15:8 4 tion is direCted to preſerving, with all poſible care, what has been executed with ſo much judgment and ſpirit by thoſe who have preceded me.

Shelter.--“From the mode of planting-adopted by my father, the grounds being va- ried with numerous little hills and rocky eminences, as well as various glens and val- leys, there has reſulted the moſt perfect degree of ſhelter that trees can give. The varied lines of wood breaking the current of the wind from every quarter, and the cattle finding ſhelter, 1 in every field, irom every wind that blows, are advantages that have, in my opinion, compenſated for the additional length of fencing which that mode of planting neceſlarily occaſioned. The climate has in this way been improved;

“-and hence, though the ſoil has received no improvement from liming, draining, or „other culture, yet in the ſpring the graſs riſes much earlier, and in the autumn con-

tinues freſh much later, in theſe encloſures, than on the expoſed grounds in the neighbourhood. The 1200 acres of graſs-land are- let from year to year; and the rents have been uniformly increaſing. Upon an experience of thirty ycars, this cir- cumſtance becomes a ſuflicient proof of the ſolidity and certainty of the improvement.

The adtual and probable gain or advantage.---T confider that the increaſe of rent has been much beyond what the riſe of rents would have been by the mere effr& of time, and alteration of the value of money. It is five-fold what it was forty years ago. If

“the whole of the land had been left in a ſtate of nature, the rent would, I ſuppoſe,

have been increaſed in the ſame, or nearly in the ſame proportion as the land-rent in other parts of Scotland. Mr. Dempfter, I obſerve, conſiders doubling in 50 years to be the ſtate of land in the county of Forfar. The additional riſe is to be aſcribed to -encloſing and ſhelter. As far as I am able to aſcertain the coſt of theſe improve- ments, I am within bounds when I ſtate, that the extra-improvementof rent affords 7 per cent. for the money laid out upon enclofing and planting: and in this ſtatement of the annual increaſe, I reckon nothing for the profit ariſing from the annual thin- nings, which are yearly increaſing; nor do I ſet any eſtimate upon the accumulating value of the great body of the wood. The plantations may be diſtinguiſhed as fol lows: v!z. 50 acres of ornamental wood, growing near the houſe, and not yielding any profit but what ariſes from the thinnings; 30 acres, in narrow ſtrips-and ſmall patches, where; it is probable, the value of the produce will not repay the expence of forming anew or repairing tlieir fences; and 460 acres of wood, to be cut for profit, in regu- lar ſucceſlion. I have a right therefore to look FORRRInG to this as an inexhauſtible ſource of gain, in addition to the advantage ariſing from the land-rent: and I take the liberty of ſtating thoſe things to you, becauſe there can be no greater encouragement to this ſpecies of improvement, the moſt important which our country can receive.

Mannexr vf p/anting.--The plantations, at firſt, were not conducted with that ſkill or knowledge which experience afterwards gave; and conſequently, their progreſs was ſlower, and they repeatedly went back. This was the caſe from 1749 to 1 769: but, from this laſt period, there has b2en ſcarcely any failure; and the plantations, in all ex- poſures, have flouriſhed with great Iuxuriance. The mode pradtiſed from 1769, with ſo much ſucceſs, has been; firſt of all, to fence completely and ſufhciently; and then,

fe