OF FRUIT AND FOREST TREES. 335 



plantation ; always obferving to cut in a floping manner* 

 and as near to an eye as may be. Thofe that you intend for 

 timber fhould be left in every other row, which will leave 

 them twelve feet apart every way : but if the foil be rich and 

 deep, it may be neceffary to leave them twenty-four feet apart. 

 In many counties, particularly Hertfordfhire, the underwood 

 is more valuable than timber; in that cafe it will be more 

 judicious to leave but few trees for that purpofe : in the mean 

 time the underwood will amply repay you for the expence of 

 planting, &c. befides the rent of the ground, while at the 

 fame time you have a fufficient crop of timber on the ground. 

 In Kent, they generally plant out Chefnuts and Afh for hop- 

 poles at three years old, and cut them fourteen years after, 

 which makes, in all, feventeen years before they are fit to cut ; 

 and they bring from one guinea and a half to two guineas per 

 hundred ; but if they were raifed from large (tools, properly 

 cut, and the Compofition applied, they would be fit for cut- 

 ting in lefs than one third of that time ; and, of courfe, the 

 value of the land would be tripled*. 



