Having attained this object, the woodman will then anxiously employ the best means in his power, for encouraging the growth of the underwood, so far as, at least, to _keep it alive_, and _as healthy_ as possible; and if he have well considered the subject, he will have contrived to lay down a plan, a regularly systematic plan, that his successors can neither mistake, nor, without some good reason, depart from, by which, during the period that the crop of oaks is being taken, the stock of underwood shall gradually be acquiring strength and vigour, and getting well hold of the soil; as well as that, they shall be so equally diffused over it, as fully and beneficially to occupy the ground, _when the oaks are all gone_. All these calculations, and many more, which it is impossible to enumerate, will suggest themselves to the mind of a man well-skilled in the management of woods; but there are very few indeed, who either see the necessity of making, or will give themselves the trouble to make, any calculations at all. In the oversight of woods, &c. much more is included than is generally supposed. He who imagines, as too many do, that when woods have been cut, they may be safely left to themselves; and that when the period comes round again for felling, they will do all that could be expected from them, has a very imperfect knowledge of the subject, or, rather, no knowledge at all: and further; he who does not know that woods will ultimately pay well for the highest degree of care, attention, and culture, is not a fitting person to have the oversight of them. But such is the ignorance on the part of many, who call themselves woodmen, and the carelessness of their employers, that there is a total negation of _forethought_ and _calculation_, instead of every step that is taken having reference to a remote period. A nobleman, or gentleman, or his agent, may calculate what will be the effect upon a farm at the expiration of a lease of twenty-one years, if it be not cultivated as it ought to be, and, by introducing certain clauses into the lease, he may secure himself against the certain and serious loss which would accrue to him from bad management; and he who does not so calculate, has a very inadequate idea of the nature of the contract which he is about to make; but the man who takes upon himself the management of woods, and whose views and plans are not extended over _several of those cycles of time which intervene between the seasons of cutting_, does not rightly comprehend the peculiar duties which he has undertaken to perform, and ought, at once, to be relieved from them, and provided for in some other way; for if woods are worth having at all, they are worth looking after, and _if they will pay for proper culture_, which no one who understands the subject will deny, they ought to receive it, for various weighty reasons, which have been before adverted to.