BOOK III. PREPARING TREES FOR USE OR SALE. 967 



CHAP. VI. 



Of appropriating the Products of Trees, preparing them for Use or Sale, and estimating 



their Value. 



69S5. Of the different products afforded by trees, the first is their leaves, which are or 

 may be collected in close plantations for the sake of the manure they afford ; and in open 

 groves, parks, and lawns, for that purpose, and to prevent their injuring the grassy sur- 

 face. Leaves are also gathered on the continent as food for cattle. Though, at first 

 consideration, leaves would appear to benefit pastures by sheltering the roots of 

 the grass during winter, and afterwards rotting into manure ; yet experience proves, 

 that in considerable quantities they impede the growth of the grass plants, by 

 bringing on decay at their roots, in all probability owing to their exclusion of air. 

 For this purpose, in well wooded parks, the leaves are carefully collected in the begin- 

 ning of winter, and carried to rot-heaps in secluded situations, where in twa years from 

 the time of gathering, they become the valuable mould so much in demand by the gar- 

 dener. A very ingenious machine for sweeping together, and at the same time lifting 

 up leaves into a box or receiver, has been invented by Snowdon, a London machinist, 

 and has been partially in use in Windsor Forest and at Hampton Court ; it is also calcu- 

 lated for cutting or wrenching off weeds, (as clean-cut weeds are found to grow again, 

 the same season, while the roots of the others often rot,) or mowing and lifting the weeds 

 or swarth into the cart ; but it is not yet sufficiently matured to enable us to describe it as 

 completely answering all its intended purposes. Great credit, however, is due to the in- 

 genious inventor, who has been occupied on it for upwards of two years, and who has 

 spared neither time nor money. 



6936 Prunings or spray are the next product of trees ; those which they afford at a very early period, 

 and all clippings of hedges or artificial forms, are only fit to be used as leaves ; the larger prunings may be 

 used for some of the various purposes to which copse-wood and the lop of trees are applied. On the 

 continent, and especially in Sweden and Norway, spray of all kinds is carefully faggotted in summer, dried 

 and slacked for the use of cattle in winter. This was also the practice of the Romans, who preferred the 

 spray of the elm, as the Swedes do that of the birch. 



6937. The thinnings, when not beyond a suitable age, and taken up properly (6905.) and at a proper sea- 

 son, may be replanted in other situations, or as single trees and groups ; or they may be used as hoops, 

 hop-poles, poles for garden-training, for fencing, for props in coaleries, and for a great variety of pur- 

 poses ; those whose barks are useful for tannin should not be cut down or rooted up till May, but the 

 others at any time during winter. It is common to sort them into lots, according to their kind or size ; 

 and to faggot up the spray for fuel, besom-stuff, or for distilling for bleachers' liquid. See Copse-woods. 

 (6940.) 



6938. The seeds of trees in general cannot be considered of much use beyond that of continuing the 

 species, and therefore, in very particular cases, where it is desired a tree should attain bulk as rapidly as 

 possible, the flowers should be pinched off as they appear. The seeds of the oak, beech, and sweet chestnut, 

 however, are valuable for feeding swine, and where they abound may either be swept together after they 

 drop, and carried away and preserved dry in lofts for that purpose ; or if other circumstances are favorable, 

 *wine may be driven under the trees to collect them. These, and other seeds, as the haw and holly, are 

 also eaten by deer. The seeds of the trees mentioned, and of all the resinous tribe, are in general demand 

 by the nurserymen for the purposes of propagation. The seeds of almost all other trees and shrubs are 

 also in limited or occasional demand ; or may be collected for private sowing. They generally ripen late 

 in the season, and are to be collected in the end of autumn or beginning of winter, with the exception 

 of a few, such as the elm, poplar, willow, and one or two others, which ripen their seeds in May or 



6939. In osier. grounds, willows, whether intended for the basket-maker or cooper, should not be cut till 

 the second season after planting, in order to strengthen the stools ; but by the third autumn the crop will 

 be fit for the basket-maker, and the fourth, plantations intended for the cooper (hoops requiring the 

 growth of two years) will be ready. The seasons for cutting are November and March ; after the former 

 period the wounds are apt to be injured by frost, and after the latter the sap is too far advanced ; some is 

 lost by bleeding, and the buds are developed too suddenly to admit of proper strength in the shoots. The 

 cut should be made within three buds of the point whence the shoot issued, in a sloping direction, and the 

 section on the under-side. (1885.) In cutting hoop-willows, the swell at the bottom of the shoot only 

 should be left, that being furnished with abundance of buds for future growth. After being cut, the 

 hoops are trimmed from any side shoots, and tied up in bundles of a hundred, of six scores each, 

 which, in 1820, sold for from four shillings to five shillings a bundle. The willows are sorted into three 

 sizes, and tied in bundles two feet in circumference, within a foot of the lower ends. When to be peeled, 

 they are immediately after cutting set on their thick ends in standing water, a few inches deep, and there 

 they remain till the growth ascends freely, which is commonly by the end of the succeeding May. " The 

 apparatus for peeling is simply two round rods of iron, nearly half an. inch thick, sixteen inches long, and 

 tapering a little upwards, welded together at the one end which is sharpened, so as that it maybe easily 

 thrust down into the ground. When thus placed in a piece of firm ground, the peeler sits down opposite 

 to it, and takes the willow in the right hand by the small end, and puts a foot or more of the great end 

 into the instrument, the prongs of which he presses together with the left hand, and with the right draws 

 the willow towards him ; by which operation the bark will at once be separated from the wood ; the small 

 end is then treated in the same manner, and the peeling is completed. Good willows peeled in the above 

 manner, have been sold for some seasons past, at from six shillings and sixpence to seven shillings the 

 bundle of four feet in circumference. After being peeled, they will keep in good condition for a long time, 

 till a proper market be found." 



6940. Copse.woods are generally cut over when the shoots of the stools have attained from three to five 

 inches' diameter at their bases ; some grown chiefly for hop-poles, and ware or stuff for crates, hampers, 

 or wattled hurdles, are cut over earlier, and others, where small timber for fencing and other country 

 purposes is wanted, are left later. In some parts of Herefordshire, where the oak grows with great 

 rapidity, copse-woods are cut over every twelve years ; in the highlands of Scotland, where it grows much 

 slower, the time varies from twenty to twenty-five or thirty years. " The bark is there considered as 

 having arrived at its utmost perfection, and at its highest value, at the age of between twenty and thirty 

 years : under that age, its virtues are weak ; above it, the bark becomes coarse and loses its sap. Another 

 important reason for cutting down oak coppice-wood about the above period, is suggested in the Stirling- 



3 Q 4 



