4 
TIMBER. 
The uses of timber are so many, and so great, that the 
procuring of a sufficient supply of it extremely well deserves 
the care of every state. 
In order to the preservation of our growing timber-trees, 
it has been proposed as a very useful law, that all who cut 
down any number of oaks, should also leave a number in 
good condition for after-cutting ; and that no timber should 
be cut down, but at a proper age, in regard to the nature of 
the soil; since it is certain, that trees grow to their perfection 
at very different periods of time, in proportion to the depth 
of soil they have to grow in ; and that as it is, on the one 
hand, not for the interest of the state to suffer trees to be cut 
till at their perfection for size and soundness, so after they 
are arrived at their perfection, it is equally certain that they 
gradually decay. 
The quality of the soil the tree stands in may be necessary 
to be observed to this purpose; but the quantity or depth of 
it is the great subject of inquiry; and a great number of 
observations has proved, that the proper season for cutting 
oaks, in a soil of two feet and a half deep, is at fifty years 
old; those which stand in a soil of three feet and a half deep, 
should not be cut down before seventy years; and those 
which stand in a soil of four feet and a half deep, or more 
than that, will increase in goodness and in size till they are 
a hundred years old ; and observation has proved, that after 
these several periods, the trees begin to decay. 
Many prudent managers have made fine estates of their 
coppice-woods, by regularly felling a certain portion every 
year, and providing for a renewal of the first cutting, against 
the felling of the last portion, by proportioning the time of 
growth to the quantity to be cut every year; and there is 
great interest to be made of a true knowledge of the growth 
of -wood in this manner. Whoever observes the growth of 
young trees, will find that the second year’s growth is much 
more considerable than that of the first; the third year is 
more than that of the second, and so on for many years; 
the yearly growths of young wood greatly increasing every 
season up to a certain time or age of the tree, after which 
the increase in bulk, by growth, becomes gradually less. 
The best time to cut coppice-wood is at the end of the quick 
growth. Regular observation and experiment alone can 
ascertain this proper period; but any man who has much 
coppice-wood upon his estate, may assure himself of it, by 
cutting a given quantity every year, for ten years succes¬ 
sively, and then carefully reviewing the differences of the 
yearly produce. The raising and culture of every timber- 
tree will be found under their several names. Mr. Lou¬ 
don has thrown out some ingenious hints on this point. He 
says first, that every hedger and forrester knows, that furze and 
thorns, which have been cultivated in fields or hedges, are 
of a much softer or wider grain, and are much easier cut over 
with the hedge-bill, than such as spring up from seed in a 
wild scenery, and never undergo any sort of priming or cut¬ 
ting in, nor any kind of culture in any way. They know 
too, that in a common to be cleared of furze or thorns, or in 
a hedge to be cut over, there are some parts which require a 
much slighter stroke of the hedge-bill than others; and that 
those parts easiest to cut, are uniformly those where the plants 
have grown the quickest: gardeners experience the same 
thing in pruning or cutting over fruit-trees or shrubs. Thus 
the difference between the texture of the cultivated and the 
wild raspberry is, it is said, striking, though the stem of the 
one is nearly double the thickness of that of the other. In 
all the other of these cases, the stems of both are supposed 
alike in diameter and cleanness, or absence of knots; though 
the same thing would, it is thought, take place in a consider¬ 
able degree, even if the stem of the cultivated or quick grow¬ 
ing one were thicker than that of the other in the wild state. 
Supposing that there were no other proofs, this, it is con¬ 
tended, clearly shews that cultivation, or whatever tends to 
increase the growth of a tree, tends likewise to expand the 
vegetable fibre, but there are other concurring proofs, it is 
said, which demonstrate this, and at the same time shew, 
what few, it is supposed, will doubt, that when the vegetable 
fibre is expanded, or when the annual ringlets or circles of 
wood, produced by a tree, are soft and larger than the general 
annual increase of such tree, the timber must be less hard, 
and more permeable by air, water, heat, and other mat¬ 
ters, and of course, inferior for all the purposes of timber. 
Secondly, that it is well known that the common oak in 
Italy, where it grows faster than in this country, is compara¬ 
tively of short duration. And that the oak which grows on 
the mountains of the Highlands of Scotland is much harder 
and closer than any produced in England, though on these 
mountains it seldom attains one-tenth part of the size of 
English trees. 
With respect to cutting out and side-lopping the branches, 
it appears certain that fir-trees, whenever they arrive at a cer¬ 
tain age, should be cut or lopped to a certain height; and 
that for regulating thereof, the simple rule given below is re¬ 
commended : the cutting-in to commence when the trees are 
six years old, or when there is discernible five tier of boughs 
and the shoot; the three lower tier of boughs are then to be 
taken off. After the first lopping or cutting-in, the trees to 
be let alone for four or five years, and then, and at every 
succeeding four or five years, the cuttings-in to be repeated, 
till the stem of the tree be clear to forty feet high, after which 
as to such side-lopping, it may be left to nature. The rule 
for the height of thinning and cutting-in, after the first time, 
to be half the extreme height of the tree, until they attain 
twenty years’ growth, and after that time, half the height of 
the tree, and as many feet more as it is inches in diameter at 
four feet from the ground. This cutting-out and retrenching 
the branches of such trees is known, from repeated observa¬ 
tions, it is said, not to be excessive: and that the rule is cal¬ 
culated to check the too tapering top, and for strengthening 
the slender bottom, by carryiug the cutting and retrenching 
to a greater proportionate degree, in a ratio compounded of 
the height and bottom bulk; and by this rule, too, it may 
be observed, that the trees will be at top clothed with some¬ 
what less than half their branches. The proper time for such 
cutting-in is, it is said, between September and April, and 
the tool to be employed in the business, the saw. 
It is noticed, that orderly thinning the trees at certain pe¬ 
riods, when for timber, is the next essential to that of cutting- 
in and lopping their side branches ; and that for this purpose 
observations have been made on the most orderly and thriv¬ 
ing collections of this sort of trees, and the subsequent simple 
rule is laid down: keep the distance of the trees from each 
other equal to one-fifth of their height. In the application 
of this rule to this purpose, it is evident that each individual 
tree can never be made to comply, for the original distance 
(even if set out in the most regular order) will allow only 
for certain modifications, by taking out every other tree, and 
so on, but even if the obtaining such equal distance were 
practicable, experience would shew, it is thought, that another 
way should be preferred, of which the eye must be the judge, 
by baking out such trees as are least thriving, stand nearest to 
other good trees, &c. &c. at the same time beeping in view 
the rule laid down. 
The foregoing rules are meant to apply to fir-timber only, 
but to a certain extent they may be applied to other timber; 
though by no means in the same degree or age. But if had 
recourse to as far as the first fourteen years of their growth, 
and then such cutting and side-lopping be altogether omitted, 
and the thinning out very much increased, any collection of 
such timber-trees would be rendered much more valuable than 
if left to nature. 
But Mr. Knight told the Royal Society that the solid tex¬ 
ture of the wood greatly depends upon the quantity of sap, 
and on the slowness of its descent. Now both these are, it 
is contended, materially increased by side-shoots or branches, 
which retain a large quantity of sap, and by their junction 
with the stem occasion a contraction and twisted direction of 
the vessels, that obstructs the progress of this juice. 
Thence the necessity of considering fully the propriety of 
lopping timber trees, because though practical men appear in 
general to think of no other purpose than how to increase the 
quantity of timber; yet if solid and durable timber be the 
object to be gained, these measures must not be carried too far. 
The 
