HEDGE-ROW TIMBER. 123 



this point, I am of opinion that timber thus carefully 

 trained, will be, on every account, incomparably 

 superior to that which is at present obtained from 

 our Hedge-rows ; it will exhibit a healthy deve- 

 lopement, from the pith to the alburnum ; so that 

 wherever there is a bend, a crook, or a knee, in it, 

 the purchaser will be sure that it is sound where- 

 as the very opposite is the case with by far the 

 greater part of that which now comes into the 

 market. The reckless extent to which the abo- 

 minable practice of pruning, lopping, or snaring 

 whichever it may be called is carried, renders 

 the conversion of timber a very hazardous specu- 

 lation, and should long since have taught the 

 growers of it, to avoid the commission of such an 

 error themselves, and to impose a heavy penalty 

 on all those belonging to them, who should be 

 found guilty of it. 



To illustrate a little further the statement here 

 made, and the opinion here given, it may be re- 

 marked, that the effect of such a vile mutilation 

 of Hedge-row Timber as is, in almost every quar- 

 ter, permitted, is seen and felt most in those very 



