308 
Farming of Hampshire. 
forest trees, whether we consider its smooth rind or bark, its 
glossy foliage, or graceful pendulous boughs,"* which is emi- 
nently the tree of the chalk formation, and of which the finest 
examples may be seen at Hackwood : nor the old oak woods, 
which occupy some of the strongest chalk clays, and of which 
Micheldever wood is a worthy representative ; nor the lines of 
elms and ashes in the water-meadow valleys ; but attention will 
be called rather to those coppices which are more peculiarly 
characteristic of the rural economy of the county. 
In the north-eastern part of Hampshire there is a saying, " The 
underwood will buy the horse, the wood the saddle," such is the 
relative value of the two ; whereas, in the south and west, the 
conditions are reversed — the timber being there the horse, the 
coppice the saddle. These interchanges of value do not result 
from differences of soil, nor consist in intrinsic differences of value 
in the produce : they are purely relative to the market. Coppice 
in the north-east is greatly enhanced in price by proximity to the 
hop district, and the special demand for poles there ; while in the 
south, it furnishes materials for barrel-hoops, crates, and hurdles — 
articles which are supplied from many other quarters, and for 
which there is no concentrated demand localised anywhere. 
Hence it comes, that the underwoods of the north-east will realise 
six or seven times as much as those of the south. In a fall of 
timber the tables are turned. Management follows the market : 
in the north-east the wood is sacrificed to the underwood ; in the 
south the tall timber is allowed to assert its natural supremacy 
and reign over the subordinate coppice. 
In the northern part of the county, the woods no doubt originally 
covered the whole surface, the heavy soil of the vale, as well 
as the higher and lighter land. Our ancestors extensively cleared 
the London clay of the vale, leaving trees only in hedgerows, 
and in belts for shelter. We are now, in the progress of agri- 
cultural improvement, felling even these ; but the more elevated 
ground of the Bagshot formation still grows some trees and much 
coppice. 
That these poor siliceous soils should support such fine timber, 
whether fir, oak, or beech, whether planted or indigenous, 
may excite some surprise. This vigorous growth may be partly, 
though not wholly explained, by the presence of spots of clay, 
here and there affording a firm holding to the roots ; or may be 
rather ascribed to thin veins of vegetable mould, running between 
the strata of gravel and sand, of which any sand or gravel pit will 
afford a section to an observer ; there is an instructive one in 
Heckfield Park. 
* Gilbert White's 'Selborne,' part i., letter 1. 
