OF FOREST-TREES. 



251 



at the tops, a competent way beneath, to prevejit their sickness down- CHAP. IV. 

 wards, which will else certainly ensue ; whereas by this means even dying ^"^"V"^^ 

 trees may be preserved many years to good emolument, though they 

 never advance taller ; and being thus frequently shred, they will pro- 

 duce more than if suffered to stand and decay : this is a profitable note 

 for such as have old, doting, or any ways infirm wood. In other fell- 

 ings, some advise never to commence the disbranching from the top ; 

 for though the incumbency of the very boughs upon the next, cause 

 them to fall off the easier, yet it endangers the splicing of the next, 

 which is very prejudicial, and therefore, advise the beginning at the 

 nearest. And in cutting for fuel, you may, as at the top, so at the sides, 

 cut a foot or more from the body ; but never when you shred timber- 

 trees. We have said how dangerous it is to cut for fire-wood when the 

 sap is up ; it is a mark of improvident husbands ; besides, it will never 

 burn well, though abundance be congested. Lastly, remember that the 

 east and north winds are unkind to the succeeding shoots. 



Thus we have endeavoured to prescribe the best directions we could 

 learn concerning this necessary subject. And in this penury of that dear 

 commodity, and to incite all ingenious persons, studious of the benefit of 

 their country, to think of ways how our woods may be preserved, by all 

 manner of arts which may prolong the lasting of our fuel, I would give the 

 best encouragements. Those that shall seriously consider the intolerable 

 misery of the poor Cauchi, (the then inhabitants of the Low Countries,) 

 described by Pliny, lib. xvi. cap. i. (how opulent soever their late industry 

 has rendered them) for want only of wood for fuel, will have reason to 

 deplore the excessive decay of our former store of that useful commodity; 

 and by what shifts our neighbours, the Hollanders, do yet repair that de*- 

 feet, be invited to exercise their ingenuity : the process of which is cast- 

 ing the die, or square of the turf, in four equal quarters ; and to build « j„ ^^^^ 

 them so up, (as our brickmakers do their crude ware,) that they may have Pj^^''[^' ^^l^^^^^ 

 the free intercourse of the air till they are dry. See Quicciardius, in his p"""" , p^°p'^ 



■J J ^ ' spread fern 



Description of Holland, or Du Gauge's Glossary, verbo Turba. But '""^ 



o •/ ' the ways and 



besides the dung of beasts* and the peat and turf (which we may find p^'^s where 



, T T 1 , cattle duns 



m our oozy lands and heathy commons) for their chimneys, they make and tread, and 



n 11 11-1 T T ^ ■ J tjjg^ j,|2p 



use oi stoves, both portable and standing ; and truly the more frequent against a waii 



n 1 . . . . . . , . till it be dry : 



use or those inventions in our great wasting cities, (as the custom is but that of 

 through all Germany,) as also of those new and excellent ovens invented norsome. ^^"^^ 



