A HISTORY OF SURREY 



willow in the moister localities. On the banks of streams in the 

 northern part of the county, and on the islands in the Thames, osiers and 

 basket- willows used formerly to be cultivated to a very much larger 

 extent than is now the case. Aubrey * refers to these ' Plantations of 

 Osiers which yield four or five Pounds per Acre, to the Basket-Makers, 

 and formerly was a good trade to Holland.' 



Charcoal-burning is still carried on to a small extent in the county, 

 though it has long since lost the importance it once enjoyed during the 

 days of iron-smelting. Until within the last two or three years, when 

 the manufacture of black powder almost ceased, alder coppices used to 

 be grown for the special use of the gunpowder mills at Chilworth. 



The general extent and distribution of the woods, plantations, 

 and timber-producing tracts can easily be roughly guessed from the 

 one-inch ordnance survey maps, but in order to try and give here 

 a summary of the present general state of arboriculture in Surrey 

 endeavours have been made to collect information from various 

 estates as to (i) the acreage of their woodlands and the ages of 

 different portions, (2) the nature of the crops and the kinds of trees, 

 (3) the past method of treating the woods, (4) the extent and 

 nature of recent plantations, and (5) the method of planting usually 

 adopted on each estate. The details kindly furnished by the courtesy 

 of some landowners and agents are, however, insufficient to enable any 

 proper sketch of this sort to be made. Most of the land in the Thames 

 valley having developed into residential districts, the timber there (chiefly 

 oak and elm) is treated more with a view to aesthetic effect than to 

 commercial results ; and the same applies to many other parts of the 

 county, except the very light lands bearing plantations of larch and 

 Scots pine. Of recent years a good deal of planting with larch and 

 pine has been done on poor land in the Guildford, Godalming and 

 Leatherhead districts, the thinnings from which at about ten or twelve 

 years of age are saleable as poles for hop gardens or for light fencing 

 work. Until recently the underwood industry was of considerable im- 

 portance in the Guildford district, the rotation varying locally from seven 

 to eight up to twelve or fifteen years. During the winter months hoops 

 were largely made with chestnut, hazel, ash, withy and osier, while the 

 longest and straightest shoots were sold as hop poles. But now it is 

 becoming more and more difficult to procure labour for such work, 

 while at the same time the old method of growing hops on poles is 

 giving place to training them on a permanent framework of stout posts 

 and wire, so that the underwood in the copses and the early thinnings 

 from plantations are no longer so remunerative as they once were. But 

 in that part the price of timber has maintained itself well. Oak, ash 

 and larch are always in demand, though elm varies considerably, while 

 Scots pine and firs are not yet marketable to advantage owing to the 

 better quality of the foreign imports. The Horsley estate near Leather- 



• Natural History and Jn/ijuiths 0/ Surrey (1718), iii. 167. 

 576 



