FOREST TREES. 



175 



I know that vast quantities in the form of lumber, and hewn timber, 

 yearly leave the Canadian ports for consumption in the Old World. 



The White Oak is widely diffused throughout Canada, the average 

 height in the forest being about 130 feet, but on open plains it seldom 

 grows so high, but throws out wider spreading branches. The 

 diameter of a fine Oak trunk is from 60 to 84 inches. In the forests 

 of the western peninsula, the White Oak attains to its largest size. 

 The wood is much used as staves for casks, spokes, naves of waggon 

 wheels, railway ties, beams, &c. The bark is largely used in tanning, 

 the weight of a cubic foot of the wood, when fully seasoned, is fifty 

 pounds. The ash of the White Oak contains a good amount of potash, 

 but is not equal to that obtained from Hickory, this last-named tree is 

 the best for burning, and for the production of potash of any of our 

 native trees. 



The acorn of the AVhite Oak is ovate or egg-shaped, very smooth, 

 cf a bright reddish-brown, sweet, but astringent. The leaves stiff in 

 texture, oblong, with from five to nine rounded lobes. When young the 

 leaves are very white, or reddish-white, and downy, especially in the dwarf 

 variety, the White Scrub Oak of the plains, or Oak openings as these 

 open grassy tracts of land are commonly called, many acres of which 

 are densely covered with a thick growth of dwarf Oaks of several kinds, 

 grey, white and black. These dwarf varieties spring from thick, knotted 

 root stocks, which send up several sprouts, or woody stems which never 

 reach to any great size, but are used by the settlers for firewood and poles 

 for fencing. 



Beside being extensively used in tanning, the bark of the White 

 Oak is employed medicinally as an astringent. It is also used in dyeing. 

 The thrifty wives of the country farmers make a black dye for wool and 

 cloth with certain pro])ortions of oak bark, copperas and log-wood- 

 The inner bark is chiefly used for such purposes. The squaws manu- 

 facture strong coarse baskets for farm purposes from the inner bark of 

 the Oak, which parts easily into strips after being rendered pliable by 

 soaking in water and pounding with a heavy wooden mallet. 



The old English poet, Chaucer, has some descriptive lines on 

 an Oak grove which are curious, and point out a fact that I have 

 myself taken notice of in my forest walks, z>., the regular distances that 

 :rees, in their native ur.cultivated state, occupy in the forest when planted 

 by Nature's own cunning hand. The quaint and obsolete spelling of 

 the words will amuse : — « 



" A pleasant grove 



" In which were Okis grete — strait as a line, 



'* Under which the grass so fresh of hue 



" Was newly sprang ; and an eiglit foot, or nine, 



