40 THE PRACTICAL PLANTER. 



A vinous beverage is also extracted from 

 thts tree, which bears the name of Birch 

 wine. Trees growing in a moist soil afford 

 more juice for this purpose than those grow- 

 ing on more absorbent ones. The season in 

 which it flows most freely, is in spring, and 

 early in summer. 



" The Birch oil, to which the celebrated 

 Russian leather owes its agreeable smell, is 

 prepared from the white bark, either taken 

 from the live tree, or collected from those 

 that are putrid in the woods. It is best 

 made from the latter; because by the pu- 

 trefaction it is freed from the inner bark ; 

 and the external white bark remains un- 

 corrupted for ages, as appears by the old 

 burial places at Jenisea, and the vaults of 

 the very ancient castle of Moscow, which 

 I observed were covered with Birch bark. 

 The bark is gathered into a heap, and pressed 

 into pits made in did shape of a funnel, 

 prepared in a clay soil ; and when set on 

 fire, it is covered with turf. The oil, distil- 



of young trees, or of the branches and extremities of 

 older ones, is most valuable, and bears the name of 

 Maidai-bdrk, See Chap. VII. on Natural Woods. 



