While professionally employed, and while passing from one part of the country to another, my surprise has often been great, when I have witnessed, from its effects, the indifference which many gentlemen manifest, as to the state and management of this description of property: there appears, in comparatively few instances, to be any thing worth the name of an effort to rescue them from that state of wild unproductiveness in which they have been for ages! One generation passes away after another, and like as was the father, so is the son—and as was the agent of the former, so is the agent of the latter! All they have done for ages gone by, they do now, and little or nothing more. They calculate, with tolerable accuracy, the return of the year, when, according to immemorial custom, they ought to “cut, and hack, and hew,” and they go into the wood for the purpose of setting out the piece which they intend to fell: this they divide, in many districts, into a certain number of lots, or ranges, of what they call “Gad Wood,” which vary considerably in size, but which, as far as they go, include all the Underwood. At the same time, the sapient woodman contrives to satisfy himself—and it is seldom that his superiors make any inquiry into the matter—as to the number of Oak Trees, &c. that it is proper to take down; and then, after due notice given, the whole is sold, Underwood and all, by Auction.
It is a common practice to describe a ring round a portion of the Standard Trees which are to remain—such as the Oak, Ash, &c.—and these, of course, are intended for future timber, the selection being often as bad as it well can be, but the whole system, from the beginning to the end, is most objectionable, and it is matter of astonishment that it should have continued so long. It is objectionable for many reasons, among which I mention the following: viz.: because the Proprietor throws out of his own hands that control which a gentleman ought to have over every person who enters his woods, whether as a purchaser or as a workman. This control is absolutely necessary in order to secure two things, for which Conditions of Sale, however well they may be drawn up, offer but a very feeble security—I mean the prevention of entry by teams, &c. at an improper season, and the clearing of the Woods at a given time. There are other reasons which apply more or less strongly, according to the condition of the wood, as to its stock, and the staple of its soil. Carting, or rather teaming, for carts are not often used, will inevitably do much injury in woods that are well stocked, if the utmost possible care is not taken, whatever the soil may be; but if it be a tenacious, retentive, cold, clay, damage would be done in two ways: viz.: in the poaching of the land, and in that which would be done to the stock by the wheels. The injury to which woods are liable from these two causes, and others, may be almost wholly prevented by the active supervision of an intelligent woodman. Such a person will take care to divide his cuttings as nearly as he can to suit the local demand, and to begin as early as possible, so that every opportunity may be seized, in suitable weather, for getting away the produce, and it must be his own personal duty to see that no avoidable injury is done to the stools by the carriages. These reasons appear to me to be quite sufficient to establish a decided preference for the mode which I recommend over the system to which I have referred; but there is another, which I cannot but think will be deemed of importance enough by itself to decide the question, and it is this: viz.: the impossibility of deciding, before the Underwood is cut, what Oak Trees ought, or ought not, to come down. It is quite possible, I admit, to jump to a conclusion on the subject: to deny this in the face of the evidence which every succeeding Winter affords, would be absurd; but I affirm that no woodman can do it correctly. He ought, at least, to have a clear coast, to enable him to give due consideration to the various points on which he should be fully satisfied, before he cuts down that, which his whole life would not suffice to set up again. How little consideration enters into these matters, it is easy for those who really understand them to judge. For my own part, I am compelled to say, that I never yet saw a single instance, where timber was selected in the way to which I refer, without gross blunders being committed. But more than this may be affirmed—and it is not an over-weening fondness for my own plans, but a perfect conviction of the utter want of adaptation in the present practice of many, which induces me to say it—there is not one solitary argument that can be advanced in favour of the practice which I have condemned. If this be so, then let all gentlemen abandon it; if not, let the arguments be brought forward.
I have said that the whole system is wrong, and I add, that no good will be done by a patchwork attempt to amend it. So long, for instance, as a proprietor retains the “Gad-Wood” plan, he will insure the continuance of the old system of “mismanagement.” He might as well think of bending, by his own personal strength, one of the sturdy stems of his well-grown oaks, as attempt to turn his woodman gently aside out of his usual track—especially if he be an old man—there must be a total revolution effected—he must be put into an entirely new course, if either the condition of the woods, or the revenue arising from them, is to be improved.
Unfortunately it seldom happens that customers are not found for all that may be offered, in almost any neighbourhood, and in any way. I say unfortunately, inasmuch as it keeps the managers of many woods exactly stationary, while everybody else is going on. If they had a little difficulty to contend with, it might, perhaps, induce a little reflection, and raise a doubt in their minds as to the propriety of the course they were pursuing; which would be a great point gained, as there has been very little thought applied to the management of this species of property, either by its owners, or by the persons they have employed.
There are, no doubt, many refreshing instances of good management to be met with—I could myself mention a few, were it not invidious to do so—but in a large majority of cases, from mistaken management, woods are in a high degree, and for many reasons, a discredit to those who belong to them. If the Woodman’s account were fairly examined—if a Dr. and Cr. balance sheet were exhibited, it would be found that the land was paying a very small rent indeed from the underwood, even where there might be very little oak, which most assuredly ought not to be the case; for I contend that there is no Ancient Woodland which is not considerably below the average quality of what I have seen, that is not quite capable of growing a full crop—either of underwood or of oak; and for this plain reason, viz.; because the period of pecuniary sacrifice, the infancy of the wood, is gone by: and that woodman’s management is essentially defective, who cannot show, upon every acre under his care, a good crop either of the one or the other. I would here remark, that a full crop of both cannot contemporaneously grow up together; and this consideration is of far more importance in the management of woods than is at first sight imagined, or, than by a slight acquaintance with the subject would be perceived.
If there is found in a wood a superabundance of oaks, and if they are seen to be thrifty, nothing could possibly be so ill judged as to thin them too freely, even though the crop of underwood were entirely sacrificed; for, the very objects most to be desired, can only be attained by bringing about that state of things which is here supposed, and which necessarily involves the sacrifice of the underwood, or, at the least, all idea of any considerable profit from it. Under these circumstances, the exertions of the skilful Woodman will be directed to the securing of great length of bole or stem; for these, and these alone, are the trees which have any legitimate right to a place in a wood: and, of course, the longer their boles are, the better.
Having attained this object, the woodman will then anxiously employ the best means in his power, for encouraging the growth of the underwood, so far as, at least, to keep it alive, and as healthy as possible; and if he have well considered the subject, he will have contrived to lay down a plan, a regularly systematic plan, that his successors can neither mistake, nor, without some good reason, depart from, by which, during the period that the crop of oaks is being taken, the stock of underwood shall gradually be acquiring strength and vigour, and getting well hold of the soil; as well as that, they shall be so equally diffused over it, as fully and beneficially to occupy the ground, when the oaks are all gone. All these calculations, and many more, which it is impossible to enumerate, will suggest themselves to the mind of a man well-skilled in the management of woods; but there are very few indeed, who either see the necessity of making, or will give themselves the trouble to make, any calculations at all. In the oversight of woods, &c. much more is included than is generally supposed. He who imagines, as too many do, that when woods have been cut, they may be safely left to themselves; and that when the period comes round again for felling, they will do all that could be expected from them, has a very imperfect knowledge of the subject, or, rather, no knowledge at all: and further; he who does not know that woods will ultimately pay well for the highest degree of care, attention, and culture, is not a fitting person to have the oversight of them. But such is the ignorance on the part of many, who call themselves woodmen, and the carelessness of their employers, that there is a total negation of forethought and calculation, instead of every step that is taken having reference to a remote period.
A nobleman, or gentleman, or his agent, may calculate what will be the effect upon a farm at the expiration of a lease of twenty-one years, if it be not cultivated as it ought to be, and, by introducing certain clauses into the lease, he may secure himself against the certain and serious loss which would accrue to him from bad management; and he who does not so calculate, has a very inadequate idea of the nature of the contract which he is about to make; but the man who takes upon himself the management of woods, and whose views and plans are not extended over several of those cycles of time which intervene between the seasons of cutting, does not rightly comprehend the peculiar duties which he has undertaken to perform, and ought, at once, to be relieved from them, and provided for in some other way; for if woods are worth having at all, they are worth looking after, and if they will pay for proper culture, which no one who understands the subject will deny, they ought to receive it, for various weighty reasons, which have been before adverted to.
The foregoing remarks will apply, of course, most directly, to woods where there is an apparent redundancy of oak. I will now suppose the case of a wood where there is a deficiency, or little or no oak. Here there ought, unquestionably, to be a full crop of underwood. This underwood ought to be adapted, as to kind, first, to the nature of the soil; and, secondly, to the local demand, if the local demand be good: and as to its age, of course it must be that which best suits the market, or when, comparatively, it will fetch the best price; so that in some districts, as in Kent, for instance, it will sell best, and therefore ought to be cut, at about twelve years of age: in others it would not sell so well at less than from fifteen to twenty years old. But it does not follow as a matter of course, that because a wood has always, previously, stood from twenty to twenty-five years, it should for ever continue to do so; on the contrary, I should say, that there are very few woods indeed, if any, which ought to stand more than twenty years, and a great proportion of them, nothing like so long. The great reason why the produce of woods does not earlier come to maturity, is the gross “mismanagement” to which they are subjected: but when the time shall arrive that they shall be deemed worthy of as much “care, attention, and culture,” as any other part of an estate, then will they be found, probably, to yield quite as good a return for it; and the present no system management will be exploded.