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few hands ; such as woodmen and hedgers^ 

 for no others are dexterous in the use of 

 the Bill or Hatchet. 



It is constantly asserted, that the use of 

 a Saw is dangerous, except the wounds 

 are afterwards smoothed with some other 

 instrument ; as, otherwise, they would 

 never heal. In opposition to which we 

 can safely affirm, that such danger 

 amounts to little or nothing, when applied 

 to the hardy foresters. 



Indeed we know of no case among than 

 where such smoothing becomes necessary, 

 except where the head of an old tree is 

 taken off somewhat level with the horizon : 

 in this case, the roughness, left by the saw, 

 must retain some little moisture, and there- 

 fore, would sooner induce rottenness. 

 But this is completely different from tak- 

 ing off a branch, slopingly, either from 

 the stem of a tree, or the side of another 

 branch; as, in either case, the parts be- 



