Trees for Economic Planting 53 



celebrated bridge of the Rialto, at Venice, was, according to 

 Evelyn, built on piles of alder wood, while the city of 

 Ravenna was stated to have likewise been built on piles of 

 the same wood. For herring barrel staves the wood is also 

 in request, as it is for mill bobbins and turnery work. In 

 cabinet work and for cheap furniture alder wood is largely 

 used, while as it does not readily split, boards for 

 the bottoms of carts and wheelbarrows are frequently 

 made of the same wood. 



The beautiful pale pink colour which the timber per- 

 manently retains causes knotty planks to be in great demand 

 for veneering purposes. 



In Wales, and throughout the Midland counties, large 

 quantities of alder timber are consumed in the making of 

 clog soles, which, after being roughly formed in the wood- 

 lands where the trees have been felled, are sent by rail to 

 several of the Lancashire towns to be finished off. Through- 

 out Ireland chiefly the north large numbers of clog soles, 

 made of alder, are annually employed in the manufacture of 

 cheap boots ; indeed, in many parts the making of clogs is 

 quite an industry. 



The bark of the alder is used in tanning leather, though 

 in much smaller quantities at present than was the case 

 half a century ago, when oak bark fetched as much as 10 

 a ton, and when none of the chemicals that are now so 

 commonly employed were offered in the market. Excellent 

 gunpowder is made of the wood, said to be second only in 

 quality to that prepared from the dogwood. The young 

 shoots, according to the peculiar way in which they are pre- 

 pared, are employed in dyeing red, brown, yellow, and black. 



Alder is generally in good demand at all stages of its 

 growth, and is seldom grown to very large dimensions. For 

 the clogger, turner, or charcoal burner it is of greatest value 

 up to about thirty years' growth, while by cutting it over 

 at that age a second crop springs rapidly from the stools. 



The Birch. It is hardly necessary to speak of the hardi- 

 ness of the birch, for no other native tree, not even the 

 Scotch pine, ascends to such elevations in Britain. The 

 higher the tree ascends the more shrub-like, it becomes, until 



