William Bryant Logan: Sprout Lands: Tending the Endless Gift of Trees [2019] hardback PAREN which Hastings fears will prove

which Hastings fears will prove enduring

Julian Hoffman shines a light on what we had

at time joyously

often comic'

' JANE CORRY

William Bryant Logan: Sprout Lands: Tending the Endless Gift of Trees [2019] hardback PAREN which Hastings fears will proveFarmers once knew how to make a living fence and fed their flocks on tree branch hay. Rural people knew how to prune hazel to foster abundance: both of edible nuts and of straight, strong, flexible rods for bridges, walls and baskets. Townspeople cut beeches to make charcoal to fuel ironworks. Shipwrights shaped oaks to make hulls. In order to prosper communities cut their trees so they would sprout again. Pruning the trees didn't destroy them.