94 OLEACE^E. 



effects, and ought to be steadily pursued by all proprietors, 

 however opposed the tenants may be to the proceeding. 

 In Northumberland, where hedge-row timber is so defi- 

 cient, the prejudice against it, we fear, is not always con- 

 fined to the tenant ; this is much to be regretted, as there 

 is no district that would be benefited to a greater extent 

 by the adoption of the system than this portion of the 

 kingdom, exposed as it is to the heavy blasts from the 

 Atlantic, as well as those from the Eastern Ocean. It 

 ought also to be kept in mind that the supply of this 

 valuable timber is becoming every day more limited, and 

 this, in a great measure, arising from the diminution of 

 hedge-row trees, and although other timber, as that of 

 the Wych Elm ( Ulmus montana) has been substituted ; 

 the latter is generally acknowledged, by the carpenter, 

 to be very inferior to the wood of the Ash, as neither 

 possessing its elasticity, toughness, nor durability. We 

 therefore hope that proprietors will not be deterred by 

 the objections of their tenants, or by the unproved asser- 

 tions of writers, from following the footsteps of their prede- 

 cessors, but resume the praiseworthy practice of planting 

 their hedge-rows, if not entirely with the Ash, at least 

 with a due proportion of this valuable timber. 



The wood of the Ash, though not so durable as the 

 matured or heart-wood of the Oak, surpasses it, and all 

 our other indigenous trees, in toughness and elasticity 

 of fibre, on which account it is almost universally used 

 in the fabrication of all articles where these qualities are 

 particularly required. Thus, it forms the principal material 

 in the making of such instruments and machines as are 

 liable to sudden strains or shocks, and therefore is ex- 

 tensively employed by the maker of agricultural imple- 

 ments, by the coachmaker, wheelwright, &c. It is also 



