5-2 



THi GARB NKRS 



CHRONICLE 



27 





aacerU 



nn 



Who 



th.v. 



tu iu uic«?, it u wUtyxmof j . 



CMpctene* of the pu ■ **» » hlch » P' ^ 



toSnort apon tb* iltUr, referred to tW « H* 



... ^Wi Mathews, Mumos, and Mann 

 thflM now »<▼»«» of the Treasury. Upon 



mnch *bou' th-m. Om k m>\ to M " r haN ' 



iwwtr* with railway trwrnctiom ; another 

 wVaw toM, » Kentish "m^f dealer, or aome- 

 \ „ of that kind; the th i i* a deputy wr- 

 „yor ( in Windsor Forest. What their quahjca- 

 tiuna are for so difficult and responsible a duty 

 $a that of reporting on the Royal forests, for 

 which not only peat knowledge of foresting, but 



ice of character s mdispen- 



Itwould be difficult for any set ofmen to stultify 

 thenuelve, more than by puttu* *» names ^to 

 tnch a statement as this. 



If is certain that those 



who drew it up mast be unacquainted with e%ery- 

 thing which a forester should know. The deputy- 

 surveyors must themselves feel scandalised at being 

 patronised by people capable of displaying such an 



_• amount of ignorance. These gentlemen 



about leaving dead branches 



*P* 



incred 



Sandys say 

 living trees : 



" There is a method of pruning still practised U 

 some persons, of leaving a foot or more of the brw 

 on the tree to die and rot off, which if only an \& 

 in diameter may take several years to accompli* 

 during which time the stem increases, and tehtn£ 

 stump falls down, a hole is left as deep as the tret U 

 grown since the_ snagging, which hole must fa 



fill up after me rouen orancnts gone. Tfe 



Why they were 



>ir 



perfect iadependei 



•able, we are not informed, 

 lecttd in preterm 



cter and uaqtieet v . 



xtow or thote he coo hi hare named, is 



hy they have beta employed to 

 I'Ltmu* is equally unexplained, 



not unintelligible. Mr. Glutton, 



an emfnuL wny mej 



tried* Mr. Glutton 



though perhaps not unintelligible. 

 howffwr much we may hm f-! f - 



nece*i 



from him respecting his reports, is, ac more 

 ■ f well known as a gentleman of high ultin 

 ai standing and iputable intelli- seem 



chief thev s*y further that when a branch dies, 

 the sap wood of the trunk closes over it, and covers 

 the base of the dead bough, so that nothing but a 

 defective spot remains. They do not know what 

 causes the faults in deal ; it 

 has never occurred to them 

 that in this common timber 

 the loose knots which tumble 

 out (as at A) as soon as it 

 becomes planks, are the con- 

 sequences of the sap wood 

 having closed over dead 

 boughs, 1 so that " nothing 

 more is seen until the tree is 



it would have been useless to ask him to 

 iu in that ntrigue which was contrived to ruin 

 . Beown, in order that the Deputy-Survevorship 

 Dean Fortgt might be once more at the disposal 

 of some namslesa personage in the Government. 

 Tools of a diffeitnt temper were required, and 

 were found* 



The reports before us consist mainly of asser- 

 tions as to matters of fact, the value of which 

 only be ascertained by personal inspection 

 of the forests. The are intend*- i to contra- 

 dict other assertions made by Mr. Hoowjn 

 which, nsfftrtheless, th*y every now and then 

 confirm. The aim of the reporters is to d. re- 

 ciate the recommendations made to Mr. Kennedy, 

 and to extol the management which compelled 

 the late commissioner to look around him for 

 the advice of a better man than any of the forest 



officers. We also find ourselves in a cloud of 

 opinions and general statements, in which every- 

 thing palpable or well d> tined, by which to judge 

 of the real knowledge of the reporters, is care 

 fully snppreswd. At one or two points, how- 



they fortunately descend to particulars, and 

 thus nacl verten tly furnish a scale by which their 



knowledge of what they have been employed to 

 advise upon may be exactly measured. We shall 

 presume to apply that scale, at the same time 

 asm ring our t fen that the following passage 

 < i literal extract from the report, the itali 

 being oar own 



immaterial what the condition 

 of timber is, provided the 

 tree shows fair outside. Let 

 us advise them to make some 

 inquiries on this subject in 

 Her Majesty's dockyards, of 

 which, by the way, they seem 

 to entertain a wholesome 

 dread. Mr. Bennett, the sen- 

 sible and experienced timber inspector at Portsmouth, 

 could, we suspect /enlighten their understandings. In 

 the meanwhile the example next represented may 

 help to show them what the real effects are of leaving 

 decayed branches on timber trees. It may possibly 

 also throw 1 lit upon the future quality of the timber 

 to be expected from the Royal forests, after they 



* 4 We believe that no difference of opii n now 

 exists as to the mischief which inevitably follows 

 the amputation of a living branrh from an O . if 

 the tree It destined to become timber ; - h practice 

 does iu : w t t, and therefore it wor I he super- 

 fluous in us to express our condemnation of it ; but 

 the removal of decayed branches may reasonably 

 form a subject of controversy. Dead branches are 



mad verv frequently bv injudicious thinning : but 



very frequently by injudicious thinnin 

 apon some uncongenial subsoils no process of thin- 

 ning will protect the trees from this infirmity 

 Throughout the whole of the forest we 

 found the greatest number of der ed 

 branches upon tho worst soils, and it 

 is scarcely probable that these were 

 the only portions which had been 

 ioj iiciously thinned. 



"When from any cause a branch 

 dies, the decay vitally commences at 

 its extremity, and gradually approaches 

 the main stem. The process 



toe, nd the moment it begim 

 wet* to work to counteract 



When the 



thief. 



sap wood of 



ill * 



that part of the bran 



hegins to give way, the sap 



t illy upon it, and continues to grow and press 

 round it until the \ inch i* alt-rether decayed. It 

 then qmdkbj heals over, and the future growth of the 

 tree covers altogether the base of the dead bough <f 

 which nothing* more is seen until the tree is ulti- 



opened and the defective spot detected. 



however, yon anticipate the gradual decom- 

 • <>f a dead bough by cutting it off, its base 

 (nc) to dfcfljjr, and that more rapidly than 

 the growth of the sap wood ; a hole for the reception 

 of water is the const^uen^., and an injurv which the 

 constitution of the tree cannot overcome. N> arc 

 dead* / of typtnion that all m**k(*M fa l>ft 

 entirely to themselves, and no deemed branch re- 



any pretence what -ret. if a tree is of 

 m weakly a constitution that it cannot overcome 

 the effects of decayed branches, it can never be 

 worth growing, and should be taken down at once." 



healing of the wound is consequently delayed, andik 

 defect in the timber greater. Instead of taking off t 

 large branch by the stem, a great part of it n_y ^ 

 cut off at a distance from it, leaving a small life 

 branch to draw the sap and keep it alive, which k 

 better than leaving a snag ; but this method shosld 

 seldom be practised, being only the result of fon^ 



bad management." 



^There is a certain Sir Joseph Paxton, of whom 

 is*possible that the new Treasury agents have heart. 

 Some think that he knows as much as most 

 about foresting ; and what is his recorded opinion! 

 " All scientific planters," wrote Mr. Paxton sons* 

 years since, " agree as to the propriety of removing 

 dead or decayed branches. Whenever dad 

 branches are found on any tree, they cannot be too 

 soon removed; and even Fir plantations, whir 

 when thickly planted are generally self-pruned, will 

 be improved by having all the dead wood pruned of 



quite close to the stem." 



In the University of Cambridge there is, and we 

 trust lpng will be, a professor of Botany namaj 

 Henslow. It chanced that some years since had 

 Bray brooke submitted to his examination a numhe 

 of specimens of timber in which the branches had 

 been allowed to die back. The result of tkit 

 examination, now before us, was as follows : 



iC In the specimens sent for my inspection, tie 

 fore-shortened branches were all in a state of decay, 

 and where the experiment was pronounced com- 

 plete, the stumps had become embedded in nei 

 wood which had closed over them, exactly as it does 

 over the surface of the cut produced by close- 

 pruning. Now the only difference between the two 

 results appears to me to be this : that in the do* 

 pruning we have two clean surfaces, the one Cf 

 the old and the other of the new wood, brought into 

 close contact ; whilst in the case of the f 

 shortened branch, we have the decayed remains o 

 rotten stump surrounded by an irregular surfaa^ 

 the neio wood." 



So much for the common sense of Mr. Wn 1 

 friends as regards pruning timber. Here is another 

 bright example : — 



"The plea has been, that much timber havi^ 

 arrived at maturity, was deteriorating in qualit 

 This is no less a mistake. A tree which has flourish' 

 from two to three centuries and arrived at m 

 maturity, will suffer no material deterioration fit 

 another 40 or 60 years" 



That is to sav. it will not rot at 







the 



shall have been managed for a few years under the 

 intelligent advice of the experienced practical gen- 

 tlemen whom Mr. Wilson has introduced to the 

 Treasury. 



There was once a really great forester, Jah» 

 Sandys, of whom we suppose Messrs. Math 

 Morton, and Menzies, never heard. For their 

 information we will acquaint them that it was he 

 who created the magnificent forest property of the 

 present Earl of Leicester. And 



hea 



nor become cl short" nor "foxey," nor undeffo 

 any organic change which will reduce its value in 

 the timber market. According to this doctrine the 

 Larch does not begin to rot when the first symptom* 

 of decay appear in its extremities ; nor should 

 then be felled, for its getting more and more rottjl 

 every year causes "no material deterioration. 

 According to Messrs. Menzies, Murton, ana 

 Mathews, a tree is none the worse for becoming 

 stag-headed, and there is no chance of a break up fl- 

 its tissues for 40 or 50 years. A fortiori, a treetW 

 has died outright is as good for timber as one tW 

 is felled in its prime. Is this the sort of stuff tW 

 Messrs. Murton and Mathews sell to their flfr 

 tomers 1 We hope not. Is this the timber t» 

 Mr. Menzies, himself a deputy surveyor, would sdW 

 into the dockyards 1 We presume their recomtnend; 

 ation is founded on the principle that what is g^ 

 for trade is good for everything else. Bad tin*jj 

 soon perishes, and the workman who used it *£ 

 soon have a new job in replacing what has decays 



The more timber is old and exhausted, theft^ 

 it is beyond its prime, the more it is subject to dry w 

 and it is the timber which is most subject to dry nj 

 that these new advisers of the Crown recomm^ 

 should be purveyed for the navy. ULors ^ U ^ 

 arbre est couronne, plus il vieillit, moins il* 

 propre aux ouvrages de construction ; il ^ ^ 

 l'abbattre pour en tirer parti, a moins qu r oa ^ 

 veuille le conserver pour profiter de l'etenditf ., 

 ses branches et de Pombrage qu'elles procnt^ 





so says science, so says common sense 



EWS 



what does ! our system 



Bat I** 



departments of the state should thus be aj 

 mercy of men who have not enough knowle^y 

 the commonest things to learn even how to s 

 their agents. We see the consequences every* 



4 

 I 



taken 



