in both kingdoms, on whofe eftates this mean of improvement was adopted many years ago.

VOL. IV.

E

In

In a general view, it is by planting only that timber can now be provided for the navy, or for carrying on the foreign or domestic commerce of the country; and while it increases the value of an estate very far beyond what it would be were the wastes allowed to remain unimproved, the independent fovereignty of the state, confidering the present condition of the royal forests, may be faid to depend on the exertions of individuals in this respect. It has been fuggefted, that if the fpirit for planting were as general in the nation at large as it is in some particular diftricts, the stock of timber would in time become too great; but while fuch negligence prevails in the management of the royal forests, proprietors need be under no apprehenfion, that the demand for oak or other timber will be fo much reduced as to render planting as a mean of improvement to any confiderable degree lefs profitable than at prefent. On the contrary, while population, commerce, and manufactures continue to increase, an increased demand for timber muft neceffarily take place.

CHAP.

CHAP. XXX.

Wafe Lands and Commons.

HE wafte and commonable lands in thefe

TH

kingdoms are of immenfe extent. A great proportion of them no doubt will for ever defy the utmost exertions of man to render to any confiderable degree productive; but that several millions of acres are fufceptible of improvement, either by cultivation or planting, must be acknowledged by all who have ever turned their attention to the fubject. It has been for feveral years matter of furprise, that the executive government of the country, after being in poffeffion of the report already mentioned respecting the present state of the royal forests, and of another still more interesting made by the privy-council, whereby it appears, that for eighteen years previous to that period the land hitherto cultivated did not produce a fufficient fupply of corn for the inhabitants, fhould not have turned its attention to the improvement of these kingdoms. How falfe

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falfe and mistaken is that fyftem of policy by which the chief actors on the national theatre are regulated in their conduct! While expending the blood and treasure of the nation on the conqueft of fuch a barren and infignificant kingdom as Corfica, or of fome paltry island in the western world, which experience has proved can only be held under a very precarious tenure, they allow their native fields to remain in a waste and neglected state. But if the want of grain and of oak, "the means of exiftence and of defence," are not fufficient to roufe them into more activity, it is not to be supposed that any thing the writer can fay will have that ef fect. A board of agriculture has, it is true, been recently established; but the fum of money affigned for the purpose of carrying on the operations of that board is fo truly contemptible (L. 3000 a-year), that were it not the refpectability of the characters of the gentlemen who compofe it, nothing could prevent that board, as a national inftitution, from finking into infignificance. While feveral individuals receive ten, fifteen, or twenty thousand pounds a-year of the public money as officers of the crown, the inhabitants of Great Britain had a title to expect, that on the establishment of a board, inftituted with a view of effecting the agricultural improvement of the country, it would have been put on a more refpectable footing than any individual, however

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however meritorious his conduct, or however much his fervices might be calculated to promote the public good. It will be readily admitted, however, that this board, limited as it is in regard to funds, has already been productive of much good. The agricultural state of the nation has been ascertained, a spirit of inquiry has been fet afloat, the obftacles to general improvement have been pointed out, and the British legiflature, as well as the British farmers, are now informed by what means these obstacles can be most effectually removed, and how a spirit for carrying on improvements can best be excited.

THE unproductive lands of Great Britain may be claffed under three heads; as,

I. The mountainous waftes incapable of improvement by cultivation or planting.

II. The crown lands.

III. The wastes and commons in the more fertile parts of the country.

SEC