II. 3. THE CHESTNUT. 167 



is so far inferior to hickory and oak, that it is never used when 

 they can be had. Its specific gravity is .522. 



It is ill adapted to use as fuel, except for closed fires, the air 

 in its numerous pores causing it to snap disagreeably ; its value, 

 according to Bull, being as 52 to 100, compared with hickory. 

 But it forms an excellent charcoal ; the younger trees furnishing 

 the best and heaviest. For this purpose Michaux recommends 

 its cultivation in copses. Its vigorous growth from the stump 

 of a tree of any age, recommends it. Springing from the stump 

 of a young tree, the shoots often make six or eight feet in a 

 single year, and in the period of sixteen to twenty-five years 

 they are fit to be cut. 



"Chestnut copses," says Michaux, " are considered in France 

 as the most valuable species of property ; every seven years 

 they are cut for hoops, and the largest branches serve for vine- 

 props ; at the end of fourteen years they furnish hoops for large 

 tubs, and at the age of twenty -five years they are proper for 

 posts and for light timber. Lands of a middling quality, which 

 would not have produced a rent of more than four dollars an 

 acre, in this way yield a mean annual revenue of from sixteen 

 to twenty-four dollars." 



The bark of the chestnut abounds in tannin and in coloring 

 matter. It is therefore valuable to the tanner, and may be 

 used by the dyer. With iron, the extract may form an exceed- 

 ingly black ink. The wood seems to abound in tannin, and if 

 reduced to chips, it would probably be found of value in tan- 

 ning leather. 



A large number of chestnut trees, which had grown in the 

 forest, of from thirty-six to fifty-one years' growth, and varying 

 from thirty-four to forty-one inches in circumference, gave, 

 when carefully measured, very nearly three-tenths of an inch 

 for the annual growth in diameter for the first forty or forty- 

 two years. The circles, taken all together, were very nearly 

 uniform. On the whole, they were decidedly broader near the 

 circumference, showing that these trees were still growing, and 

 more rapidly than ever before. The circles of one which had 

 fifty -one circles in thirty-six inches, were very close near the 

 centre, — twelve within one inch. It had probably been much 



