CHAP. V.
What is to be considered before a man go about to plant wood.
TO order and cause a new wood to be planted, you must know the ground wherein you would plant any thing, as whether it be fat or leane, whe∣ther it be of a reasonable depth of earth or no: and likewise if it bee subiect to waters; because that some trees by nature lo••e the water, as the aller an dothers of the same nature: and according to the nature and propertie of the ground, you must applie your selfe to fit it with such, as it may nourish most, both for your profit and pleasure.
You must see and set downe first and before all other things, that the ground bee of such goodnesse as is requisite: and you must likewise vnderstand that two of the noblest trees and esteemed worth most siluer, are the oake and the chesnut tree, and that for two principall reasons: the one because they beare such fruits as whereof mixed with a little barley or oates, one may make bread in the time of famine: the other, because it is not in the nature of any tree to afford so good timber as the said two, the oake and chesnut tree do, being either of them considered in its proper qualitie.
The third excellent sort of trees is the elme: and notwithstanding it be inferiour to the other, because it beareth no fruit, and for that the lease thereof is nothing so pleasant, in respect of the leaues of the oake and the chesnut tree: yet ••he tree is worth the hauing, euen for that it may be headded after the manner of willowes, and cut euerie foure yeares to make props and fagots: but the chesnut tree is a great deale better, more neate and fine, and bearing more fruit than other trees which are of its nature: neither doth it stand in need of so good and fat a gr••und as doth the oake, and againe the Caterpillers and such other vermine doe not h••••nt and fall vpon it, as they doe vpon the oake and elme. And further when the locusts come, which is euerie three yeares, as I my selfe haue seene, they eate not the leaues of the chesnut trees, because they find leaues vpon the oakes: for the yeare of the lo∣custs doth hinder some wood more than of a yeares growth, whereas besides that priuiledge, the chesnut tree doth ordinarily grow more in one yere than the oke doth in two.
Yet is the oake accounted the King of the forrest, both in respect of his large∣nesse and hudgenesse, as also for his hardnesse and long indurance; for of all tim∣bers not any is i•• so long lasting, or fit for building either vpon the land or water, as oake is: it is also the most principall timber that may bee either for boordes, plankes, wainscot, or any other ••eeling whatsoeuer, and of all manner of oakes, those are preserued and kept as the best and principall which grow vpon the clay grounds, as being the finest, hardest, ••oundest, and most durable timber: those oakes which grow vpon the sandie grounds being much more brickle, falser hear∣ted, and much lesse able to endure the violence of the weather, or the continuall bea∣ti••g of the wet, when it must necessarily fall vpon the same: whence it comes that the Ship-wright or the Mill-wright euer make choice of the strong clay oake, and the Ioyner of the sand oake, which though it bee lesse durable, yet it is fairest and whitest to looke on. The elme besides the benefit of his head (which is commonly for the fire) is a most excellent timber for the ground worke of any thing, or to be lodged in the ground for any necessarie purpose, especially to make pipes for the conueyance of water; for it is a wood of that infinit toughnesse, that if it lie close