J^i4 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO IGQO-I. 



would do much more effectually, if the bark were taken off in the spring of 

 the year, as in Staffordshire, where the people use this method for their timber, 

 though but for private uses. And much more should it be done for so public 

 a concern as the building of ships, where tough and solid timber is much more 

 necessary than in ordinary buildings. There is indeed an Act of Parliament, 

 1 Jac. J, chap. 22, which forbids felling timber for ordinary uses, in considera- 

 tion of the tan, at any other time than between the 1st of April and last of 

 June, when the sap is up, and the bark will run. To which I readily answer, 

 that perhaps the legislators did not consider that the bark might be taken off 

 in the spring, and that the tree would live and flourish till the ensuing winter : 

 so that though the tree be not felled till the winter solstice, or January fol- 

 lowing, yet the tanner is not at all defeated of his tan, but has it in due season. 

 And in that very act of parliament there was an exception of the timber to be 

 used in ship building, which might be felled in winter, or any other time ; as I 

 am told all the ancient timber remaining in the Royal Sovereign was, it being 

 still so hard that it is no easy matter to drive a nail into it. 



It is true indeed, that the barking or peeling the tree standing, is somewhat 

 more troublesome, and therefore rather more chargeable, than when they are 

 prostrate ; and that it is likely people have therefore usually felled their timber, 

 as well for shipping as other uses, in the spring of the year, for the sake of the 

 more easy and cheap barking it, rather than any thing else. It is also true, 

 that timber is harder to fell in winter, it being then so comjjact and firm, that 

 the axe will not make so great an impression, as in the spring ; which will a 

 little increase the price of the felling, and its sawing afterwards ; but how in- 

 considerable these things are, in comparison of the great advantage of this 

 manner of felling, is self-evident. 



The greatest objection that can be urged against this practice, is, that if the 

 timber be not felled till mid-winter or January, where it grows in coppices and 

 woods, they cannot perhaps inclose their young spwigs so soon as some may 

 imagine needful, and therefore they may be backward to fell their timber at 

 that season. To which I answer, that the timber so felled in woods or coppices 

 may be easily carried off, before the second spring, and so the prejudice be 

 small : but what will quite remove this inconsiderable difficulty, is, that perhaps 

 it may be expedient, that no tim-ber whatever, growing in woods or coppices, 

 be at all bought for the king's yards, because that timber growing in such 

 shady places, and so fenced from sun and wind, as timber in woods for the 

 most part is, cannot be so good as that which comes from an exposed situation, 

 such as it usually has in forests, parks, and hedge-rows or open fields ; where 

 at least it is indifferent, if not better for the proprietor, that it be felled in 



