i88 A DISCOURSE

Book III. themselves into different Modes, which may be done by humbling andbinding them dewn with tough Bands and Wiphs, or Hooks rather,cut Skrew-wife, or slightly haggled and indented with a Knife, and soskrewed into the Ground, or hanging of weighty Stones to the Tops*or Branches, till the Tenor of the Sap, and Custom of being so con-strained, did render them apt to grow so of themselves, without Bowerof red resting : This Course would wonderfully accommodate Materialsfor Knee-timber and Shipping , the Wheel-wright , and other Uses,conform it to their Moulds, and save infinite Labour, and abbreviatethe Work of Hewing and JVajte.

<— - adeo in teneris confuefcere multum eft.

And the Toet, it seems, knew it well, and for what Purposes,

a When in the Woods with mighty Force they bowThe Elm, and shape it to a crooked Flow ;

so as it even half made it to their Hands.

Felling. I

CHAP. III.

Of the Age, Stature* and Felling of Trees.

T HE Age of Trees, except of the Coniferous (for the mostPart known by the Degrees of their tapering Branches) i*vulgarly reckoned by the Number of Solar Revolutions , or Circles jthe former Bark being digested and compacted into lignous and woodySubstance, which is annually invested by a succeeding Bark-, whichyet in'seme is not finished se foon as in other Trees; as we find in theOak, Elm, Tine, Tlum-trees, &c. which exceed one anotherGrowth, however co-equal in Years: But of this hereafter. In themease Time, it is not till a Tree is arrived to his perfect Age and seHVigour , that the Lord of the For eft should consult or determine cost'cerning a Felling : For there is certainly in Trees (as in all Thing selse) a Time of Increment, or Growth ; a Status or Season when theyare at be ft (which is also that of Felling ) and a Decrement or Teriodwhen they decay . To the fir ft of these they proceed with more or seBVelocity, as they consist of more strict and compacted Tarticles, 01are of a stighter and more laxed Contexture ; by which they receive 3speedier or flower De fluxion of Aliment. This is apparent inand Willow ; the one of a harder, the other of a more tender Sub-stance : But as they proceed, so they likewise continue. By the Stft eof Trees I would signify their utmost Effort , Growth and Maturitywhich are all of them different as to Time and Kind ; yet do not I i n 'tend by this any Teriod or Instant in which they do not continU^X.either improve or decay (the End of one being still the Beginning 0the other) but farther than which their Natures do not extend ; fimmediately (though to our Senses imperceptible ) through some luff'mity (to which all Things sublunary be obnoxious) dwindle and 1IT1 "pair, either through Age, Defect of Nourishment , by Sickness aI1Decay of principal Tarts ; but especially and more inevitably,

Continuo in Silvis magna vi flexa domaturIn burim, Si curyi formain accipit Ulmus aratri:

Ceo. i.

iolently

vio