2ll0 ROBIN'IA PSEUDACACIA. 



worthy of notice." says TiOudon, " tliat ro])lwtt. apparently without over having 

 seen a hop-pole made ul" locust, buklly allirnis that the tree is admirably adaj)ted for 

 that purpose ; that trees from his nursery, after being four years planted on Lord 

 Radnor's estate, at Coleshill, were 'fit for hop-poles, that will last in that capac- 

 ity for twenty or thirty years at least ;' that ' such poles are worth a shilling each ' 

 (that is, nearly double what was at that time th(^ price of good ash hop-poles ;) that 

 ' five acres would thus, in five years, j)roduce 529 ;' and that ' each stump, left 

 al'ter the pole was cut down, would send up two or three poles for the next crop, 

 which. b(Mnr cut down in their turn, at the end of another five years, would, of 

 course, produce two or three times the above sum!' that locust wood is 'abso- 

 lutely indestructible by the powers of earth, air, and water;' and that 'no man 

 in America will pretend to say that he ever saw a bit of it in a decayed state.' 

 After this, it will not be wondered at, that Cobbett should call the locust ' the 

 tree of trees," and that he should eulogize it in tlie following passage, which is 

 so characteristic of the man, and so well exemplifies the kind of quackery in 

 which he dealt, that we quote it entire : ' The time will come,' he observes, 

 ' and it will not be very distant, when the locust-tree will be more common in 

 England than the oak ; wlien a man would be thought mad if he used anything 

 but locust in the making of sills, posts, gates, joists, feet for rick-stands, stocks 

 and axletrees for wheels, hop-poles, pales, or for anything where there is liability 

 to rot. This time will not be distant, seeing that the locust grows so fast. The 

 next race of children but one, that is to say, those who will be born sixty years 

 hence, will think that the locust-trees have always been the most'numerous trees 

 in England ; and some curious writer of a century or two hence, will tell his 

 readers that, wonderful as it may seem, "the locust was introduced to a knowl- 

 edge of it by William Cobbett." What he will say of me besides, I do not know ; 

 but I know that he will say this of me. I enter upon this account, therefore, 

 knowing that I am writing for centuries and centuries to come.' (^Woodlands. ^ 

 The absurdity of the above passage renders it almost unworthy of comment ; but 

 we may remark that, even supposing all that Cobbett says in it of the application 

 of the locust were true, the uses which he has enumerated do not amount to a 

 hundredth part of those to which timber is applied in this country. Hence, 

 were his predictions to be verified, and were the locust to become more preva- 

 lent than the oak, we should find its wood a miserable substitute, in the con- 

 struction of ships and houses, for that of our ordinary timber trees. Every 

 experienced planter or timber owner, both in Europe and America, has felt this; 

 and this is the true reason why the tree never has been, and never will be, 

 extensively planted." 



M. Miller, editor of the "Journal des Forets," for 1830, gives a very interest- 

 ing memoir on the history of this tree in France, from its introduction up to that 

 time. The result of all that had been said in favour of the Robinia in France, 

 is, that it is generally employed in that country to decorate pleasure-grounds ; but 

 no mention is made of forest plantations of locust for the express purpose of 

 raising timber for carpenter's work, or for ship-timber. 



In Britain, the rage for planting the locust has long since subsided ; but the 

 importance of this tree in ship-building, and for other valuable purposes, was 

 laid before the public in 1836, by Mr. W. Withers, of Holt, in Norfolk, Eng- 

 land, in his "Treatise on the Growth, Qualities, and Uses of the Acacia-tree, 

 &c." He commences with a translation of the " Lettre sur le Robinier," of M. 

 Francois, and some abstracts from the " Pieces relatives ^ la Culture et aux 

 Usages de cet Arbre," which the last-named gentleman had appended to his 

 work. He then gives extracts from the writings of MM. F. C. Medicus and A. 

 Michaux, as well as from the various British authors who had written on the 

 subject ; and concluded, by giving various original communications from gentle- 



