446 



ON USEFUL AND 



BOOK 1. 



the improvements in agriculture and the arts, the increase of 

 our shipping, and the more general introduction of luxuries, 

 took place, there was no immediate inducement to plant for 

 profit; nor was knowledge or taste in the art of planting by 

 any means extensive. In consequence of the increasing con- 

 sumption of the navy, the value of timber was enhanced; and 

 as the natural forests were suffered to decline, and the number 

 of acres planted did not keep pace with the number annually 

 cut down, a proper supply of this article for the market was 

 not to be had, and the defect still exists. Timber of all kinds 

 is' daily advancing in price; and, from the great numbers of 

 King's ships*, merchantmen, and other craft, that have lately 

 been built, in connexion with the wretched management of the 

 royal forests, oak-timber fit for the purposes of naval architec- 

 ture is now alarmingly scarce; and should Great Britain be- 

 come dependent on other powers for the means of supporting 



* " A seventy-four gun ship (we speak from good authority) swallows up 3000 

 loads of oak timber. A load of timber is 50 cubical feet ; a ton 40 feet ; conse- 

 quently, a seventy-four gun ship takes 2000 large well grown timber-trees ; namely, 

 trees of nearly two tons each! 



" The distance recommended by authors for planting trees in a wood, in which 

 underwood is also propagated, is thirty feet or upwards. Supposing trees to stand 

 at two roods (33 feet, the distance we recommend they should stand at, in such a 

 plantation) each statute acre would contain 40 trees; consequently, the building of 



a seventy-four gun ship, will clear of such woodland, the timber of 50 acres." - 



Planting and Rural Ornament y 3d. edit. vol. I. p. 111. 



