And he was as skilful in producing the last result, as he was in the
artistic effects of his planting. In the essay on the planting of
waste lands, he mentions a story,--drawn from his own experience,--of
a planter, who having scooped out the lowest part of his land for
enclosures, and "planted the wood round them in masses enlarged or
contracted as the natural lying of the ground seemed to dictate," met,
six years after these changes, his former tenant on the ground, and
said to him, "I suppose, Mr. R----, you will say I have ruined your
farm by laying half of it into woodland?" "I should have expected it,
sir," answered Mr. R----, "if you had told me beforehand what you were
going to do; but I am now of a very different opinion; and as I am
looking for land at present, if you are inclined to take for the
remaining sixty acres the same rent which I formerly gave for a
hundred and twenty, I will give you an offer to that amount. I
consider the benefit of the enclosing, and the complete shelter
afforded to the fields, as an advantage which fairly counterbalances
the loss of one-half of the land.
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