66 PATTERSON v. M'CAUSLAND.—3 BLAND.

166; 8. C. 3 Bro. C. C. 549; & C. 2 Dick. 600; Oxenden v. Comp-
ton, 2 Ves. Jim. 70, 73; Hampton v. Hodges, 8 Ves. 105; Ex parte
Phillips, 19 Ves. 119; Gower v. Eyer, Coop. Rep. 156; Bridges v.
Stephens, 2 Swan. 159, note; Smythe v. Smyttte, 2 Swan. 251. Yet
there does not appear to have been any clear well settled rules laid
down as to what is to be deemed the proper age. size and season
for cutting timber of any description. What, in some of the old
books, is called Sylva Caedua, coppice, or under growth, was not
considered as fit to be cut sooner than at twenty years growth.
But latterly the common forest growth seems to have been regarded
as timber, not according to its age, but by its size and utility. It
would seem to have been held, in England, that the proper season
for cutting timber was when the sap was down; that is. in the
winter season after the trees had been divested of their foliage.
2 Inst. 642; F. N. B. 59: Chamberlyne v. Dummer 3 Bro. C. C.
549; Bac. Abr. tit. Waste, C. 2. In this country, it is believed,
there are no legal rules in relation to this matter. But it has been
said, that after the forest trees have parted with their leaves in
autumn, that their organs still continue their functions, though
more slowly, during the whole winter: and in so doing accumulate
a considerable quantity of matter in the vascular tissue of the
stem; which matter, except the resin of the pine, being often of a
nature rather to accelerate than prevent decay, is believed to be
liquified and carried up in the spring, and then by the newly
formed leaves digested, and sent down again for the nourishment
and enlargement * of the tree. Whence, and from actual
82 observation, it has been confidently asserted, that the best
season to cut timber, as well as to prune fruit trees, to prevent the
dry rot in the timber, or in that part of the living tree from which
the amputated limb has been taken, is during the summer when
the trees are in full foliage, and their sap is in pure and active
circulation. Essay on Vegetable Physiology, by Armstrong, Prof.
(fee. Washington College, Virg. chap. 7 and 19; The Farmers' Regis-
ter, by Ruffin, 7 vol. No. 4 and 8.

But all trees, although standing within the general range of their
appropriate climate, are very materially affected by the peculiar
soil and situation in which they may happen to be rooted. 2 Mich.
Am. Sylra. 130, 226. Even the great white pine, (pinus strobus,)
the lofty chief of our forests, which in some instances elevates its
top to the height of a hundred and eighty feet from the ground;
2 Mich. Am. Sylva. 293; and the beautiful flowering poplar, (lirio-
dendron tulipefera.) winch may be ranked next to it in stature, and
only after the oak in utility, exhibit, in the texture of their wood
as well as in their size, the most unequivocal evidence of the
generosity or unfriendliness of the soil in which they stand. 1
Mich. Am. Sylva. 302; 2 Mich. Am. Sylva. 295. But such is the
peculiar constitution of the white oak, (quercus alba,) which for