754 VALUE OF UNDERWOOD. [April 



VALUE OF UNDERWOOD. 



THE season for disposing of underwood has again arrived. The 

 produce is of considerable importance, but does not receive 

 the attention it deserves. In many parts of Scotland, says a writer 

 in the Tlmhcr Trades Journal, underwood is considered an incum- 

 brance, and instead of being utilized as a source of profit, the most 

 effectual means are often adopted for destroying it. In the north 

 of England the same remark applies, where underwood is never 

 encouraged, except where it is required as cover for game. Foresters 

 of considerable experience on first coming to the south of England 

 are consequently prejudiced, aud look with great disdain upon 

 valuable crops of underwood. Several cases have come under my 

 own observation where the owner of large woods has been seriously 

 advised to grub and destroy the underwood stems, on the plea that 

 an undergrowth damaged the valuable timber, by preventing a free 

 circulation of air amongst the trees. Where this advice is withheld 

 the forester often declares his antipathy for this crop by leaving it 

 to take care of itself, and thus eventually the underwood is destroyed, 

 or at least soon deteriorates until it is hardly worth maintaining. 

 Within the last ten years underwood has deteriorated very consider- 

 ably in value. Several causes have assisted to bring about this 

 result. First, there is the great question of labour, which is in this, 

 as in most other cases, a pow^erful factor in regulating the value of 

 this crop. Within the last ten years the amount actually paid in 

 wages has not materially increased, but the amount of labour per- 

 formed has so much diminished as to make the expense of convert- 

 ing an acre of wood about 35s. more than in 1874. Then there is 

 the depreciation in the value of hoops, rakeware, hurdles, sheep cages, 

 and hop poles, all of which tend still in the same unremunerative 

 direction. Another powerful factor is the conversion of firewood 

 grates and hearths into stoves and kitchen ranges only adapted for 

 burning coal. Ten years ago a kitchen range in a cottage was the 

 exception, and the cottagers never saw coal except at Christmas, 

 when the distribution of a half-hundredweight to each household was 

 kindly attended to by the squire's bailiff. Now every cottage is 

 supplied with a kitchen range, and the " ingle-nooks," where the 

 tired " gudeman " enjoyed his pipe Mdiile watching the flames and 

 sparks emitted from his blazing wood, are things of the past. 

 Instead of the blazing hearth and cosy seat in the corner, he has his 

 chair drawn close up to the half-burnt coal in the grate. Ten years 

 ago all the bakers' ovens in the south of England were specially con- 

 structed for burning wood. Now an oven of this description is the 



