pasture. The store-farmer and shepherd, in the same manner, used formerly to consider every spot occupied by a tree as depriving the flock of a certain quantity of food, and not only nourished malice against the woodland, but practically laboured for its destruction; and to such lamentable prejudices on the part of farmers, and even of proprietors, is the final disappearance of the natural forests of the north chiefly to be attributed. The neglect of enclosure on the side of the landlord; the permitted, if not the authorized, invasions of the farmer; the wilful introduction of sheep and cattle into the ground where old trees formerly stood, have been the slow, but effectual, causes of the denuded state of extensive districts, which, in their time, were tracts of what the popular poetry of the country called by the affectionate epithet of "the good green wood." Still, however, the facts of such forests having existed, ought now, in more enlightened times, to give courage to the proprietor, and stimulate him in his efforts to restore the silvan scenes which ignorance, prejudice, indolence, and barbarism combined to destroy.

This may be done in many different ways, as taste and local circumstances recommend. We will first take a view of the subject generally, as applicable alike to the great chiefs and thanes possessed of what are, in the north, called countries,' and to the private gentleman, who has three or four thou

It is customary to say Glengarry's country, MacLeod's country, and the like, to indicate the estates of the great Highland proprietors.

sand moorland acres, or even a smaller property. We suppose the proprietor, in either case, desirous to convert a suitable part of his estate into woodland, at the least possible expense, and with the greatest chance of profit.

The indispensable requisites which his undertaking demands are. 1st, a steady and experienced forester, with the means of procuring, at a moment's notice, a sufficient number of active and intelligent assistants. This will often require settlements on the estate, the advantage of which we may afterwards touch upon. If the plantations are to be on an extensive scale, it will be found of great advantage to have the labour of these men entirely devoted to the woods, since they afford various kinds of employment for every month of the year, especially where a great plan is in the progress of being executed, as reason dictates, by certain proportions every year. In such a case, enclosing, planting, pruning, thinning, and felling are going on successively in different parts of the estate in one and the same year ;—and these are operations in all of which a good woodsman ought to be so expert as to be capable of working at them by

turns.

2dly. The planter, in the situation supposed, ought to be possessed of one nursery or more, as near to the ground designed to be planted, as can well be managed. We have no intention to interfere with the trade of the nurseryman in the more level and fertile parts of the country. Where a proprietor means only to plant a few acres, it would

pasture. The store-farmer and shepherd, in the same manner, used formerly to consider every spot occupied by a tree as depriving the flock of a certain quantity of food, and not only nourished malice against the woodland, but practically laboured for its destruction; and to such lamentable prejudices on the part of farmers, and even of proprietors, is the final disappearance of the natural forests of the north chiefly to be attributed. The neglect of enclosure on the side of the landlord; the permitted, if not the authorized, invasions of the farmer; the wilful introduction of sheep and cattle into the ground where old trees formerly stood, have been the slow, but effectual, causes of the denuded state of extensive districts, which, in their time, were tracts of what the popular poetry of the country called by the affectionate epithet of "the good green wood." Still, however, the facts of such forests having existed, ought now, in more enlightened times, to give courage to the proprietor, and stimulate him in his efforts to restore the silvan scenes which ignorance, prejudice, indolence, and barbarism combined to destroy.

This may be done in many different ways, as taste and local circumstances recommend. We will first take a view of the subject generally, as applicable alike to the great chiefs and thanes possessed of what are, in the north, called countries,1 and to the private gentleman, who has three or four thou

It is customary to say Glengarry's country, MacLeod's country, and the like, to indicate the estates of the great Highland. proprietors.

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sand moorland acres, or even a smaller property. We suppose the proprietor, in either case, desirous to convert a suitable part of his estate into woodland, at the least possible expense, and with the greatest chance of profit.

The indispensable requisites which his undertaking demands are. 1st, a steady and experienced forester, with the means of procuring, at a moment's notice, a sufficient number of active and intelligent assistants. This will often require settlements on the estate, the advantage of which we may afterwards touch upon. If the plantations are to be on an extensive scale, it will be found of great advantage to have the labour of these men entirely devoted to the woods, since they afford various kinds of employment for every month of the year, especially where a great plan is in the progress of being executed, as reason dictates, by certain proportions every year. In such a case, enclosing, planting, pruning, thinning, and felling are going on successively in different parts of the estate in one and the same year ;—and these are operations in all of which a good woodsman ought to be so expert as to be capable of working at them by

turns.

2dly. The planter, in the situation supposed, ought to be possessed of one nursery or more, as near to the ground designed to be planted, as can well be managed. We have no intention to interfere with the trade of the nurseryman in the more level and fertile parts of the country. Where a proprietor means only to plant a few acres, it would

be ridiculous to be at the trouble or expense of raising the plants. But where he proposes to plant upon a large scale, it is of the highest consequence that the young plants should stand for two or three seasons in a nursery of his own. Mr Monteath recommends that such second-hand nursery, as he terms it, should be replenished with seedlings of a year or two years old, from the seed-beds of a professional nurseryman, justly observing that the expense and trouble attending the raising the plants from seed, and, he might have added, the risk of miscarriage,—are in this way entirely avoided, while the advantages attained are equal to what they would have been had the plant been raised from the seed by the proprietor himself. On the other hand (though we have known it practised), we would not advise that seedlings, any more than plants, should be carried from the neighbourhood of Glasgow to the Hebrides, or to distant parts of the Highlands. There is also this advantage, that by raising the trees from seed, the forester makes sure of getting his plants from the best trees-an article of considerable importance, especially in the fir tribes.

But whether the planter supplies his nursery from his own seed-bed or that of the professional man, the necessity of having a nursery of one sort or other continues the same. The advantages are, first, that the plants are not hastily transferred from the nurseryman's warm and sheltered establishment, to the exposed and unfertile district which they are meant to occupy, but undergo a