OF FOREST-TREES. 



129 



for such ligneous kinds will be the more probable, if you graff under the cHAP. IV. 

 earth, upon or near the very root itself, which is likely to entertain the '^^'V^i^ 

 cion better than when more exposed, till it be well fixt, and have made 

 some considerable progress. 



14. When you would fell, let the sap be perfectly in repose, as it is 

 commonly about November or December, even to February, after the 

 frost hath well nipped them : 1 have already alleged my reason for 

 it; and I am told, that both Oak and Elm so cut, the very saplings 

 (whereof rafters, spars, &c. are made) will continue as long as the very 

 heart of the tree, without decay. In this work, cut your kerfe near to 

 the ground, but have a care that the tree suffers not in the fall, and 

 be ruined with its own weight : This depends upon your woodman's 

 judgment in disbranching, and is a necessary caution to the felling of all 

 other timber-trees. If any begin to doat, pick out such for the axe, and 

 rather trust to its successor ; and, should you cut over late, by floating 

 them two or three months in the water, it prevents the worm, and proves 

 the best of seasons. 



15. Elm is a timber of most singular use, especially where it may lie 

 continually dry or wet, in extremes ; therefore proper for water-works, 

 mills, the ladles and soles of the wheel, pipes, pumps, aqueducts, pales, 

 ship-planks beneath the water-line ; and some that have been found 

 buried in bogs, have turned like the most polished and hardest ebony, 

 only discerned by the grain ; also for wheelwrights, handles for the 

 single hand-saw, &c. Rails and gates made of Elm, thin sawed, are not 

 so apt to rive as Oak ; the knotty for naves, hubs ; the straight and 

 smooth for axle-trees ; and the very roots for curiously dappled works ; 

 it scarce has any superior for kerbs of coppers, featheridge, and weather- 

 boards, (but it does not, without difficulty, admit the nail without boring,) 

 chopping-blocks, blocks for the hat-maker, trunks and boxes to be 

 covered with leather, coffins, dressers and shovel-board tables of great 

 length, and a lustrous colour if rightly seasoned ; also for the carver, 

 by reason of the tenour of the grain, and toughness, which fits it for 

 all those curious works of fruitages, foliage, shields, statues, and most 

 of the ornaments appertaining to the orders of architecture, and for not 

 being much subject to warping. I find that, of old, they used it even for 

 hinges and hooks of doors ; but then, that part of the plank which grew 



Volume I. A a 



