Woods. 
311 
varies from 6/. to 14Z. per acre. The uses are barrel hoops, and 
close hurdles or wattles — hoop wood being the dearest. The 
hurdles are so good, that wood proprietors in the north will send 
to the chalk woods for them, rather than make them out of their 
own materials at home. 
The former proprietors in this part of the Hants chalk district 
seem to have taken advantage of the only decent soil on the tops 
of the hills to plant wood, chiefly oak. On the timber being 
cut a spontaneous oak coppice springs up, good for nothing but 
the fire, and choking the more valuable hazel and ash. The 
result is the same here as at Heckfield and Dogmersfield ; the cut 
of the underwoods has been reduced in price from 16Z. to 4Z. an 
acre. But the remedy is different in the north-east, and here. 
There, as we have already seen, it is thought worth while to grub 
the oak scrub, and stock the ground with more valuable wood. 
This is also thought the more profitable course, midway, at the 
Vyne, by Mr. Chute, who has planted 100 acres of new woods, 
and improved his old woods with withy, alder, ash, and, in the 
drier spots, with Spanish chesnut, believing that no outlay will 
ultimately be more profitable. Here, however, the hop pole 
market is yet further distant, and the remedy is extirpation, and 
conversion of the land to agricultural uses. Mr. Melville Portal, 
who has at Laverstoke 1000 acres of wood, and the Rev. Bigg 
Wither at Tangier, seem to have taken the initiative in this 
change, and their example is being followed in the neighbour- 
hood. Other circumstances have helped on the movement. 
When the cost of grubbing was 16Z. an acre, and the rent of the 
cleared land 10s. per annum, the proprietors hesitated to incur 
such an outlay for such a return ; now that the workmen 
have become more expert with their tools, fair wages can be 
earned at 8/. per acre for grubbing, while the rent has gone up to 
20s. ; the outlay is reduced one-half, the return doubled. Nor 
does the outlay reach 81. ; the old stools are worth something, 
though not as much as the cost of getting them out. Different 
bargains are made for clearing ; one farmer got a wood grubbed 
by giving the labourers the stools, the use of horses and carts for 
haulage, and a crop of potatoes off the ground. In some cases, 
the landlord does the work at his own cost, making what he can 
of the old wood, and hands over the cleared land to the farmer 
at 20s. per acre. In others, the farmer clears and pays ten years' 
rent for twelve years' occupation (the usual run of leases about 
here) : in other words, has the land for two years rent free. But 
could not the farmer afford to do the clearing, and give the full 
rent, if the landlord did the chalking? The first three crops 
would be very remunerative ; rape, wheat, and oats, after which 
the management would be the same as that of the old farm. 
