74 S Y L V A BOOK in 



a more facile and accurate way than what that indust- 

 rious mathematician Mr. Leybourn has publish'd, in 

 his late Line of proportion made easy^ and other his 

 labours ; where he treats as well of the square as the 

 round, as 'tis applicable to boards and superficial, and 

 to timber which is hew'd, or less rough, in so easie 

 a method, as nothing can be more desired. I know 

 our ordinary carpenters, Gfc. have generally upon 

 their rulers a line, which they usually call Gunter's 

 line ; but few of them understand how to work from 

 it as they should : And divers country gentlemen, 

 stewards and woodmen, when they are to measure 

 rough timber upon the ground, confide much to the 

 girt, which they do with a string at about four, or 

 five foot distance from the root or great extream : Of 

 the strings length, they take a quarter for the true 

 square, which is so manifestly erroneous, that there- 

 by they make every tree so measur'd, more than a fifth 

 part less than really it is. This mistake would there- 

 fore be reform'd ; and it were (I conceive) worth the 

 seller's while, to inspect it accordingly : Their argu- 

 ment is, that when the bark of a tree is stripped, and 

 the body hew'd to a square, it will then hold out 

 no more measure ; that which is cut off being only 

 fit for fuel, and the expence of squaring cost more 

 than the chips are worth. To convince them of 

 this error, I shall refer and recommend them to the 

 above-nam'd author: And to what the industrious 

 Mr. Cooke has so mathematically demonstrated : 

 Where also of taking the altitude of trees the better 

 to judge of the worth of them, with the measuring 

 of wood-lands, &c. together with necessary calcul- 

 ations for the levelling of ground, and removing of 

 earth, drawing of plots and figures ; all which are 



