OF FOREST-TREES. 



147 



with the corn, especially oats, (or what other grain you think fittest,) sow CHAP. VII. 

 also good store of keys, some Crab-kernels, &c. amongst them. Take ^"^"V^^ 

 off your crop of corn or seed in its season, and the next year following 

 it will be covered with young Ashes, which will be fit either to stand, 

 which I prefer, or be transplanted for divers years after ; and these you 

 will find to be far better than any you can gather out of the woods (espe- 

 cially suckers which are worth nothing) being removed at one foot stature, ^ ■ 

 the sooner the better ; for Ashes of two years thus taken out of the nursery, 

 shall outstrip those of ten taken out of the hedge, provided you defend 

 them well from cattle, which are exceedingly liquorish after their tops : 

 The reason of this hasty transplanting, is to prevent their obstinate and 



deep rooting — tantus amor terrce which makes them hard to be 



taken up when they grow older, and that being removed, they take 

 no great hold till the second year, after which they come away amain ; 

 yet I have planted them of five and six inches diameter, which have 



calculated for woods, and clumps in large parks, and for standards ; but it should never 

 be planted on the borders of tillage lands, because the dripping of the leaves is extremely 

 prejudicial to corn, and the roots have a powerful tendency to draw the nourishment from 

 the ground. Neither should it be planted near pasture ground, for if the cows eat the 

 leaves or shoots, the butter will obtain a disagreeable taste. An Ash-tree, therefore, 

 should never be permitted to grow in the hedge-rows of dairy farms. 



A wood of these trees, rightly managed, will produce considerable advantages to the 

 owner ; for by the underwood, which will be fit to cut every fourteen or fifteen years for 

 hop-poles, &c. there will be a regular income superior to the rent of the neighbouring 

 lands, and still there will be a stock left for timber, which like an estate in reversion, will, 

 at some future period, pour in considerable riches. 



As the quickness of growth will depend upon the goodness of the soil, the number 

 of years from the first planting to the first fall, will vary accordingly ; if the wood 

 be large, I would advise to have the first fall of poles very soon, that there may 

 be an annual sale till the wood has been wholly cut down ; and this should be so con- 

 trived, that the year after the last quarter is cut, that which was first begun on may 

 be ready for a second fall. This will happen at an interval of about fifteen or twenty 

 years, by which time the poles will be large ; but if they are wanted for smaller purposes, 

 the fall may be proportionably sooner. 



Ash-pollards are of great service when fuel is scarce ; a few of these trees will produce 

 many loads of lop. The loppings make the sweetest of all fires, and will burn well either 

 green or dry ; but the intervals between the cuttings must not be too great ; for if the 

 branches be suffered to grow to a very great thickness, the taking them off will propor- 

 tionably injure the tree. 



Cc 2 



