, p 



COPY OF A LETTER 



FROM 



MR. THOMAS BAVIS, OF HO MMIJ^G SHAM, WILTS, 



RELATIVE TO THE 



TIMBER YIELDED BY VARIOUS SPECIES OF PINES. 



DEAR SIR, 



HoMMiNGsiiAM, Sept. 9, 1797- 



1 AM convinced, from repeated observations, that llie Scotch Fir produces the 

 deal called in London " Yellow Deal," and in the country " Red Deal," and being generally imported from 

 Christiana, sometimes called " Christiana Deal!' They frequently come hilher in planks, but oftener in 

 boards, called twelve inches wide, though seldom above ten inches and a half, ,cut through and through, or 

 as the sawyers call it, cut ''Jletch!' Of course the trees are not above twelve inches diameter, and yet I 

 have counted their rings and found their growth to be from sixty to an Imndred years. They must therefore 

 grow thick together, and upon poor or rocky land, and this is also evident by the smallness of the knots, pro- 

 ceeding from the want of room to push out strong boughs. " . 



The Scotch Fir raised in England is equal to the_ foreign in weight and durability, but is seldom so fine 

 in the grain, and has a greater quantity of sap owing to its rapid growth, occasioned either by the superior 

 strength of the land, or greater distance from one another, or both. But the quality is sufficiently similar to 



ascertain that they are the same species. 



A foot square of Scotch Fir, English grown, and moderately dry, ayIII weigh fifty-one; a foot of oak not 



much more than sixty-one. 



A tree of an hundred years old (I look upon the ultimatum of its growth in England as not more than an 

 hundred and fifty) may measure four load, or two hundred feet, and is fairly worth fifteen pounds. 



Land planted with Scotch Firs eight feet and a quarter apart, viz. six hundred and forty to an acre, will 

 pay ten per cent, eompound interest, supposing very poor land at three shillings per acre, worth about four 

 pounds in fee, and the planting to cost six pounds more, in all ten pounds per acre. In twenty-eight years 

 ten pounds, at compound interest, will be forty pounds, and in that period the trees at only two and sixpence 



each will be worth eighty pounds. 



Spruce Firs from which the deal we usually call ^Mte deal in England, is produced, are perhaps the next 

 valuable to Scotch Fir; and, what is remarkable, those grown in England, are superior to any imported. 

 That kind of tree not being hurt by knots, is the better for rapid growth, and the ^f^^^'^^ 



B 



ut it does not ptow well in exposed situations. It there loses all its side branches, and not growing from 

 aders as a Scotch Fir does, gets mossy, lingers; and dies : and if put close together, it never rises to any s.e: 



two or three load in one hundred years, worth seven or eight pomids, but an hundred 



It is in fact fit for nothing but a garden, where it is a. 



lead 



Perhaps it may be 



vears seem to be the full 'ultimatum of its growth. -.,,11 i 



\eu, tlung for twenty or thirty years, when it grows naked, and should he removed and replaced by others. 



The SUver Fir, the most beautiful in external appearance of all the genus, ctUer ,oung or o/rf, grows .nuch 

 fasti than either the Scotch or Spruce. At one hundred years old it is frequently above an hundred feet 

 higt wle or thirteen feet round, and contains at least six loads of tnnber worth about fifteen pouuds 

 The tind.er is more open, or (as the sawyers call it) " roacher m ns gram, than the spruce, occasioned 

 p^lvby tL superior luxuriance of its growth, and therefore should be used m large scanthugs, where ,ts 

 Telith and toughness render it a valuable wood, particularly for beams.; only great care must be taken that 



• '''^Z^^^tt^tf^in. but still lighter and roacl^r in the grain th^ the preceding sorts. 

 1 he W eymouLU r „,.,'/ America) is for masts of ships, for which rts toughness makes it proper. 



Its principa use m its "^ -' " ^ ^f ~d get to four or five load m an hundred years, worth eight or 

 It will, if placed in strong land well shelterea, gei 



ten pounds. , i j „nt unlike the Cedar used for black lead pencils, either in colour or 



Larch is a dehcate -l^-^^^^"''^^;;^" Mooring board at an early age, but its knots are then rather 



smell. It has but little sap, and is -" ^^* f ; ^j^" ;^/^„, ^ have observed they decay and become mossy 



wood, either standing or converted. 



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