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OF FOREST-TREES. 185 

 CHAP. III. 



Of the AGE, STATURE, and FELLING of TREES. 



The age of trees, except of the coniferous, (for the most part known CHAP. HI. 

 by the degrees of their tapering branches,) is vulgarly reckoned by the '"-^'Y'^ 

 number of solar revolutions, or circles ; the former bark being digested age. 

 and compacted into a ligneous and woody substance, is annually invested 

 by a succeeding bark, which yet in some trees is not finished so soon as 

 in others, as we find in the Oak, Elm, Pine, Plum-tree, &c. which 

 exceed one another in growth, however co-equal in years : but of this 

 hereafter. In the mean time, it is not till a tree is arrived to his perfect 

 age and full vigour, that the lord of the forest should consult or deter- 

 mine concerning a felling ; for there is certainly in trees, as in all things 

 else, a time of increment or growth ; a status or season when they are at ^ 

 best, (which is also that of felling,) and a decrement or period when they 

 decay. To the first of these they proceed with more or less velocity, as 

 they consist of more strict and compacted particles, or are of a slighter 

 and more lax contexture, by which they receive a speedier or slower de- 

 fluxion of aliment. This is apparent in Box and Willow ; the one of a 

 harder, the other of a more tender substance ; but as they proceed, so 

 they likewise continue. By the state of trees, I would signify their 

 utmost effort, growth, and maturity, which are all of them different as to 

 time and kind ; yet do not I intend by this, any period or instant in which 

 they do not continually either improve or decay, (the end of one being 

 stiU the beginning of the other,) but farther than which their natures do 

 not extend ; but immediately (though to our senses imperceptible) 

 through some infirmity (to which aU sublunary things are obnoxious) 

 dwindle and impair, either through age, defect of nourishment, by sick- 

 ness, and decay of principal parts ; but especially, and more inevitably, 

 when violently invaded by mortal and incurable infirmities, or by what 

 other extinction of their vegetative heat, subtraction, or obstruction of 

 air and moisture, which making all motions whatsoever to cease and 

 determine, is the cause of their final destruction. 



Our honest countryman, to whose experience we have been obliged 

 for something I have lately animadverted concerning the pruning of trees. 



