A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



where the formation of small plantations has 

 been steadily if slowly going on during the last 

 century, although much remains to be done in 

 the hill districts. 



At the present time the total area of wood- 

 lands in the county extends to about 30,000 

 acres, or about 4 per cent, of the total area. 

 These woods are rather unequally distributed, 

 the bulk of them being confined to the central 

 portion of the county, or a broad strip, the 

 northern boundary of which follows the Derwent 

 valley, and the southern the valley of the Tees 

 between Barnard Castle and Darlington. To 

 the east of this strip the county is chiefly occu- 

 pied by agriculture, while to the west the land 

 rises into bleak and barren moorlands, practically 

 bare and free from woods. The best wooded 

 portions of this strip are the Derwent valley 

 between Muggleswick and Swalwell, the neigh- 

 bourhood of Lanchester, the south banks of the 

 Wear between Wolsingham and Witton-le- 

 Wear, and the estates of Lambton and Lumley 

 north of Durham, and Brancepeth, Whitworth, 

 and Croxdale to the south of that city, while 

 near Barnard Castle, Streatlam, and Raby are the 

 most important wooded estates. On the east 

 side of the county the principal woods are at 

 Wynyard and Castle Eden, between which and 

 Newcastle few woods of importance exist. 



The system of sylviculture followed at the 

 present time is chiefly that of the mixed planta- 

 tions of hardwoods with coniferous nurses on 

 the low-lying land, and a mixture of larch, 

 spruce, and Scotch pine in the hill districts. 

 Patches of the older system of coppice or ' cop- 

 pice with standard,' still remain in the Derwent 

 and Wear valleys and other parts of the county, 

 but no serious attempt is made to retain it, and 

 most of the woods under this system are regarded 

 more or less as game-cover. 



The general method of planting is that ot 

 planting the broad-leaved trees, chiefly sycamore, 

 ash, beech, and occasionally oak, alder, poplar, 

 and others at distances varying from 8 to 16 ft. 

 apart, the intervals being filled up to 4 ft. with 

 larch, Scotch pine, or spruce. The former are 

 usually pit-planted at sizes varying from I to 

 3 ft. in height, and the latter slitted or notched 

 in, the plants being about four years of age. On 

 the stiff clay soils the plants rarely make much 

 progress until they have been three or four years 

 in the ground, and they frequently suffer from 

 late spring frosts to a considerable extent. On 

 more open soils and on the banks of the rivers 

 the trees are usually making a good growth after 

 the first two years, and from that time until their 

 thirtieth or fortieth year their most rapid growth 

 is made. Thinning is usually commenced about 

 the tenth or twelfth year by taking out the rub- 

 bish and diseased and sickly trees, and by this 

 time a great many of the larch are often badly 

 diseased or have died out altogether. The next 



thinning usually takes place about the twentieth 

 year, when the larch is large enough for fencing 

 posts and rails, pit-wood, &c. At this thinning 

 the trees are pruned up about 6 ft. from the 

 ground, which enables beaters to pass between 

 them easily in the shooting season, and is sup- 

 posed to improve their appearance. By about 

 the fortieth year thinning should cease, and the 

 crop of four to five hundred trees per acre can 

 then remain until it approaches maturity, which 

 in the case of conifers is about the eightieth year, 

 but such broad-leaved trees as oak, sycamore, and 

 wych elm may be kept until well over a hundred. 

 In the latter case the conifers are gradually 

 thinned out until few or none remain by the 

 seventieth or eightieth year, an age at which 

 most pure crops of conifers are felled altogether. 

 The above is the system of forestry adopted 

 on nearly all the estates in the county, and is 

 fairly universal throughout the north of England. 

 The details chiefly vary with the success or 

 failure of the larch. This species is very uncer- 

 tain, and may die out in twenty or thirty years, 

 or continue sound and healthy for over a hundred 

 years. In the latter case the hardwoods are often 

 allowed to get smothered and suppressed by the 

 faster growing conifer, and the latter eventually 

 becomes the main crop. Plantations of this kind 

 are usually more valuable than when the original 

 idea of making the hardwoods the permanent 

 crop has been realized, and it is doubtless good 

 policy to treat each plantation according to the 

 development of the larch rather than by any cut- 

 and-dried method. 



Plantations in the hill districts are treated 

 much in the same way as regards thinning in the 

 early stages, but later on their management be- 

 comes more or less irregular and uncertain, 

 according to their size and situation. Small 

 plantations which have been planted more with 

 a view to shelter than timber production rarely 

 receive any regular or systematic thinning after 

 the twentieth year, being more often regarded as 

 sources of fencing-wood, as this is required on the 

 farms, and in the majority of cases being opened 

 up for the grazing of sheep at an early age. 

 Larger woods may be slightly better managed, 

 but it is seldom that a full crop is found on the 

 ground after the fiftieth year, especially when 

 larch predominates. This is principally due to 

 the constant demands made upon this species for 

 various purposes in rural districts. Where spruce 

 prevails in a wood, however, less inducement to 

 thin prevails, and it is often kept thick and close 

 until late in life, and under favourable conditions 

 as to soil and situation, fairly fine timber is 

 produced. 



As regards the condition of the various woods 

 throughout the county, they vary to a considera- 

 ble extent with the species, soil, and situation. 

 On estates where a regular system of clearing 

 and replanting is practised, asat Raby, Lambton, 



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