k 



15 



becomes a marked feature in the landscape. It is said to flourish wherever the 

 vine flourishes, and, as it is much used for casks, that is looked upon as a 

 providential coincidence. But it is chiefly as a fruit-bearing tree that it is valued, 

 and in an estimate made some years ago, it was reckoned that one hundredth part 

 of the food of the French people was derived from this source. In Auvergne, the 

 fruit is preserved in earth, and made into flour for bread. I have seen, on the 

 quays at Bordeaux, chestnuts heaped up as plentifully as potatoes are with us. 

 In Perigord and Limousin, whole parishes are covered with chestnut trees, and in 

 that vicinity alone, there are a million and a quarter acres of chestnut woods, pro- 

 ducing fruit of the value, in some cases, of 33s. per acre. 



In Italy, the chestnut abounds in all hilly districts. Virgil could boast of 

 his "ripe apples and soft chestnuts." One cannot traverse the more picturesque 

 parts of that country without being impressed by the luxuriance of its foliage, and 

 the grand contortions of the spreading stems and branches. It is the tree of 

 Salvator Rosa's pictures. Milton, who had seen the immense forests that clothe 

 the flanks of the Apennines, tells us, in his great epic, how the fallen angels 

 lay — 



" Thick as autumnal leaves that strew the brooks 

 In Vallamhrosa, where the Etrurian shades 

 High over-arched, itnboiver ." 



As a planted tree, the chestnut, with us, shoots up straight and soon forma 

 a good large trunk. After a growth of forty to sixty years, the tree begins to 

 twist so decidedly that it becomes shaky and unsound in the interior, but while 

 young it is a very clean and useful wood. It is remarkable for the very small 

 amount of sap-wood it contains, consisting usually of not more than about three 

 of the outer rings. Mr. Gladstone, speaking as a woodman, says "the pleasantest 

 timber to cut is Spanish chestnut, because it comes away so freely, the grain 

 breaking easily. '' When freshly cut, the timber looks somewhat like oak, but the 

 rings are much wider, and the wood is much lighter. Of two dry specimens that I 

 weighed, the oak showed 43|lb3. to the cubic foot, the chestnut only 331bs. When 

 the timber is seasoned, it is hardly more like oak than is the timber of the ash or 

 elm, and could not possibly be mistaken for oak by any one who knew oak 

 timber. 



As to durability, I have been unable to find any reliable evidence of its 

 resistance to weather when exposed to the alterations of moisture and dryness to 

 which we confidently expose oak. We have in this county a pretty good instance 

 of its failure in this respect. The bridge over the Wye at Hoarwithy, built about 

 nineteen years ago, was made of chestnut, in the belief that it would be as good 

 as oak, but it decayed so seriously that it was for some years propped up, and is 

 now being replaced by an iron bridge. The decay was chiefly at the joints, the 

 remainder of the timber being very sound so far as I could see. Upon the whole 

 I consider the wood of the Spanish chestnut of great value for ordinary purposes, 

 but not to be brought into competition with oak. As to its use in mediaeval 

 carpentry, we are, so far, without any reliable record of its discovery in any 



