24 TREE-PLANTING. 



The Alder (Alnus glutinosd). The glutinous, or 

 common alder, is by no means a handsome tree, and 

 cannot be compared to the willow, and is deficient as 

 an ornamental object. Its proper home is near to 

 springs, and by the margin of rivers, where it will 

 frequently attain the height of sixty feet. One tree 

 in Norfolk is recorded as standing sixty-five feet high, 

 its trunk, one foot from the ground, measuring twelve 

 feet in circumference. The alder may be regarded as 

 the most aquatic tree known to Britain, and attains 

 its maturity when it has reached from fifty to sixty 

 years, at which age it should be felled, when its timber 

 is the main object sought for. The wood is some- 

 what similar to that of the willow, and is useful for 

 certain definite purposes, as for the making of shoe- 

 makers' lasts, for the use of turners and cabinet- 

 makers, where soft wood is desirable. In Scotland, 

 the wood is much in request in those districts where 

 fish is cured, for making fish-barrels, when trees of 

 twenty-five years of age are sufficiently mature to be 

 felled for this purpose. 



The alder has been made use of as a most valuable 

 agent for reclaiming meadow-land, which has either 

 been continually, or partially flooded. In order to 

 effect this object, the soil is ridged up by the side of 

 the watercourse in spring, upon which young trees 

 are planted. In a few years, by the roots fixing 

 themselves tenaciously in the soil, and the continued 

 falling of the leaves, the bank will become hard and 

 firm. 



The alder also, being a rapid-growing tree, is a 

 useful kind to plant in bare situations, where houses 

 have been built destitute of the natural ornament of 



