970 



PRACTICE OF 13ARDENING. 



Part III. 



to render their standing no longer wortli while in point of profit : when wanted for pri- 

 vate use or sale ; or when defects in the tree, or new arrangements, in its situation, point 

 out the necessity of its removal. " A timbered estate," Marshall observes, " should 

 frequently be gone over by some person of judgment ; who, let the price and demand for 

 timber be what they may, ought to mark every tree which wears the appearance of 

 decay. If the demand be brisk and the price high, he ought to go two steps farther, 

 and mark not only such as are full-grown, but such also as are near perfection." In 

 trees, as in the human species, there are three stages, youth, manhood, and old age. In 

 the period of youth, the growth is rapid ; in manhood, that growth is matured ; and in 

 old age, it begins to decay. 



6954. T/ie most profitable season for felUng timber is at what may thus be termed the beginnhig of man- 

 hood. After that time, though the tree may appear sound and healthy, its annual increase is so little, 

 that it would be more profitable to cut it down and replant. The number of years that a tree may stand, 

 before it arrives at this period, must vary in different soils and situations ; but the period itself may easily 

 be ascertained — by the annual shoots — the state of the bark — and by taking the circumference of the tree 

 at the same place for two or three successive seasons, and comparing the difference. In the view of pro- 

 fiting from timber produce, it is of great consequence to cut down plantations at maturity. Many trees 

 will stand half, others a whole century, after they are full-grown, appear quite healthy, and, at the same 

 time, make little or no increase of timber. But there are particular cases, arising from the nature and 

 state of the markets, where it may even be more profitable to cut timber before it is arrived at a full 

 growth. {Treat, on Countr. Res. ii. 577.) 



6955. Preparations for felling It has been strongly recommended to disbark trees a year or more be- 

 fore they are taken down in consequence of the result of certain experiments commenced by BufFon in 

 1737. In May of that year, he disbarked three oak-trees, forty feet in height, where they stood. In the 

 course of three years they died, and, on cutting them down, the outer wood was found hard and dry, and 

 tRe internal wood moist and softer. After trying its strength, &c. he concludes, that " timber which has 

 been disbarked and dried while standing, will weigh heavier, and prove stronger than timber cut in its 

 bark." Bosc, and other French authors, (in Cours Compl. d'Agr. &c. art. Aubier, Bois, Quercus, &c.) 

 strongly recommend this practice, which is followed in some places on the continent, and in this coun- 

 try with the oak and larch ; but not, as far as we have learned, with any other tree. Monteath finds 

 it by far the most efficient way of seasoning larch-timber. He barked some trees in spring, and did not 

 cut them down till autumn, and others stood in the peeled state for two years. After various and exten- 

 sive trials, he is " decidedly of opinion, that the larch treated in this way at thirty years of age will be 

 found equally durable with a tree cut down at the age of fifty years, and treated in the ordinary way." 

 (Forester's Guide, 152.) 



6956. As the dry rot {Meritlius destruens. Sow.) is found to arise in a great measure from want of season- 

 ing, or at least to proceed with the greatest rapidity in timber not well seasoned, this practice seems to 

 deserve adoption in that point of view. {Encyc. Brit. Suppl. art. Dry Rot.) In some parts of the north of 

 Europe, the trees are divested of their bark for one or two feet in height from the ground a year or more 

 previous to that on which they are to be felled. We saw this done in Poland and Lithuania ; but though 

 we made diligent enquiry in Sweden, we could not learn distinctly the extent to which it was practised in 

 that country and Norway. It is occasionally practised in both for the ostensible purpose of hardening the 

 soft wood : but also accompanied by a deep incision made for the purpose of extracting tar ; a :practice 

 obviously injurious to the timber, and therefore generally in these countries kept out of view. When 

 trees stand close together, a very obvious preparation to felling is lightening the tops of such branches as 

 would do injury in falling to the' trees that are to be left, or to other adjoining objects. 



6957. The season of felling is commonly winter, for timber not to be disbarked; 

 but some for the resinous tribe recommend summer as being the season in which it is 

 generally felled in the north of Europe and in the Alps. But the summer season is there 

 adopted from necessity, as in winter the woods are so filled up with snow that felling 

 is hardly practicable. As the timber of these countries is generally squared for the 

 market ; tlie soft wood is chiefly removed, so that the season of felling does not seem as 

 to them to be of much consequence. Besides, the timber is never so full of sap in sum- 

 mer as it is in spring and autumn, and therefore, next to mid-winter, midsummer may 

 be the next best time for felling all kinds of timber-trees. Where the trees are disbarked 

 at the base a year or more before felling, the soft wood will be partially hardened; but 

 this practice is by no means general in the north. 



6958. Knowles, in a recent work on preserving the British navy, the dry rot, &c. after collecting the 

 opinions of all the ancient and modern authors who have written on felling timber, concludes, that the 

 common notion that trees felled in winter contain less of sap or of the vegetable juices than those cut 

 down at any other season of the year, is not true ; and that the method of barking standing trees in spring, 

 and not felling them till the succeeding winter, has not in any way realised the expectations formed of the 

 plan. After describing all the different modes that have been adopted for seasoning timber, he concludes, 

 that the best mode of seasoning is to " keep it in air, neither very dry nor very moist ; and to protect it 

 from the sun and rain by a roof raised sufficiently high over it so as to prevent by this and other means, a 

 rapid rush of air." (Inquiry into the Means of preserving the British Navy from Dry rot, %c. by Knowles, 

 Sec. to the Coin, of Surveyors, chap, iii.) 



6959. The operation of felling is performed either by digging an excavation round the 

 stem, and cutting the roots at two or three feet distant from it, or by cutting over the 

 stem at the surface. By the former mode the root is obtained for use, and the ground 

 more eflfectually cleared and prepared for the roots of other adjoining trees, or whatever 

 crop is to follow. Where the tree is intended to stole, which can very seldom be advis- 

 able in the case of cutting full-grown timber, or where there is some nicety in taking it 

 down so as not to injure other trees or adjoining objects, it is cut or sawn over, and the 

 root, if to be removed, dug out afterwards. " In cutting large trees, in order to make 

 the tree fall the way required, enter the cross-cut saw on that side of the tree it is intended 

 to fall, and cut it about a third part through ; then enter the saw at the other side, and 

 when it is cut so far as to admit a wedge, place the wedge exactly opposite the way you 



