Farming of Oxfordsliire. 
253 
arising^ from the inclosure itself. Additional powers to those 
conveyed by the Act will be necessary before the rights of 
common over the woods and coppices adjoining the forest can 
be disposed of and commuted. Tliese, although of no great 
value in themselves, operate, so long as they exist, as an impedi- 
ment to the owner of land adjoining them from making improve- 
ments by cultivation. The disafforesting Act is, at all events, 
a step in the right direction ; and there is no reason to doubt 
that the power of the Commissioners will be extended to the 
carrying out of further improvements, and divesting such lands 
of embarrassing conditions of tenure. 
The other wastes in the county are inconsiderable, and are 
chiefly situated in the Chiltern district, covered with furze and 
brushwood. The uninclosed parishes have frequently a common, 
on which each farmer turns a certain restricted number of cows 
or sheep. 
The Chiltern Hills are covered with large tracts of beech 
woods. Here and there, where clay is abundant, may be found 
a good sprinkling of oak ; but generally there is little besides 
beech, which flourishes well on the chalk. Beech may be felled 
at from twenty to forty years' growth ; and a wood requires thin- 
ning over once in five or ten years, according to the rapidity of 
its growth. It is a good plan to draw a beech wood frequently, 
and keep it thin ; also to trim off all the lower branches of the 
trees that the young seedlings may have a chance of getting up. 
The young stocks spring from the beech-mast, or nuts, not from 
old stools, which are best grubbed up. A good beech wood 
does not now pay much more than 8s. an acre per annum ; and 
the price per load (of 25 feet) varies from 85. to 145. In 1809 
it was worth 24s. All the beech woods on the Chiltern Hills 
are free from poor-rates. Hardly any land is bought so dearly 
as beech woods. When the ground is purchased, it is not half 
paid for. Suppose the soil cost from 14/. to 16/. per acre, a 
good stock of beech, if all valued, will come to 24/. or 26/. per 
acre, and thus raises the price to 40/., which pays about 1 per 
cent. A large portion of beech woods have been grubbed, but 
frequently the woods are on such abrupt declivities that the land 
is good for little in any other form. The rough portions of the 
beech are consumed for fuel, but the greatest portion of the 
timber is employed in chair-making. The chair-makers do not 
require large beech ; three trees to a load is considered a good 
size. Beech is little used on a farm except for making barn 
floors, axle-trees, and felloes for narrow wheels. There are some 
very extensive woods and coppices in other parts of Oxfordshire. 
Waterperry, Stowe, Forest Hill, and other parishes to the east 
of Oxford, contain some thousands of acres. These woods chiefly 
VOL. XV. s 
