"return to their own Home; and as often as

66

they are call'd by their Keepers, they will "come to them: They will breed without any "Trouble in fuch à Place as I have mention'd, "but the young ones fhould be caught at a "Month old, and fed; they will then live 66 upon Corn alone, and may be easily tam'd " and difciplin❜d.

"Nor are Partridges more difficult in their "Management; I have taken them at two "Months old, and made them fo tame and « familiar, that they have follow'd me every "where, as well about the Houfe as without "Doors; and fome of them would frequent

ly fly upon the Table when I have been at "Dinner, regardless of all Fear. This is what "I fhall at present communicate to you; and

6 am,

SIR,

Yours, &c.

R. Bradley,

A Letter

A Letter to a Gentleman, concerning the Improvement of an Acre of low wet Ground, by Alders or Abele's.

SIR,

YOU

OUR Defire of my Advice, what you shall do with your Piece of Ground, which you observe lies wet, gives me an Opportunity of recommending two Ways to you of advantaging your felf. The firft is by planting of Alders, to be cut once in three Years for Poles, or to make a speedy Shelter; or elfe to bear with Time fo long as to cut at once a valuable Sum of Money from it. We must confider, that a continued Dropping will make its Way much furer than the most violent Stroke will do; or, as the Cafe is, Money to be receiv'd every third Year, will encrease moré by its Intereft, and is more fure, or will improve to more Advantage than where a large Sum will only appear in twenty Years.

If

If you chufe the first, that is, to reap a Crop every third Year, you must plant your Ground with Truncheons, or Sets of Alder, in the Spring, about thirty fix in a Rod of Ground; then upon an Acre you will have five thousand seven hundred and fixty Plants; and if they take with the Ground, which they will do if it is often overflow'd, then in three Years the Lop, or their Produce in Branches, at five Shillings per Hundred upon the Spot, will amount to the Value of aabout Fifteen Pounds, So that you have five Pounds per Annum for your Acre. Now the Price I have fet is much lower than they will fell for, and every Truncheon will bring three or four Branches the first Year, which is abundance more than I have related, and the fecond Cutting will give you nine or ten from every Plant; fo that one may reasonably put this Plantation at ten Pounds per Annum, one Year with another : And then in twenty Years the Profit would be two hundred Pounds, and Part of the Money paid every third Year to be employ'd to Profit.

On the other hand, if the Ground is not fubject to be overflow'd often, you may plant in it about an hundred and fixty Abele's, which, if you allow them twenty Years growth, will be worth about one hundred and fixty Pounds. Now the Plantation of Alders, in my Opinion, is like enjoying an Estate at prefent; and the Abele's is like having an Eftate in Reverfion. The Price of the Plants will be about the fame Value, but the Al

ders

ders will coft more to plant them than the Abele's; they will both be profitable, and it is your own Choice whether one or the other.

I am, Sir,

Your most bumble Servant,

R. Bradley.

CHA P.

1

CHAP. V.

Concerning the yearly Growth of Trees, how they encreafe in Value, and of the Mifchiefs attending the cutting down the young Trees.

To Mr. BRADLEY, F. R. S.

SIR,

IN your Writings you have given us some

“IN

"Account of the Growth of a Tree, viz. "that the fecond Year the Tree is double the “first in Weight, and so on in a Vegetative "Progreffion: Pray let us know, in your "Monthly Papers, what you mean by Vegeta"tive Progreffion; whether the seedling Plant "must be twice the Weight the fecond Year "that it was the first, and the third Year twice "as much as it was the fecond; or elfe, whe"ther the fecond Year being just as much "more in Weight as the first Year, the third "Year's Growth will add only as much more "Bulk and Weight to it as the first Year's

Weight and Growth; and fo every Year's "Growth to add a first Year's Proportion of "Weight and Growth, and no more. You

"would