The elm is a sure sign of rich land, it is never seen on thin poor soils.  An intending purchaser, or tenant, of a farm should always regard its presence as a certain indication of a likely venture.  It is a terrible robber, and therefore a nuisance round arable land, causing a spreading shade, under which the corn will be found thin, “scrawley,” and “broken-kneed,” with poor, shrivelled ears; and the alternating green crops will also suffer in their way.  In an orchard it is still worse; I had several at one time surrounded by Blenheim apples, which were always small, scanty, and colourless.  Eventually, I cut the elms down, the biggest, carrying perhaps 100 cubic feet of timber at 9d. a foot at the time, was only worth 75s., though it must have destroyed scores of pounds worth of fruit during its many years of growth.  The elm seems particularly liable to be struck by lightning, possibly owing to its height, and several suffered in this way during my time at Aldington.

From the scarcity of oak in the Vale of Evesham elm was often used for making the coffers or chests we generally see made from the former wood.  I have one of these, nicely carved with the scrolls and bold devices of the Jacobean period, and it is so dark in colour as to pass at first sight for old oak.  The timber is not much used in building, except for rough farm sheds; as boards it is liable to twist and become what is called “cross-winding.”  The land in the New Forest is mostly too poor for the elm, and this should warn the theorists, who during the war have advocated reclaiming the open heaths and moors for agricultural purposes, against such an ignorant proposition.  I suppose it would cost at least L100 an acre to clear, drain, fence, level, make roads, and erect the necessary farm buildings, houses and cottages, with the result that it would command less than L1 per acre as annual rent; and I should be sorry to be compelled to farm it at that.

Oaks are somewhat scarce in Worcestershire, and are rarely found in the Vale of Evesham.  I had one remarkably fine specimen in a meadow on Claybrook, the farm I owned, adjoining the Aldington land.  It covered an area measuring 22 yards by 22 yards = 484 square yards, the tenth part of an acre.  The trunk measured 12 feet in circumference, about 7 feet from the ground.  The rule for estimating the age of growing oak-trees is to calculate 15 years to each inch of radius = 540 years to a yard, therefore a tree 6 feet in diameter, and about 20 feet round, including bark and knots, would be just that age.  According to this rule my tree would be not less than 330 years old, which of course is young for an oak.