OF FOREST.TREES. 



149 



reserve for spears in Spain, they keep shriped up close to the stem, and CHAP. vil. 

 plant them in close order, and moister places. These they cut above the ^"^^V^^ 

 knot (for the least nodosity spoils all) in the decrease of January, which 

 were of the latest for us. It is reported that the Ash will not only 

 receive its own kind, but graff, or be inoculated, with the Pear and 

 Apple ; but to what improvement I know not. 



3. It is by no means convenient to plant Ash in plough-lands, for the 

 roots will be obnoxious to the coulter ; and the shade of the tree 

 is malignant both to corn and grass, when the head and branches over- 

 drip and emaciate them ; but in hedge-rows and plumps they will thrive 

 exceedingly, where they may be disposed at nine or ten feet distance, 

 and sometimes nearer : But in planting of a whole wood of several kinds 

 of trees for timber, every third set at least should be an Ash. The best 

 Ash delights in the best land, which it will soon impoverish, yet grows 

 in any, so it be not over stiff, wet, and approaching to the marshy, unless 

 it be first well drained ; By the banks of sweet and crystal rivers and 

 streams, I have observed them to thrive infinitely. One may observe 

 as manifest a difference in the timber of the Ash as of the Oak, much 

 more than is found in any one kind of Elm, cceteris paribus ; for so the 

 Ground- Ash, like the Oak, much excels a bough or branch of the same 

 bulk, for strength and toughness ; and in yet farther emulation of the 

 Oak, it has been known to prove as good and lasting timber for building, 

 nay, preferred before it, where there has been plenty of Oak ; vast 

 difference there is also in the strength of ground and quartered Ash. — 

 It is likewise remarkable that the Ash, like the Cork-tree, grows when 

 the bark is as it were quite peeled off, as has been observed in several 

 forests, where the deer have bared them as far as they could climb. 

 Some Ash is curiously cambleted and veined ; I say, so differently from 

 other timber, that our skilful cabinet-makers prize it equally with Ebony, 

 and give it the name of Green Ebony, which their customers pay well 

 for ; and when our woodmen light upon it, they make what money they 

 will of it : But to bring it to that curious lustre, so as it is hardly to be ^ 

 distinguished from the most curiously diapered Olive, they varnish their 

 work with the China varnish, hereafter described, which infinitely excels 

 the linseed oil that Cardan so commends when speaking of this root. — 

 The truth is, the Bruscum or Molluscum, to be frequently found in this 

 wood, is nothing inferior to that of Maple, (of which hereafter,) being 



