LT 25

ing thoſe ſpaces with foreſt-trees. When theſe have grown up, the remaining firs may be removed in large patches, which are to be filled up with foreſt-trees. But if the foreſt-trees are planted among the firs, and the latter only gradually thinned, the former never will riſe. Want of air, and the drop of the firs, will keep the foreſt- trees for ever in a depreſſed condition.

This mode was ſuggeſted to me by the following circumſtance. Some Scotch firs were cut down to open a proſped, and by that means there was formed an apartment of 20 or 25 feet diameter. After an abſence of ten years, I found the view again obſtru&ed, occaſßioned by the growth of the foreſt-trees, which had riſen thus- ra- pidly, in conſequence of the removal of the firs 3 while the choked foreſt-trees, left among the firs, immediately adjacent to them, remained in their original ſtunted con- dirion: and yet thoſe very ürs had been gradually and properly thinned.

The number and ſtate of the inhabitants. It has been, I think, the very miſtaken po- licy of many landholders to diflodge their cottagers. This policy has extended to my neighbourhood. Kinroſs, the principal town in the county, has been increaſed by itz but the community is injured. It enhances the price of labour; and does not, I think, promote population, or render the labouring man more happy: for there is no ſtate in which perſons of that rank are ſo happy, as when under the immediate prote&tion of their ſuperior. It was a great obje&t with my grandfather and father, to encourage po- pulation on their eſtate. Befides the utility of it, in having the command of labourers, and in increaſing the rents(for almoſt every labourer ſettled on the eſtate pays a fair, good rent for the- little bit of land which he poſſeſles), they found infinite pleaſure in -* having an eſtate well(tocked with inhabitants. My plan, therefore, is to follow. out this

example which has been ſet me, by endeavouring to increaſe, inſtead of diminiſhing the

inhabitance of the place.--At preſent there are 26 inhabited houſes in one village, of which I am the proprietor 3 5 property-houſes, and 12 feus, in another 3 and of cottages ſcattered over the eſtate, there are 20. Among theſe, I do not include farm-houſes, nor the moorland people 3; but confine myſelf to that part of the eſtate which I deſcribed as- being either adapted for culture or grazing: conſequently, this population conſiſts, in all, of 62 families: to which ſhould add, the family of a bleacher, who. rents-a ſmall bleaching-ground.=-The number of acres, thus inhabited, amounts to 2300. Theſe inhabitants are, with the exception of ſome widows, whoſe huſbands were formerly cottagers, married perſons, having families of children that may be reckoned each, at an average, 4 in number, all the moſt orderly, beſt diſpoſed people imaginable.=-The occupation of the greater number is that of labourers. There are ſome weavers; and handicraft-people, ſuch as ſmiths, carpenters, maſons, a baker, Naters, ſhoemakers, tailors- They have each a garden, included in the rent of their houfes; which rents are from 15 to 20 and 25 ſillings a-year. By this there is no profit; nor do

I ſuppoſe there is any loſs: for with the eaſe and readineſs with which I am ſupplied

with wood» the expence of repairs is not very burdenfome."They all, without excep-

tion, keep each a cow, many of them two; and where they are collected together in the villages, a field, or fields, are appropriated for their cows. Where they are ſcat-

rered about, it is made a condition, in the annual letting of the fields, to reſerve a

cow'3.