972 



PRACTICE OF GARDENING 



Part III- 



such, to have grown four years, its present value would be next to nothing ; but if arrived 

 at its twentieth year, it would fetch fifty pounds per acre. Then the question is, required 

 the present value of fifty pounds, due sixteen years hence, the market price of money 

 being five per cent. ? and this, according to any of the modern annuity tables (say Bailey's, 

 4to. 1808. tab. iv.) is 221. 18s. "This principle is applicable to all kinds of valuing by 

 anticipation ; and there is no other mode of valuing applicable to young plantations. The 

 benefits derived from the trees in the way of shelter and ornament, are to be estimated in 

 valuing the territory, and are foreign to the present purpose, which has for its object tree- 

 produce only. 



6968. In valuing saleable trees of any kind, their number per acre, or their total number by enumeration 

 being ascertained, and the kinds and sizes classed, then each class is to be estimated according to its worth 

 as timber, fence-wood, fuel, bark, &c. " In a coppice-wood which cannot readily be measured, the 

 readiest method of counting the stools is, to cause two men to take a line, say about a hundred feet long, 

 or more, and passing the line round as many of the stools as it will enclose, the one man standing still 

 while the other moves round a new number of stools, and count always the stools betwixt the two lines, 

 causing the one man to move the one time with the line, whilst the other man stands still, and so on alter- 

 nately. The valuator at the same time taking care to average every twenty stools as they go on, before 

 losing sight of the counted stools. This way, too, is a very speedy and sure method of counting the num- 

 ber of trees in any plantation. Or, the stools of a coppice-wood may be counted and averaged by two men 

 going parallel to each other, and the person valuing going betwixt them ; the two men putting up marks 

 with moss, or pieces of white paper, on a branch of the stools ; the one man going always back by the last 

 laid marks, and the valuator always counting and averaging the stools betwixt the newly-laid and' the late- 

 laid marks ; counting and averaging the stools always as the men go on, taking only twenty, or even ten 

 stools at a time. To those who have been in the practice of doing this frequently, it will be found very 

 easy, and will be done very speedily, and with a very considerable degree of accuracy. The proper method 

 of learning to do this correctly is, when a person cuts an oak wood for the first time (or, even were the 

 work repeated several times), he should then, in order to make himself perfectly acquainted with ascer- 

 taining the average quantity of bark that a stool, or even a stem of a stool will produce, go before the 

 peelers, and select a stool or stem : after having examined it narrowly, he supposes it to produce a certain 

 quantity of bark, and marks this down in his memorandum-book. He then causes a person to peel it by 

 itself, dry it, and carefully tie it up, and weigh it, and compare it with the weight he supposed it to pro- 

 duce, and he will at once see how near his calculation comes to the truth. A stem of oak from a natural 

 stool, suppose it to measure in girth two inches, by seven feet long, will contain two solid inches and one 

 third of an inch, according to the measurement of Hoppus This stem or shoot will produce two pounds 

 two ounces of bark. Again, a stem or shoot of natural oak, measuring four inches in girth, by nine feet 

 in length, will be found to contain one solid foot of wood, and will produce thirteen pounds and a half of 

 bark." (Forester's Guide, 170.) 



6969. When growing trees are valued, an allowance is made from their cubic contents for the bark. The 

 rule given by Monteath is, " when the girth or circumference is any thing from twelve inches up to 

 twenty-four inches, then deduct two inches ; from twenty-four to thirty-six, three inches ; from thirty- 

 six to forty-eight, four inches ; from forty-eight to seventy-two, five inches ; and above seventy-two, six 

 inches." These deductions, he says, " will be found to answer in almost all trees ; unless in such as are 

 very old, and have rough and corky barks or barks covered with moss, when an extra allowance is to be 

 made," (Forester's Guide, 180.) " Many persons," the same author observes, "in valuing measurable 

 oak-trees, proceed on the data that every cubic foot of timber will produce a stone (sixteen pounds) of bark. 

 This," he says, " is not always correct ;" and he states the following facts from his own experience, with 

 a view to assist beginners in ascertaining the quantity of bark from various trees. " An oak-tree, about 

 forty years old, measured down to four inches and a half side of the square, and weighing only the bark 

 peeled off the timber that is measured, without including any of the bark of the spray, &c. every foot of 

 measured timber will produce from nine to eleven pounds of bark. An oak-tree, of eighty years old, 

 weighing only the bark peeled off the measurable timber, as above, every foot will produce from ten to 

 thirteen pounds of bark. Every foot of large birch-timber, peeled as above, will produce fourteen pounds 

 of bark. Every foot of mountain ash, as above, will produce eleven pounds and a half of bark. Every foot 

 of the willow, unless a very old tree, will produce from nine to eleven pounds. Every foot of larch fir, not 

 exceeding thirty years old, will produce from seven to nine pounds of bark. The timber of trees, particu- 

 larly the oak, is peeled out, every branch and shoot, dow r n as small as an inch in circumference." (Forest- 

 er's Guide, 189.) The price of timber, like that of every other article in general use, varies with the supply 

 and demand ; and is easily ascertained from the timber-merchants at the different sea-ports ; as is that of 

 bark, charcoal, and fire-wood from the tanners and coal-merchants. 



6970. To facilitate the measuring of standing timber, Monteath has invented a very in- 

 genious machine, {fig- 667.) It consists of a wheel, or perambulator, about eight inches 

 in diameter, with a bell la) on the end of 

 its axle ; at the end of every foot gone 

 over by the serrated circumference of the 

 perambulator, this bell is struck by means 

 of a spring (6) ; the sound of this bell will 

 be heard from the top of the highest tree. 

 A forked handle (c) works on the top of ^ 

 the main axle on each side of the wheel ; 

 one of a set of connecting rods (e, h) goes 

 into it, and is fixed widi a screw making a 

 swivel joint, and by screwing the nut firm, 

 the wheel can be set to any position, and it 

 will work equally well any way. A small 

 hand (d), in the circle of the triangular '• 

 spring, points to the inches or quarters of ^ N 

 an inch on the wheel, and tells what exceeds the inch after a lesser spring (e), which strikes 

 at every inch, has struck the bell. The circumference of the wheel (f) measures two 

 feet. The rods for working the measuring machine are each three feet long, and one inch 

 in diameter, with connecting screws of brass on each end of them ; so that as many as are 



