1885.] WOODLANDS IN SUSSEX AND KENT. 347 



after the operation has been effected. But Scotch planters of fir 

 woods do not trench their moorland, because the rapidity of gi'owtli 

 would not be increased ; and although timber on some soils may 

 grow faster when the land is trenched, it only does so for a few 

 years — twenty or thirty years, perhaps — and no ultimate advantage 

 is derived from the operation when the wood is felled. Tliere is, in 

 fact, a loss, since the cost of trenching at £8 per acre is not 

 recovered, the trees on the untrenched land overtaking the others 

 after the lapse of thirty or forty years after planting. Few persons 

 have much inclination for trials of trenched versus untrenched land, 

 since trials of that kind are forty years in progress, and mere opinions 

 on the matter are iisually worthless unless they are based on accu- 

 rate observations. As the point is financially of much importance, 

 the experiments of Mr. Selby may be referred to. He records them 

 in liis work on Forest Trees, and they are quite conclusive. Even 

 on good land he found that the effect of trenching, though it 

 expedited growth in the case of every kind of tree — for he tried it 

 in mixed clumps — wore out entirely in about thirty years. Pre- 

 cisely the same result has been observed on Sir F. Graham's property 

 at Netherby, Cumberland, where the experienced forester, Mr. Baty, 

 informed me that the most conspicuous portions of some of the 

 plantations — the front margins — were trenched for the sake of 

 obtaining a rapid growth. The trees in front grew more rapidly for 

 a time, but those ia the rear have now overtaken them, tlie sorts of 

 trees being various. 



1 will add here, as a sort of appendix to this article, a few more 

 notes in regard to the money returns from several sorts of under- 

 wood or timber. Mr. Glutton's averages, already quoted, are certainly 

 moderate, and referring, as they do, to Sussex generally, they must 

 have included a large area of badly-planted, defective, ill-managed, 

 overcrowded, and game-eaten copipice. I will therefore quote some 

 other returns, which may prove pleasanter reading to sanguine 

 planters, since they tell of larger jjrices. It should be noted that in 

 the case of underwood sold by auction, the wood merchant cuts it 

 and markets it, so tliat the price he pays for it corresponds with the 

 net revenue. 



Ash is one of the most profitable kinds of underwood when 

 grown on suitable soils, such as damp, retentive clays or loams. On 

 such soils, when they are of fair quality, ten years' growth of ash 

 without timber generally sells at from £30 to £35 per acre, that 

 is, from £3 to £3, 10s. per annum. On moist clays it is far more 

 profitable than oak, growing faster, and proving always saleable at 

 all sizes. Mr. Duff, the wood manager at Bayliam Abbey, has sold 

 larch for hop poles, at ten years' growth, for the high — and, I should 



