THE JOURNAL 



OF THE 



BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Vol. VI. No. 2. SEPTEMBER, 1899. 



THE ASH [Fraxinus excelsior), AND ITS 



CULTIVATION. 



Among the trades using Ash timber, and more particularly 

 among carriage manufacturers and makers of agricultural im- 

 plements, considerable inconvenience is being felt from the 

 want of adequate supplies of mature timber of English 

 growth. There is now said to be such a scarcity of 

 marketable Ash throughout Britain that manufacturers have 

 been forced to make enquiries abroad for this class of wood, 

 though none of it comes up to the standard of the home- 

 grown product with regard to the toughness, density of 

 grain, and elasticity which constitute its special technical 

 value. 



With such slow-growing crops as timber, it will of course 

 take fully two generations before Ash, now planted, will 

 attain its full technical and financial maturity. But, as 

 prices now rule at from £y to £11 per load of 40 cubic feet 

 of rough planks as turned out by the sawyer, as the demand 

 is constant and practically certain to remain so, and as the 

 prospect in future is far more likely to be in the direction of 

 gradual enhancement of price rather than towards diminu- 

 tion, the present occasion seems a favourable opportunity for 

 bringing under the notice of landowners a resume of the 



