[ 48 ] 
knees, crooks, and compafs pieces, only excepted. 
At that time the round ftick of a ton, hard hewn, 
extended to a load, viz. forty feet of round timber 
(by the accuftomed meafurement of the day) pro- 
duced fifty feet of fquare timber at the moft. 
Now, fuch is the improvement of commerce, or 
the art of thofe who are concerned in it, that the 
round fhaft of forty feet difappoints the merchant, 
and the labourer who chips it is blamed, if it doth 
not meafure fixty feet when hewed; and four trees 
out of five are made to do it, fo great is the im- 
provement in hewing. 
Wherefore fmall timbers (viz. fticks of a ton) 
which gain the moft, if taken at the new metings, 
are equal to few naval purpofes, being fit for floops, 
cutters, and inferior veffels only. In time of war, 
fuch diminutive ftuff (though little in requeft) muft 
be taken, as your correfpondent truly informs us, to 
induce the merchants to furnifh requifites. Intime 
of peace, the yards being confequently cumbered 
with fuch trafh, the purveyors refufe to admit any 
more of it. 
As to “ Hampfhire alone being nearly able to 
“‘ fupply the common confumption of Portfmouth 
** Dock,” which upon an average demands, I pre- 
fume, 8000 loads a year;* hear what Gilpin fays of 
* The confumption of the Dock-yards in the whole, is 25,000 loads 
a year, of which, I have heard, that of Portfmouth amounts to near 
ene-third. 
that 
= 
