62 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Faggots, for the limekilns, cement works, bakers, and 

 domestic use. 



Bush-faggots, of Thorn and Crab, for dredging meadows in 

 spring, and for gapping hedges. 



Hazel-withes, for binding faggots and for packing. 



Packing- sticks, split Hazel, pointed at both ends, for fruit 

 packed in sieves. 



Chips and bark from hop-poles — the workmen's perquisite 

 generally. 



The underwood is all cleared out of the " cants " by May 1 in 

 the best woods, or, if the Oak-trees are sold, the buyer is allowed 

 till August 1 to flay and faggot and remove the timber, and sells 

 the lot out by a fixed time, and removes from the wood all that 

 remains. The stubs throw out fresh shoots in May, and the 

 year following the woodreve proceeds to fill up vacancies by 

 planting Spanish Chestnut or Ash, whichever the land will 

 best carry. This plan, I venture to say, is a great mistake, 

 for, unless great care has been taken, the new plants put in 

 are choked by the vigour of the first year's growth from the 

 old stubs, which may reach to 8 feet in one year. The system 

 of allowing the underwood when cut to remain till May 1 

 appears to me also to be a mistake, as it could just as well 

 be all removed by February 1, except in years when deep snow 

 prevails, and the woodreve could then at once fill up the 

 vacancies with young plants, which would get firm hold of the 

 soil, and be able to hold their own before the strong second year's 

 growth from the stubs had begun. Under the usual system 

 nothing but Ash and Chestnut are planted ; all the other trees 

 are the produce of natural seedlings, such as Pyrus, white Beam- 

 tree, Thorns, Mountain Ash, Sloes, Birch, Cherries, Crabs, &c. 

 These are mostly scattered by birds ; and others are brought by 

 the winds, as Hornbeam and Sycamore, while Hazel-nuts and 

 Beech are stored up by the mice, and thus become part of the 

 woodland. But in our Kent woods the only really valuable 

 underwoods are the Ash and the Chestnut, the others being almost 

 entirely the natural products of the district, which have asserted 

 themselves in the bare, open spaces, and formed stools in the 

 course of years. 



The best managed woods on good, deep soil, say in the valleys, 

 come to cut when eight to ten years old while upland woods, and 



