622 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART III. 



and axletrces for wheels, hop-poles, pales, or for any tiling where there is 

 liability to rot. This time will not be distant, seeing that the locust grows so 

 fast. The next race of chiUlren but one, that is to say, those who will be 

 born 60 years hence, will think that locust trees have always been the most 

 numerons trees in England ; and some curious writer of a century or two 

 hence will tell his readers that, wonderful as it may seem, ' the locust was 

 hardly known in England until about the year 1823, when the nation was 

 introtluced to a know leilge of it by William Cobbett.' What he will say of 

 me besides, I do not know; but I know that he will say this of me. 

 I enter upon this account, therefore, knowing that I am writing for cen- 

 turies and centuries to come." (Ilnd., § 351.) The absurdity of the above 

 passage renders it almost unworthy of comment ; but we may remark 

 that, even supposing all that Cobbett says in it of the application of the 

 locust were true, the uses which he has enumerated do not amount to a 

 hundredth part of those to which timber is applied in this country. Hence, 

 were his predictions to be verified, and were the locust to become more pre- 

 valent than the oak, we should find its wood a miserable substitute, in the 

 construction of ships and houses, for that of oiir ordinary timber trees. 

 Every experienced planter or timber owner, both in Europe and America, 

 has felt this ; and this is the true reason why the tree never has been, and 

 never will be, extensively planted. 



There can be no doubt as to the durability of full-grown or matured locust 

 wood, and of its fitness for posts, trenails, &c. ; but there is no evidence, 

 either in Mr. Cobbett's VVnodlands, or in all that was printed in Mr. Withers's 

 Treatise, when he kindly lent us the proof sheets, in April, 1836, that the 

 locust is suitable for hop-poles, either in point of rapid growth, or of durability. 

 In order to procure the latest information on this subject, we wrote to three 

 individuals in the centre of hop countries, and to the Earl of Radnor, Robert 

 Rich, Es(|., Philip James Case, Esc|., and some others, whose letters to Mr. 

 Withers in favour of the locust are printed in his book. The general result 

 of the whole is, that the locust has scarcely been tried for hop-poles ; and 

 that, where it has been put to this or analogous uses, it has failed. On Lord 

 Radnor's estate, at Coleshill, his bailiff", the Daniel Palmer so often mentioned 

 bv Cobbett, says, " the acacias were tried here for espalier stakes, and soon 

 decayed ; none have been applied for |)oles or gate posts. Those planted on 

 light land soon got stunteil, but some of those in deep land grew well. I am 

 of opinion they are not good for much until they get of a good size, and, 

 of course, are full of heart, then they will last a long time as posts, &c." This, 

 the reader will recollect, is Mr. Palmer's opinion, after an experience of 12 

 years; the locust trees at Coleshill having been planted in 1823 and 1824. 

 We applied, for information on the subject, also to the Bishop of Winchester, 

 as residing at Faniham, in the centre of a hop country; and, through His Lord- 

 ship's kindness, we have received a letter from a gentleman, who states that 

 the Messrs. Payne were the only hop-growers, at Farnham, who planted the 

 locust with a view to the production of hop-poles. That the poles were not 

 fit to cut till the trees had been planted 7 years ; and that they have now 

 been only used 2 years, so that Messrs. Payne cannot speak as to their dura- 

 bility. Maidstone being so celebrated for its hop plantations, we wrote to 

 Messrs. Bunyard, nurserymen there; and from them we learn that the locust 

 is considered with them too brittle for poles, and that it has not even been 

 tried near Maidstone in that capacity, having been only used for supporting 

 raspberries. Mr. Masters, the nurseryman, at Canterbury, informs us that 

 the locust was planted in that neighbourhood by various hop-growers; that 

 almost the whole of the plants w ere eaten by the rabbits ; that some of the 

 trees which had escaped were tried as poles, and not found more durable than 

 other woods; that the stools did not throw up shoots nearly so well as those 

 of other trees ; and that the locust is now no longer thought of by the hop- 

 growers near Canterbury. The other letters which we have received on the 

 subject are to the same effect ; though some of the writers arc still great 



