66 T I M B E R P L A N T I N G. 



off all the flioots but one will train up a ftem, but I queftioft 

 whether it will ever make a capital tree :_ if the other fhoots 

 are not annually cut it will never "be any tree at all } and yet 

 it is certainly a faft that the new fhoot is much finer than the 

 old one, which perhaps would have come to nothing ; but bet- 

 ter remove it entirely than depend on new fhoots for making 

 timber. The gentlemen in that kingdom are much too apt to 

 think they have s*ot timber, when in fal they have nothing but 

 fine large copfe wood. A ftrong proof of this is the great dou- 

 ble-ditches made thirty or forty years ago, and planted with 

 double rows of trees,, generally afli, thefe for two reafons are 

 ufuitlly (for the age) not half fo good as trees of the fame 

 growth in England ; one is, many of them were cut when 

 young, and arofe from ftools ; the other is their growing out 

 of a high dry bank, full of the roots of four rows of white thorn 

 or apple quick, befides thofe of the trees themfelves. It is a 

 faft that I never faw a fingle capital tree growing on thefe 

 banks : all hedge trees are difficult to preferve, and therefore 

 muft have been cut when young. Afh in England growing 

 from a level are generally worth in forty years from forty fhil- 

 lings to three pounds. And I know many trees of fifty to fixty 

 years growth that would fell readily at from four to eight 

 pounds, yet the price in Ireland is higher. Another practice 

 which is common in that kingdom is pruning timber trees, and 

 even oaks. 1 was petrified at feeing oaks often and fifteen 

 feet high with all the fide fhoots cut off. There are treatifes 

 upon planting which recommend this practice as well as cutting 

 down young trees to make the better timber. There are no 

 follies which are not countenanced, and even prefcribed in fome 

 book or other, but unhappv is it for a kingdom when they are 

 Jiftened to. Burn your books, and attend to nature ; come to 

 England and view our oak, our afli, and our beech all felf fown, 

 and never curfed with the exertions of art. Shew me fuch 

 trees from the hands of nurferyman and pruners before you 

 wafteyour breath with (hallow reafoning to prove that the moft 

 common of the operations of nature muft be affifted by the axe 

 cr pruning hook. 



One reafon why both fences and trees in Ireland which have 

 once been made are now neglected and in ruin, is owing to the 

 firft planting being all that is thought of j the hedges are fuffer- 

 ed to grow for thirty or forty years without cutting j the con- 

 fequence of which is their being ragged, and cpen at bottom, 

 and full of gaps vrur'e perches long. But all fences fhould be 

 cut periodically, for the fame reafon that trees ought never to 

 be touched, their pufhing out many (hoots for every one that 

 is taken off; this ihould be repeated every fifteen years; a 

 proper portion of the thorns fhuuld be piafhed down to form an 

 impenetrable live hedge, and the refl cut off, and made into 

 faggots. But in the IritTi way the fences yield no fuel at all. 

 To permit a hedge to grow too long without cutting, not only 

 juins it for a fence, but fpoils the tiees that are planted with it. 



La ft!/. 



