20S ROBIXIA PSEUDACACIA. 
which are cut at the age of four years, for vine-props ; and these props are said 
to last more than twenty years. In the same district, old trees are pollarded, 
and their branches lopped every third year, for the same purpose. In Paris, 
many small articles are made of the wood ; such as salt-cellars, sugar-dishes, 
spoons, forks, sand-boxes, paper-knives. &c. 
In Lombardy, the wood of the locust is used for many rural purposes. Young 
plants of it were formerly much employed for live fences ; but this practice has 
long since been abandoned, because the tree was found to impoverish the soil ; 
and, with age, lost its prickles ; besides, from being continually pruned, to keep it 
low, or from being cropped by animals, the hedges became thin and open at the 
bottom, and eventually became mere stumps. Italy, as well as the southern 
departments of France, Michaux considers the countries in which the greatest 
advantages may be derived from the rapid growth of this tree. In good soils, in 
such climates, at the end of twenty or twenty-five years, he says, that a mass of 
wood may be obtained from the locust, twice as great as from any other species 
of tree. 
In countries where clovers and root crops are not cultivated, the leaves of the 
locust may serve as a substitute for these articles as provender for animals. 
When this species is cultivated for this purpose, it should be mown every year; 
or the trees may be allowed to grow to the height of eight or ten feet, and treated 
as pollards, the branches being cut off every other year, which should be done 
at mid-summer, when they are succulent, and can be dried for winter's use. In 
performing this operation, one or two shoots should be left on each tree, to keep 
up vegetation, which may be pruned oft* the following winter or spring. When 
the shoots are to be eaten green, none should be taken but those of the same sea- 
son ; because in them the prickles are herbaceous, and, consequently, do not 
injure the mouths of the animals. 
The roots of the locust are very sweet, and afford an extract which might be 
substituted for licorice. The flowers have been employed medicinally, as anti- 
spasmodics, and have been distilled into an agreeable, refreshing syrup, which 
is drunk with water to quench thirst. The flowers retain their fragrance when 
dried : and those of a single tree are sufficient to perfume a whole garden. 
As an ornamental tree, the locust, with its light and elegant foliage, its sweetly 
perfumed flowers, its beautiful pendent form, often "feathering to the ground," 
will always be entitled to a place in our parks, lawns, and pleasure-grounds ; but, 
as Gilpin says, " its beauty is frail, and it is of all trees the least able to endure the 
blast. In some sheltered spot it may ornament a garden ; but it is by no means 
qualified to adorn a country. Its wood is of so brittle a texture, especially when 
it is encumbered with a weight of foliage, that you can never depend upon its aid 
in filling up the part you wish. The branch you admire to-day may be demol- 
ished to-morrow. The misfortune is, the acacia is not one of those grand objects, 
like the oak, whose dignity is often increased by ruin. It depends on its beauty, 
rather than on its grandeur, which is a quality more liable to injury. I may 
add, however, in its favour, that, if it be easily injured, it repairs the injury 
more quickly than any other tree." It has also " the further disadvantage of 
coming late into leaf, and being among the very first to cast its foliage in autumn, 
and this without undergoing any change of colour, or exhibiting those beautiful 
and mellow tints which enrich the landscape at this season of the year." 
