Mr Monteath's work is, in many important respects, of consequence to the planter. It is written in the simple, homely manner of one, whose hand is better accustomed to the knife than to the pen, and, without any particular formal order, touches more or less upon most of the forester's operations. He has devised a useful machine for measuring the quantity of wood in standing trees-he has thrown out hints for the preservation and the cure of the dry rot in timber, and upon diseases in growing trees; he has treated of the mode of valuing and selling bark, and several other subjects; and as he speaks generally from practical knowledge, we may, using a phrase of Chaucer, in somewhat a different sense, fairly dismiss him with the compliment paid to the Squire's Yeoman, in the Canterbury Tales :

"Of wood-craft can he well all the usage."

We may be blamed in these desultory remarks for not having said something upon the subject of planting woods from the acorn, instead of the nursery. We have heard this recommended by great authority, which, moreover, vindicated the practice of leaving nature to work her own work in her own manner, when, it was asserted, the strongest and best trees would work forwards, fight with the others, and save us the trouble of pruning and thinning, by weeding out the inferior plants. We have planted acorns on this system, and the first show of young oaklings which appeared, rose almost like "a bonny braird of wheat." But notwithstanding

this fine promise, the plantation came to nothing. If the young plants fought with each other, they must have fought what cockers call a Welsh main, for only tens were left out of hundreds and thousands. The mice had probably their share in bringing about this catastrophe; the hares a still greater one; but the indifferent success of the experiment, in which five or six hogsheads of acorns were lost, induced us to renounce the experiment as being at least precarious in its results. In the plantations of a friend, a vast number of Spanish chestnuts were sown chiefly with a view to underwood, and they made such progress, at first, as induced us to apply for some seed of the same kind from Portugal. Our correspondent fell into the small mistake of supposing the chestnuts were wanted for the table, and with that view had them all carefully peeled. This was a great disappointment, at first, but we comforted ourselves in finding the promise of the chestnuts did not exceed in performance that of our own acorns. We, therefore, hold, that the sowing seeds in a wild country is a very doubtful measure, and that the only way to ensure a thriving plantation, is to stock it from a well-managed nursery, at no great distance from the spot where your trees are to arise.

Mr Monteath suggests a principle of planting, which might certainly be rendered very advantageous to tenants, by admitting them into a share of the benefit to be derived from planting upon the land occupied by him. Of the great advantages which arise from this to the farmer, he gives

the following striking example, which may be equally quoted as an example of the profits of planting in general:

"The farm of Crosscaple, parish of Dunblane, and barony of Kinbuck, Perthshire, was taken by Mr J. Dawson for two nineteen, say thirty-eight years, and entered to in 1777, or 1778, at the annual rent of L.26 sterling. There was a clause in the lease, that Mr Dawson, the tenant, should, if he had a mind, plant all the wet ground that he did not think proper to plough, with trees of any kind; and the tenant should be at liberty to use what of that wood he required, during the currency of his lease, for all the husbandry purposes on the said farm, as well as for all the houses he required, or saw meet to erect on said farm. At the end, or expiration of said lease, all the standing timber was to be valued by two persons, mutually chosen by landlord and tenant. And it was expressly stipulated, that if the two valuators chosen did not agree, they were to choose a third person, and his opinion betwixt the arbiters was to be binding on both parties; and to their valuation the landlord was to pay the tenant in ready money. In February, 1817, the year after the lease expired, Mr M'Arthur, forester in Drummond Castle, was chosen by and on the part of James Dawson, then the tenant (and now living in Dunblane), as his valuator: and I was appointed by the trustees for behoof of the heir of Kippenross, then a minor. We met on the ground, and each for himself valued the wood. After comparing our valuations, there was a difference of about L.25 sterling. We then named Mr William Stirling, architect, Dunblane, who divided the difference; and all parties having agreed, fixed the value of the wood on said farm at L.1029 sterling; which sum was promptly paid by the trustees of the estate to the tenants. The whole rent of the farm, paid annually for thirty-eight years, amounted to L.988 sterling. The value paid by the proprietor for the wood was L. 1029, being L.41 more than all the rents of the farm during the whole lease; besides, after the first ten years, the tenant had a sufficiency of timber for all house and husbandry purposes during the remainder of his lease. Let it be here observed, that, in valuing the said wood, we proceeded on the data of its being all cut down at the time, and brought to market, which was twenty per cent lower than the like timber was selling for a few years before that time. The tenant being left to the freedom of his own will, as

to the kind of trees to plant, he very injudiciously planted mostly Scotch firs; whereas, had he planted oak and ash, the soil and situation being well adapted for these kinds, he would have had nearly three times that sum to receive."—Introduction, p. xlii.xliv.

Notwithstanding the favourable results upon the farm of Crosscapel, we must confess our opinion, that in most cases the entire property and management of the wood had better be left with the proprietor. To the tenant it will always be a secondary object, and often one which is altogether neglected. We know an instance in a Highland farm, of which a lease of three lives was granted many years ago. The lease contained such a clause as our author recommends, not permitting merely, but binding the tenant to plant a certain number of acres during the currency of the lease, of which he was to have the use during the term, and an indemnification at the expiry of his lease for the value of the trees that should be left. One would have thought that during the successive possession of three tenants, some one of them would have endeavoured to derive advantage from this clause in their favour; but the event was, that at the end of the lease the out-going tenant was obliged to plant the requisite number of acres in order to fulfil his bargain, and thus left the proprietor a newly-planted and infant wood, for which the tenant had recently paid the expense of enclosing and planting, instead of a thriving and full-grown plantation, for which he would have had to receive several thousand pounds.

In this case the wood was not planted at all;

but though the farmer is a little more industrious, it is still less likely to thrive under his management, and attended to by his ordinary farm-servants, than in the hands of an expert forester and his assistants. Indeed it has always seemed to us not the least important branch of this great national subject, that the increase and the proper management of our forests cannot but be attended with the most beneficial effect on the population of the country. Where there lies stretched a wide tract of land, affording scanty food for unsheltered flocks, the country will soon, under a judicious system, show the scene most delightful to the eye—an intermixture of pastoral and silvan scenery, where Ceres, without usurping the land, finds also spots fit for cultivation. For even the plough has its office in this species of improvement. In numerous places we are surprised to see the marks of the furrows upon plains, upon bleak hill sides, and in wild moor land. We are not to suppose that, in the infancy of agriculture, our ancestors were able to raise crops of corn where we see only heath and fern. But in former times, and while the hills retained their natural clothing of wood, such spots were sheltered by the adjacent trees, and were thus rendered capable of producing crops. There can be no doubt that, the protection being restored, the power of production would again return, and that in the neighbourhood of the little hamlets required for the occupation of the foresters the means of his simple subsistence would be again produced. The effects of human industry would, as usual,