168 



A DISCOURSE 



BOOK III. they be kept diligently weeded and cleansed, which is as necessary as 

 ^"'"'^'^''^^ fencing and guarding from cattle. Our ordinary coppices are chiefly 

 upon Hasel, or the Birch ; but if amongst the other kinds, store of Ash, 

 (which I most prefer, for a speedy and erect growth,) Chestnut, Sallow, 

 and Sycamore, (at least one in four,) were sprinkled in the planting, the 

 profit would soon discover a difference, and well recompense the 

 industry. Others advise us to plant shoots of Sallow, A^^illow, Alder, and 

 all the swift-growing trees, being of seven years' growth, sloping off" both 

 the ends towards the ground, to the length of a billet, and burying them 

 a reasonable depth in the earth. This will cause them to put forth seven 

 or eight branches, each of which will become a tree in a short time, 

 especially if the soil be moist. The nearest distance for these plantations 

 ought never to be less than five feet at first, since every felling renders 

 them wider for the benefit of the timber, even to thirty or forty feet, in 

 five or six fellings. 



Though it be almost impossible for us to prescribe at what age it were 

 best husbandry to fell copses, (as we at least call best husbandry,) that is, 

 for most and g-reatest gain, since the markets, and the kinds of wood, 

 and emergent uses do so much govern ; yet copses are sometimes 

 of a competent statm-e after eight or nine years from the acorn ; and so 

 every eight or ten years successively will rise better and better. But this 

 had need be an extraordinary ground, otherwise you may do well to 

 allow them twelve or fifteen to fit them for the axe ; but those of twenty 

 years standing are better, and far advance the price, especially if Oak, 

 and Ash, and Chestnut be the chief furniture ; and be sure you shall lose 

 nothing by this patience, since, all accidents considered, the profit arising 

 from copses so managed (be the ground almost never so poor) shall equal, 

 if not exceed, what is usually made by the plough or grazing. Some 

 of our old clergy spring-woods heretofore have been let rest till twenty- 

 five or thirty years, and have proved highly worth the attendance ; 

 for by that time, even a seminary of acorns will render a considerable 

 advance, as I have abeady exemplified in the Northamptonshire lady. 

 And if copses were so divided, as that every year there might be some 

 felled, it were a continual and a present profit. Seventeen years' gi-owth 

 affords a tolerable fell. Supposing the copse of seventeen acres, one acre 

 might be yearly felled for ever, and so more, according to proportion : 



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