a degree of interest that he has rarely experienced. The scene of the plantings is a piece of ground of about three acres, perhaps, close by the vil by saying that the question, whe-lage of Botley, in Hampshire, ther these trees would come to a good size in England, and in a reasonable time, should be auswered in this Register. I am now about to answer it, and that, ner. too, in what I am sure will be deemed a most satisfactory manBut, as I said before, this, and the mode of cultivating these trees, are matters that must not be slurred over. I am about to produce instances of the growth of these trees. I have, in the former part of the essay, shown that the wood is imperishable, except by the means of fire. I have placed pieces of wood to be examined. Every man will say, that, if this wood will grow in England, will grow well, will grow fast, to introduce it must be of benefit greater than can be easily described. I am going to state the actual measurement of Locusts of my own planting at three different times; that is to say, in 1807, 1809, and 1813. But I must go back a little, in order to give the full history of these plantations; a history which, I am sure, every man of any feeling will read with where I lived from 1805, till driven away to America by Sidmouth und Company's Power of Imprisonment Bill, in 1817. On this piece of ground stood, and stands, a dwelling-house, about 50 feet long, 40 feet wide, 3 clear stories high, with a high roof and high chimneys. When I entered on the place, in 1805, there were some Lombardy Foplars, and some few other things of the tree and shrub kind. I grubbed all up. So that there stood this great, high house, upon a piece of bare ground. The high road passes within about fifty yards of one end of the house. There it stood in 1805, upon the bare and naked ground. Now, at the end of eighteen years, the house is completely buried in a wood, grown up out of trees not one of which, when planted, was more than four feet high, and the far greater part of them were not two feet high; and, what is more, almost the whole of the deciduous trees, raised from the seed by me, in and after the year 1806. I, like all other planters, was In 1806, I imported several kinds of forestseeds from the North American States, in which in haste. The nakedness of my "Locust was hardly known in house called for shelter. I bought " England until about the year large trees, carried them to Botley" 1823, when the nation was introat great expense, planted them."duced to a knowledge of it by But, by degrees, I pulled them" WILLIAM COBBETT." What he all up, and flung them away, ex- will say of me besides, I do not cept a row of them, placed against know; but I know that he will a dead wall, merely as a screen. say this of me. I enter upon this The plantation is, all taken toge- account, therefore, knowing that ther, the most beautiful that I ever I am writing for centurfes and saw. It consists, in part, of my centuries to come. LOCUST TREES, planted in the three years before mentioned; and of these I am now going to give an account. This account I had resided from 1792 to 1800. will be read hundreds of years Of Locusts I sowed but little seed. hence. The time will come (and It was sown in the Spring of 1806, it will not be very distant) when and TWO of the plants were the Locust tree will be more com- planted out in April 1807. mon in England than the Oak; when a man will be thought mad, if he use any thing but Locust in the making of sills, posts, gates, joists, feet for rick-stands, stocks April. and axletrees for wheels, hop-poles, pales, or, for any thing where there -is liability to rot. This time will not be distant, seeing that the Lo In 1808, I got some more seed; and, in 1809, I planted FIVE of the plants. These also were planted in April, and very late in In 1812, I sowed some more seed; and, in 1813, (in April again) I planted out FIVE of the plants. cust grows so fast. The next race These plants always made part of children but one; that is to say, of a plantation, consisting of those who will be born sixty years several sorts of trees. I have not hence, will think that Locust trees been to measure these trees myhave always been the most numer-self; but they have been very ous trees in England; and some carefully measured under the curious writer of a century or two direction of a gentleman, who lives hence, will tell his readers, that, in that village, and who has been wonderful as it may seem, "the so good as to send me a statemen The five trees planted in April | 1813, raised from seed sowed in 1812. Eleven years' growth. No. 8. Now, let it be observed, that these trees are growing at Botley; that any body may see them there; that there are thousands of persons who can bear testimony to the rise of the plantation; that the men who planted these trees are living, and on the spot too. my Did any one of readers ever know, or hear of, a growth of timber trees to equal this? Larches and firs, even these soft things were, perhaps, never known to get up and to swell out so fast as this. I reckon the years of growth from the year of planting out to this year, inclusive, though there is almost half a year less. The last tree, for instance, (No. 12), has not been planted out eleven years until next April. And did Englishmen ever before hear of such growth of timber far better than oak? Look at the dimensions of that tree. Forty feet high, three feet and two inches round at the bottom, and its two limbs, at twelve feet from the ground, just the same bigness. I regret, that I did not get the inches round at twenty feet from the ground. But, only think of such a growth of wood ten times as good as spine oak! But, now, as to the soil. No soil can be too good for such trees. But, the Locust will grow on almost any soil. The reader will have perceived a great difference such a growth as this, even of in the rate of growth of the three firs? One of these trees is suffiplantations; and, I am now about cient for a common gate-post; sufto show the cause of it. The first ficient to cut sills of doors and winplantation (Nos. 1 and 2) was dows out of. And always, straight made in deep, rich, fine mould. or crooked, fit for ship-trunnels, The third plantation (Nos. 8 to which are not above eighteen in12) was made in good loam, and ches long, and only about two by the side of running water. inches through. You may plant ` But, the second plantation (Nos. to-day, and have wood for ship3 to 7) was made in a poor gra- trunnels in five or six years' time. velly soil, having about a foot of I beg the reader to look at the earth, pretty well mixed with shape of the above trees. The stones, at the top, and, then, as two first were wanted to spread, you went down, more and more and were, therefore, pruned to of gravel. In short, very poor have limbs come out not far from land indeed: a gravelly brow, the ground. The heads of these with, at about four feet deep, a are about twenty feet across. The bed of sour clay under the gravel. others, from Nos. 3 to 12 were This ground was, however, well planted in close order. Not at trenched, in the manner recom- more than four feet apart. They mended in my Gardening Book: were kept pruned to a single stem; the gravel was kept at bottom, until Sidmouth and Company though the ground was all well drove me off early in 1817. That moved to the depth of two or three year and 1818, they went unfeet. But, who can reasonably pruned; but, I pruned them again wish trees to grow faster than those at Christmas 1819, though some of this second plantation. At the of them had then got limbs too utmost it is but fourteen years old, big to cut off. My intention was and the average height is thirty-that they should have clear stems six feet seven inches; the average forty feet long. The prunings of bigness round at bottom is, two these few trees produced a good -feet four inches; and, at twelve large parcel of fire-wood; and feet high, the average bigness here is another important matter; round is one foot five inches; and for the locust wood, green or dry, the average diameter, is more than is the very best for fuel. It is, at seven inches. Where do you find least, equal to the hickory. A log |