TIMBER. 



of thefeeffefts ; but Ml a perfon praftkally converfant with 

 the fubjeA, who {hall pay attention to what he may notice 

 to be taking place in difrerent parts of the conntry, and 

 who pofllflts a fvifticiciiL knowledge of tiie vegetable king- 

 dom and phyfiologv to reafon from analogy, may, it is 

 thought, deduce fuch general conlequences, as will fuggeft 

 important practical rules and regulations. 



It may be proper, it is faid, to remark, that by culture 

 is not meant merely the operations upon the foil, or on even 

 the form of the particular tree ; but every tiling that tends 

 to remove it from its natural ftate in order to accelerate vege- 

 tation. It is confidered too, that a tree is in a natural _/?«'' 

 whenever it has fprung up fortuitoufly, and propagates itfelf 

 without aid from man : whether it he in crowded forefts, 

 woody wailes, or in fcattered groups on hills or commons. 

 Some trees and other vegetables may be faid to be natural- 

 ized to fituations which, but for art, they probably never 

 would have grown upon. Thus, for inftance, mountain 

 plants are fometimes found common in plains, and even 

 meadows ; and alpine trees which diffeminate themfelves in 

 level and warmer parts of the country : but then the perfon 

 who is converfant with fuch matters, by comparing the effefts 

 of thefe diiferent fituations on the vegetable, always knows 

 to feleft as general nalur- that which perfefts all the parts, 

 and where the foil and filuation are beft fuited for the repro- 

 du£tion of the fpecies or fort, and the prolongation of indi- 

 \ndual life. Thefe rules are, it is faid, founded in nature. 

 ^ For example ; no perfon, judging from them, could miftake 

 I a warm Englifh common as the natural foil and lituation of 

 Scotch firs, though they not unfrequently diffeminate theni- 

 ' felves there. It is, indeed, well known to every one in the 

 lead converfant with the vegetable economy, that in all hcr- 

 , baccous vegetables, and even (hrubs of confiderable fize, the 

 I effeft of removal to an improved foil, climate, and fituation, 

 , is to expand the parts of the whole vegetable : that the 

 ' effefk of removing or cutting off part of the vegetable above 

 ground is to expand thofe parts which remain : that the 

 effeft of removing any of the parts under ground, or of 

 removing the whole vegetable into a colder chmate and lefs 

 congenial foil and fituation, is to contraft or confolidate 

 the whole. This, were it neceffary, could, it is faid, be 

 illuftrated in a thoufand inftances from the commonefl vege- 

 tables : but for the prefent purpofe, it is only neceffary to 

 notice further, that this takes place more or lefs in a degree 

 correfponding with the rapidity of the growth of the vegetable, 

 and its duration. Thus, all the annual graffes are much far- 

 ther removed from a ftate of nature by culture than the per- 

 i ennial ones. So are the annual garden vegetables, as cab- 

 , bages, legumes, and fpinach, in oppofition to ftrawberries, 

 . afparagus, and many others. Quick growing trees or (hrubs, 

 , as willows, rafpberries, and fome others, are alfo much eafier 

 ' removed from their natural ftate, than fuch as oaks, thorns, 

 hollies, and heaths, which grow much (lower. If thefe 

 remarks and conclufions be juft and well-founded, which, it 

 , is fuppofed, none will deny, it muft follow that the fame 

 ' general effefts take place more or lefs on all trees ; that 

 i when they are removed into a colder climate, or have part of 

 I their roots cut off, it will in fome degree contraft the fibre 

 of the wood, and render it a of more folid and hard texture ; 

 and that when they are removed into a warmer cliniate, have 

 moft of th-'ir branches taken off, or are placed in a better 

 ■ Jlate, it muft, by accelerating their growth, it is thought, 

 tend to expand the fibre of the wood, and of courfe render 

 the wood fufter and more liable to fuffer by the aftion of 

 : the common elements, when the tree is cut down and applied 

 to ufe. That this does really take place, will, it is faid, be 

 gathered from the detached fads ftated below, which have 



come to the writer's knowledge, and to which rvcry prac- 

 tical unprejudiced perfon, who has vifited different parts 

 of the kingdom, will, it is tlioi(ght, be able to add many 

 others from his particular obfervation, attention, and exa- 

 mination. 



Firft, that every hedger and forefter knows, that furze and 

 thorns, which have been cultivated in fields or hedges, are 

 of a much fofter or wider grain, and are much eafier cut over 

 with the hedge-bill, than fuch as fpring up from feed in a 

 wild fcenery, and never undergo any fort of pruning or cut- 

 ting in, nor any kind of culture in any way. Tiiey know 

 too, that in a common to be cleared of furze or thorns, or 

 in a hedge to be cut over, there are fome parts which require 

 a much {lighter ftroke of the hedge-hill than others ; and 

 that thofe parts eafiefttocut, are uniformly thofe where the 

 plants have grown the quickeft : — gardcuL-rs experience the 

 fame thing in pruning or cutting over fruit-trees or (hiubs. 

 Thus the difference between the texture of ibe cultivated and 

 the wild rafpberry is, it is faid, ftriking, though the ilem of 

 the one is nearly double the thicknefs of that of the other. 

 In all the other of thefe cafes, the Hems of both are fup- 

 pofed alike in diameter and cleannefs, or abfeiice of knots ; 

 though the fame thing would, it is thought, take place ia 

 a confiderable degree, even if the ftem of the cultivated or 

 quick growing one were thicker than that of the other in 

 the wild ftate. Suppofing that there were no other proofs, 

 this, it is contended, clearly (hews that cultivation, or what- 

 ever tends toincreafe the growth of a tree, tends likewife to 

 expand the vegetable fibre. But there are other concurring 

 proofs, it is faid, which demonilrate this, and at the fame 

 time ftiew, what few, it is fuppoied, will doubt, that when 

 the vegetable fibre is expanded, or when the annual ringlets 

 or circles of wood, produced by a tree, are foft and larger 

 than the general annual increafe of fuch tree, the timber 

 muft be lefs hard, and more permeable by air, water, heat, 

 and other matters, and, of courfe, inferior for all the pur- 

 pofes of timber. 



Secondly, that it is well known that the common oak in 

 Italy, where it grows fafter than in this country, is com- 

 paratively of {hort duration. And tliat the oak which grows 

 on the mountains of the Highlands of Scotland is much 

 harder and clofer than any produced in England, though on 

 thefe mountains it feldom attains one-tenth part of tiie fi^e 

 of Englilh trees. Every country carpenter in Scotland 

 knows, it is faid, the extreme difference between the dura- 

 tion of Highland and Enghfh oak for fpokes of wheels. 

 Many hedge-carpenters in both parts of the country know 

 the relative duration of tranfplanted or plantation oaks, that 

 is, the young oaks which are thinned out from thriving 

 plantations of this fort, and thofe from natural forefts, when 

 employed as pofts for railing. From different obfervations 

 which the writer has made in Monmouth(hire and Hereford- 

 ftiire, the duration of the oak in thefe counties, it is thought, 

 is much inferior to what it is in Cumberland and Yorkfliire : 

 it is thought no exaggeration, when it is faid that the differ- 

 ence is as eight to ten. Some timber dealers are known by 

 the writer, who, in purchafing it, pay attention to the differ- 

 ence of foil and fituation even in the fame woods. When 

 they can find oak in expofed fituations and on deep clay foil, 

 and afh on rocky fteeps, they always give them the preference 

 in their purchafes as timber. 



Thirdly ; that a known faft is ftated by the writer which 

 is faid to be of fuch importance, that it is truftcd, if it does 

 not fatisfy every unprejudiced perfon in refpeft to the truth 

 of the general principles which are wiflied to be here laid 

 down and explained, it will at leaft arrcft the attention of all 

 thofe who are interefted in the quality as well as mere bulk 



of 



