AMONG THE OAKS gl 
Between 1640 and 1813 the value of oak 
timber increased tenfold. During the last thirty 
years of that period it had been quadrupled. 
Although no longer a necessity for shipbuilding, 
its uses are now so manifold and so well known, 
that it would be superfluous to. enumerate them. 
In general durability it excels the timber of any 
other tree grown in Britain; and anything like 
well-grown sound timber can easily be disposed 
of at two shillings to half-a-crown, and often 
more, per cubic foot. 
From the manner in which the oak has usually 
been grown in Britain, however, there is often a 
want, in fact one might say there is a chronic want, 
of long clean stems undamaged by branch knots. 
The whole of England had to be scoured to 
obtain suitable oak trees for lock-gates in the 
Manchester Ship Canal, and there is the greatest 
difficulty in obtaining boles that are sufficiently 
long and straight to form beams of large size. 
This is, of course, the natural consequence of 
adherence to the methods which were most suit- 
able for the growth of oak when it was mainly 
required for shipbuilding. Crooks for knees and 
ribs were necessary, and they could be obtained of 
