OF FOREST-TREES. 



169 



but though the seldom fall yields the more timber, yet the frequent makes CHAP. i. 

 the under- wood the thicker; therefore at ten or twelve years' growth, says ^-"'V'^ 

 INIr. Cook, make the fall in shallow ground, and fourteen in deeper. — 

 If many timber-trees gTOW in your copses which are to be cut down, fell 

 both them and the under-wood, as near the ground as may be ; but this 

 is to be understood where the wood is very thick ; otherwise, it is 

 advisable to stock up the thinner, especially in great timber, and to set in 

 the holes. Elm, Cherry, Poplar, Sallow, Service; and so these trees, which 

 are apt to grow from the running-root, thicken the wood exceedingly ; 

 whilst the very roots will pay for the grubbing, and yield you some feet 

 of the best timber ; whereas being let stand, nothing would have grown. 

 If the ground be a shallow soil, forbear filling the holes quite, but set 

 some running-wood in the loosened earth, and the ends of the old roots 

 being cut, will furnish the sides of the holes speedily. In thin copses, 

 it is profitable to lay some boughs athwart, which will be rooted to 

 advantage against next fall. All rotten stubs among our under-woods 

 should be extirpated, to make way for seedlings, and young roots to 

 spring and run : the cutting slanting, smooth, and close, is of great im- 

 portance ; and frequent felling gives way and air to the subnascent 

 seedlings, and the rest will make lusty shoots. 



As to what numbers and scantlings you are to leave on every acre, the 

 statutes are our general guides, at least the legal. It is a very ordinary 

 copse which will not afford three or four firsts, that is, bests ; fourteen 

 seconds, twelve thirds, eight wavers, &;c. according to which proportions, 

 the sizes of young trees in copsing are to succeed one another. By the 

 statute of 35 Henry VIII. in copses or under-woods, felled at twenty- 

 four years' growth, there were to be left twelve standills, or stores of Oak, 

 upon each acre ; in defect of so many Oaks, the same number of Elms, 

 Ash, Asp, or Beech ; and they to be such as are of likely trees for 

 timber, and of such as have been spared at some former felling, unless 

 there were none ; in which case, they are to be then left, and so to con- 

 tinue without felHng, till they are ten inches square within a yard of the 

 ground. Copses above this growth felled, to leave twelve great Oaks ; 

 or in defect of them, other timber-trees, as above, and so to be left for 

 twenty years longer, and to be inclosed seven years. 



