Chapter X: Section II: Timbers (5)

We have perused Billington’s account of the management of the Royal Forests with much profit; it affords us an excellent series of experiments, shewing how much conduct and integrity may exist in Government establishments, even although the strictest watch be _not_ kept over their motions by the nation itself. Words are awanting to express our admiration of every thing connected with the management of our misnamed Royal Wastes. We scarcely could have hoped to find such pervading judgment and skill of calling, as have been displayed by the Commissioners, and Surveyors General and Particular; but it is true, the noble salaries attached to these situations must induce men of the very first ability and knowledge of the subject, to accept of the office.

Our author, Mr Billington, proceeds with great naiveté to relate how they sowed and resowed acorns—how they planted and replanted trees, persevering even to the fifth time, sometimes covering the roots, and sometimes not, “but all would not avail,” nothing would do; the seeds did not vegetate, and the {182} plants refused to grow, excepting in some rare spots, and a few general stragglers. Then how the natural richness of the soil threw up such a flush of vegetation—of grass, and herbs, and shrubs, that most of these plants were buried under this luxuriance; and how the mice and the emmets, and other wayfarers, hearing, by the _bruit_ of fame, of the wise men who had the governing of Dean, assembled from the uttermost ends of the island, expecting a millennium in the forest, and ate up almost every plant which had survived the smothering. Now, this is well; we rejoice over the natural justice of the native and legitimate inhabitants of the Royal Domain, the weeds mastering the invaders the plants, who, year after year, to the amount of many millions, made hostile entrance into the forest. We only deplore the cruel doom of the mice, on whose heads a price was laid, and of the emmets, who, acting as allies of the native powers, merited a better fate than indiscriminate slaughter.

May we hope that our Government will no longer persist in unprofitable endeavours to turn cultivator, or to raise its own supply? We laugh at the Pasha of Egypt becoming cotton-planter and merchant himself, in a country where the exertions of a man enlightened beyond his subjects, who has influence {183} to introduce intelligent cultivators, possessing the knowledge of more favoured nations, may be necessary to teach and stimulate the ignorant Copt to raise a new production: And here, where discovery in every branch of knowledge almost exceeds the progressive—here, where so many public and government _fixtures_ stand out, as if left on purpose to indicate the recent march of mind, contrasting so strongly with private and individual attainment in science and art,—with every thing the reverse of what affects the Egyptian’s conduct; or, at least, with no excuse beyond affording a cover for a wasteful expenditure of the public money;—will our Government continue the system, heedless of reason or ridicule? or will they not at once end these practices, and immediately commence sales of every acre of ground to which the Crown has claim, excepting what is necessary for the use of royalty, abolishing Woods and Forest Generals, Rangers—every one who has taken rank under Jacques’ Greek, or the devil’s own invocation, and pay off a part of the debt which is crushing the energies of the first of nations?

Yet it is not of individuals that we complain; perhaps nobody could have had a stronger _desire_ to do his duty, than the late Surveyor-General. It is the system that is naught; where, to the lowest {184} labourer, none have individual interest in the success of their work; and where the efforts of the really honest, intelligent, and industrious are, by directions and trammels, rendered unavailing; or even through misrepresentation by _those_ of a contrary character, (as would seem in the case of Mr Billington), are the cause of dismissal.

We can only predicate of the future from the past. In spite of all our Parliamentary acts respecting these forests, and the clamour that for ages has been made about them, they, with little exception, have existed only as cover for sinecure expenditure, or for display of tyro ignorance and incapacity, and subject for pillage, thieving, and frauds of every description[40]; (_vide_ Parliamentary Reports). We could easily—by a very simple incantation, requiring a rod neither tipped with silver nor with gold, but merely a plain cane or sword—bring forth a sufficient quantity of large growing oaks to meet any emergency. Our charm would be to give the title of Prince to the Duke who should possess, and have at the command of Government at a fair price, a certain {185} number of oaks above a certain size, and a step of elevation to every titled person, and the title of Baronet to every private gentleman, who should possess a given number, diminishing the number requisite to give a step as the title became lower. We should conceive this law would not render nobility of less estimation. Perhaps the clause might be added, that one tree raised on waste ground should count two.

As a treatise on the rearing, or rather prevention of the rearing, of young planting, Mr Billington’s small volume possesses some real merit; and simplicity and useful and sagacious remark are so blended together, as to afford to the reader at once amusement and information. We are something at a loss to account for this incongruity. Has the seclusion of a forest life given a cast of the _naturel_ to his mental product; or has Jaques of Arden really been in Dean with his celebrated invocation?

Mr Billington’s directions on pruning and training are generally good; but he distances common sense when on his hobby of shortening of side branches, in recommending to extend this practice to pines. His breeding as a gardener, and consequent taste for espalier and wall-training, where every shoot must be under especial direction, seem to have {186} unfitted his mind to expand to the comprehension of nature’s own process of action, and disqualified him from walking hand in hand with her. We also consider that no good, but rather evil, would result from continued cutting in, and lopping off the points of the branches of all kinds of trees, excepting when the plants were stunted, or much covered with flower-buds. Even a very slight clipping greatly retards the growth of hedges; and the labour and attention requisite would be very great: besides, the poor things, the trees, trimmed to the Billingtonian standard, would, amongst the unrestrained beauties of the forest, be ready to sink into the earth for very shame of their _formal deformity_. He errs, too, in recommending not to plant sycamore plane, as being of little value while young. We have sold young planes, six or seven inches in diameter, at a higher price per foot than large oak. They will generally find a good market wherever machinery abounds, and will probably become every year in greater request.

Mr Billington is particularly solicitous to render his instructions as plain as possible, in describing the mode of pruning young oaks in formation of knee timber, as he confesses to bring it down to the comprehension of gentlemen; but he is not very happy in his figures of oak trees trained to this use, from {187} want of acquaintance with the cutting out of naval crooks. He remarks that “larches are more liable to die in wet ground by their roots being soaked in water during winter, than oak and some other kinds;” but ground that is at all pervious to water, ought not to be planted till it be drained in such a manner that water will soon disappear from shallow holes; and where, from the plastic closeness of the clay, draining is not quite effectual, the planting should take place as late in the spring as the breaking of the buds will permit; and principally by slitting, which, by not breaking the natural coherence or turfiness of the soil, affords less opening for water to stagnate around the roots, and does not occasion the soil to sink down into the mortary consistence consequent to pitting; there is also less destruction of the vegetables growing in the soil, hence less putrescent matter to taint the water that may stagnate round the roots; pure water, or water in motion, not being detrimental to the roots for a considerable time: also, when the plants are put in late in spring, there is seldom long stagnation of water that season, and by next winter the ground has become so firmed around the roots as to allow very little space for water, and has also acquired a certain granular arrangement akin to polarization or crystallization, which {188} allows the water gradually to percolate; it is also bored by the earth-worm, and other insects, and the plant itself, after the roots have struck anew and the fractures healed, possesses a vitality which better enables it to withstand the exclusion of air from the roots, and chilling by the water the ensuing winter, and either prevents absorption of the stagnant fluid, or counteracts its putrid tendency. Planting succeeds best in soil of this description when the ground has been under grass for some period, at least the new planted tree, in this case, is less liable to the root-rot; and trenching or digging previous to planting is of more utility, as the turfiness prevents the clay from sinking down into impervious mortar, and allows the water to percolate to the drains.

Mr Billington is very earnest in recommending to drain well at first, and to keep the drains (open drains) in repair; he also directs, where the ground is very impervious and wet, to take large square sods, about 18 inches square and 9 inches thick, from the drains while digging in early winter, and place one of these, the grassy side undermost, in the site which each plant is to occupy. In the spring, by the time of planting, the sod has become firmly fixed, and the two swards rotting afford an excellent nourishment to the plant, which is inserted in the {189} centre of the sod, with the roots as deep as the original surface; the drains, being necessarily numerous, afford turf sufficient for all the plants. This is good. He also gives sensible directions to beat down, hoe, or cut away all weeds, shrubs, and grass, from the young plants, and to remove all rough herbage and thickets of shrubs, that form harbour for the short-tailed mouse, which is exceedingly destructive, in the case both of planting and sowing; in the former, by nibbling the bark from the stem, and biting off the twigs of the young trees, (from which our author may have taken the hint of cutting in, as mankind took that of pruning from the browsing of the ass), and gnawing their roots immediately below the surface of the ground; and in the latter, by devouring the seed in the ground, and cutting down the seedling annual shoot. He also instructs to keep the tree to one leader, shortening all straggling large branches; but his assertion, that plants which had the tops of the straggling branches pinched off in the first part of summer, grew much larger in consequence, looks rather absurd; although we have known a part of a hedge, clipped a week or two after the growth had commenced in spring, grow more luxuriantly than the part which had been pruned in the same manner before the growth had {190} commenced. This was owing to the check by the late clipping, throwing the period of growth into warm moist July; what was earlier clipped performed its growth in dry June, and was considerably injured by the manna blight which the latter escaped[41]. The same cause operates to induce late sown grain and wheat, which has been thrown late by much injury of spring frost, to acquire a larger, more luxuriant bulk, than that of earlier growth.

It would appear to us that Mr Billington, from ignorance of the value of larch, and of the soil proper for maturing it, has done more injury to the parts of the royal forests where a growth of timber was obtained, by cutting out the thriving larch, than will be compensated by his pruning and training of the sickly stunted oak which remained, as described by him, scarcely visible, when the larches were of size for country use; but we forget; no blame can attach to him—his orders were, that every thing should give place to oak. {191}

In parting with our author, it is but just to state, that we consider many may profit by a perusal of his pages: that notwithstanding the simplicity to which we have alluded, there is often something sterling in his remarks and reflections, the result of much experience, resembling the original freshness of our writers before writing became so much of a trade. In some places, indeed, his narrative is so simply, naturally descriptive, and speaks so eloquently, of ignorance of climate, season, soil, circumstance—of all the unknown dangers and difficulties incident to _their_ new employment—and of the wonderful contrivances and inventions hit upon to remedy them—that, when perusing it, we could scarcely persuade ourselves we were not engaged with Robinson Crusoe.

{192} IV.—FORSYTH ON FRUIT AND FOREST TREES.

The _surgery of trees_, which this author has the great merit of almost perfecting, is the only important matter in this volume. His composition salve, on the merits of which he expatiates so much, and for the discovery of which he received a premium from the collective wisdom of the nation assembled in Parliament, is, however, a piece of mere quackery; and all the virtue of his practice lies in the cutting out of the dead and diseased parts of the tree, thus effecting for vegetables by excision, what nature herself performs for animals by suppuration, exfoliation, and absorption.

Mr Forsyth’s surgery is of slight importance to timber trees in respect of economy, as with them as with man, it is generally easier to raise up anew than cure the diseased. Yet it is well that the rationale of this practice be understood by foresters, more in regard to prevention than cure; an occasion will however sometimes occur where a tree may economically be benefited by surgical aid: and in cases where the {193} Dryades acquire lasting attachment to particular objects, the science is invaluable, as the object of their love may be thus continued flourishing to the end of time, or as long as the inamorata chooses to pay the surgeon.

Mr Forsyth presents us with numerous models of knives, irons, and gouges, suited to the operation of removing the dead parts of his patients. Where the gangrene occurs in the outside, he hews and scrapes away with these till every portion in which the vital principle is extinct be detached, and the surface all regular and smooth, so scooped out as to afford no hollow where water may rest. He then gives a coating of his composition salve to all the space operated on, wherever the cuticle of the bark has been broken, which prevents the drought, rain or air, from injuring the bared parts till the bark spread over it. In cases where the removal of all the dead part at once would endanger the stability of the tree, he first removes it along the borders of the decayed part all round, close to the sound bark, of such a breadth as to give full room for the bark to spread over in one season, and covers this with his pigment, annually repeating the cutting out, and painting around the rim or edge of the new-formed bark, till the whole of the dead part be cleared away. {194} Under this treatment, the excavation is gradually filled up with the new wood forming under the spreading bark, and the wound becomes cleanly cicatrized. Mr Forsyth has effected complete renovation, where the sound vital part consisted only of a narrow stripe of bark and alburnum upon one side of the stem, and where two cart loads of the diseased trunk had been scooped out.

When the heart of the tree is decayed, he makes a section longitudinally in the side of the tree, as far up and down as the rot extends, and of sufficient width to admit the working out the diseased part; and managed as above, the bark and wood gradually extend from the two sides of the section into the vacuity, and fill it up entirely with new sound timber. When the tree is of considerable diameter, the opening formed in the side of the stem must be wide, nearly extending to half the circumference, otherwise the sides of the section would meet before the bark extended over all the inside. When the bark from the two sides approaches to touch in the bottom of the hollow, he pares off the cuticle from each side where they join, in order that they may unite thoroughly. Should any of the roots be diseased, he removes the earth, and pares away the corrupting parts; and if the top be stunted or {195} sickly, he crops it at the joints where the smaller branches separate, whence numerous fine strong shoots spring forth, whose new vigour of vegetation, and absence of drain by seeding for several years, generally renovate the whole plant, and occasion the filling up of the wounds (should the trunk be under cure) to proceed rapidly.

Need we mention, that it is only in the cases where the partial death or decay has resulted from casualty, or something not connected with the general system of the plant, or with the soil, or other external circumstances (unless these can be changed), that renovation by clearing away the decayed or sickly parts is attainable? Where the plant is sinking from mere old age, a source of decay of which in some kinds at least we have doubts, or from the soil being improper or exhausted for the particular kind of plant by long occupancy, or from any circumstance not admitting of remedy, the attempt to heal up the wounds caused by cutting out the diseased parts, or to induce new vigour by cropping the top, must be abortive, or only attended with partial or temporary success.

Our author, who is a practical man, apparently very little disposed to throw away time upon inquiring into causes, does not attempt even to guess at {196} the mode by which his composition performs the wonders for which he gives it credit. It is impossible, by any salve, to promote discharge from the bare alburnum, though cut into the vital part, to form, or assist in the formation, of bark; and the sum of the resulting advantages consists in preventing the vitality from becoming extinct far inward from the section (as under the best management to a certain extent it will become so), by an antiseptic cover from the drought and moisture, heat and cold; in promoting the spread of the juices from the edge of the bark over the bared part by exclusion of drought, and by forming a defence against insects. We have found a paste of pure clay, wrought up with some fibrous matter, as chaff or short hay, an excellent cover for tree wounds, applied in spring or early summer, when dry weather followed the application; but in autumn or winter, and when moist weather followed, the clay, by remaining wet, only served to induce corruption. We think this clay paste (probably benefited by a powdering of charcoal on the inside) the best application when applied in spring. We have seen a terminal cross section, of about one inch diameter, of a long branch, covered quite over in two months with bark when clayed; and a tree of three inches in diameter, from {197} which a dog had torn off the bark from one half of the circumference of the stem, entirely renew the lost bark in one season, when immediately clayed over. Resins, oils, bitumen, paints and composts without number, have been used with more or less success, depending upon the period of the year, weather, kind of tree, individual health, and other circumstances; but these salves should, as in flesh-wound salves, be considered only as protections, or slightly auxiliary to the restorative energy of nature, not as cures.

{198} V.—MR WITHERS.

Having by chance glanced over a pamphlet by an Englishman, a Mr Withers, we find there has been jousting between that gentleman and our Scottish knights, backed by their squire the Edinburgh Reviewer, in which the discomfiture of the knights has been wrought by simple hands.

It seems Sir Henry Steuart, forgetful that his own bright fame, which rivals that of the discoverers of steam-power and gas[42], though of comparatively quick growth, will endure for ages; and led astray, probably, by the foolish adage, “soon ripe, soon rotten,” had stated unqualifiedly, that “fast grown timber will sooner decay, and is of opener weaker texture than slow grown of the same kind;” and on these false premises concluded, that all culture or application of manure to further the growth of timber is improper—winding up with some patriotic flourish about danger to our war navy, from Mr Withers {199} rendering the British oak of such exceedingly rapid growth as to be soft and perishable as mushrooms. Withers completely demolishes his literary and scientific adversaries, but is, withal, so very imperfectly acquainted with the subject—himself, and also his junto of experienced correspondents, that we shall attempt a few lines in elucidation.

* * * * *

We shall first state our facts, accompanied with explanatory remarks.

No. 1. An ash tree of about 18 inches diameter, and 65 years of age. The first 35 years, the annual growths were of middle size, and the timber weighty and tough; the following 15 years, very small, light, porous, and free; the latter 15 of middle size, and of fair quality. This tree had been growing till about 49 years of age in a grassy avenue, of dry clay soil, and close by a deep ditch. About sixteen years back, the ditch had been filled up, and the ground ploughed and manured regularly till the tree was cut down. After 35 years’ growth, the scorching roots of the ash had rendered the soil so dry, that the tree had run entirely to reproduction: _Nearly all the nourishment from the ground assimilated in the leaves being expended in forming seed, no extension of the top had taken place, and_ {200} _thence no thickening of the bole being necessary for support, no wood proper had been deposited on the trunk save the annual rings of lineal tubes to convey the sap, which constituted a brittle light wood, of very slight lateral adhesion_[43]. After the ditch was filled up, and the surrounding ground ploughed and manured, the increased supply of moisture and nourishment had induced a considerable new extension of top (which was quite visible in fine young healthy branches rising from a stunted base), and consequent necessary thickening of stem by annual layers of proper dense wood, along with the lineal annual tubes.

No. 2. A beautiful most luxuriant growing oak, in one of the sweetest sunny spots of the sweetest valley of our Highlands. This tree, of nearly two hundred solid feet of timber, and 80 years of age, was growing upon the bare shelf of a sound mica-schist rock. From underneath this shelf, several feet down in front, a most exuberant spring welled out, and the roots spread down over {201} the rock to the mouth of the crystal spring, no doubt tracing inward the course of the limpid waters into the rocky chambers of the Naiad. We had much conjecture how this tree came to be growing on the bare shelf, and finally concluded, that the nymph of the spring, while she sat there gazing on her beauties, under the varying dimpling reflection of the living waters, her rosy feet bathed by the glassy flood, had been surprised by some rude Celt, and to effect escape from his rough embrace, had been transformed by Diana into a tree. Yet whether of natural or supernatural origin, it was by the people of the glen held of miraculous virtue, and the sickly children were brought to be dipped in the spring after being borne several times round the charm-tree. When torn from its seat, the tree, though sound, and having a level fall (we saw it fall), broke across about twenty feet up, where the stem was about eight feet in circuit; _this was owing to the very soft tender nature of the wood, which, although consisting of very large annual growths, was, when sawn out, the most porous insufficient Scots oak we have ever seen_. As this fact may be ascribed to the supernatural,—the heart of the nymph beginning to soften towards the Celt at the time Diana interfered, accounting well for {202} the soft texture of the heart-wood of the tree, we shall not press it as a proof on either side of the controversy. Perhaps sober reasoners may think this all phantasy, and conclude, that the tree, from deficiency of substantial earthy food, and subsisting principally on _slops_ (being mainly nourished by drinking of the delicious well), would, like an animal under similar circumstances, be of soft flabby consistency.

The above fact is opposed to common opinion—a Highlander always choosing his oaken staff from off a rock, as being most to depend upon; yet perhaps this preference is owing to some association with the hardness of the rock itself.

No. 3. We found a sycamore plane (Acer pseudo-platanus) in the same row with other sycamores, and about the same size, so exceeding hard that it could scarcely be cut down by mattock and hatchet, whereas the others adjacent were comparatively of moderate hardness, though differing considerably in hardness from each other; the soil in this case was very equable, being of Carse clay. The peculiar hardness of this tree could only be attributable to a harder variety. Indeed, the difference of quality in timber depends chiefly on the infinite varieties existing in what is called Species, though soil and {203} climate have no doubt considerable influence, both in forming the variety, and in modifying it while growing. Of varieties, those which have the thinnest bark, under equal exposure, have the hardest wood.

No. 4. We have cut a number of large old ash trees, and found, with one or two exceptions, of what is called thunder-struck trees (which we consider only an obdurate variety), that they were invariably of very free, weak consistency, more especially the latter formed growths, but even the earlier growths had become _frush_ from age. This timber soon went to decay after being cut down:—one piece cut out into planks, and these being laid down in the order they occupied in the log, was in the course of some weeks rendered again entire by being agglutinated by Jew’s ears (a species of fungus.) The workmen were greatly startled at the fact, thinking the log bewitched. When immediately dissevered by wedges, the wood was so much decomposed, that its fibre was tenderer than the Jew’s ears, separating in a new course in most places, in preference to the saw draught occupied by the ears. We have found very old oaks have exactly the same friable character, so much so, as render their safe felling almost impossible; yet this oak timber had not lost much in weight {204} when compared after being dried with younger oak.

No. 5. We cut a row of ash trees, about 50 years of age, in dry Carse clay, by the side of a deep ditch, and consequently of slow growth; the timber was excellent, hard, strong, and weighty, rather most so where the size was smallest. At one end, where the row approached a brook, and the soil became richer and moister, several of the trees were of good size, but rather inferior in quality of timber, excepting one (the largest, though not the nearest to the brook), which was of very hard, strong, and reedy fibre, evidently a variety differing much from the others. It is always easy to discriminate pretty accurately the quality of the wood, by examination of the saw cross section of the trunk, that is, provided the same saw be employed, and be kept equally sharp; the best timber having the glossiest, smoothest section.

No. 6. We have examined Scots fir grown in many different situations; by far the best quality, of its age, of any we know, stands upon a very adhesive Carse clay, which, from the proprietor’s neglect, is all winter and in wet weather soaking with water, and the trees not of very luxuriant growth. These, till a few years ago, stood in close order, without the stem being {205} much exposed to parching or evaporation; this exposure of the stem rendering fir timber much harder and more resinous. Every body who has touched larch must be convinced that the slow grown on poor _tills_, especially with long naked stems in exposed situation, is very much stronger and harder than the quick grown, though often not so tough: but much depends on the variety in larch, those having the reddest matured wood being much harder than the paler coloured.

Memel fir, which is the largest growthed red pine we are acquainted with, is very strong and durable, probably next to the pitch pine of North America; yet the very large growthed Memel is generally weakest, though we frequently find a log of small growthed, mild and inferior in strength. In old buildings we have often witnessed the beautiful small growthed red wood pine wormed, when the larger growthed was sound, but we are sensible that spontaneous decomposition and consumption by insects are very different; much resin deters insects, whereas, in moist situations, as in treenails of vessels, it conduces to spontaneous decay; yet is it preservative when the timber is exposed to the weather by excluding the rain. {206}

The coniferæ differ much in the internal arrangement of their woody structure from the hard wood species, having tissue of much larger cells, and being generally destitute of the large lineal tubes, which in hard wood constitute the more porous inner part of the annual layer. When these tubes occur in the pines, they also differ in position, being in the outer part of the layer. Owing to the resin of the pines becoming fixed in the cells of the outer part of the annual layers, inspissated, we think, by the summer’s heat and drought (others say congealed by the cold), these cells are filled up, and this part of the growth rendered much denser than the inner part of the layer, being from solidity semi-transparent. We would attribute the abundance of resin in the Georgian pitch pine to the heat and long summer of that country, probably in concert with damp richness of soil, not only occasioning this deposit under these circumstances, but perhaps inducing a disposition in this species to the formation of this product[44]. The absence of the large tubes, {207} and the presence of oleaginous resin, render pine timber, when old and small growthed, not so brittle, nor so liable to decay, as that of deciduous trees; but it becomes very deficient in lateral adhesion. From the same cause we find the external layers of matured pine timber comparatively superior to the quality of the inner layers: in hard wood the exterior layers are generally much inferior to the inner. Boards of sap-wood of fast grown Scots fir, particularly of the outside layers are much better suited—stronger and more lasting, for boxes used as carriage packages, or for machinery or cart lining much exposed to blows and friction; than boards of the best matured red wood of Memel, Swedish, or Norway pine. This is principally owing to the fast grown alburnum possessing much greater lateral adhesion than the matured wood of old pines. To have these sap-wood boards in greatest perfection, the tree must {208} not lie in the bark after felling, and the boards must be well dried soon after being cut out. To expose the tree, peeled, either standing or felled, to the sun and dry air for some time, will considerably increase the strength of this alburnum. The wood, while in the state of sap-wood, of many kinds of timber is as strong and much tougher than the same wood after being matured, and would be equally valuable were any process discovered of rendering it equally durable; its insufficiency often arises from partial decay having occurred while in the log. The same sap-wood of oak, which, allowed to lie on the grass after being peeled in spring, will be so much decomposed in autumn that it may be kicked off with one’s heel; if cut out and dried immediately on being felled, it will be tougher than the matured, and, kept dry as cart-spokes, and defended by paint from the worm, will last and retain its toughness for an age. The tilling up, which to a certain extent occurs in maturing, is most probably deposited to fill up tubes, and may thus not greatly strengthen the mass; a hollow cylinder being stronger than a solid cylinder when extending horizontally over a considerable stretch, like a joist or beam; the mass may also become a little more fragile by maturing: besides a filling up is the result of some chemical change the {209} wood probably becoming slightly carbonized or approaching to that change which takes place when vegetables become peat.

It is rather difficult to speak of the strength of timber, as different kinds of timber, and different parts and qualities of the same kind of timber, have different kinds of strength. Some kinds are stronger as beams or joists, other kinds as boarding; while, again, some kinds are better for enduring a regular pressure, others for supporting a sudden jerk or blow, either as beams or boards. Some kinds are also comparatively stronger, moist; others when dry—and some kinds retain their qualities of strength or toughness longer than others when moist, and others longer when dry, although no rot appear.

No. 7. Purposely for experiment[45], we selected three ash trees, all growing in Carse clay, but differing the most in fastness of growth of any we could discover. We cut these down on the same day; two of them proved about 36 years planted, and the third 15; this, the youngest was of fast growth, and had layers of more than double the size of one of the {210} former, and about six times that of the other. We cut a number of pieces of exactly equal length and thickness (17 inches long, and nearly an inch on the side), from each of these, choosing them of clean straight fibre, at equal distance from the ground, and from the outside of the tree, and having their growths nearly parallel to one side, of course free of heart. We proved one of each immediately on being cut out while full of sap, with their growths on edge in horizontal position, supported at each end with a weight suspended from the middle. The smallest growthed, and the largest, weighed at the time of trial nearly equal; the medium growthed one-thirtieth more. The smallest growthed supported the weight about six minutes; the medium and the largest about half that time; the smallest growthed yielded the least before breaking, and the largest yielded the most. When completely dried, the weight of the medium growthed still continued greatest, surpassing the largest one-fourteenth, and the smallest about one-thirtieth. The smallest and medium supported nearly equal weight, during equal time, and outbore the largest about one-seventh[46]; when placed {211} with the growths on edge, they were stronger than when placed with the growths flat.

After these rather lengthy references to facts, we must allude to a circumstance which we are astonished has not been attended to by Mr Withers, and his gentlemen correspondents connected with His Majesty’s docks,—the not taking into account the place of the tree whence the portion of wood for experimenting the strength had been taken, and also how the annual layers stood, whether horizontal or on edge, or around a centre, when the weight was applied. The experienced and accurately practical Mr Withers presents two specimens of oak, the one of faster and the other of slower growth, to Professor Barlow, of Woolwich Royal Academy, and the strength of these specimens is tested and reported upon, without once alluding to what we have mentioned above. Now, if this has not been attended to, the experiment may be considered a test of something else than of the timber. How much the strength is affected by the place of the tree, any person may satisfy himself by proving one piece of timber taken from near the root, another half way up the tree, and a third near the top: he will find that in a tall tree the comparative {212} strength will sometimes vary as much as 3, 2, 1; that is, a beam, say 2 inches square, and 4 feet long, taken from near the root, when horizontally placed, and resting only at each end, will support three times as much as a like beam in like position from near the top of the tree, although both are equally clear of knots or cross section of grain. This is particularly manifest in large fast-grown silver fir and old ash, and the difference is always greatest in old trees. He will also find that the position of the beam, in respect to the layers being circular round the heart, flat, on edge, or at an angle, has considerable influence, and, should he inquire farther, will perhaps notice, that the timber from different sides of the tree is not always alike strong; that one specimen of timber will be superior to another, both being moist, and inferior to it when both are dry, and that also, as in No. 1, the tree at the same height on the same side, will contain timber differing in strength fully one half, and not always diminishing in strength from the heart outwards, even in hard wood. We are well pleased with one gentleman of the Navy Dock-yard, who naively admits, that he is incompetent to decide on these subjects, having been altogether devoted to the mathematical, in estimating the strain and resistance timber suffers under {213} different combinations. Now we like this division of labour.

But to return to our subject. The facts stated go to prove, that the quality of timber depends much upon soil, circumstance, and more especially on variety; and that in the early period of the growth of trees, before much seeding, and when the soil is not much exhausted of the particular pabulum necessary for the kind of plant, that rather slow grown timber is superior in strength to quick grown, especially when the quickness exceeds a certain degree; when this degree is exceeded, the timber is not so weighty, and is well known not to be so durable. However, when timber is required of considerable scantling, it is only in good soils, where the tree increases moderately fast, that timber will attain sufficient size for this, at an age young enough to retain its toughness throughout, or to continue forming firm dense wood on the exterior. This is particularly so in the case of hard-wood timber, more especially when oak grows upon a moist soil, where the matured wood, of brownish-red colour, is often unsound, and where decay commences at a comparatively early period. In the pine, owing to the oleaginous undrying nature of the sap (resin), the {214} timber retains its strength to a great age; and the reedy closeness of slow growth, for most purposes, outbalances any loss from deficiency of lateral adhesion.

Moderately fast grown timber is much more requisite for naval purposes than for other uses; as, besides the greater longitudinal strength when of large dimension, it has greater adhesion laterally, is far more pliant, and therefore much better suited for the ribs of vessels, where cross cutting a portion of the fibre, from the inattention to training to proper bends, is unavoidable; and whence a disrupting shock (which is rather to be withstood than fair pressure), makes the unyielding splintering old wood fly like ice; the rift commencing its run from the cut fibre. For plank, the lateral adhesion and pliancy of young moderately fast grown timber is equally valuable, especially for those which are applied to the curvature of the bow and stern. Young timber also softens much better by steam, therefore is more convenient for planking, and for being bent for the compass timbers of large vessels. The vessel constructed of it will besides, from the general elasticity of the fibre, be more lively in the water, sail faster, and, though stronger to resist, will {215} have less strain to endure[47]. Mr Withers’s corresponding friends, especially those of his Majesty’s Dock-yards, with the good common sense of practical men, are well acquainted with all this, although they get a little out of element when they meddle with nature or causes. Mr Withers is himself equally out of element when he expatiates on the mighty advantage of trenching and manuring at planting, and when he talks of our Scottish holes. The Knight, too, is still more at fault in dreading any great influence on the quickness of the growth of trees from this gentleman’s _new inventions_,—and doubly at fault, from conjecturing our navy would suffer from being constructed of the fastest grown British timber there is any chance of our shipwrights obtaining. Since we were in our teens, we have almost every season trenched a portion of ground for planting, and have manured highly at planting[48], {216} and for several years afterwards. We have found, when very adhesive subsoil was brought upward, that the trees throve _well_ while the ground continued under cultivation; but when the labour ceased, they were soon overtaken by those planted at the same time without trenching. This comparative falling off was evidently owing to the surface being rendered more adhesive by the gluey plastic subsoil being mixed upward with the original small portion of surface-mould. This new surface melted to a pulp by the winter rains, when drought set in spring, run together, became indurated, and parting into divisions, admitted the drought down to the unstirred ground by numerous deep and wide cracks, which rent the rootlets of the trees, and rendered it impossible for any plant to thrive. There are also many kinds of light subsoil, which it would be folly to bring to the surface, and where little profit would arise from deep stirring, even though the surface were retained uppermost.

In cases where the plants were very small, we have found deep trenching of no benefit, but in certain {217} soils rather hurtful, even during the first years; but with larger plants, such as are often used in England, it invariably occasioned their roots to strike quickly, by affording a regular supply of moisture, and from being easily permeated by the rootlets, expedited the growth, yielding much early luxuriance when followed by skilful culture, but latterly, seldom to such a degree as would lead us to suppose much difference would be discernible at 30 years of age, between the trenched and those planted by mere pitting, slitting, or sowing,—much more depending on proper draining, on young, thriving, small sturdy plants, of best variety,—on suiting the plant to the soil and climate, and on timely thinning.

But even were a very superior ultimate progress of growth obtained by trenching, manuring, and culture of timber, yet as capital and manure will _probably_ be more advantageously employed in common agriculture, which gives a comparatively quick return of both, we shall leave to Mr Withers and his coterie of illuminati the whole advantage of his discovery. Economic philosophy is the queen of our Scottish plants; she will not admit any new system of nurture for her subjects without the {218} strictest scrutiny of its utility as applied to her domains,—she proceeds thus to weigh Mr Withers’s practice:—

_Extra Cost per Acre._

Twenty loads of putrescent manure, at the average price at
which thousands of tons are annually imported to the valley
of the Tay from _England_, 9s. per load, L. 9 0 0

Carriage expenses of above, at 3s. per load, 3 0 0

Twenty loads calcareous manure, including
carriage (were marl not at hand, lime would
cost thrice as much), 4 0 0

Trenching, 9 0 0

Total first extra cost, L.25 0 0

Accumulation by 28 years’ interest, at 5 per
cent. nearly, L.100 0 0

Would land under timber 28 years planted, with growth accelerated by Mr Withers’s practice, in two-thirds of the available portion of Scotland, sell at more than L. 100 per English acre? Suppose that the thinnings previous to the 28th year would cover the cost of planting, and subsequent cultivation and attention which is necessary, besides {219} the cost of the trenching and manuring (in many cases they would not), the entire value of the land would be lost. It may be said that the common rules of utility do not apply in this case,—that the landlords will not be moved to any other improvement than planting, and that otherwise their income would be dissipated entirely, without any portion being applied to reproductive uses. We grant all this; but Scottish landlords have very little taste for the Withers’ system,—to deface their beautiful wastes, by burying all the fine turf and wildflowers under the red mortar (the common subsoil), or to scatter manure. Planting by pitting and slitting will prove far more attractive; besides, the means are entirely awanting to carry on such expensive proceedings to the necessary extent, and the cultivation of one acre in this fashion would leave 19 untouched, when the whole 20 might have been wooded, in many cases to equal advantage, by the money expended on one. We have known planting executed by contract for one year’s interest of the above stated first extra expenditure, which we would match against planting raised by Mr Withers’s process, in the same situation. There is also a very considerable proportion of Scotland very suitable for {220} timber where the stony nature of the surface entirely precludes trenching.

Mr Withers, who appears to have no general knowledge of soils and climates, would hold a different language with regard to Scotland and Scotsmen, if he saw the beautiful thriving plantations now rising in that country, planted by mere pitting and slitting, where, owing to the drought in early summer being less fierce than what occurs in the central, eastern, and southern counties of England, and to the herbage being less luxuriant, planting without trenching can always be depended upon. Mr Withers would also have been sensible had he had much practice in rural affairs, that twenty loads of putrid manure per acre at planting, although of very considerable advantage for two or three seasons to the rising trees, in promoting, along with hoeing and digging, an early start to luxuriance, would cause little or no lasting amelioration of the soil; That the vegetable mould naturally occupying the surface is generally by itself a much better defence against the summer’s drought, than when incorporated with the subsoil, especially after cultivation ceases; that lasting fertility of ground for timber, though sometimes, is often not increased by admixture of soil {221} and subsoil; and that, generally, the luxuriance of the tree must ultimately depend on the natural depth and quality of the ground itself.

Mr Withers, with that precise knowledge of the subject, and clear conception of the nature of things, which generally accompanies a partial acquaintance with facts, makes a confident and rather imposing appearance as a wielder of language and a logician. From his assumed superiority, we especially wonder that he should possibly have envy of Scotsmen, which, from the tenor of his letter, we are constrained to believe. Need Caledonia remind her noble sister, England, of their consanguinity,—that they are sisters whom nature hath _twinned_ together? Is there another in all the earth, with quadruple the advantages of Scotland, who can rank with her in science and literature, arts and arms? And is England not proud of her poorer sister? Or can they feel aught but mutual love?

* * * * *

Since writing the above, we have looked over some experiments by Messrs Barlow, Beaufoy, Couch, and others, on the strength of timber. These show so much discrepancy of result, as leads us to conclude, {222} that experimenters have not attended sufficiently to the structure and nature of the timber, the position and quality of the different layers, &c. Take, for example, the stem of a tall tree, 100 years old: At the cross section, it is found to consist of a certain number of layers of matured timber, and of sap timber. These layers having been gradually formed, the external, after those more internal have partly dried, and the internal and matured wood being also filled up to more solid consistency than the external, the stem, on being barked, contracts in drying much more externally than internally. As soon as the surface has dried, the outer layers contracting laterally are not sufficient to surround the undried internal layers, thence split in longitudinal rifts; and as the drying proceeds inwards, the cracks deepen till they reach nearly to the heart—these rifts, when the timber is thoroughly dry, being generally wider in the sap timber than in the matured, more than in the proportion of the size of the respective circles. This effect of drying is what every body is acquainted with.

Besides lateral contraction, there is also a disposition to contract longitudinally by drying, much greater in the external than internal layers. While the tree is undivided, this greater contraction of the {223} exterior layers is prevented, by the adhesion to the drier more filled up central column (which probably had contracted a little during the formation of the exterior sap-wood layers), the contractile force of the exterior balancing equally around this central column. Should this balance be destroyed by the stem being cleft up the middle, the longitudinal contraction will immediately take place, and the two halves will bend outward, from the outside layers contracting more than the inside layers. We have seen an ash tree rend up the middle from the cross section above the bulb, nearly to the top, on being cut across in felling, owing to the longitudinal contractile force of the exterior existing even before drying.

Should the dried stem of a tree, of considerable length, be laid hollow, supported at each end, the outside layer being stretched almost to breaking by the longitudinal contraction being greatest in the outermost part, a very small weight, aided by a slight jerk or concussion, may be sufficient to burst the outside layer on the lower side, the outside layers on the upper side not standing out as a support above, but combining their contractile force with gravity to rend the lower. As the outer layer gives way, the strain is thrown concentrated upon the next outermost, which also gives way, and the beam is broken {224} across in detail. In like manner, when the direct longitudinal strength is tested, the external circles being in greater tension than the internal, the tightest parts of the log will give way in succession, like a rope with strands of different degrees of tightness; yet the lateral adhesion of the layers will have considerable effect in strengthening the mass.

The above explains the fallacy of estimating the longitudinal strength of a thick piece of timber from experiments with small shreds; it likewise explains how a large unbuilt mast is so easily sprung; wherefore a beam round as grown will be rendered stronger as a beam by being formed into a hollow cylinder, by boring out the central part; and also how a square log will be strengthened as a beam, by cleaving it up the middle, and placing the two pieces on edge, with their outside or backs together. In the latter case, the middle, by being turned outside, and exposed to the air, will contract more than what it would do shut up and covered by the exterior wood, especially if resinous pine timber, which continues to contract for many years, owing to the resin, when exposed to the air, gradually drying or undergoing some change, by which it is diminished in size, and rendered similar to amber. {225}

Consideration of the difference of tension of the concentric layers, from the difference of disposition to contract by drying, modified by the difference of position in which these layers may stand, when supporting weights and bearing strain, with the various qualities of timber of the same kind of tree, from variety, age, soil, climate, or from being taken from near the outside or heart, or butt or top, will, we think, account for the contrariety of results which unphilosophical experiments have afforded.

{226} VI.—STEWARDS PLANTER’S GUIDE, AND SIR WALTER SCOTT’S CRITIQUE.

We have noticed that a sensation has been produced in a certain quarter, particularly among persons of a certain age, by a publication of Sir Henry Steuart of Allanton, on removing large trees, eked out by a very clever article in the London Quarterly, on Landscape Gardening, ascribed to Sir Walter Scott.