ground, being well grubb'd, is many times worth the pains and charge,
for sundry rare and hard works; and where timber is dear. I could name
some who abandoning this to workmen for their pains only, when they
perceiv'd the great advantage, repented of their bargain, and
undertaking it themselves, were gainers above half: I wish only for the
expedition of this knotty work, some effectual engine were devised; such
as I have been told a worthy person of this nation made use of, by which
he was able with one man, to perform more than with twelve oxen; and
surely, there might be much done by fastning of iron-hooks and fangs
about one root, to extract another; the hook chain'd to some portable
screw or winch: I say, such an invention might effect wonders, not only
for the extirpation of roots, but the prostrating of huge trees: That
small engine, which by some is call'd the _german-devil_, reform'd after
this manner, and duly applied, might be very expedient for this purpose,
and therefore we have exhibited the following figure, and submit it to
improvement and tryal.

But this is to be practis'd only where you design a final extirpation;
for some have drawn suckers even from an old stub-root; but they
certainly perish by the moss which invades them, and are very subject to
grow rotten. Pliny speaks of one root, which took up an entire acre of
ground, and Theophrastus describes the _Lycean Platanus_ to have spread
an hundred foot; if so, the argument may hold good for their growth
after the tree is come to its period. They made cups of the roots of
oaks heretofore, and such a curiosity Athenaeus tells us was carv'd by
Thericleus himself; and there is a way so to tinge oak after long
burying and soaking in water, (which gives it a wonderful politure) as
that it has frequently been taken for a course ebony: Hence even by
floating, comes the Bohemian oak, Polish, and other northern timber, to
be of such excellent use for some parts of shipping: But the blackness
which we find in oaks, that have long lain under ground, (and may be
call'd subterranean timber) proceeds from some vitriolic juice of the
bed in which they lie, which makes it very weighty; but (as the
excellent naturalist and learned physician Dr. Sloane observes) it
dries, splits, and becomes light, and much impairs.

15. There is not in nature a thing more obnoxious to deceit, than the
buying of trees standing, upon the reputation of their appearance to
the eye, un