4S T R E A T I S E on 



It has alfo this fingular advantage, that, when young, it is as 

 llrong and lafling timber as that of old trees ; but the value, and 

 particular ufes of it, being fo univerfally known, makes it un- 

 necelTary tc be related here, , 



I SHALL difmifs this ufeful, though not ornamental tree, in 

 laentioning an experiment I made very early in life of its va- 

 lue, by planting a fpecimen of them in copfe, .intended princi- 

 pally to fupply myfelf with poles for efpalier hedges, and Hakes 

 for de?vd fences, for^ which purpofes no wood is more proper or 

 iafting. 



For tliefe ends, in very obftinate heavy meadow ground, 

 compofed chiefly of fieri! red clay and, mofs, I planted liajf a 

 rood, or the eighth part of an acre, with Afli trees fix years old^, 

 and about, eight feet high. I placed them in rows, four feet a- 

 funder, and two feet diftance in the row, where I let them re- 

 main untouched, only digging the ground about them every 

 autumn, for four years, when I cut them over five or fxX inches 

 above ground for the, purpofes meant, which they then fully 

 anfwered, referving twenty of the fairefl plants, at proper di-= 

 ftances, for trees. 



I CONTINUED to dig the ground two years longer, and then-- 

 left them, to nature for five years more, that is, feven from their 

 being cut down. Having more of them than anfwered my own ■ 

 purpofes, or indeed than I could have imagined fo fmall a fpot 

 of ground would produce, I thought of making the mofli of what 

 I had to fpare, and accordingly meafured ofFexadly one half c£. 

 tKem, which I fokkf or pollards and hoops, at forty fhillings>- 



