Farm i II f/ of Dorsetshire. 
421 
wlicre onk timber tlnlvos more rapidly or returns a profit 
sooner. Mitldlemarsh, Buckland, Mappowdcr, Melcombe, VFiiit- 
ficld, Hermitaije, Hillficld, Batcombe, grow very fine oaks. 
From Castle Hill as much as 12,000/. worth of timber has been 
sold, and a " thinning " of the first-named estate yielded upwards 
of 30,000/. Forty-five years ago, says a gentleman who had 
then experience of the county, half a mile could be gone over in 
Glanvills Wootton where every four trees you passed could for 
many scores be counted at an average of 100/., or 25/. a tree. In the 
parks of tlie Earl of llchestcr and in that of the Earl of Shaftes- 
bury are noble oaks, and at Parnliain, near Beaminster, and at 
Dulish, elms of superb growth. At West Woodyates is a 
magnificent walnut-tree, planted more than a century ago by the 
then Lord Londonderry. The tenant used to make 5/. a-year of 
the W'alnuts, and he called it his hundred pound tree, as it yielded 
him 5 per cent, interest. Tiio preponderance of oak limber over 
the vale indicates the clay soil. Wherever elm-trees are of good 
size and fresh growth, a limestone or gravel subsoil is usually to be 
found. Plumber, the country round Sturminster, and the Oke- 
fords, produce excellent timber, and coppice-wood for hurdles, 
&c., from the steep sides of the chain of hills which overhang the 
vale, and tlie lowlands furnish this material from excellent 
willov/-bcds. Around Bridport very fine elm timber is grown, 
some of v/hich is used in the sliipyards of Bridport and Lyme. 
Asli is g]()wn to some extent, and made into butter casks. 
Forty years ago the growth of flax was a feature of consider- 
able importance in the faiuning of Dorset, from 4000 to 5000 
acres being annually, according to Mr. Stevenson, devoted to 
its culture. In the latter ])art of last century a Government 
bovmty vras paid on every stone raised, amounting, on an average 
of eleven years, to 450/. per annum. It was discontinued be- 
cause, it is said, rents were increased on account of it, yet the 
abolition of the bounty did not seem to have curtailed the growth 
of it, as twenty years after the encouragement was withdrawn 
there Avould .appear to have been four times as many acres 
under cultivation as INIr. Claridge found. Within the last twenty 
years the growth of this plant Las been gradually declining — (not 
from lack of customers, for the manufacturers of Bridport could 
purchase every stone of flax that could be gi'own in their vicinity) 
— and now, instead of 4000, there are not 300 acres of it in the 
whole county. The largest grower has 30 acres in flax ; he 
assigned the lowness of price as his reason for curtailing the 
growth, and thought that if it rose to 6/. per pack (from 4/.) it 
would be generally grown : at the latter price it did not pay. 
It is valued on the sandy loams of which we are speaking as a 
most excellent preparative for wheat. If sown oftener than once 
