CHAP. CIV. BETULA^EiE. i?E'TULA. 1699 



ground, and on the south side of the trunk. In England, several holes are sometimes bored in the 

 same tree at once ; but, in France, this method is thought to deprive the tree of its sap too suddenly. 

 Each hole should have a kind of fosset fixed in it, which may be made of a piece of elder wood, witli 

 the pith scooped out, or of a large quill. The outer end of this tube is placed in a vessel or large 

 bladder, to reserve the sap. In some places, the collectors of the sap cut off the extremity of each 

 branch, tying a bladder or vessel to the end of the wounded part. When a sufficient quantity of sap 

 has been collected, the hole in the tree is stopped with a wooden peg ; or the end of the wounded 

 branch is covered with pitch. This operation is always performed in spring; and most sap is said to be 

 procured after a very severe winter. Several trees should be bored at the same time, in order that a 

 sufficient quantity of sap may be obtained in one day, as it is spoiled by being kept. It has been observed 

 that the sap flows in greatest abundance about noon. When the wine is to be made, the sap should 

 be boiled with moist sugar or honey, in the proportion of four pounds of sugar to ♦'ery gallon of 

 liquor. While boiling, the scum is taken off as fast as it rises, till the liquor is quite clear. It is 

 then worked with yeast in the usual way. The juice and rind (pared very thin) of a lemon, and of a 

 Seville orange, may be added to every gallon of clear liquor, and will be found a great improvement. 

 Some persons also put a few twigs of sweet briar into the cask when the wine is tunned, to give it a 

 perfumed flavour ; and ancientlv it was the custom to put cinnamon and other spices into this wine. 

 In Moscow, they add dried sprigs of mint. The wine should be kept three months before it is bottled, 

 and twelve months before it is drunk. Birch wine has an agreeable flavour, and is considered very 

 wholesome. That made in Russia effervesces like champagne. 



Birch Oil is obtained from the bark, by a kind of distillation, which is thus effected :— An excava- 

 tion is made in the soil, on the side of a bank 10 ft- or 12 ft. deep, and in the form of an inverted cone, 

 like a common limekiln, which is lined in theinside with clay. The bark, being collected, and placed 

 in the kiln, is covered with turf, and then ignited : the oil flows through a hole made in the bottom 

 of the kiln, into a vessel placed to receive it, from which it is transferred to casks for exportation. 

 The liquor produced consists of oil and pyroligneous acid, and is used for tanning hides, to which it 

 gives that powerful fragrance, so well known as peculiar to Russia leather. The oil, when purified, 

 is quite clear, and is used in medicine, both internally and externally; and the pyroligneous tar-like 

 liquor, which is separated from it, is used for greasing wheels, and for other purposes. 



In the Highlands of Scotland, Sang observes, birch may be said to be the 

 universal wood. " The Highlanders make every thing of it : they build their 

 houses of it ; make their beds, chairs, tables, dishes, and spoons of it ; con- 

 struct their mills of it ; make their carts, ploughs, harrows, gates, and fences 

 of it; and even manufacture ropes of it." {PL Kal., p. 80.) The branches 

 are employed as fuel in the distillation of whisky ; and they are found to con- 

 tribute a flavour to it far superior to that produced by the use of fir-wood, coal, 

 or peat. Birch spray is also used for smoking hams and herrings, for which 

 last purpose it is preferred to every other kind of wood. The bark is used 

 for tanning leather, dyeing yellow, making ropes, and sometimes, as in Lap- 

 land, instead of candles. The spray is used for thatching houses ; and, dried 

 in summer with the leaves on, it makes an excellent material for sleeping 

 upon, where heath is scarce. The wood was formerly used in the Highlands 

 for arrows ; and the bark, it is said, on the sea coast, for making boats, as that 

 of B. papyracea is in North America. 



In addition to the above, we might emmierate a number of minor uses 

 mentioned by authors, when speaking of the tree as belonging to the most 

 northern parts of Europe; and sonrie of which, we have reason to believe, are 

 now become obsolete. Among these are what Evelyn calls " the whitest part 

 of the old wood, found commonly in doating birches," from which, he says, is 

 made " the ground of our effeminate-formed gallants' sweet powder ; " and of 

 the quite consumed and rotten wood," he says, is " gotten the best mould 

 for the raising of divers seedlings of the best plants and flowers." {Hunter'' s 

 Evelyn^ vol. i. p. 224.) The use of the birch in artificial plantations, in Britain, 

 is chiefly as an undergrowth, and as coppice-wood. In both cases, it is cut, 

 every 5 or 6 years, for brooms, hoops, wattle-rods, crateware, &c. ; every 

 10 or 12 years, for faggot-wood, poles, fencing, and bark for the tanners, the 

 value of which, in Scotland, is about half that of oak bark ; and not oftener 

 than once in every 15 or 20 years, when it is wanted for herring casks. In all 

 these cases, the spray is used for besoms, rods, ties, and similar purposes. In 

 the Highland districts, standard trees are left to attain a timber size. The 

 birch, as already observed, is very frequently used as a nurse to other trees ; 

 and especially to the oak, the chestnut, and other hard woods. Many of the 

 extensive oak plantations made by the late Duke of Portland in Nottingham- 

 shire were raised between rows of birch trees, planted two or three years 

 before the acorns were sown ; as has been recorded in detail by Speechly, 

 and by Hunter in his edition of Evelyn's Sijlva, and in his Georgical Essays. 

 Hedges rn-e, also, frequently made of the birch in poor, mossy, or sandy soils; 

 the tree bearing the shears as well as any ligneous plant whatever. 



The birch, in landscape-gardening, is an interesting tree, from its form, and 



5 s 3 



