Felling Timber Trees and Cutting Them into Logs (Evelyn's Sylva, 1706)

"Being now entering with your workmen, one of the first, and most principal things, is, the skilful disbranching of the boal of all such arms and limbs as may endanger it in the fall."

Right after Christmas walk the wood, list each kind of tree and what it is good for, mixing good and poor so the best timber is not all taken. Measure the trees by a string round the girth and mark those to fell.

Fell from about Candlemas (early February) into spring; some cut in October for ploughs, carts and naves. Fell firs and pines when they first begin to bud: the bark then strips best. Work when it has been dry and calm a good while, with a low wind, never in frost, rain or dew, and not in the morning. (He also reports the old rule of felling in the waning moon.)

First cut away any great arms that could split or damage the trunk as it falls: chop a nick under each one close to the trunk, then cut down from above to meet it so it comes off clean. For wet trees some bore across the trunk, or cut a kerf round it almost to the heart, four or five days before felling to let the sap drain.

Fell the tree leaving the stump as close to the ground as you can, above all if you want it to sprout again: a foot of timber near the root is worth three further up.

Strip the bark, set the trunk where it dries best, clear the remaining branches, and saw it into lengths for squaring. In a winter fell for fuel, kid (bundle) the brushwood and stand it on end so it does not rot.

From John Evelyn, **Sylva** (1706 text, London reprint 1908), Book III, Chap. III, §§26-33 (checked on the archive.org scan sylvaordiscourse02evelrich, pp. 68-74). The moon rules are reported, not proven; metric figures are ours.