CHAP. xLi. leguminaVe^. rohi'ni^. 615 



burn immediately after it is cut ; and its shade ess injurious to grass than 

 that of most other trees. 



In the Gent/eman's Magazine for 1791, there is a long account of a scheme 

 by Mr. Ebenezer Jessup for growing locust trees for the use of the royal navy. 

 It is there proposed, that an act of parliament be obtained, apportioning about 

 10,000 acres in the New Forest, and in the Forest of Dean, to be set apart 

 for growing locust trees, live oak (Quercus virens), and white oak (Quercus 

 alba), for the use of the royal navv. The distance at which Mr. Jessup 

 proposes to plant these trees is 16ift., so that he calculates an acre will 

 produce 160 trees of about H ton each. The locust, he says, will be fit for 

 ship-building in 25 or 30 years, the live oak in 40 years, and the white oak in 

 60 years, from the time of planting. He states that stakes made of the locust 

 wood have stood exposed to the weather, to his certain knowledge, for 80 or 

 100 years before they began to decay ; and that the live oak and the white oak, 

 though they do not attain so large a size as the British oak, produce a more 

 durable timber. He recommends the locust tree to be planted in poor soil, 

 but the oaks " in good rich land." In order to save government " any con- 

 siderable expense," he proposes to prepare the soil, and take care of the trees 

 afterwards, by the out-pensioners of Chelsea, who are to be sent in relays 

 every six months, and to dwell in houses built for their accommodation in 

 central parts of the forest ; every house to have a piece of ground allotted to 

 it for a garden, &c. &c. {Gent. Mag., vol. Ixi. p. 699.) In February, 1793, 

 ^30me Plmdose, an 2,) the National Convention decreed that an impression of 

 U Annuaire dn Cultivateiir should be struck off, and distributed in the depart- 

 ments, the Committee of Public Instruction thinking it worthy of a place 

 among the elementary books intended for the use of the national schools. In 

 this work, every day in the year is marked by one or more natural pro- 

 ductions, or their attendant phenomena; and the 6th of May (l^me Prairial) 

 was consecrated to the Robin/« Pseud-^cacia, and a notice given of its ap- 

 peai'ance, propagation, culture, and uses. 



A Letter on the Acacia, by Dr. Pulteney, was published in the Gentlemaiis 

 Magazine for 1801, p. 1098., in which, quoting from Ray, he says the leaves 

 are highly grateful to cattle, and that treatises have been written to recom- 

 mend the cultivation of the tree for its young shoots as forage. Governor 

 Pownall, in Young's Annals of Agriculture, vol. viii., states that several gen- 

 tlemen in America have informed him, that, in the neighbourhood of New 

 York, posts for rail-fencing made of the locust tree stood " wet and dry, 

 next the ground," better than any other timber posts in conmion use ; 

 and almost as well as posts of the swamp cedar (the deciduous cypress). 

 This gentleman remarks that the locust wood which is used in America for 

 ship-building, trenails, and posts, has commonly been grown in barren, sand} , 

 or light soils ; and that in England, where it is generally planted in rich soils, 

 and in sheltered situations, the tree may, probably, outgrow its strength ; and 

 thus the branches may become so brittle as to be easily broken by the winds ; 

 while the wood will be less hard and tenacious, and, in all probabilitv, much 

 less durable than in America. He therefore reconnnends planting the locust, 

 in England, only on poor soils, when it is intended to employ the timber for 

 useful purposes. 



In the Recreations of Agriculture for 1802, there is a paper on the uses of 

 the Robin/« Pseiid-y/cacia in fencing, in which it is recommended as a hedge 

 plant on poor, gravelly, sandy soils. Its young twigs are said to be covered 

 with a kind of thorn that renders them terrible to animals of all sorts ; and, 

 consequently, locust hedges can require no protection from cattle when young. 

 The writer appears to have forgotten, or, perhaps, not to have known, that 

 cattle are said to be remarkably fond of the shoots both in America and 

 France. He recommends training each plant to a single shoot, in order that, 

 after a certain time, the hedge may be cut down, and the plants which have 

 composed it may be used for hop-poles, for posts and rails, and for other 

 rustic purposes. Such hedges, he says, are common in Germany : the writer 



