OF forest-trees. 2.59

10. That great Care be had of the Seeds which we intend to sow,CHAP.VU.has been already advised ; for it has been seen, that Woods of the same

Age, planted in the same Soil, discover a visible Difference in the Tim-ber and Growth ; and where this Variety should happen, if not fromthe Seed, will be hard to interpret; therefore let the Tlace , Soil andGrowth of such Trees, from whence you have your Seeds, be diligent-ly examined ■ and why not this, as well as in our Care of Animals forour Breed and Store ?

11. As to the Form , obey the natural Site, and submit to the seve-ral Guises • but ever declining to enclose High-ways and Common-roads as much as possible. For the rest, be pleased to reflect on whatwe have already said, to encourage the planting of the large spreadingOak above all that Species ; the Amplitude of the ’Distance , whichthey require, resigned to the Care of the Verderer for grafing Cattle,

Deer , Gc. and for the great and masculine Beauty which a wild Quin-cunx , as it were, of such Trees would present to your Eye.

12.. But to advance the Royal Forests to this Height of Perfection,

I should again urge the Removal of some of our most mischievouslyplaced Iron-mills ; if that at least be true which some have affirmed,that we had better Iron , and cheaper from Foreigners , when thoseWorks were Strangers amongst us. I am informed, that the New-Eng -listo (who are now become very numerous, and hindred in their Advanceand Prospect of the Continent by their Surfeit of the Woods , which wewant) did, about twelve Years since, begin to clear their High-waysby two Iron-mills . I am sure their Zeal has sufficiently wasted ourstately Woods and Steel in the Bowels of their Mother Old-England ;and 'twere now but expedient, their Brethren should hasten thither tosupply us with Iron for the Teace of our Days; whilst his Majestybecomes the great Sovereign of the Ocean , free Commerce, Nemorum-V index & Instaurator magnus. This were the only Way to render bothour Countries habitable indeed, and the fittest Sacrifice for the RoyalOaks , and their Hamadryads , to whom they owe more than a slightSubmission : And he that should deeply consider the prodigious Wastewhich th esc voracious Iron and Glass-works have formerly made butin one County alone, the County of Sussex , scr one hundred and twen-ty Miles in Length, and thirty in Breadth (for so wide and spacious wasthe antient Andradfiwald , of old one entire Wood, but of which thereremains now little or no Sign) would be touched with no mean Indig-nation : I named the Susfex Glass-works ; but what Spoil and pro-digious Consumption the Salt-works had made in Worcestershire, foethe Complaint of Mr. Cambden, speaking of Feckenham-Forest in hisDays, now necessitated to use other Coal ; certainly, the goodly Riversand Forests of the other World, would much better become these de-structive Works, our Iron and Saw-miils, than these exhausted Coun-tries, and we prove Gainers by the timely Removal: I have said thisalready, and I cannot too often inculcate it for the Concerns of a Nation,whose only Protection (under God) are her wooden Walls.

iz. Another thing to be recommended (and which would prove noless than thirty Years, in some Places forty, and generally twenty YearsAdvance) were a good (if well executed) A 8 to save our Standards,and bordering Trees from the Ax of the Neighbourhood : And whowould not preserve Timber, when within so few Years the Trice is al-ls u u most

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