JANUARY. 35 



greater will be the profit; for supposing that cattle, 

 upon an average, eat three years' growth, then there 

 are three in twelve or fourteen destroyed ; whereas, 

 if the term is twenty- four years' growth, still there 

 are but three destroyed, which is doubly advanta^ 

 geous. These are points which should be well con- 

 sidered ; and also what is the age at which the vari- 

 ous sorts of underwood attain the greatest weight, 

 having always in view the variations of soil. For 

 instance, it should be tried, what weight twenty 

 single stems of sallow, ash, oak, hazel, hornbeam, 

 &c. come to at six, twelve, and twenty-four years' 

 growth, to see whether the produce is proportioned 

 to the age. This would be a very easy experiment 

 in every respect, but that of the time it would de- 

 mand. 



In the beech woods of Buckinghamshire, this 

 system is carried exceedingly far ; for they are not 

 cut till thirty or forty years' growth ; the conse- 

 quence of which is, they are destroyed as under- 

 wood, and nothing appears but single stems, which 

 are successions of young trees. The way of cutting 

 them is not by falls, as in common woods, but by 

 singling out, every year, the largest of the trees, 

 and cutting enough of them to pay 12s. 15s. or 20s. 

 per acre, per annum, according to the goodness of 

 the wood. These trees, though some of them 

 when cut would more than measure as jtimber, are 

 all sawn into lengths of four feet, or thereabouts, 

 and rived into billets for fire-wood, for the London 

 market, being conveyed there by the Thames. 



D 2 Goo<J 



