Growing gold

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A TREATISE ON THE ^

CULTIVATION OF BRITISH OAK.

Introduction

to produce disastrous consequences to the community if no exertion be made to remedy the evil, I have considered it an imperative duty to volunteer my services. I am borne out in the opinion that something requires to be done, inasmuch as two societies of noblemen and gentlemen have solicited information on the subject; I therefore offer them and the public the result of my observations. If my suggestions are in accordance with the principles of nature, as I believe them to be, the community at large may be materially benefited by acting upon them.

It is necessary there should be extensive national plantations ; because private estates are liable to many changes, both of owners and managers, whose various wants and whims render the fate of the crop of timber very precarious.

It would be adding a golden page to the record of the reign of our excellent Queen, if by Her Majesty's command an extensive provision of British oak were made for the future inhabitants of these islands.

Numerous publications on the growth of timber have issued from the press, but I have not yet found one that treats, with sufficient attention, on the manner in which trees grow spontaneously. Artificial systems have been propounded, " line upon line," but all investigations as to quality of timber have been strangely disregarded. Every part of the world has been searched, "from Indus to the Pole," and its various productions have been imported and cultivated, to rival the offspring of our own soil, although acknowledged by

INTRODUCTION.

vii all but the most hardened champions of their own interest, to be the best material to form the "buildings" which convey the wealth of commerce from every seaport to our shores — the best material for the construction of ships which carry our avenging thunder to the home of threatening enemies, and are Britannia's bulwark against " a world in arms."

There is one planter, and only one whom I except from the general mass ; and the records of the Royal Society corroborate my opinion. Had life been spared the illustrious and highly talented lady to whom 1 allude, most probably from the unwearied anxiety with which she sought after practical knowledge, further valuable communications upon the subject would have been made to the society, and other golden medals would have been awarded for them. Long— long will the name of the late Duchess of Rutland shed a lustre on the records of that society.

A Northamptonshire correspondent to the Gardeners' Gazette complains of the state of the Crown lands ; indeed several other publications have made similar statements, therefore I am not singular in the opinion I have given as to the management of the rural business of the office of woods and forests. I have made use of the name of Mr. Jesse,* as the representative of this department, and as a public servant, he having held the office of itinerant surveyor. When the importance

* I will own a curiosity to learn whether this is the same gentleman whose name appears in the Court Calendar for 1832, page 101, under the head of Ewry. The service is, I believe, to take care of the Royal table linen, lay the cloth, and serve up water in silver ewers after dinner.

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INTRODUCTION.

of the subject to the community is duly considered, it will not only be an apology, but will justify the freedom I have used. The means are at hand to provide as much timber as ever can be wanted : all that is required is that they who have the power should have the skill to rear it. When the ease by which such an event can be accomplished is demonstrated, the House of Commons will doubtlessly insist upon the adoption of the necessary arrangements.

In works of this kind it is necessary to show some practical acquaintance with the subject : thirty years ago I assisted to set out land for plantations, and the crop of trees that are now growing there are of much more value than those in many plantations which were made by different planters at the same time, and are. situated on more favorable soils. Ever since that period I have made woods and forests my particular study.

More than forty estates, in various parts of the kingdom, have been examined, and reports drawn up of the state of the timber and plantations on them. Those that I have mentioned in the following pages show the general state of things. Some of these estates are under the control of the office of woods and forests,- the Universities, the Courts of Chancery, trustees of charities of various kinds, and others belong to noblemen and gentlemen : none of them show an adherence to the principles of nature by which the trees grew to maturity in the ancient woods and forests, therefore no profit could be expected. The losses sustained by the present system operate in so many ways it is difficult to compute the amount.

Chapter I

If ever there was a period when attention to the cultivation of oak timber was imperiously demanded, it is the present ; inasmuch as that which is now growing in our forests and woods, can bear no comparison with the produce in times gone by. The whims and fancies which have distinguished the planters and managers of timber, during the last hundred years, have sadly operated against the production of a store to supply any future deficiency. The number of acres reserved for the growth of wood in these kingdoms is considerable, and capable of producing an immense quantity of the best

B quality. The general practice, however, has been, and still is, to grow pines, beech, birch, poplars, alder, sycamore, the Turkish and sessiliflora oaks, &c. and to allow small stunted oak trees to occupy the land with the underwood, instead of cultivating oak timber trees.

Owners appear to have paid no attention to this part of the subject, although it is certainly their interest to do so. It has been said that timber is only an excrescence to pay people's debts with, and no doubt many woods have been cut down for such purpose. Few writers appear to be fully aware of the importance of this subject, and the generality of managers appear by their works to be no better informed as to the rate timber increases in value, although Evelyn has given them broad hints respecting it, and has distinctly pointed out the cause which principally prevents its growth. He says, " to give an instance of what store of woods and timber of prodigious size there was growing in our little county of Surry (the

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nearest of any to London) and plentifully furnished both for profit and pleasure, (with grief and reluctancy I speak it) my own grandfather had standing at Wotton, and about the estate, timber, that now were worth one hundred thousand pounds, since of what was left by my father (who was a great preserver of wood), there has been thirty thousand pounds worth of timber fallen by the axe and the fury of the late hurricane and storm : now no more Wotton, stript and naked, and ashamed almost to own its name," — Sylva B. 3. C, 7.

This is a clear recognition of the two great points which I now attempt to establish ; namely, the great importance of the subject, and the great injury to the timber by strong winds.

Mr. Jesse, a gentleman who holds the office of inspector of parks and palaces to the department of woods and forests, has published a work which he calls " Gleanings in Natural History," wherein he states the circumference of a tree, of only seventy years old, to be twelve feet six inches ; and he copies from the Selbourne Journal an account of a tree, the first fourteen feet of which contained more than one thousand feet of timber, it being thirtyfour feet in circumference. And he also mentions that a tree, grown in Wales, and which squared two thousand four hundred and twenty-six feet, was sold, with all its parts, and realized nearly six hundred pounds. All three of them were of course oak trees. This corroborates Evelyn most fully, and justifies the importance which is attached to the subject in these pages. It is most remarkable that Mr. Jesse merely mentions these trees, and appears to pride himself on doing it, in as few w ords as possible, although there are many far less important incidents related in his three volumes, which might have been better omitted. The accumulation of so much vegetable matter in so short a time, as in the first of his trees, exhibits, not only an interesting fact in natural history, but also a very advantageous circumstance for the community to be aware of, there-

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fore it is much to be regretted that he did not give a more extended account of them.

It is very questionable vrhether there are any means of obtaining so great a remuneration for capital without any risk, as by growing oak timber. The landowners of the last century, who annually planted a few acres, properly, with oak trees, might justly direct their heirs to ''do likewise and live up to their rentals," for they and their posterity will always have a sinking fund to resort to when an event occurs to demand an extraordinary expenditure. The imitation of so good an example is to be accomplished by arrangements which require but little, if any cash, to be drawn from the pocket, or land to be taken from the rental, as I shall shortly prove.

From the extent of country that may be examined before a healthy and full growing oak tree can be found, of from thirty to one hundred years old, the presumption is, that many persons who now have the care and

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management of large woods and plantations, have never seen one. This, although an extraordinary assertion, is, nevertheless, but too correct. When owners of this kind of property investigate the point, they will be ready to admit the truth of the statement. From the present condition of trees in general, no other inference can be drawn. I can confidently affirm that many large estates have been looked over two or three times each, and there has not been found a single healthy looking oak tree of any age growing at its full natural rate : if wood agents of such estates had seen some fullgrown specimen, it is but just to presume they would have copied the means by which it had been reared . The least stunted young oak trees that have been discovered, whose ages are correctly known, are under the care of a person who has also the management of some hundreds of acres of woods and plantations, in which none but stunted, mutilated, wind driven, dead topped, moss grown, diminutive trees are to be found. The blindness of this man is inexcuseable, because he

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has precedents to guide him to a more profitable practice. Instances of twenty-five and fifty-five years' growth are invaluable, as they show increase enough to ensure a very large profit, and these exist on the very same estate ; and what renders these two cases still more important, is, that the ages of the trees can be accurately stated, which is frequently a matter of some difficulty.

The privation of the knowledge of the growth of trees, by the present method of managing timber, and the slender hopes which the prospect affords of any extensive accumulation of property under it, will, it is to be hoped, stimulate landowners to adopt a different method. When they reflect upon the profit that would accrue from growing native trees, and how much more to their advantage it would be than buying foreign timber, they will not fail to be thankful for having had their attention directed to the subject. It is not to be expected that they who are intrusted with the management of such property will, all at

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once, become converts to the author's opinion, and acknowledge themselves in error : indeed some have already manifested by their writings, that they are indignant at its being supposed possible they can be acting wrong. The inspector of parks and palaces writes with as much complacency as if all were perfection around him. If the commissioners at the head of his office do not point out to him the absurdity of wasting his time in talking with " mole and rat catchers," instead of employing it agreeably to the tenor of the trust reposed in him, wholly to the advantage of the public, it is hoped that some member of the House of Commons who may have occasion to notice the charges for foreign timber in the estimates, will move for an inquiry as to the cultivation of oak in the royal forests, &c. Is due attention paid to it or not ? Is there not land which is now occupied by weeds and bushes only, capable of growing some millions of pounds worth of timber for the use of government? If the answer to this last question should show (and it assuredly will) that there is, then if not prqfilahly planted, why not ? It is somewhat extraordinary that a subject of such transcendent importance should have hitherto escaped with so little inquiry ; and yet it is not very surprising either when it is considered how many persons have been appointed to the management of timber albeit they have had no more fitness for the office than " babes in the wood."

Appointments could be named little less ridiculous than giving the command of an East India ship to a music master, who had never been afloat before. By such an arrangement, the destruction of the ship might be calculated upon with tolerable accuracy : the failure of the growing crop of materials for ship building is no less certain by the appointment of improper persons to manage it.

Pontey says, that " writing upon this subject is a thankless office, as owners of woods and plantations will not confess their need of any such instructor." The nobility and large landow ners generally have persons to manage this kind of property for them, and their liberality to those whom they thus employ, is a presumptive proof they wish it to be arranged in the best and most profitable manner. It is therefore but justice to them to assume they will gladly receive and countenance the advocate of any system that has a good title to their patronage. Such attacks come with a very ill grace from Pontey, who, as a planter, enjoyed a liberal share of the patronage of the highest ranks ; the very parties whom he accuses of ingratitude. This leads to a suspicion that his claim to applause, as an author, is not quite tenable. By visiting, however (as I have done) the estates of some of his patrons, and by measuring a few trees of various kinds and stating the market price of each, it will be easily demonstrated to what amount of credit his published opinions are entitled. It appears that his favorite trees were white beech — the pine class and sessilifiora oak.

If government and landowners do not respond to the just claims of those who write oii this subject, it is not their fault; the blame rests with those to whom the questions are referred for examination. Few men act with so little regard to their private interests as to draw up reports which impeach the accuracy of their own practice, or to go to their employers and say, " I have managed your woods until you have not a sound oak tree in them ; I admit large trees formerly grew there, but there is now no prospect of any growing again to a great size ; and the plantations do not appear to increase in value ; I recommend you to look out for some one to correct my system of managing woods and plantations." No man will condemn himself by voluntarily making these declarations. It is not the intention to attack either the honor or respectability of any person, but to demonstrate the just principle of our legal polity, that no man can be a judge in his own cause ;" — a maxim too frequently forgotten !

In the present case there are two parties ^ the managers of the vvoods and plantations

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and the author. The owners of landed property, as growers and consumers, and all consumers of timber, are the judges. When any person is courageous enough to condemn a general practice, he is sure to encounter a large share of opposition, if not odium, from all who are concerned in that practice ; but the gratification of being able to perform an important public duty ; that of demonstrating the means by which the nation can be materially benefited, is a sufficient shield against the official spleen with which the author will, doubtless, be assailed.

A nation, whose boundary is the sea shore, must ever be a large consumer of timber for shipping, and the considerable rise of the price of which must be an additional tax to the country, on every extensive repair or increase of the royal navy, and also be an increasing charge upon every article exported and imported, in the shape of higher rate of tonage, for the conveyance of every kind of goods by our merchant vessels. Nay, the high price of oak timber must materially impede the trade of ship building in these kingdoms, if not cause it to cease altogether. That this must happen at no very remote period is certain, unless the most zealous endeavours are made, not only by the nation, but by private individuals. This fact demands but little exertion to prove it. The inspection of the woods and plantations in any given tract of country, and the report of gentlemen who have hunted in various parts of the kingdom, will afford proof sufficient.

It, perhaps, may be said, the evidence is not conclusive, and that it does not comprise the whole of the united kingdom, but it is argued, that the deficiency of timber in one part of the country may be taken as a strong presumptive proof of a limited quantity in the other parts of it.

The demand for materials in ship building is, and will continue universal throughout the empire ; therefore the supposition is, that a prospect of a sufficient quantity to supply that demand for a lengthened period is very improbable, although not impossible. No doubt it will be stated, that the New Forest, Dean Forest, &c. are grpwing large quantities of the best quality, but what is this to the consumption by the whole kingdom ? It may be asked whether the most competent persons have examined these plantations and timber, or if the most natural means have been adopted to rear the trees to the greatest perfection. The reports from those places are far from favorable to the supposition that anything like the quantity per acre is growing that is expected ; this does not arise from any unsuitable state of the soil and climate, but from mismanagement and improper arrangements altogether. I do not hesitate to declare, that the most ample supplies ought to be expected from these national plantations.

But, supposing on the other hand, that there is a sufficient supply now standing and growing for at least a century to come, it is easy to show, that this is the best way of making a deposit for the future. If it is not a national duty for every individual to grow a certain portion of oak timber on his estates, it certainly is the duty of the nation to provide an extensive supply of materials in ship building, for the use of future ages. The best proof that can be given to posterity of our greatness, is to furnish them with an ample store of what is indispensible to promote their happiness and prosperity.

What will be said of the present age a century or two hence, if a scarcity of oak timber is severely felt, but that the people were so much engaged in decorating the metropolis with showy and expensive buildings, which cost the revenue of a kingdom to maintain, that they forgot to provide the materials for repairing and renewing those wooden walls, to which England owes all her greatness, and in the decay of which her own existence is indisputably involved ! Would they not call this a foolish and vain generation" with some

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justice ? A properly managed plantation of a few thousand acres of oak trees would be some equivalent to the future inhabitants of these islands, for the charge of maintaining the metropolitan adornments. The splendour of public buildings is of trifling consequence to a nation— a gorgeously built Admiralty will do but little to preserve our naval character. A good ship, well found in stores, is essential to its existence ; while sailors can say, hearts of oak are our ships," they will sing, ''hearts of oak are our men." It is a duty of no ordinary importance to provide a supply of the best materials for the erection and repairs of those buildings and things which are absolutely necessary, nay indispensible to the preservation of the commerce of a nation. The benefits conferred upon posterity, are imperishable monuments of the greatness of the donors. The age that relies upon buildings to perpetuate its fame, is short sighted indeed ! Truly did the poet exclaim —

*' Ambition sighed, she found it vain to trust The faithless column and the crumbling bust."

According to Hoppus,* considerably more importance was attached to the timber on an estate some years ago than at this period ; he says, in his preface, that " he knew a steward, who at his first entering into office was so exact, as to take an account of every single timber tree as well as others likely to become timber, in all the woods within his master's several manors." I have seen one of these timber books, and a valuable document it was to the owner, as the estate was well timbered : when taken, it was a complete inventory of the property. There are but few estates of the nobility and gentry which do not comprise from twenty to two or three hundred acres of wood land or plantations. Suppose a wood of thirty acres, with oak trees upon it, standing only ten yards apart, of one hundred feet in each tree, the price to be three shillings and six pence per foot, say fifty trees per acre, one thousand five hundred trees, at seventeen pounds ten shillings each, equal to twenty-six thousand pounds (round numbers). A calcu-

* The author of the tables by which timber is bought and sold at this day. C lation of this kind shows the importance of the subject much more clearly than the most elaborate argument. There are few estates which consist entirely of growing timber, therefore it is absolutely indispensable to have a person thoroughly competent to make the distinctions. The number of feet of timber and the number of trees likely to become timber, would be extremely small on many estates, and this circumstance is generally occasioned by mismanagement. Owners would be surprised to find, if they employed an efficient wood agent to examine their property, the words ''stunted and dying" in his report, against trees just measurable, i. e. six feet long and six inches square, in some woods considerably more than three-fourths of the whole number. Every proprietor of an estate should have a timber book, which would give him a correct idea of his resources, and would show, at one glance, the '' gold growing" for his posterity.

But this business requires to be placed in proper hands, for many estates most deplorably

GROWING GOLDo display the want of some amendment in the management. Owners cannot be aware of the circumstance ; if they were, it is but reasonable to suppose they would lose no time in begining the work of reformation. It is the nature of the generality of measures calculated to improve, to be slow in their operations. It is true, that trees now planted would be a considerable period ere they would become profitable, but the owners would be benefited by the sale of existing trees, which annually decrease in value from decay. The investing of the interest of the capital raised by the sale of the present crop, would increase in value at a greater rate than the trees now standing, in many places even after the charges for replanting the land are deducted — proof of which can be given.

The plantations that have been made during the last century, afford but little prospect of producing any thing like those immense trees mentioned by different writers. Future inhabitants of this kingdom may want a vessel of war as large as the Royal Sovereign, but where will they find an oak tree like the one used in the construction of that ship, and which came from Framlingham, in Suffolk, squared four feet nine inches, and whose length was forty-four feet ? Mr. Jesse may have "a seat upon the roots which help to support one of the old magnificent oaks in Richmond Park," but it is only in parks, and the immediate home grounds of baronial mansions, that such trees are to be found. This store has begun to diminish at a great rate, and most of the trees have long past their prime, nay few, very few, are quite sound, therefore they would turn but to little account as timber. Humbolt, in his work on South America, and other writers of travels in newly explored countries, describe "the vast impenetrable forest and immense plains :" probably the one does not begin, nor the other end, abruptly ; for even in this highly cultivated country, to this day the close observer may perceive that the thick and lofty woods did not arise at once, exposed to the winds from the open country. The advanced guard

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of the forest naturally consists of extensive patches of gorse or furze, in bottoms and on hill sides, amongst which a few straggling and stunted white thorns are to be found, and as these increase in size and number, a few diminutive roundheaded oak trees are to be seen a little higher than the thorns, but in proportion as the ranks become thicker and more sheltered, the trees increase in size and height, until at length they arrive at full growth, and " from the centre of the forest deep," uplift their majestic heads in magnificent maturity.*

It is very extraordinary that planters should have disregarded this grand law of nature, and planted the fastest and highest growing trees in the most exposed situations, as if there was no proof of the effect of the wind upon trees in these kingdoms. But let them go to the sea shore, hilly districts, nay, level inland tracts of country ; any one of these places would

* See Quarterly Review, No. 76, p. 439. — The planter may learn more from the perusal of this page than from the study of some volumes on growing timber.

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furnish irresistible evidence of its effect. The incredulous should spend a high-windy day in a park, or a ground planted with single trees, they would see from the rocking and twisting of each tree, that none of the large fast growing species can advance to maturity unless completely sheltered by other trees. The Dennington Park oak must have been closely sheltered whilst thriving. The one that was called The King's," was fifty feet high without a branch, or even a knot appearing ;

The Queen's" was straight as a line for forty feet. The closeness of the surrounding trees protected their leading shoots, and killed the horizontal branches in their infancy.

Wood plantations and trees, in the narrow valleys which open to the west, generally show the injury which is done to them by the wind, more than those which are growing in any other situation. The reason is obvious; the former are sheltered from all but the point whence the strongest gales are received.

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Chapter II

Having laid so much stress on the effect of wind upon trees, it is necessary to offer some evidence as to the fact. Before the existence of plantations, timber was the spontaneous production of large woods and forests, where, amid an almost " boundless contiguity of shade," successive generations of trees arose and flourished, and at last decayed, ere the hand of man had marked them out for profitable uses. Each tree naturally received shelter and protection from the other, but there is little doubt that the removal of the old and decayed ones, to make room for their rising families, was effected by the agency of violent winds.

But to quit the " presumptive" for the circumstantial," a record of the ravages which the storms that have visited our island during the last five or six years have made, will furnish an almost inexhaustible mass of evidence, that there is in the action of the wind a greater impediment to the growth of timber than is generally imagined. The following striking and important instances may however be deemed sufficient : — Chichester, October 13th. — We have experienced much boisterous weather in the early part of the week ; on Sunday morning, about seven o'clock, when the gale was at its height, and had left marks of its ravages between here and Arundle, a fine elm, at the Dairy House of Mr. W. Field, of Rumbold's Whyke, was snapped off at twelve feet from the ground, and the head driven rolling across the meadow until stopped by a strong fence. Trees, ricks, and buildings were damaged in every part of the neighbourhood, although the fury of the storm appears to have been more severely felt in the parish of Walburton. Here a fine conservatory, belonging to Richard Prince, Esq. vras totally demolished. A barn, the property of G. Halstead, Esq. and a machine house were in one minute levelled with the ground; as also a group of seven large elm trees, an ash pollard with a large limb driven from the trunk, and a great portion of the same was, in sight of several spectators, taken into the air and carried entirely over a field of ten acres. A barn, at Binstead, a mile distant, in the exact direction of the wind from the above scene, was completely cut asunder, the doors and centre roof being shattered, and the two ends remaining entire. A barn of Mr. J. Coote, of Middleton, was blown down ; five wheat ricks had their tops blown off, and a great portion of their sheaves scattered to atoms." — Sun Newspaper, October 16th, 1832.