5?8 ON USEFUL AND BOOK I. 



half, others a whole century, after they are full grown,— ap- 

 pear 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. 



Undergrowth is always cut in what may be termed the stage 

 of youth, sooner or later, according to the kind of tree, and the 

 purpose for which it is raised. It may be difficult to say when 

 timber, which is principally planted for ornament, should be 

 cut down. A tree, when young and fresh, is beautiful ; when 

 middle-aged, it is more or less picturesque; when in old age, 

 strikingly so, with a degree of grandeur ; and its greatest height 

 of picturesqueness and sublimity is when decaying under the 

 pressure of age. Hence, if ornament (or expression, which is 

 a better term) were the sole object in view, trees need never be 

 cut down. But most men have a feeling of what is beautiful ; 

 and, though all may be struck with grandeur or sublimity, few 

 have so much enthusiasm as to sacrifice the profit of valuable 

 timber, for the pleasure of enjoying either of those characters* 



The modes of felling timber ought to be different, according 

 to the kind of plantation. In deciduous groves, the trees 

 must be gradually thinned out as they arrive at maturity : if 

 the grove is to be continued, they should be cut over by the 



