THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



469 



well as of that varied vegetable produce which sustains man 

 and beast, is produced, and tended and improved, has ex- 

 hibited at least a corresponding ratio of increase. The Irish 

 labourer is infinitely better fed, better clothed, better tended 

 in sickness, and, I think, under the operation of a recent Act 

 of Parliament, I may say soon, with the same confidence, 

 better housed thau he has ever been before. I know there 



are still higher influences to be brought to bear upou him, 

 and upou all of us, than the bread we are to eat or the rai- 

 ment we put on ; but still I contend that agriculture iu our 

 day holds a very high position, when its processes generally 

 have attained to the dignity of a science, and when its daily 

 work corresponds with the best-directed efforts of patriotism 

 and of charity." 



THE GROWTH OF FOREST TIMBER. 



Sir,— Knowing that the Afark-lane Ex^press is a paper 

 circulated through Great Britain and Ireland, I take the 

 liberty of stating to you my opiuiou on the improvement that 

 may be made in the British Empire by the great lauded 

 heritors whose property descends from one generation to an- 

 other, particularly amongst the noblemen of Scotland and the 

 Highlands, where there are so many thousand acres of land 

 lying waste in rocks, stone, and heather, which is half the 

 year round iu snow and rainy weather, where forest-timber 

 would thrive as well as in Norway. Mauy of our northern 

 nobility for years past have plauted thousands of acres of fir 

 and birch on their mountain districts and hills, while other 

 parts have lain bare for centuries that might have been forests 

 of fir and birch at the present time. The Dukei of Argyll and 

 Buccleugh are now reaping the benefit of those plantations 

 which they planted mauy years ago, and many others that 

 have done so since, both in England and Scotland. Yet there 

 are thousands of acres of hilly lauds in the north of England 

 and Scotland, Northumberland, Cumberland, Westmoreland, 

 and Lancashire, that have moorland fit for that purpose, and no 

 other. Places in the Highlands of Scotland, that I knew when 

 a schoolboy were nothiug but rock and heather, have now 

 forests of fir and larch growing ; and yet thousands of acres 

 now on the mountainous hills are layino; waste, though fit for 

 no other purpose. Certainly we must admit that many pro- 

 prietors have not the means of doing it, and many others not 

 inclined. We must also allow you cannot expect leaseholders 

 to plant wheie their children can reap no benefit from it. And 

 even in entailed estates it is often the case that many families, 

 through depravity and family quarrels, will destroy what part 

 of the family has done before them, sooner than the next 

 should reap the bensfit, in cutting down timber before it comes 

 to maturity :• no benefit to the timber or the country. Now, we 

 well know that Norway, on its mountains, with all its snows and 

 cold winters, grows fir, birch, and other timber ; that its trade 

 mostly depends upon timber, though there is little fit for ship- 

 building. We know that in the last war with America, in Bona- 

 parte the First's time, there were several large frigates built at 

 the Spey mouth, Aberdeenshire, of Scotch fir : that shows 

 Scotland grows as good fir timber as Norway, giving it time to 

 come to size for the purpose. But few are they that will 

 allow it that time. 



Now, the Scotch coopers in the herring trade made their 

 casks, many years ago, from birch and alder ; but the timber 

 of that sort has been cut down years ago, and they are obliged 

 to get their birch-timber from Norway for the same purpose 

 and boat-building. So much so, that the coopers in that part 

 are now making their pork-casks for pickled pork to Lon- 

 don, out of larch fir that was growu in their own country 

 fifty or sixty years ago. English and Scotch fir is much con- 

 sumed by coopers for the dry cask bottled-porter trade and 

 Boda, for exportation to all paita. Beech-timber, iu Buck- 

 inghamshire, has been made into staves for the same use. 



The Irish coopers, for their provision and butter trade, gene- 

 rally use Quebec staves ; but, like the Scotch, they are obliged 

 to get all their wood-hoops from England, It has surprised me 

 that the great landholders, or many who belong as heritors, 

 whose estates went from one part of the family to the other, 

 never introduced copsewood-plantations for that purpose into 

 Ireland or Scotland. 



Copsewood, or plantations, mostly grow wild in the parts 

 where they are found. Those produced from nut or seeds of 

 different sorts sow themselves. Where they grow to use, they 

 are mostly planted for the purpose ; but none but freeholders 

 would take the interest, and few of them that think of it. 



Copsewood-plantations pay as well as any wood plantations, 

 for wood-hoops, hop-poles, and many purposes wanted for 

 farming utility ; but fir-wood hoops pay as well in the south — 

 Surrey, Sussex, Kent, and Reading. Almost all the wood- 

 hoops bought by the London hoop-merchants are made in that 

 part from a gallon paint keg to a 30-bushel hogshead of 14 feet 

 to 16 feet long, and many ash stout poles are made into truss- 

 hoops for the London coopers for large work. The Scotch 

 take them for herring-barrels, the Irish for provisions and the 

 butter trade. None makes better casks or butter for exporta- 

 tion to hot climates ; their butter fetches in the West India 

 market Is. 3d. per lb., when the American is sold for lOd. 

 per lb. 



Plantations of copsewood, planted regularly for that purpose 

 in Surrey and Sussex, fetch as much per acre as the best 

 arable land in that part. The woods best for that purpose are 

 ash, birch, hazel, China-tree, chesnut, willow, and many 

 others, and, planted at a certain distance, grow far quicker 

 than where they are planted some too thin and some too thick; 

 and what grows too crooked for hoops are made into hurdles 

 or short bundles, hand-sticks, and such-like. 



Sixty years ago almost all the London bakers used nothing 

 but firewood from Epping, and all that part. The ship- 

 biscuit bakers and Government Victualling Office bakers from 

 bavins made out of the copsewood from Kent, Surrey, and 

 Essex, grown any way ; but now that all the bakers use coal, 

 instead of wood, that kind of copsewood is little worth, only to 

 grub up, except on billy land not fit for arable or aheep- 

 pasture. 



The Emperor of France talks of improving France. One of 

 his propositions is to plant all the hilly lands with wood. Of 

 course the French are more in want of wood for firing than 

 the English, who have plenty of coal. But we must allow 

 that in many parts of Great Britain and Ireland, near the sea- 

 coast, wood will not grow to any advantage, exposed to sea- 

 gales and to sea-atmosphere. Basket-makers, and those in 

 that kind of way, use osiers aud willow grown on the banks 

 of the Thames and swampy places; and it pays as well as 

 copsewood in general to freehold heritors. 



Norway supplies us with short ends of the fir-trees, cut off 

 their trees, sawn by their water-mills. It is called fathom- 

 wood, being sold by the fathom, aud pays little or no duty, 

 and, supplying all London with penny bundles and lucifer- 

 matches, makes a very good market, taking British goods in 

 return ; but it shows Norway timber is getting scarce in the 

 deal way, by their deals getting very narrow and very knotty. 

 The brewers iu London use all Danzig oak and Memel oak 

 from the back part of Poland. No other timber will suit 

 beer for home use and exportation. Brewers' vats are mostly 

 made from English oak. 



In woods for forest timber small seed may be scattered. 

 Hips and haws would be fit to make food and shelter for game 

 of many sorts, particularly in those parts not disturbed by 

 travellers. 



An acre of land, that looks small in a mountainous or hilly 

 country, looks much larger on a plain surface. 



You can give a lecture in your paper, if it suits your con- 

 venience and pleasure, to many large landed proprietors or 

 freeholders who would read a.lecture in a public paper, to their 

 advantage, that would not go half a mile to hear one. But 

 many heritors are so fixed with lawyers that they can do 

 neither one thing nor the other. Having nothing further to 

 observe on the subject, I leave it to others to improve. 

 I remain, your obedient servant, 



London in the East. A Tkaveller. 



I I 2 



