620 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART III. 
Mr. B. Couch, late timber and store receiver at Plymouth Dockyard, 
writing to Mr. Withers in January, 1834, says, “ I recollect that, about 30 
years since, certain ship-owners in Scotland, considering that locust trenails 
were very durable, with great lateral strength, were in the habit of sending to 
the United States for a supply. I have reason to think that, in consequence 
of my mentioning the circumstance to a gentleman high in office, they have 
been contracted for and employed in the [English government] dockyards, 
where they have attained a very high character.” He adds, “ I speak of 
locusts the growth of the United States. I have had no experience, neither 
have I obtained any intelligence, respecting locusts the growth of England.” 
( Withers’s Treatise, p. 302.) Sir Robert Seppings also bears witness to the “ex- 
cellent properties of the locust tree for the trenails of ships,” which, he says, 
“ have long been known and appreciated by the people of this country.” 
(Ibid., p. 267.) , Writing to Mr. Withers in June, 1829, from the Navy 
Office, he observes, “‘ We have for the last two or three years imported a 
considerable number of locust trenails from America.” (Jdid., p. 268.) 
In civil architecture, in America, the locust is chiefly used for sills and 
wall-plates. The sills of doors, and the wooden framing of the half timber 
houses, which are placed immediately on the ground, are found to last 
longer, when made of locust wood, than those made from any other tree, 
except the red mulberry (Morus rubra). Michaux states that the locust 
wood is not employed in America for staves and hoops, or for making hedges, as 
it has been asserted to be by some writers; but that it has been extensively 
used by cabinet-makers ; and that it is substituted by turners and toy-makers 
for the box. These are all the uses of the wood of the locust treein America. 
In France, it has been extensively cultivated in the Gironde, in copses, which 
are cut at the age of 4 years for props to vines; and these props are found 
to last more than 20 years. Old trees, in the same district, are pollarded, and 
their heads cut off every third year, for the same purpose. The great incon- 
venience attending these props is in the prickles with which they are armed ; 
but this may be avoided by the use of either of the strong-growing thornless 
varieties, viz. R. P. inérmis and R. P. spectabilis. In Paris, many small 
articles are made of the wood; such as salt-cellars, sugar-basins, spoons, forks, 
paper-knives, &c. Michaux observes that the locust should never be grown 
in a poor soil, for any other purpose than for vine-props or fuel; for both 
which uses the plants, he says, should be cut over every fourth year. Even 
in that case, he adds, they will, in a few years, cease to grow vigorously; and 
will ultimately prove less profitable, on such soils, than the common birch. 
Italy, and the southern departments of France, Michaux considers the 
countries where the greatest advantages may be expected from the rapid 
growth of the locust. In good soils, in such climates, at the end of 20 or 25 
years, he says that a mass of wood may be obtained from the locust, twice as 
great as from any other species of tree. In Lombardy, the wood of this tree 
is used for many rural purposes. Young plants of it were formerly much 
employed in forming hedges; but this is now abandoned, because the tree 
was found to impoverish the soil; and, as it grew old, it lost its prickles; 
besides, from being continually pruned to keep it low, the hedge becomes thin 
and open at bottom, and the plants end in being little more than mere stumps. 
(See Gard. Mag., vol. xi. p. 642.) 
In countries with an agriculture in which clovers and root crops do not enter 
into the rotation, the leaves of the locust may form a substitute for these articles 
as provender for cattle. When the tree is cultivated for this purpose, it ought 
either to be treated like the furze, and mown every year; or the trees allowed 
to grow to the height of 8 ft. or 10 ft., and kept as pollards, the branches being 
cut off every other year. This cutting should take place in the middle of 
summer, at which time the branches can be dried for use during winter ; and 
one or two shoots should be left on the tree to keep up vegetation, which 
shoots must be cut off during the following winter. In France, the green 
shoots, when cut off, are immediately tied up in little bundles; and, after 
