Editors Box. 197 



BLACK ITALIAN POPLAR. 



Sir, — Your correspondent, "An Amateur," from "near Old Oak Farm, 

 Middlesex " (see page 112 of jour last number), seems hardly to believe 

 in the authenticity of the statement I made in your first number in regard 

 to the value of the black Italian poplar, and expresses a wish for further 

 information about such a valuable " stick," especially the purposes for 

 which it is chiefly used. I will try to enlighten his ignorance, and satisfy 

 his curiosity, so far as to state that I have made inquiry of the merchant 

 who bought most of the black Italian poplar at our sales, and he writes 

 to say that it is used by carriage builders, cartwrights, railway companies, 

 and others for a variety of purposes where toughness or resistance to friction, 

 combined with comparative liijMness, is a necessary requisite in the 

 timber used ; such as linings for the bottom and sides of waggons, carts, 

 and barrows, the blocks of railway breaks, &c. ; and we have ourselves used 

 it for flooring and for fencing rails, and other estate purposes, with much 

 advantage. 



Your correspondent seems surprised to see the black Italian poplar classed 

 with hardwood, but that was done, not so ^much for its hardness of quality 

 as to distinguish it from fir, in which sense I have no doubt most of 

 your readers will have understood the statement. Perhaps " An Amateur " 

 will plead " ignorance " when he speaks of a " species of poplar " being 

 known to commerce as " hacmetac !" He appears to be as ignorant about 

 *' commerce" as he is about "poplars," else he can hardly have looked into 

 any nurseryman's price list of forest trees without observing a "species of 

 poplar," P. halsamifcra, named Tacamahac ; but certainly it has never been 

 "much esteemed," either here or in America, "in shipbuilding." 



Again, he states that instead of 70 trees 700 at least might be grown 

 upon an English acre, but 70 full-sized trees are quite enough for our 

 purpose ; and any one who expects to grow them to be worth £5 to £6 

 each will find the number I stated quite sutficient to fully occupy that 

 space. 



Seventy of such poplars I measured yesterday, some of which, at six feet 

 above ground, measured more than thirty inches in diameter, and contained 

 upwards of 100 cubic feet of timber. 



In sending to the journal the short notice of the prices realized, and 

 the position taken by the black Italian poplar at our last sale, I did so 

 for the purpose of showing how much more profitable it was than any of 

 the other sorts of timber sold at the same sale, and the return per acre 

 that might reasonably be expected from it at such prices. All I would 

 gay about the other species of poplar is that they are not to be compared 

 in any way to the black Italian as a useful and profitable crop. 



I shall always be glad to enlighten an " unlearned but willing student," 

 but whatever I may have time to write for your journal in future must be 

 taken for what it is worth, as I shall decline to reply to the corre- 

 spondence of critics, either " amateur " or otherwise. 



Hopetoun, June 15th, 1877. Joh.^ McLaren. 



