planted in 1720 is at one foot from the earth 12 feet 6 inches round, and at 14 feet (the half of the timber length) is 8 feet 2 inches. So measuring the bark as timber gives 1164 feet buyer's measure. Perhaps you never heard of a larger oak, and the planter living. I flatter myself that I increased the growth by washing the stem, and digging a circle as far as I supposed the roots to extend, and spreading sawdust, etc., as related in the Phil. Trans. vol. lxvii. p. 12."
Blenkam[1] mentions a remarkable instance of rapid growth:—"Three thriving oaks, growing on a hard gravelly and poor soil, were felled in Nottinghamshire, which on an average girthed 15 feet at three feet from the ground, and each tree contained about 430 cubic feet. The trees were planted in 1692 or 1693, and were about 149 years old when felled. They were perfectly sound and yearly increasing in size."
In a paper by Mr. Clayton[2] a photograph is given of a section across the butt of an oak felled at Ravenfield Park between Doncaster and Sheffield in 1885, which had a butt 36 feet long without a branch, and an average diameter of 5 feet, and which showed only 212 annual rings on a radius of 27¾ inches. If the actual age of this tree was only 212 years, its growth must have been unusually rapid, and a comparison of this with the section of the oak from Wistman's Wood (cf. p. 326) shows how remarkably the growth of trees depends on their situation.
As an illustration of the possible value of a hardwood plantation about forty acres in area in the Sherwood Forest district, ] am able to give the following particulars, for which Mr. Doig, forester to Earl Manvers is my authority. In White's History of Sherwood Forest the land in question is called "Robert Fitzorth's land." It now goes by the name of Osland. It had been in cultivation previous to 1730, about which time it was planted, or perhaps sown, with beech, oak, ash, chestnut, larch, and spruce. The conifers had mostly been cut previous to 1846, before which time there are no records of the value of the thinnings taken from it. Since then the following have been cut or blown down:—
