the time of planting to see that it was properly done; and after the ground was fully planted with acorns it was sown with haws, holly berries, sloes, and hazel nuts, drains were cut where necessary, and traps were set to catch mice, and persons attended daily to reset the traps and to keep off crows and other vermin.”
Whether from subsequent neglect or not, the plantations thus formed were never thinned at all, but allowed to grow up like a nursery quarter. Although contrary to every theory of plantation management, it cannot be denied that they were in this bad soil successful in growing a heavy crop of oak timber on moderate land.
Denny Enclosure.—There are some very good examples of natural regeneration in places in this wood, which was reinclosed in 1870. A photograph was sent which contrasts the young growth inside the fence of the enclosure with the bareness of the outside where the cattle graze.
Salisbury Trench.—This plantation was made in or about the year 1700, and measures about 100 acres. It was thrown open under an order dated 20th August 1807. It is calculated that there are now left after frequent thinning about sixty trees to the acre. Two years ago it was reinclosed with a view to its gradual regeneration, and there is already a large number of young oak and beech coming up in the open spaces.
North and South Bentley.—These plantations were made about the same time, probably just before that of Salisbury Trench, and are of the same character, except that there is some beech here and there in North Bentley. During the past twenty years the trees felled in Salisbury Trench, being for the most part the poorest ones, have averaged 23½ cubic feet; and there now remain about sixty to the acre. In North Bentley they have averaged about 25 cubic feet, in South Bentley 29 cubic feet, and about sixty trees to the acre remain standing.
One of the best private oak plantations of which the exact age is known is on the property of Lord Kesteven at Banthorpe, near Casewick, Lincolnshire. It was made by Sir John Trollope, grandfather of the present owner, in 1800, with acorns which had to be sown a second time, as they were eaten by mice in 1799. It is on good soil, and, as near as I could judge by the eye, contains about sixty trees to the acre, straight for the most part, and clean up to 30 to 40 feet. In 1905 twelve average trees in the plantation had an average timber length of 34 feet, an average quarter girth of 18 inches, and contained 903 cubic feet without tops or branches, which would make my rough estimate of 5000 feet to the acre very nearly correct, and if profit alone were considered I should say that these trees had now reached the proper age for felling.
The late Mr. John Clutton, who valued timber for the Crown for many years, gave,’ in 1873, particulars of the size of oaks.
1 Transactions of the Surveyors’ Institution, 1873–74, vol. vi.
