170 OUR FORESTS AND WOODLANDS 
classes of woodland soils, a fair undergrowth will 
often be formed with comparatively little outlay 
except for layering of stool-shoots and dibbling in 
seed on prepared patches, and the returns from 
this should soon prove remunerative enough to 
form ‘pretty encouragements for a small and 
pleasant industry,’ as we have seen Evelyn already 
point out long ago. 
Other two hardwood trees of minor importance 
in Britain are the Hornbeam (Carpinus betulus) and 
the Robinia or Locust-tree (Robinia pseudacacia), 
yet they each deserve attention as yielding good 
timber. 
Hornbeam is seldom allowed to reach its 
attainable dimensions as a timber tree, being 
mostly relegated to hedges, though under favour- 
able circumstances it can grow to a height of 
sixty or seventy feet, with a girth of from two to 
three feet in diameter. Its hard, heavy, cross- 
grained wood is difficult to work up, but is better 
than beech for such purposes as work-benches, 
boxes for planes, handles of tools, wedges, hubs 
of cart wheels, and anything requiring great 
toughness. And it is the only one among our 
forest trees whose wood exceeds that of beech in 
