REPORT ON THE MANAGEMENT AND VALUE OF POPLAR. 135 



on the part of all tradesmen. No wood is so suitable for cutting 

 boards, such as are used by shoemakers, saddlers, &c, as poplar. 

 It is much used also for lining for carts, inch boards for this pur- 

 pose being sold at 16s. per 100 superficial feet. Poplar is also 

 well adapted for bed-room purposes, such as floors. Some of the 

 bed-room floors in Gawsworth Hall, Cheshire, are laid with black 

 Italian poplar, which has stood nearly seventy years, and is still 

 in an excellent state of preservation, equalling that of the Scotch 

 pine floors in the same house, laid at the same period. As paling 

 rails it endures as long as spruce. For split palisades it lasts nearly 

 as long as larch, is well adapted for weather boarding, and sarking 

 for slate roofs. For farm and rural purposes it lasts about as 

 long as Scotch pine, save for posts in the ground, in which case 

 it rots soon near the surface. It is first-rate for plaster lath, and 

 may either be split or sawn ; the heart-wood is less worm-eaten 

 than the sap-wood of oak or fir. In America it is in great re- 

 quisition for paper manufacture, for which purpose it is highly 

 approved ; and it may soon be called into requisition in this 

 country for a similar purpose. As coppice-wood all the species 

 enumerated in this paper (except balsam) answer well, and in 

 Staffordshire, where it is much used for crates, it pays the grower 

 handsomely. As hop-poles it is also in great demand ; and in 

 Kent, Surrey, and Sussex, it pays well for the above purpose. 

 The bark of the poplar contains also a considerable amount of 

 tannin, which renders it of value about equal to that of the bark 

 of larch, at present about 60s. per ton, but seldom used owing to 

 scarcity. 



The principal source of demand, however, as has already been 

 stated, is for break-blocks for railway-carriages. For this pur- 

 pose poplar answers better than any other kind of wood. In 

 manufacturing break-blocks the following practice is adopted : — 

 The trees are cross-cut into 10 or 15 feet, or any other suitable 

 length for cartage, and sawed into planks 3£ inches thick, width 

 not less than 9 inches. The planks are then laid flat, and, by 

 means of a mould and chalk, the blocks are shaped into the 

 proper size. Poplar is also, as we have said, extensively used 

 for staves for barrels, for which purpose it brings a good price. 



Some idea may be formed of the value of poplar from the 

 large prices realised for the wood at public sales in different 

 parts of the country, of which the following is an abstract : — 



At a public sale in the suburbs of Perth, in March 1866, 

 among others sold was a root cut of black Italian poplar, 35 feet 

 in length, containing 107 cubic feet, which realised L.9, 15s., or 

 Is. 9£d. per foot. The top of it contained 30 feet more, and realised 

 Is. per foot, making the entire price of the tree L.ll, 5s., nearly 

 Is. 7f d. per foot. At a public sale at Gordon Castle, Banffshire, 

 in January 1866, amongst others was sold a gray poplar, con- 



