JJ^oods and Woodlands. 867 



of Connecticut are eminently valuable. Tlie toughest oaks and hickories 

 of the United States j>tow on the hills between Xew Hampshire and 

 Virginia. Farther west the trees grow larger, but the texture is not so 

 firm. Manufacturers of wagons, furniture, and other articles, prefer 

 western-grown lumber where beauty is the most important element ; finer- 

 looking furniture and finer-looking carriages can be made, and with less 

 cost of the timber which grows west of the Appalachians, it "works" 

 easier ; but where either great strength or durability are especially desired, 

 then eastern timber is better. 



In this connection it is well to remember that for these last qualities 

 the largest trees are not the best. If any of you wish for any purpose a 

 particularly tough stick of white oak, hickory, or white ash, you will not 

 take the largest trees, but rather one of smaller size, f^ecoud growth if 

 possible, one that has grown on the right kind of soil and with a sunny 

 exposure. Young trees are the best, and cultivated trees are apt to be the 

 straightest, and of the best form. And while on the subject of kinds, I 

 will say that the white oak is not so beautiful a tree here as farther west. 

 I have never seen such magnificent examples in New England as I have in 

 Western Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Western New York. But 

 there, as here, the toughest timber is not found in the largest trees. 



Regarding planting for use, as I have said, we lack extensive experience 

 here. It is better to transplant young trees than to plant the seeds where 

 the trees are to be grown. With some, as the hickory, transplanting is 

 more difficult ; but I have heard men say that it was successful if the tap- 

 root be cut off the year before transplanting. We have more experience 

 in transplanting native species than foreign ones, because we have used 

 them more for ornamental uses, and now it is very desirable that foreign 

 kinds be tried on a larger scale as useful trees, particularly the larch, elm, 

 pine, and Avillow of Europe. And, by the way, this last tree, the willow — 

 the wdiite willowy I mean — has not been tried in New England as it ought 

 to be. There was in the West a speculative fever about it a few years ago, 

 for use for hedges, which, like all speculative projects of such a kind, led 

 to much disappointment and loss ; but in places it was successful, emi- 

 nently so, particularly so on low lands. A writer in one of our agricultural 

 papers this year speaks of a willow fence-rail which was still sound after 

 twenty-seven years' use in a fence, and of a tree he has, planted thirty-two 

 years ago, and now four and a half feet in diameter. I have often remarked, 

 in my own observation, the rapidity of growth of this species when under 

 favourable conditions. In England, where it is often sixty or seventy feet 

 high in twenty years, there is no wood in greater deipand than good willow. 

 It is light, very tough, soft, takes a good finish, will bear more pounding 

 and knocks than any other wood grown there, and hence its use for cricket- 

 bats, for floats to paddle-wheels of steamers, brake-blocks on cars ; it is 

 used extensively for turning, planking coasting vessels, furniture, &c Its 

 bark is used for tanning (willow tan-bark w^as exhibited at the Centennial 

 Exhibition from various European countries), its sprouts for withes and 

 baskets, its wood for charcoal, in short, it is considered in very many 

 sections of Europe one of their most valued trees, and has been planted 

 from remote times. Here we occasionally see the yellow or golden variety 

 planted for ornament, yet how few of us ever hear of the value of the wood. 

 Two different farmers have told me that it makes the very best ox-yokes ; 

 it is used for making wooden legs, and its charcoal is sometimes used for 

 making gunpowder. 



It is impossible for me here to speak of all the foreign trees that 



