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Plantations. Great attention has been paid, eſpecially during the laſt 30 years, in rearing timber of all kinds. Plantations for ſhelter, ornament and profit, form a confide- rable part of the improvement of the many eſtates, which have been incloſed and improved, during that period. The moſt of improvers, 39 years ago, formed their belts of plan- tatiops for ſhelter, by far too narrow. They were general- 1y from 15 to 309 feet in breadth.. It ſeems now to be an opinion univerſally received, that no belt of plantation for Ihelter, eſpecially in the upland parts of the county, the whole of which 15 very much expoſed to the violence of the ſouth-weſt winds, ought to be leſs than from 609 to 120 feet broad. Several well direted plantations in this way have been made by the Duke of Montroſe; and likewiſe by Mr Ramſay, on his eſtate of Sauchile, which borders on an exten- ſive moor, not leſs than 20 miles long, ſtretching to the ſouth- welt. About five or fix years ago, a great fringe of planta- tion, ſeveral hundred yards in depth, and exceeding one mile in length, has been formed,'and will, it is believed, have the effe& to improve the climate in that expoſed quar- ter ofthe country. The kinds of trees there planted are oak, aſh, and beech, with various pines, eſpecially the larch, which, at 7 years old, raiſes its lofty head, nearly double the height of any other tree of the pine kind. No plantation. has as yet, in this county, been formed of.larches only; but ſeveral proprietors are ſo much-convinced of the ſuperiority of this tree to every other of the fir-kind, that they are re- ſolved to make plantations of larches alone. This va- Inable exotic, has, at Killearn the property of the Lord Chief Baron for Scotland, grown toa ſize not probably ex- ceeded by the ſame ſpecies of tree in any part of Britain, The trees were planted about 50 years ago; they are now about 100 feet in height, and ſeveral of them meaſure 3 feet diameter. The ſpruce, beech, and ſome other ſpecies of trees, have, at Killearn, riſen to 2 great ſfize.--The ground. covered by plantations, excluſive of hedge-rows, may in the county, amount to about 2200 acres.

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