OF FRUIT AND FOREST TREES. 527 



as near to an eye as may be. Those that you intend for timber 

 should be left in every other row, which will leave them twelve 

 feet apart every way ; but if the soil be rich and deep, it may 

 be necessary to leave them twenty-four feet apart. In many 

 counties, particularly Hertfordshire, the underwood is more 

 valuable than timber ; in that case it will be more judicious to 

 leave but few trees for that purpose : In the mean time the un- 

 derwood will amply repay you for the expence of planting, &c. 

 besides the rent of the ground, while at the same time you have 

 a sufficient crop of timber on the ground. In Kent, they gene- 

 rally plant out chesnuts and ash for hop-poles at three years old, 

 and cut them fourteen years after, which makes in all, seven- 

 teen years before they are fit to cut ; and they bring from one 

 guinea and a half to two guineas per hundred ; but if they were 

 raised from large stools, properly cut and the composition ap- 

 plied, they would be fit for cutting in less than one third of that 

 time, and of course, the value of the land would be tripled. 



