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plough. The northern and ſouthern extremities, and that part of the lands of Blair which lies immediately to the weſt of the high-road, between it and the manſion- houſe, are fit for the plough. However, from the nature of the ſoil, climate, lati- tude, and elevation, the eſtate, in general, is to be conſidered as calculated rather for grazing cattle than for the produttion of grain: and accordingly, it is chiefly employed in the former of theſe ways, there being not more than 500 acres under tillage. The ſite of Blair-houſe is about 170 feet higher than that of the town of Kinroſs. The grounds behind the houſe m ſome places are. pretty ſteep, in ſome places abrupt, but generally riſing with 3 gradval aſcent; and many of the lands where there are very thriving plantations, are even from 200 to 250 feet higher than the fituation of the houſe. The height of Kinroſs above the ſea, is eſtimated at about 340 feet; ſo that the plantations of Blair are, in many places, 550 feet above the level of the ſea. The height of the plantations is a conſideration of ſome importance in the detail, becauſe there cannot be a greater encouragement to the planting of expoſed grounds, in very elevated ſituations, than what is afforded from the proſperous ſtate of thoſe at Blair.

The nature of the improvement on the eſtate of Blair.--The great, and, I may ſay, the only improvement which has been attempted on the eftate, is enclofing and planting. As far as 1 can collect from family-papers, my grandfather began that ſpecies of im- provement at ſome time between 1733 and 1738, and continued it till his death in 1748. He carried it on according to the faſhion of the times. The fences were. None-walls; the ſrips of planted ground were very narrow, and in ſtraight lines; and the trees which he planted round the houſe, wgre diſpoſed in the regular form of ſquares, circles, and triangles, without any regard to the ſhape and diverſity of the ground. His encloſures might extend to about 1000 acres, and his plantations to 30 or 40. After his death, my father continued the ſame ſpecies of improvement, but upon a much more enlarged ſcale: endeavouring, in all his plantations, to adapt their form and extent to the nature and variety of the ground; and planting(with ſome exceptions produced by the deſire of effetting contintzity in the woods) thoſe hills and rocky eminences only, which were calculated for nothing ſo well as trees, being at that period not very valuable in graſs, and incapable of culture by the plough. He continued his operations till 1784, a period of thirty-fve years. When he left oft, there were 540 acres planted; and ſince then, little or nothing has been added. Theſe plantations, appearing in large diſtin&& maſſes, partly ſurround, and partly cover a portion of the eſtate, as I compute, of 2340 acres; the reſt of the Jand re- maining in its original condition, neither enclofed nor planted. The wood on theſe 540 acres conſiſts.of pines of all ſorts, oaks, aſhes, beeches and elms, with ſome few planes and limes: and the number of the oaks, aſhes, and elms, will, when the nurſing trees are thinned out, occupy the whole ſpace that is planted. There are at preient, 540 acres of trees, 1200 acres of graſs-encloſures, 600 acres under culture, and 972 acres on which nothing has been done. To complete the original plan, would extend the plantations to 60 acres more than are now planted, and render the whole a complete and effeCctual ſyſtem of ſhelter, by the judicious inter- mixture of ficld and wood. This I hope to accompliſh. But my immediate atten- tion