7 



OF FOREST-TREES. 225 



Dr. Plot recommends the disbranching to be done in the spring before CHAP. III. 

 felling, whilst the tree is standing ; that is, from May to IMichaelmas, and *'***''~y''*^ 

 so to let it continue till the next spring, and disburden them when felled, 

 as the custom is in Staffordshire and the north, for exceedingly contri- 

 buting to a dry seasoning, freeing it from the attack of worms and 

 other accidental corruption; and thinks that the prejudice accruing 

 thereby, as to the tanner, (in regard of the more difficult excortication,) is 

 no way to be put in balance with the advantage and improvement of the 

 timber for paling, building of ships, houses, &;c. accounting this method 

 of that universal importance, as to merit the deliberation of a parliament : 

 in the meanwhile, by whatever method you proceed as to this, when once 

 a tree is prostrate, and the bark stripped off, let it so be set as it may 

 be best dry ; then cleanse the bole of the branches which were left, and 

 saw it into lengths for the squaring, to which belong the measure and 

 girth, as our workmen call it, which I refer to the buyer, and to many 

 subsidiary books lately printed, wherein it is taught by a very familiar 

 mechanical calcule and easy method. 



But by none, in my apprehension, set forth in a more facile and 

 accurate way, than what that industrious mathematician, Mr. Leybourn, 

 has published, in his late Line of Proportion made Easij, and others his 

 labours ; where he treats as well of the square as the round, as it is 

 aj)plicable to boards and superficials, and to timber which is hewed, or less 

 rough, in so easy a method, as nothing can be more desired. I know our 

 ordinary carpenters, &c. have generally upon their rulers a line, which 

 they usually call Gunter's line ; but few of them understand how to work 

 from it as they should : and divers country gentlemen, stewards, and 

 woodmen, when they are to measure rough timber upon the ground, con- 

 fide much to the girt, which they do with a string, at about four or five 

 feet distance from the root, or great extreme ; of the string's length, they 

 take a quarter for the true square ; which is so manifestly erroneous, that 

 thereby they make every tree, so measured, more than a fifth part less 

 than really it is. This mistake should, therefore, be reformed ; and it 

 were, I conceive, worth the seller's while to inspect it accordingly : their 

 argument is, that when the bark of a tree is stripped, and the body 

 hewed to a square, it will then hold out no more measure ; that which is 

 cut off being only fit for fuel, and the expense of squaring costs more 



