Thirty years ago the price of underwood as it stood growing, at twelve
years old, was about twenty pounds an acre; but to-day five pounds an
acre is considered a good price for first-class underwood, so hard has
the industry been hit by substitutes for ash and hazel. Though we have
known underwood to fetch only half a crown an acre, we have seldom seen
it described by auctioneers as other than "prime and ripe." The most
useful kind is hazel. All sorts of sticks and stakes for the garden
are cut of hazel. Wattle-fences are made of it, neatly woven, and the
"hethers" which bind the tops of live fences. Closely woven hazel
hurdles form a splendid protection for sheep from wind and rain; they
cost, to buy, about eight shillings a dozen, and the hurdler is paid
about half that sum. Hazel is now largely used in making the crates in
which the product of the Potteries is packed. The cleanest growths were
formerly made into the hoops of barrels, and one might see thousands
of bundles stacked in a clearing. But iron is killing the hoop-makers'
industry. One use of hazel has been unaffected by time--the use to
which the country blacksmith puts it, when he winds handles of the
shoots for his chisels and wedges--being pliant, they allow his tools
to adjust themselves to the blow of the hammer. And the hazel-wand
remains the favourite divining-rod of the water-finders.
* * * * *