138 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



tween the Neckar and Mayn, there is hardly any other 

 timber.* In England there are still a good many trees 

 scattered over the country ; but the timber 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 well as of most other 

 species of domestic timber used for finer purposes. 



There is still, however, one use 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 for 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 hundred pounds. 



Beside the value of its timber, the walnut-tree 

 hastnany other uses. The ripe nuts are well known 

 as a fruit; the green ones make an agreeable and 

 wholesome pickle; and the oil is used for delicate 

 colours in painting, and for smoothing and polishing 

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



* The spring of 1827 was particularly destructive to the 

 walnuts of the Bergstrasse, and the neighbouring parts of Ger- 

 many, where the walnut is extensively cultivated for the oil. 

 Many thousand trees were killed, and nearly all the branches 

 of the rest were destroyed. 



