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farm-field or the farmery, and also furnish ready 
supplies in a small way to coopers, cloggers, and 
other parties who can deal more facilely with a 
farmer than with alandowner; but they are sub- 
ject to more inconveniencesand liable to more mis- 
management than other kinds of woods,—and 
have connexion with some troublesome customs 
or rules of tenancy which do not work well for 
either tenant or landlord. One thing which in- 
jures them is the ignorance which prevails among 
farmers on right practices of forestry, or the want 
of such a knowledge of the kinds and habits and 
adaptations of the different species of trees as is 
ordinarily possessed by the planters and mana- 
gers of very extensive woods. If farmers had as 
good a knowledge of forestry as of farming, they 
of course would manage their woods as efficiently 
as their farms; but, in too many instances, they 
are little better qualified to have charge of a wood 
than an Irish bog-trotter is to conduct the busi- 
ness of a great farm of the mixed husbandry. 
Another evil is the pernicious practice of allow- 
ing cattle to feed in woods, under an idea that, 
after they are of a certain: age, as seven years, 
the shoots are grown out of the way and cannot 
be hurt. Now though in strong thriving woods, 
cattle may possibly do but little harm to the un- 
derwood, after it is seven or eight years old, yet 
all the young plants, which either spring up spon- 
taneously, or are artificially planted, must be lia- 
ble to be cropped and kept down, and in weak 
decaying woods, there is always a great deal of 
the underwood so low as never to get out of the 
reach of cattle. Another evil is the want of drain- 
ing such parts as are subject to excessive mois- 
ture; nothing being so prejudicial to a wood as 
too much wet. A fourth evil is the custom of 
suffering woods to grow too old before cutting ; 
whereby the stronger shoots get leave to smother 
the weak ones, and eventually to kill the very 
stalks on which they grow. And to these evils 
may be added the practice of permitting the 
buyer to cut the wood, thereby making it his 
interest to destroy every sapling, and to cut the 
underwood as close to the stock as possible— 
which in old woods is highly prejudicial to the 
succeeding shoots—as well as the custom of not 
obliging the buyers to clear the woods early in 
the summer, so as to prevent the new shoots from 
being injured by their cattle, carriages, and other 
circumstances.—‘The average time of cutting 
farm woodlands,” says Bayldon in his Art of 
Valuing Rents and Tillages, “may be stated at 
from 8 to 12 years, and the value from £6 to 
£14. In some instances, the price is much higher 
according to the quantity and the local value of 
the materials grown on an acre. These woods 
are cut in winter and cleared by May, that dam- 
age may not happen to the tender shoots. Young 
plants that grow with a stem directly from the 
ground are called ‘maiden trees,’ and are in all 
cases the property of the landlord, and are never 
cut without leave, but grow for timber; and in 
WOOD. 
some places the landlords pay a trifle, $d. or 1d. | 
per ‘teller,’ as they are often called, for as many 
young plants as may be thought fit to keep for 
growing timber, and which grow on a stock or 
stool, and are farmer’s property. In other cases, 
a clause in the lease gives power to the landlord 
to reserve without any remuneration a number 
of young plants, not exceeding 30 on an acre, 
and sometimes no number is mentioned. -This 
system of mixing timber trees and underwoods 
is very injudicious and hurtful; but the custom 
has once got hold, and must remain, like other 
customs, till another banish it by slow degrees. 
The tvees cover a large space, and hurt or kill 
the wood below, and they spread into a large cir- 
cumference of branches without a trunk or bole 
of length and value. The one object defeats the 
other; the two purposes should be separately 
effected, a few outside trees being always left 
when cutting woods, in order to keep up the 
view of the scenery. Trees called ‘ pollards’ are 
found in many places in considerable quantities, 
in hedge rows, and even in woods, cut over, some 
6, 8, or 10 feet high, and consequently produce a 
number of sapling shoots like a stool cut near 
the ground. The stocks or stems are the land- 
lord’s property, and the tops often called ‘ frith, 
belong to the farmer, and are cut periodically as 
the underwoods. The cuttings of these woods are 
found to be a valuable appendage to lands on ac- 
count of the scarcity of other fuel, and in many 
cases add much to the eligibility of the farm. 
Proprietors are now getting more inclined to 
keep the entire management of the woodlands, 
cutting a portion yearly for sale and accommo- 
dation for fuel; and pollards are now being cut. 
down in many places. This plan lessens the 
amount of valuation. The growth of these woods 
since last cutting, and which is standing at the 
time the tenant quits a farm, is his property; he 
has paid rent and taxes for the land, and has got 
no return, and consequently must be paid for 
it. The value differs greatly, from the quality of 
soil, and the amount of produce, from 7s. to 20s. 
an acre for a year’s growth on woodlands, and a 
corresponding value will be given for pollard tops 
by the growth since last cutting. Considerable 
quantities of shoots on old stools are often found 
in hedge rows, which will also be looked at and 
valued. Where the fences are much neglected 
and out of repair, such growth is often given for 
repairing them, according to the judgments of 
the valuers, who are usually persons living in 
the neighbourhood, and well-acquainted from 
long practice with the customs of the place, and 
what constitutes a fair value.”—The subject of 
woods in the hedge-row disposition is disposed of 
in the article EncLosuRE,—of woods for sheltering 
purposes, in the article Sarnrer,—and of woods 
in parks and for general purposes of decoration, 
in the article LanpscaArr GARDENING. 
WOOD-ASHES. See Asuzs. 
WOODBINE. See Honnysucxte. 
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