24 ANCIENT WOODS. 



which ought to stand more than twenty years, and 

 a great proportion of them, nothing like so long. 

 The great reason why the produce of woods does not 

 earlier come to maturity, is the gross "mismanage- 

 ment" to which they are suhjected : hut when the 

 time shall arrive that they shall he deemed worthy 

 of as much " care, attention, and culture," as any 

 other part of an estate, then will they be found, 

 probahly, to yield qnite as good a return for it ; 

 and the present no system management will be 

 exploded. 



In all cases where the cycle has run beyond 

 twenty years, it will, at least, be well for the 

 proprietor, or his manager, to sit down and cal- 

 culate whether the stuff would not pay better if 

 felled some years earlier. The inquiry can do no 

 harm ; and much good may possibly arise out of it. 

 In the case last supposed, viz.: a wood with little 

 or no oak, and well stocked with underwood of a 

 suitable kind, there cannot be a doubt upon the 

 subject ; for if the stock by which term I mean 

 the shoots which have sprung up from the stools 

 has been properly treated, it will have arrived, in 

 twenty years, at a size quite large enough for 



