£ 29 ] 



one enlarged, and the other diminifhed, but thd 

 wear in this timber is nothing like (o great as that 

 in elrtn ; wherefore head-cells in mill races, wiers, 

 &c. fhould be of beech, in preference to any tim- 

 ber whatfoever ; and, as the very offal is the moft 

 valuable cleft- wood, yielding a guinea a cord to the 

 malfler, there are few trees more profitable to the 

 planter in countries where there is a demand for it. 

 The beech is the chief ornament of the Cheltern- 

 hills in Buckinghamfhire, and of the Horfe-ihoe 

 hills in this county. It delights in chalky foils and 

 lofty fituations; it is mor^ profitable in open groves 

 or mingled with a(h, than in coppices of under- 

 wood ; it runs up in the former with a long clean 

 fhaft, it branches in the latter to the deftrudlion of 

 all around it.* Yet both length of fhaft and 

 branchy crooks have in this timber their refpedUve 

 values for the purpofes above-noticed, which makes 

 me wonder, that the timber bears no greater price 

 than from 6d. to 8d. a foot, whilft elm fetches lod. 

 and a fhilling. f I- hay?., many beeches of large 



fizes 



• N. B. Nothing but holly will grow under the drip of beech 

 (trufles only excepted.) 



f. Notwithftanding the body of the beech, however clean, fetches 

 a price inferior to ftraight elm, yet the limbs and offal are worth 

 more than thofe of ehn, and there is a difference of raeafm-e which 

 brings them nearly to a par in price, for the buyer claims an allow- 

 ance of an inch in a foot girt, on account of the roughnefsand thick- 

 ' nefs 



