FROM POLLARDING TREES. 395 



the covenant, as is obvious on the most cursory view 

 of the country in any direction ; whereas the ash is 

 not a less valuable tree, from its thriving more uni- 

 versally in all situations, and becoming saleable in 

 a shorter period. One or two generations must 

 pass before an oak should be felled ; but the ash 

 becomes useful wood while its more respected com- 

 panion is but a sapling. These prohibitions should 

 not simply be engrossed on the parchment, but the 

 agent ought strictly to notice any infringement; 

 and young ash trees should be more especially 

 guarded, because they are the most likely to suffer, 

 from their producing the greatest quantity of lop in 

 the shortest time. The injury done by this practice 

 to the present landlord and his successors is beyond 

 estimation, as the numbers destroyed, and the vigour 

 of their growth, must be first known : but there is 

 not a farm of any extent, from which hundreds of 

 ash trees might not have been felled, had their 

 growth been permitted, making an annual return ; 

 whereas nothing can be obtained now or hereafter 

 for the proprietor, and only a few stakes and bavins 

 for the farmer *. It is by no means an uncommon 



* The ash, generally speaking, will arrive at a very serviceable 

 age, in sixty years, producing at a low rate twenty-eight feet of 

 timber, which, at 2s. 3d. the foot, its present value, would produce 

 a sum equivalent to 3/. 3*., a silent unheeded profit of above a shil- 

 ling a year. A hundred such might have been felled annually from 

 many farms had they not been topped, which, in consequence of 

 this practice, have produced nothing. 



