The Agriculture of Worcestershire. 465 



Woods and Plantations. 



Perhaps ordinary coppice-wood, is the least profitahle use to 

 which land is put; for if we value the land after it is cut at only 

 20/. per acre, with 2^. Gd. rates, 2s. Qd. tithes, and \s. per acre for 

 woodward, to make up compound interest at only 3 per cent, 

 for something like 15 years, each fall should produce 17/,, and 

 only a very good coppice will average this sum. But when 

 some good growing oak is produced, and stands thickly upon the 

 ground, it pays very well. This is instanced in the old red sand- 

 stone at Kyre and Bockleton, near Tenbury, where some splendid 

 oaks may be seen. In the same neighbourhood I have met 

 with the best plantation of larch I have seen in the county, 

 the trees being from 80 to 100 feet high, and 1 measured one in 

 a plantation, either begun or finished on the day his Royal 

 Highness the Prince of Wales was born, that girthed 4 feet 

 10 inches at the height of one foot from the ground. These plan- 

 tations are very valuable where they grow freely, but they require 

 to be planted thickly, and to be judiciously thinned as they attain 

 size. Another profitable plantation in the hop district is the ash- 

 bed. These ai'e commonly planted in rows 4 feet apart each way, 

 and when fit to make hop-poles, sometimes average four to each 

 stool ; this as they are cut in seven or eight years is very remu- 

 nerative, especially when they realise 205. per hundred, and 

 produce 8000 or 10,000 per acre. The cost of planting an ash- 

 bed is very moderate ; the young trees can be had at 355. per 

 thousand, the labour of planting costs from 25^. to 305. per 

 acre more. The following system is recommended to me by a 

 gentleman who has paid considerable attention to the subject. 

 If the land you propose to plant is wet, it should be ploughed 

 up in ridges, and the ash planted on the top ; if not, the ash 

 may be planted in rows, 6 feet apart, and 3 feet in the rows. 

 Between these rows set a row of larch. When the ash has been 

 planted two years, they should be cut within an inch of the ground, 

 as if left they will take long to grow into one hop-pole, whereas 

 if cut off after getting good root, they shoot out with such 

 energy that you get some good poles in ten years. The larch 

 having helped to nurse up the ash should now be cut, as they 

 will be of good size for hop-poles, and command 55. per hundred 

 more money than other poles, they will thus pay the expense of 

 planting the ash-bed. 



In many of the hop districts alder, grown on the farm, is, as a 

 matter of course, used for hop-poles ; but they are seldom bought 

 if any other kind can be obtained without much hauling ; even 

 when of home growth they are not desirable, as it will take two 



