61 



trees grew together in the same soil, when Mr. B. had 

 the management of one of the royal forests. This second 

 division shows the difference very clearly between the two 

 modes — between cutting off the branches close to the stem, 

 and leavino^ them to nature. The tree with the branches cut 

 close, in four years had increased three inches and three- 

 eighths ; the tree with the branches cut off had a little the 

 advantaofe of the best soil. The tree with the branches 

 entire had increased seven inches and three-eighths in four 

 years, making one inch in each year more than the other — an 

 object well worth attending to. Mr. Billington has divided 

 his tables into sixteen divisions, giving the result of different 

 modes of treatment to which I will recommend all intelligent 

 foresters. I will now contrast this conduct, which from my 

 own knowledge I have every reason to believe to be good, 

 with the practice of those who are advocates for murdering 

 nature. Some there are, who, not content to do all possible 

 injury with the axe and the saw within the command of the 

 tallest man, seek the aid of a long pole with a chisel at one 

 end; one man directing the fatal instrument, and another,, 

 with the aid of a large mallet, striking the blow, and cutting 

 away all branches within reach, thus reducing trees to so 

 many magnificent fishing rods. I would ask, how are these 

 trees to get their living, when, in addition, they are crowded 

 so close together that they have not room for pasturage with 

 their roots, and the little food they do obtain they cannot 

 digest for want of leaves, which the ignorance of man has 

 deprived them of? 



If the owners of woods, to whom I have referred, were 

 to live to double or treble the age allotted to man, they could 

 never make timber trees from these scare-crows, thrown 

 back in their growth many, many years. Narrow belts of 

 wood produce generally only sickness and decay. Trees 

 in hedge-rows thrive better than those in narrow belts. 



