THE OTHER HARDWOODS 153 



Even in the rough log well-grown ash can com- 

 mand about 2s. a cubic foot, and often consider- 

 ably more ; while the coach-building, agricultural 

 implement, and furniture trades would be glad 

 to have far larger supplies of it than are at pre- 

 sent obtainable in Britain, because British ash is 

 of better quality than that imported from abroad. 

 No timber grown in our woods can compare with 

 it in toughness and elasticity, and its value as 

 a timber tree is increased by the rapidity of its 

 growth, for timber of the finest quality can be 

 obtained at about sixty years of age. Even the 

 small produce of coppice and underwoods is valu- 

 able for hop-poles, crates, and the like, while in 

 some places as much as 1$ an acre is, I have 

 been recently informed, obtained for ash-shoots 

 cut for walking-sticks and umbrella-handles. ' I 

 have been credibly informed that one person hath 

 planted so much of this one sort of 'Timber in his 

 life time as hath been valu'd worth fifty thousand 

 pounds to be bought. These are pretty encourage- 

 ments for a small and pleasant industry.' Thus 

 wrote Evelyn nearly 250 years ago; and what was 

 then worth ^50,000, would now be worth some- 

 thing between five and ten times that amount 



