342. The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



Wainscot Oak 



What is usually known under this name was for many years imported from 

 the Baltic seaports of Dantzic, Riga, and Libau, and was the produce of forests 

 in the interior of the Russian Baltic Provinces, and of Russian Poland, from 

 whence it was brought to the coast by water, until railways were made. According 

 to Laslett, the Riga timber, though of moderate dimensions, had the medullary rays 

 more numerous and better marked than the Dantzic oak, and came to market in 

 the form of hewn billets of about 1 8 feet. 



But as the supplies of this oak became less, and the demand greater, a fresh 

 source of supply was found in Slavonia and South Hungary, which for many 

 years has furnished about half the total import through the ports of Trieste and 

 Fiume. Mr. A. Howard tells me that the size and quality of this was better than 

 the Baltic oak, but owing to the Austrian Government having recently diminished 

 their cuttings in consequence of the rapid diminution of mature timber, a large 

 quantity of billets are now exported from Odessa, which are believed to come 

 from the forests of Podolia and Volhynia, and other provinces of South- West 

 Russia. 



All this imported oak is milder and more easily worked than English oak, and 

 as only selected logs free from knots are shipped, it can be converted into boards 

 with less waste and risk than home-grown timber. We have no certain evidence 

 as to the existence of a sufficient quantity in Russia to keep up the supply either 

 from the Baltic or Odessa, and though the more scientific foresters of Austria are 

 taking steps to restore their oak forests by natural regeneration, it is probable 

 that the French, who consume an immense quantity of oak from this region, 

 will take all they can get, and this, coupled with the approaching disappearance 

 of American oak large enough for quartering, must, sooner or later, cause 

 our own timber when long and clean to be much more valuable than it is at 

 present. 



A note in Holinshed's Chronicles} vol. i. p. 357 (ed. 1807), seems to show 

 that wainscot oak was already exported from the Baltic as long ago as Queen 

 Elizabeth's reign, but whether " Danske " means that it came in Danish ships or 

 from the port of Dantzig I cannot ascertain, though Colonel Brookfield, H.B.M. 

 Consul at that port, has made inquiry on the subject. 



Laslett is the only practical English writer I know of who was personally 

 acquainted with the oak in its native forests in the east of Europe, having been 

 employed by the Admiralty to survey the forests near Brussa, in Asia Minor, as 

 well as in Bosnia, Herzegovina, Croatia, Styria, and Hungary. He states that in the 



' According to Mr. J. C. Shenstone, Harrison of Redwinter in Essex, who lived in the reign of Henry VHI., was the 

 author of this note. " Of all oke growing in England the parke oke is the softest, and far more spalt and Prickle than the 

 hedge oke. And of all in Essex, that growing in Bardfield parke is the finest for joiner's craft ; for often times have I seene 

 of their workes made of that oke so fine and faire as most of the wanescot that is brought hither out of Danske, for our 

 wanescot is not made in England. Yet diverse have assaied to deale with our okes to that end, but not with so good 

 suceesse as they have hoped, because the ab or juice will not so soone be removed and cleane drawne out, which some 

 attribute to want of time in the salt water." 



