1 6 SYLVA BOOK m 



even whiles they live ; and instead of trees, thousands 

 of bushes and shrubs ! What rottenness ! what 

 hollowness ! what dead arms ! withered tops ! cur- 

 tail'd trunks ! what loads of moss ! drouping boughs, 

 and dying branches shall you see every where ! and 

 those that in this sort are in a manner all unprofitable 

 boughs, canker'd arms, crooked, little and short boals. 

 What an infinite number of bushes, shrubs, and 

 skrags of hasels, thorns, and other unprofitable wood, 

 which might be brought by dressing to become great 

 and goodly trees ! Consider now the cause. 



The lesser wood hath been spoil'd with careless, 

 unskilful, and untimely stowing ; and much also of 

 the great wood. The greater trees at the first rising 

 have fill'd and overladen themselves with a number 

 of wastful boughs and suckers, which have not only 

 drawn the sap from the boal, but also have made it 

 knotty, and themselves, and the boal mossie, for want 

 of dressing ; whereas, if in the prime of growth, they 

 had been taken away close, all but one top, and 

 clean by the bulk, the strength of all the sap should 

 have gone to the bulk, and so he would have recov- 

 ered and covered his knots, and have put forth a fair, 

 long and streight body, for timber profitable, huge 

 great of bulk, and of infinite last. 



If all timber trees were such, (will some say) how 

 should we have crooked wood for wheels, coorbs, &c. 



Answ. Dress all you can, and there will be enough 

 crooked for those uses. 



More than this, in most places they grow so thick, 

 that neither themselves, nor earth, nor any thing 

 under or near them can thrive ; nor sun, nor rain, nor 

 air can do them, nor any thing near, or under them, 

 any profit or comfort. 



