114 HEDGE-ROW TIMBER. 



volume might be written with reference to this 

 particular tree, were it necessary to take up every 

 one of the points which present themselves, as 

 condemning the present practice in its manage- 

 ment, but that is not needed, for the Ash Tree is 

 so generally met with in a diseased state, that it 

 may be considered as the subject of grosser -'mis- 

 management" than any other of our domestic 

 trees. If any one still deny this, let him look 

 round him and say, why Hedge-rows so abound 

 every where, in puny, sickly, Ash Timber, which 

 cannot possibly attain to a useful size : and when 

 he has confessed the fact, that they really do exist 

 in that state, I will reiterate the assertion, that the 

 cause is bad management ! It the present con- 

 dition of Hedge-row Ash, generally, does not prove 

 " Tms-management," I am at a loss to know what 

 does, for when the different kinds are planted upon 

 a congenial soil, if they be properly treated, they will 

 continue to grow, more or less rapidly, according to 

 circumstances, and for a longer or shorter period, 

 as the natural term of their existence may rule : but 

 as they are now treated, they are never healthy, 

 for the principle of decay is introduced at a very 



