170 



A DISCOURSE 



liOOK III, In sum, you are to spare as many likely trees for-'timber as with dis- 

 ^-''''><^'*^ cretion you can. In the mean-time, there are some who find it not so 

 profitable to permit so many timber-trees to stand in the heart of copses, 

 but on the skirts, and near the edges, where their branches may freely 

 spread and have air, without dripping and annoying the subnascent crop : 

 nor should they be shred, which commonly makes them grow knotty. — 

 This is a note of the ingenious Mr. Nourse. 



Now as to the felling, {beginning at one side, that the carts may enter 

 without detriment to what you leave standing,) the under-wood may be 

 cut from January at the latest, till Mid-JNIarch or April ; or from Mid- 

 September, till near the end of November ; so as all to be avoided by 

 IMidsummer at the latest, and then fenced, (where the rows and brush 

 lie longer unbound, or made up, you endanger the loss of a second 

 spring,) and not to stay so long as usually they are a-clearing, that the 

 young and the seedlings may not suffer the least interruption ; and, if 

 the winter, previous to your felling copses, you preserve them well from 

 cattle, it will recompense your care. 



It is advised not to cut off the browse- wood of Oaks in copses, but to 

 suffer it to fall off, as where trees stand very close, it usually does : I do 

 not well comprehend why yet it should be spared so long. 



When you espy a cluster of plants growing, as it were, all in a bunch, 

 it shaU suffice that you preserve the fairest sapling, cutting all the rest 

 away. And if it chance to be a Chestnut, Service, or like profitable 

 tree, clear it from the droppings and incumbrances of these trees, that 

 it may thrive the better : then, as you pass along, prune and trim up all 

 the young wavers, covering such roots as lie bare and exposed, with 

 fresh mould. There are some who direct the lopping of young Oaks 

 at a competent distance from the stem, and that while the wounds are 

 healing, this would advantage the under-wood ; but I cannot say it 

 would be without prejudice to timber. 



Cut not above half a foot from the ground, nay the closer the better, 

 and that to the south, slope-wise, stripping up such as you spare from 

 their extravagant branches, water-boughs, &c. that hinder the growth 



