tap-roots and makes a finer tree in half the time than trees not transplanted. See page 470. Another composition which has been used by Mr. Smith, and has succeeded extremely well in Kent, is, to mix two pounds of powdered free chalk with one quart of tar, and lay it very smooth on the wound, and of a moderate thickness; it should be now and then examined, and any deficiences supplied with more of the dressing, but in general it does not require any, and the wound presently heals over. UNDERWOODS. In a county in which the soil appears so singularly favourable to the growth of timber and underwood, and more particularly on the side of that ridge of hills to the southward, which I have so often alluded to, it will not be surprising that the much greater portion of such land should have been employed in the cultivation of so necessary an article, especially if we consider that pit-coal was formerly scarcely so much as known in these parts, that there were large iron founderies in the parish of Godstone, &c. and that the only fuel with which those furnaces were supplied, was this wood, of which many families burn nothing else to this day; notwithstanding it is admitted by those who are obliged to buy, that coals, since the introduction of water carriage, the improvement of the roads, and the great increase of traffic thereon, make in the end a much cheaper fire. I have sufficiently proved this fact since I have resided at East Grin stead during the last two years, where, notwithstanding we have 30 miles of land carriage to pay in addition to the prime cost of the coals, they are cheaper than cord wood at its present price delivered in. I shall endeavour in the course of my observations to explain the reasons for its being so. That this county was formerly almost one entire wood, at least between the hill and the extremity of the county, is very evident from many concomitant circumstances; first, that it was very thinly inhabited, although the much greater part of it is inclosed, and it is even so to this day, notwithstanding the farms are in general very small; secondly, that little more corn was grown than was equal to the consumption of their respective parishes or neighbourhoods, and in wet seasons they were obliged to buy from other quarters; thirdly, that many stumps or roots of very large trees have been occasionally found dispersed about fields that are now under the plough; fourthly, the prevalence every where of shaws entirely round some fields, in others on one or two sides, but corresponding with, and as it were being a continuation of the same shaw, and as if they had been left when the ground was cleared; and lastly, that many woods have been actually stocked up, cleared, and converted into tillage within the memory of man. When this part of the county was so thinly inhabited as I have described, and before the conversion of wood into charcoal, it appears that the only demand for it was, the ash for hoops, the alder for pattens and gunpowder, and the birch, VOL. III. maple, hazle, and oak for fuel; and of so little value was an acre of this wood, that they could afford to carry it to London, although from the badness of the roads, it took them the greater part of a week to go there and return. As population increased, and the necessity for supplying that population with corn and animal food could not be dispensed with; and seeing that the price of both were daily rising, while that of underwoods was still at a stand, it became an object with proprietors to exert themselves to render their estates more productive, especially as the return from an acre of underwood was distant, while that from corn was present, notwithstanding it was subject to none of the vicissitudes or casualties of the latter; yet when they found in other parts that the latter was also paying the grower from £7 to £10 per cent, when the best underwood would not pay more than £3, it became no longer a subject of hesitation, but a matter of prudence and sound policy to open the country by destroying and stocking up the wood. This being followed up from time to time, as occasion or opportunity presented itself, it is not to be wondered at, if in our days, the value of underwood has increased, and within a few years nearly cent per cent, partly owing to the increasing scarcity, and partly to the multiplied ways of disposing of it. Still, however, a great deal is left, and it shall be my business to give an account of the management of it, the uses it is severally applied to, and lastly its value. And first, it is the practice in some places to lay out the wood in such a manner as that a certain number of acres shall be cut annually; that is, in a copse of 40 or 100 acres, the whole of it may be cut twice in the course of a lease of 21 years; but then unless the quality of the soil is such as to ensure a rapid growth, the wood must be small, having made but little more than 10 years growth; its value then, may be from £14 to 16 per acre, depending upon the sort of wood that is contained in the copse; the best ash, alder and beech are converted into hoops; maple, oak, birch, elm, &c. of inferior quality and growth, are sold for poles for the younger plantations of hops, which sell at the rate of from 12s. to 15s. per 100, of 12 feet height; those from 14 to 16 feet at 21s. per 100 in the wood. The hazle is often converted into hurdles which sell from 10s. to 12s. per dozen, the refuse of each being made into faggots; these if good, are worth from 14s. to 20s. per 100 in the wood. Kiln faggots, which are the spray, are sold at 7s. per 100 in the wood. Alder copses are worth from £5. 10s. to £7 per acre. Five slat wattles at from 40s. to 42s. per dozen. Fourteen years are, however, the more usual periods of cutting, and then every thing is supposed to arrive at a good marketable size; upon favourable land, such underwood will fetch according to its stock, from 16 to £25 per acre, because it is not only fit for colliers ware, for charcoal burning; but for the best hoops, and for the oldest hop plantations. The mode of their burning it into charcoal is as follows: when the wood is cut into faggots, it is brought to the place to be burnt, which is generally chosen in a low damp situation; the pile is then made in the following manner: the hole in the middle fill with straw, then placing wood and faggots all round, to the diameter of 12 or 14 feet; you put on the top of this pile more straw, and then heaping more faggots upon the pile in the same manner as in the foundation, filling the second hole up with straw, and making the upper part of the pile as large as the foundation, you place over the whole a layer of damp turf, muck, or mould, in order that the fire may smother, but not burn. The pile being thus arranged, the straw in the lower hole is lighted, and it is carefully attended to during ignition, to keep the fire alive, and to give vent to the smoke by a number of small holes pierced into the covering. If the wood intended to be burnt into charcoal, consists in a great measure of oak or beech, as sometimes happens where timber has been felled, it is not made into faggots, but into cords of 164 feet long, 4 feet high, and 3 feet broad. Eleven cords are made into a pile, and that will require two days and two nights to burn. The expences may be thus calculated. To 50 cords of wood at 15s. Burning 315 sacks of charcoal at 4d. per sack.... Carrying ditto at 4d.. £37 10 0 5 50 5 50 Carried over. £48 0 0 |