138 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



tween the Neckar and Mayn, there is hardly any other 

 timber.* In En2:land there are still a good many trees 

 scattered over the country ; but the number is not so 

 great as it was formerly, the partiality for the woods 

 of the colonies and other foreign countries having 

 diminished the value of this, as w ell as of most other 

 species of domestic timber used for finer purposes. 



There is still, however, one \ise to which the wal- 

 nut-tree is applied, in preference to any other timber, 

 and this use demands the qualities of beauty, durabi- 

 lity, and strength : walnut-tree is employed for the 

 stocks of all manner of fire-arms. Before it is used, 

 however, it should be well seasoned, or even baked, 

 as when recent it is very apt to shrink, a disadvan- 

 tage which is completely got rid of by seasoning. 



The walnut grows rapidly till it attains a con- 

 siderable size, which is even valuable as timber. The 

 absolute duration of the tree has not been ascertained 

 with accuracy ; but, probably, the most profitable 

 age for cutting it is the average of hard-wood trees, 

 about fifty or sixty years. The demand f()r musket 

 and pistol stocks during the late war thinned Eng- 

 land of its walnut trees ; and the deficiency should 

 be made up by fresh planting. At that period the 

 timber was so much in demand, that a fine tree has 

 often been sold for several hiuidred pounds. 



Beside the value of its timber, the walnut-tree 

 has many other uses. The ripe nuts are well known 

 as a fruit ; the green ones make an agreeable and 

 wholesome pickle ; and the oil is xised for delicate 

 colours in painting, and for smoothing and polishing 

 wood work : sometimes, also, for frjang meats, and 



* The spring of 1827 was particularly destructive to the wal- 

 nuts of the Bei-gstrasse, and the neighbouring parts of Germany, 

 where the walnut is extensively cultivated for the oil. Many thou- 

 sand trees were killed^ and nearly all the branches of the rest were 

 destroyed. 



