FORESTRY 



to a proper size ; and this period is allowed for the growth, where no temptation leads 

 to a premature cutting. 



Rent. — This is generally regulated by the rent of the corn-land in the neighbour- 

 hood : or more properly speaking, copsewood, though the returns from it are but 

 seldom, yet as it requires, or at least receives, little or no labour, and is exposed to few 

 accidents, is taken at the same rent as the other parts of the farm, where it forms 

 part of a farm, or where it is taken by itself at the average rent of the district. . . 

 The most common rent of copsewoods in the Weald is from 1 2s. to i 6j. per acre : 

 in the other parts of Surrey, which are not affected by their very immediate vicinity to 

 London, the rent may rise from 151. to 20s. per acre. 



Produce. — In the neighbourhood of such a city as London, and in a county where 

 there is so great a demand for fuel, both for domestic purposes and for the forge, the 

 brick-kiln and the lime-kiln, not the smallest nor the most trifling part of the under- 

 wood is useless or without its value. . . . 



The most commendable part of the management of the woodmen in the Weald 

 of Surrey is that which respects the draining their woods : the soil is so retentive, and 

 the surface so inadequate to carry the water off, that this practice seems to have forced 

 itself, in a manner, upon their notice and adoption as the only method of preserving 

 their woods from destruction : and from the great and evident good effects produced 

 by keeping the surfece dry, under-draining has been employed, with results equally 

 beneficial, in many parts of the Weald. 



The trees are always taken down with the saw : this is preferred to the axe, as 

 leaving the stools in a more proper condition to throw out sapling shoots. The in- 

 clination is given either by the axe on the falling side, or by a wedge put into the 

 opposite side. . . . 



In the Weald of Surrey it is a general remark that the oaks on the dry spots 

 grow much more slowly than those which stand on a moist, but not too wet soil. The 

 latter, however, decay sooner than the former. On a moist soil the leaves of the 

 oak are of a darker green colour and a larger size, and the bark is more roughly and 

 deeply furrowed than they are found to be in oaks growing on the drier spots. . . . 



Either from the great demand for oak timber, or from some other cause, the age 

 of felling in the Weald is much earlier than it ought to be, if the most profitable and 

 important uses of the tree alone were regarded. Few oaks are suffered to reach sixty 

 years before they are felled : at this age they will seldom yield more than a ton of 

 timber each. 



The value of all kinds of timber on the ground, particularly oak, has been in- 

 creasing within these last twenty years more rapidly and in a greater proportion than 

 most other agricultural products. This seems to have arisen from an increase of 

 demand both for the wood and bark, unaccompanied with the prospect of an adequate 

 supply after the trees now on the ground are felled. Besides this circumstance, which 

 is common to the Weald and other oak districts, the timber of this part of Surrey, and 

 the adjoining part of Sussex, has always been in higher estimation than that of other 

 woods. At present, the price of oak standing will run, according to its quality and 

 measurement, from ;^io to £12, per load. In 1798, large oak timber in the Weald 

 was £$ per load ; in 1803 it had increased in price to £<). 



Many of the above remarks as to the copsewoods and their treat- 

 ment would apply as well now as they did in 181 3, although from 

 various causes (the chief being the decline in the value of underwoods 

 and the increasing cost of labour) there is now usually much less method 

 in management than seems to have obtained formerly. 



Stevenson also describes^ an ingenious local method of sowmg 

 acorns in southern Surrey along with wheat in fields then used as tem- 

 porary nurseries : — 



' The field in which it is intended to sow the acorns is completely summer- 

 fallowed, and entirely cleansed of all root weeds, and has a good dressing of manure, 



1 Op. cit. p. 438. 

 573 



