XXIX. THE COMMON LOCUST TREE. 463 



purposes, as much of it is consumed as can be obtained. The 

 aborigines of the south used the wood for bows, on account of 

 its toughness and elasticity. It is used for mill-cogs and for 

 other articles exposed to constant wear. 



The leaves are used, in some parts of Europe, either fresh or 

 cured, as nourishment for horses; the seeds are found very- 

 nutritious to fowls. The leaves may be made a substitute for 

 indigo in dyeing blue, and the flowers are used by the Chinese 

 for dyeing yellow. 



The practice of planting this tree by road-sides and along the 

 enclosures of pasture lands has much increased, of late years, 

 but has been checked by the fact that, in such situations, it is 

 exposed to the inroads of an insect, whose worm penetrates to 

 the heart of the tree and destroys its life. An unexpected remedy 

 has, however, been suggested by the success of Joseph Cogs- 

 well, Esq., in the cultivation, some years ago, of a large planta- 

 tion of the locust. He found that when it forms a wood, those 

 trees only are attacked by the worm which form the outskirts, 

 exposed to the sun and free air. Whether it is that the insect 

 parent of the worm delights, as many do, in the sun light, and 

 avoids the shade of the woods, or from whatever cause, it was 

 found that all the interior of the plantation was free from its 

 attacks. If this conclusion should be confirmed by further ex- 

 perience, it will be best, whenever the tree is cultivated for its 

 timber, to plant it in masses of several acres in extent, and to 

 substitute, in the sunny and exposed situations which it has 

 usually held, some of those numerous trees which flourish best 

 in them. 



No tree promises better, as a cultivated forest tree, than this. 

 Its very rapid growth, its numerous and valuable properties as 

 timber, and the fact, that the sap-wood is converted into heart- 

 wood earlier than in almost any other tree, are very strong re- 

 commendations. It is the experience of many persons in differ- 

 ent parts of the State, that the locust grows on poor land better 

 and more rapidly than any species of hard wood. On such 

 land, however, large, sound timber of locust cannot be produced, 

 and it would always be good economy to fell it within thirty or 

 forty years, or, at least, not to allow it to grow, for timber, to a 



