314 Agricultural Notes on Hertfordshire. 
W oods and Plantations. 
Woodlands cover a large part of tlic surface of this county. 
The quantity and quality of timber varies considerably in 
different districts. in the north-western portion, where the 
chalk is near the surface, beech woods prevail. To the south of 
this, on a zone running from the south-west to north-east, oak 
and ash are more abundant, both in the woods and on hedge rows, 
the oak having generally a stunted appearance ; the ash is also of 
slow growth, but bears a good character for wheeler's stuff. Still 
further south the elm may be said to be the weed of the country. 
In the most southern portion, where the chalk is covered by the 
London and Plastic clays, the elm and oak attain a much larger 
growth, unless the upper drift gravel intervene, which is only 
suited to larch or fir. The beech woods, in which underwood 
refuses to grow, are periodically thinned, and the fall used by 
wheelers, and, in some cases, by chair-makers, though this trade 
is almost entirely confined to Buckinghamshire. The ordinary 
coppice is commonly cut every twelve years and sold by auction. 
As a general rule, the growth is not sufficiently straight and free 
to serve a better purpose than making rods or headers for fencing, 
pea-sticks, faggots, or at best, turner's stuff, or sparred hurdles 
and wattled hurdles for sheep. 
The woodlands are too often objects of little care, and are 
scarcely ever renewed or replanted as the old stools die or fail. 
Those which belonged to the late Sir John Sebright, of Beech- 
wood, are, however, an exception to this rule, and bear the traces 
of careful replenishing to this day ; his son and successor follows 
his example. 
In many places woods have of late been grubbed, when, from 
their frequent interlacing with the arable land, they were incom- 
patible with improved cultivation ; but in a county where there 
are so many resident proprietors, coverts for game will not 
readily give place to the steam plough. 
Straw-Plait. 
The manufacture of straw-plait not only furnishes employment 
for the females of the labouring classes, but bears on the agri- 
cultural interests of part of the county, by creating a market for 
some of the wheat-straw grown within its limits. This trade, 
from its nature, varies with and is ruled by the fashions in 
dress. Luton and Dunstable, in Bedfordshire, are its head- 
quarters, though it extends to the centre of the county of Hertford, 
where much plait is made to supply the dealers, whose attendance 
at Hitchin and elsewhere creates a considerable market. The 
