IS THE STRONGEST. 417 



wood marked French, from the dockyards, was very like that of 

 the Downy species. 



There is other evidence of incontestable value which ought 

 to satisfy any reasonable man upon this subject. 



If the reader will turn to a pamphlet published in the year 

 1839 by Mr. Withers, of Holt, in Norfolk, a planter of great 

 experience, he will find a considerable body of evidence in 

 support of the statement that fast-grown Oak is the best. The 

 pamphlet was called a A Letter to Sir Henry Steuart, and was 

 written for the purpose of doing away with any impression 

 which might have been made by that gentleman when he 

 stated that slow-grown timber is the best. By the evidence of 

 timber-merchants and other persons familiar with the sub- 

 ject, Mr. Withers proved that the very reverse was the case. 

 Mr. John Stenning, of East Grinstead, expresses himself thus : — 



" Another very desirable quality which quick-growing timber 

 possesses is, that it is much stronger and tougher than that 

 which grows slow. The one would bend where the other 

 would break. I am convinced that a ship built exclusively of 

 quick-growing timber, and striking against a rock, would be in 

 safety, when one exclusively built of slow-growing timber would 

 fall to pieces : the former, from strength and toughness of the 

 wood, would yield and clear off ; and the latter, from the short- 

 ness of the grain of the wood, and its consequent tenderness, 

 would break without reaction. I contend, in contradiction to 

 Sir Henry Steuart, that the heart of such timber is very 

 superior, that it is considerably heavier, and must consequently 

 contain more virtue and condition than that which he 

 recommends to the public as the best. 



" Independent of the advantage which the quickness in growth 

 gives to the quality of Oak timber, the bark from the same 

 cause possesses an equal if not greater superiority ; as the very 

 highest price is given by the London tanners for bark from 

 this county, where the growth, as I have before mentioned, is 

 very rapid compared with its progress in many parts. The 

 bark from such timber is very thick and fleshy, whereas from 

 that which grows slowly it is thin and drossy. 



" The only inducement I have to fall in with Sir Henry 



