140 



duce, at least, three times as much weight 

 in timber, as boughs ; yet, as things are 

 managed, or rather neglected, the quan- 

 tity produced seldom exceeds an equal 

 proportion. In the place just mention- 

 ed, it rarely amounts to one third. Se- 

 condly. The amazing quantity of fine, 

 though short stems, produced in the New 

 Forest, suggest the idea, that the means, 

 by which such are produced, must be 

 exceedingly simple in itself, and of course 

 easy to practise; for we are sure, that 

 there the premeditated assistance of man 

 has not been made use of; except, haply 

 now and then, the necessities of some 

 poor shivering cottager* occasioned the 

 removal of a few dead branches, which 



* To slide over the present occasion, without drop- 

 ping a word on behalf of those distressed creatures, 

 would, I conceive, be an unpardonable act of inhuma- 

 nity. — It is the custom in many places to banish them 

 entirely out of the Woods and Plantations^ under an 

 idea that they break the fences and damage the trees; 

 but that, I believe, seldom happens, except where they 

 are not treated with confidence. 



