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IV. — Underwood: the Plnntinrj, Growth, Conversion, and Sale 
thereof. Bj FiiANClS Tallant, of Easebourne. 
Sussex is the home of the Avoodman. Ancient writers inform 
us that this county was a forest before the Norman Conquest. 
By the latest returns the woodland in Sussex is estimated at 
101,331 acres, exclusive of commons, gorse lands, and garden 
shrubberies. The Cowdray Estate, the property of the Earl of 
Egmcmt, comprising several thousand acres of woodland, from 
which 350 acres of underwood are sold yearly by auction, fairly 
represents the trade in underwood. 
Commencing with a large tract of woodland on the chalk 
of the South Downs, where the estates of the noble owners of 
Goodwood, Cowdray, and Petworth meet, the underwood con- 
sists chielly of hazel, ash, birch, maple, hornbeam, rough oak^ 
and beech, with some beautiful specimens of the spindle and 
dogwood. The cuttings vary from ten to thirteen years apart. 
The produce is chiefly converted into wattled sheep-hurdles, 
and sheep-cages ; ash, into hoops for the London market. 
Little is done in the way of renovating these woodlands. I 
have planted ash to fill up weak places, but after ten years' 
growth the plants have not been larger than walking-sticks. 
For renovating woods on the Downs, holes dug 18 inches square 
and 12 inches deep cost Is. 8^/. per 100. It is, however, difficult 
to get uniform depth on these flinty soils. Ash is indigenous 
to the Downs, and plants of natural growth run away from those 
the woodman may plant. Wattled sheep-hurdles on the Downs 
are sold at 95. to 10s. per dozen ; sheep-cages for hay, 2s. each, 
21s. per dozen : the same with beech bottoms for chaff and corn, 
4s. ChI. each. 
The monotony of the copse-cutter's work on the Downs is 
varied by the conversion of the spindle (^Euonymus eurojXBUs) and 
dogwood {Cornus sanffui7iea), horn which butchers' skewers, pegs 
for shoes, spindles, small handles, &c., are made from these 
underwoods. They also furnish the finest charcoal, " much 
approved by artists for its smoothness and the ease with which 
it can be erased." 
I now come to the Greensand formation, a lower range of 
hills between Midhurst and Haslemere. On these hills and the 
lands adjoining are valuable plantations of Spanish chestnut 
and ash, with a little birch and hazel. The soil is chiefly 
sandy loam from 4 to 12 inches deep, resting on greensand. 
The drainage is natural, but the hills abound in springs. It 
is therefore necessary to provide watercourses against heavy 
thunderstorms or incessant rain. The earliest age at which 
