It is at present, almost universally, a _Scotch Fir Plantation_: these are of a most miserable size, compared with what they might have been, under good management, and they are withal very coarse. There may be seen amongst them, just Larches enough to perpetuate the folly of the original planter; and to excite, at his periodical sales, the keen regret of the present Steward, that he has not more of them to sell. There are also a few oaks, of such quality as fully to prove that they would have thriven well—had they been planted. Further: the Scotch firs are so thick, and they are _feathered down so low_, that the Plantation is not _healthy_. It is true that, under the present _much improved_ management, an attempt is being made to remedy this evil, and it is quite clear, that the condition of the trees will gradually be bettered, but the misfortune is—and here I come to speak of the _prospects_ of the Plantation—that _they are not worth culture_. I have no hesitation in stating this to be my deliberate opinion. The timber, if timber it can be called, is worth almost _nothing now_, and, in such a locality, I can see no probability of its ever realizing, so as to justify those in whose care it is placed, in continuing it as it is. The plain and obvious course of the managers of this fine estate, then, is _to stub up the Scotch fir, and replant the land with oak and larch_. In further proof of the propriety of this opinion, I would remark that, in this locality, both oak and larch fetch _very high prices_, and there are probable grounds for expecting that they always will do so; while, if the present race of Scotch firs should stand as long again as they have already stood, they will make comparatively little. It is not too much to say, that if this Plantation were the property of a private gentleman, the Scotch firs would be extirpated as speedily as possible, and a systematic plan, providing that a certain number of acres should be stubbed and re-planted every year, would at once be laid down; but public bodies are not so easily moved, and it is therefore to be feared, that, in this case, the _public_ will not, for some time to come, derive that benefit from the property, which would certainly be the result of proper management. The whole might be re-stocked with suitable kinds of trees, without any considerable outlay to the hospital, if arrangements were made with a party capable of carrying out some such comprehensive plan as the following; viz.: An agreement with a responsible person, carefully worded, providing that he should stub, or grub up, a stipulated number of acres at the commencement of a sort of lease, _taking the stuff_, either in part payment, or wholly, if it were _sufficient_: and that he should, on such terms as could be agreed upon, continue to grub up, _and plant_, a specified number of acres every succeeding year.