OF FOREST-TREES.

2-IZ

Corn-fields (as the best of Poets witnesses) but that may be much im- ChapJIIputed to the Alteration, by Improvement, or Detriment of the Soil and ^other Accidents : Whatever the Cause may be, since it appears not fromany universal Decay of Nature (sufficiently exploded) I fliall onlyhere produce Matter of Faff, and that it ordinarily happens. As insome goodly JVoods formerly belonging to my Grandfather, that were allof Oak , after felling, they universally sprung up Beech ; and ’tis af-firmed, by general Experience, that after i?mA, Birch succeeds j as inthat famous Wood at ‘Darnway on the River Tindarne , in the Pro-vince of Murray in Scotland, where nothing had grown but Oalnn aWood three Miles in Length, and happily more southerly, it mighthave been Beech, and not Birch till the third ‘Degradation. Birchesfamiliarly grow out of old and decayed Oaks ; but whence this Sym-pathy and Affection should proceed, is more difficult to resolve, in asmuch as we do not detect any so prolifical and eminent Seed in thatTree. Some Accidents of this Nature may be imputed to the Winds ,and the Birds who frequently have been known to waft and conveySeeds to Places widely distant, as we have touched in the Chapter ofFirs, &c. Seff. iv. Holly has been seen to grow out of Ajh, as AJbout of several Trees, especially Have-thorn ; nay, in an old rotten AJh-Jiump, in a Place where no AJhes at all grew by many Miles in thewhole County: And I have had it confidently asserted by Persons ofundoubted Truth, that they have seen a Tree cut in the middle, whoseHeart was AJh-wood, and the exterior Part Oak, and this in North -amptonjhire : And why not as well (though with something moredifficulty) as through a Willow, whose Body (as is noted) it has beenobserved to penetrate even to the Earth ? Detruding the Willow quiteout of its Place , of which a pretty Emblem might be conceived But Ipursue these Instances no farther, concluding this Chapter with theNorway Engine, or Saw-Mill, to be either moved with the Force ofWater ox Wind, &c. for the more expedite cutting, and converting ofTimber ; to which we will add another, for the more facile Perfora-tion and boring of Elms, and other Timber to make Pipes and Aqua-duffs, and the excavating of Columns, to preserve their Shafts fromsplitting , to which otherwise they are obnoxious.

The Frames of both the Instruments diseover themselves sufficientlyto the Eye, and therefore will need the less Description: There is yetthis Reformation from those which they use both in Norway, and Swit-zerland ) that whereas they make the Timber approach the Saws, bycertain indented Wheels with a Rochet (which is frequently out of or-der) there is in the firjt Figure, a Substitution of two Counterpoises ofabout three hundred Pounds Weight each, as you may see at A. A. fast-ning the Cords to which they append, at theExtreams of two movcablePieces of Timber, which slide on two other Pieces of fixed Wood,by the Aid of certain small Pulhcs, which you may imagine to bewithin an Hinge in the House, or Mill, by which Means th eW eightscontinually draw and advance the moving Pieces of Wood, and con-sequently the Timber to be fit, fastned betwixt the said Piecestowards the Teetb of the Saws, rising and falling as the Motion ofthe Wheel directs: And on this Frame you may put four or fiveSaws, or more if you please, and place them at what Intervals youthink fit, according to the Dimensions which you design in cutting theTmber for your Vfe ; and when the Piece is fawn, then one or twoi Men