Ohservatimts on growing Timt&r, 4^$ 



lations ; but it is to be regretted that the Society have not 

 yet received any cominiinications on the subject. 



I have been solicited to republish my tables, &c. by 

 different gentlemen, who I have reason to believe are very 

 competent to judge of them, and I have in consequence 

 several additional tables in forwardness with this view; but, 

 previous to such publication, I wish to be furnished with a 

 great variety of facts as to the growth of timber^ and the 

 management of plantations; and I shall feel much obliged 

 to any persons who will have the goodness to send me 

 their observations and statements of facts, respecting the 

 growth and management of plantations ; or, if they prefer 

 it, they may send them to you at the Society of Arts, &c« 

 The names of those who send such statements will be either 

 given or suppressed as may be requested. 



I will recapitulate nearly in the words of my former com- 

 munication, several particulars on which mformation is 

 wanted. It would, for instance, be desirable to have the 

 nature of the soil and under strata described, on which 

 plantations have been made; its value per acre; the mode 

 in which it was prepared for planting; the sorts of trees 

 planted thereon, and which of them were found best suit^ 

 -ed thereto ; the distances at which the trees were first 

 planted; at what periods they were thinned, and how many 

 cut out at each thinning ; and their measure and value ; the 

 present height, distance, measure and value of the trees 

 now growing on an acre; what distances are found most 

 advantageous ; also to what proportion of their heights 

 they should be pruned up, and the best and most expedi« 

 tious mode of performing the operation. 



Great loss is frequently sustained by omitting to thin 

 plantations properly, and indue time, but I am not in pos- 

 session of facts to calculate with accuracy what this loss 

 may be; I will however venture to give a short statement 

 of some calculations I have made, as to the loss that would 

 now be sustained by letting trees grow to a great age. 



In Miller's Gardener's Dictionary, it is stated that in sL 

 fall of oak timber in Lord Bagot's woods, Mr. Marshall 

 counted the rings of one tree, which wassound at the butt, 

 and found the number to be about 200. Its bole was 22 

 feet long, and 108 inches in circumference in the middle. 

 Its contents 110 feet, which at 2i. amounts to 11/. I 

 think it was last year, that a tine sound oak-tree was cut 

 down, between Shrewsbury and Oswestry in Shropshire, 

 of 300 years of age, and sold by auction for 32/. 5s, — And 

 under my direction, many oak trees were cut down, some 



years 



