Book II. PRODUCTS OF TREES. 591 



cut, they often receive considerable injury, botli from that circumstance, and the manner 

 in which the operation is performed. Monteith appears to us to have furnished the best 

 directions for executing the work in a safe manner. He first sends a person furnished 

 witli an instrument witli a sharp cutting edge [fig. 460 o) through the copse, whose 

 business is " to trample down the long grass or foggage all round the root, and then, to 

 make a circular incision into the bark so deep as to reach the wood, at about an inch 

 above the surface of the earth ; thus the bark when taken off, will injure no part of that, 

 which is below the circular incision." 



3744. The root of the tree being thus prqyared, the cutters ought to proceed to their 

 part of the work, not with an axe, however, as is most generally recommended, but with 

 a saw, because, in cutting with the axe, unless the root of the tree be so small in diameter 

 as to be severed in one or two strokes at most, the axe loosens the root to such a degree, 

 that it not only loses the present year's growth, but often fails altogether to grow. 

 Therefore if the diameter of the root be six inches, or upwards, it should always be cut 

 with a cross-cut saw ; entering the saw about half an inch above where the circular in- 

 cision has been naade into the bark, if a small tree ; but if the tree be ten or twelve, or 

 more inches in diameter, the saw ought to be entered two inches above it. 



3745. There are two advantages to be derived from cutting with the saw ; it has no ten- 

 dency to loosen the root of the tree, but leaves it in such a condition as to be more easily 

 and properly dressed ; it also saves a portion of the wood that would otherwise be de^ 

 stroyed by the axe. On no pretence should oaks of six inches' diameter be cut with an 

 axe, but always with a saw. Having cut through the tree with a saw, take a sharp 

 adze, and round the edges of the stool or root, going close down to the surface of the 

 earth, taking with the adze both bark and wood, sloping it up towards the centre of the 

 stool, taking particular care always that the bark and wood both slope alike, as if they 

 formed one solid body, being sure always that the bark be not detached from the root. 

 An objection has been made to this mode of cutting with the saw, as taking up too 

 much time ; but I have found that two men with a cross-cut saw, kept in good order, 

 will cut as much as two men will with an axe. [Forester s Guide, 58.) 



3746. The disbarked timber is prepared for sale by being sorted into straight poles of 

 the largest size, stakes and other pieces fit for palings, faggots, fuel, &c. The unbarked 

 wood is similarly sorted, and affords, where there is much hazel or ash, cord wood or 

 bundles of clean shoots for making packing crates, hampers, &c. , poles for hops, larger 

 poles for fences, rails, paling-stakes, stakes and shoots for hurdles, besom-stuff, spray 

 for distillation, and a variety of other objects according to the local demand, or the op- 

 portunity of supplying a distant market by land- carriage. The brush or spray of non- 

 resinous trees is called in some places ton-wood, and is used for distilling the pyrolig- 

 nous acid used in bleach-fields and calico print-works. " When wood of this description 

 is sent to Glasgow, where there are extensive works for the purpose of distilling it, it 

 sells readily at from 1^. 2s. to \l. 105. per ton; but when there are large cuttings, par- 

 ticularly of young woods, it is worth while to erect boilers near the wood to distil it, 

 as these boilers can be erected at no great expense, and in this case the liquid is easily 

 carried in casks to where it is consumed, at less expense than the rough timber could be ; 

 of course it will pay much better. Small wood of this description is also used for char- 

 coal : but in distilling it, there is part of it made into charcoal, which will supply the 

 demand of that article, so that it is by far the most profitable way, when there is any 

 great quantity to dispose of, to erect boilers and distil it ; unless where the local situation 

 of the wood will admit of its being shipped at a small expense, and carried to where the 

 works mentioned are carried on. All kinds of non-resinous woods will give the extract 

 in question; but oak, ash, Spanish chestnut, and birch, are the best." {Forester^ s 

 Guide, 155.) Where the oak grows slow, as in the highlands, the but-ends of the poles 

 are used for spokes for chaise wheels. ** Long spokes are from thirty to thirty-two 

 by three inches and a half broad, and one inch and a half thick, and the short ones for 

 the same purpose, from twenty-two to twenty- four inches long, and the same sizes other- 

 wise. Cart-wheel spokes, from twenty-six to twenty-eight inches long, four inches broad 

 by two inches thick. These are the sizes they require to stand when rough blocked from 

 the axe. Small wood when sold for this purpose, brought, in 1820, 2s. a cubic foot, 

 measured down to three inches square. " {Monteith.) 



3747. In some cases copse-woods are soivn with grass-seedSf and pastured by sheep, 

 horses, and cattle. Some admit the animals the fifth year after the last cutting, otliers, 

 not till the eighth : but Monteith thinks this should never be done till the fifteenth year. 

 If the ground is properly covered with trees, it can seldom be advantageous to admit 

 any species of stock unless during a month or two in winter. 



3748. In the operation of barking trees, " the barkers are each furnished with light 

 short-handed mallets, made of hard-wood, about eight or nine inches long, three inches 

 square at the face, and the other end sharpened like a wedge, in order the more easily 



