878 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



Saunders, F.R.S. ; l and Mr. Sidney Webb fully explained the manner in which exten- 

 sive canker resulted from minute wounds, at a meeting of the Scientific Committee of 

 the Royal Horticultural Society, February 11, 1879. A full account of the disease 

 is given by Dr. Masters in the Gardeners' Chronicle, 1879, p. 208, where it is 

 stated that the injury is originated by the larva of a minute moth called Prays 

 curtisellus} Plate 244 shows a bad case of this canker in an ash at Staple, near 

 Colesborne ; and there is a tree at least 70 feet high by the roadside, close to 

 the sixth milestone from Cirencester to Cheltenham, which has had this disease 

 from its base to near the summit as long as I can remember. 



In Trans. Scot. Arb. x. 235, there is a useful paper on the Ash Bark Beetle, 

 Hylesinus Fraxini, a pest which seems to be dangerous only where the ash is 

 already unhealthy. As the eggs of this insect are laid in spring only under the bark 

 of felled, dead, or sickly trees, wherever this pest is troublesome, all such should be 

 removed from the neighbourhood of the healthy trees by April, and ash loppings 

 should not be left on the ground. A curious malformation occurs in a tree growing 

 close to Cirencester, on the east side of the Tetbury road nearly opposite the Kennels. 

 Plate 244 shows the remarkable growths on its branches, specimens of which were 

 sent to Kew and found to contain numerous examples of Hylesinus Fraxini. 



Timber 



For coach, waggon, and agricultural implement making, and for all purposes in 

 which strength, toughness, and durability are required, ash timber has no equal, and 

 no substitute has been found among foreign trees which can be relied on as well. 

 In consequence, it is now the easiest to sell, if not quite the highest priced, of all 

 English timbers ; and its growing scarcity seems to point to a great future for it. 



It varies much, however, in strength, toughness, and elasticity, according to the 

 soil on which it is grown, and the age at which it is cut. I am informed by Mr. 

 Clutterbuck of the Gloucester Waggon Works, who has had long experience with 

 English and foreign timber, that there is no better ash in England than that grown 

 on the Cotswold hills ; but if left standing too long, it becomes discoloured at the 

 heart, and is probably never worth more per foot than when 60 or 70 years old. 



It is now perhaps the only wood worth growing as copse wood, and, when estab- 

 lished on good land and cut every ten to fifteen years, still makes as much as a 

 pound per acre per annum. The poles are used for making hurdles, hoops, crates, 

 and many other purposes, and as hop-poles are only second to chestnut. I have 

 found that for the rails of light field-gates in a hunting country, on account of their 

 elasticity nothing is better ; and when well made they last thirty years or more. Ash 

 wood takes creosote well, which very much increases its durability ; and some sheep- 

 hurdles which I had creosoted thirteen years ago are still sound, though when not 

 so treated, they do not last more than three to five years. Ash, however, soon 

 decays in contact with the soil and is unfit for building purposes, though it was 



1 Journ. Roy. Hort. Soc. v. 1 35 (1879). 



* Also known as Tinea curtisella, Don. Cf. Schlich's Man. Forestry, iv. 344 (1907), where the moth is figured and 

 described. 



