ALDER TREE. 



ALDER TREE. 



tenth or twelfth year for poles. It may also ' 

 be often used to advantage on swampy ground 

 for fences, and may be conveniently trained to | 

 any desired height. The young trees may be j 

 planted to great advantage for securing the | 

 banks of water-courses from the torrents. We 

 certainly know of no tree so well adapted to 

 this purpose as the alder ; for, on account of 

 the numerous suckers which it constantly 

 sends up from the bottom, and the very fibrous 

 nature of their roots, the banks become in 

 time one mass of strongly interwoven roots. 



Wherever it may be desirable to complete a 

 prospect by extending plantations over sterile 

 cold ground, water-galls, or boggy swamps, no 

 tree we know of is equal to the alder, even in 

 a picturesque point of view. 



The generality of trees acquire picturesque 

 beauty by age. Some of the largest alders to 

 be seen in England are growing in the Bishop 

 of Durham's park at Bishop-Auckland, and 

 some very fine ones are to be found in his 

 Grace the Duke of Northumberland's grounds 

 atSion House. Mr. Beevor mentions an alder 

 in his garden, which, at four feet from the 

 ground, measured upwards of sixteen feet in 

 circumference. 



Sir Thomas Dick Lauder says, "In very 

 many instances we have seen the alder put on 

 so much of the bold resolute character of the 

 oak, that it might have been mistaken for that 

 tree except for the intense depth of its green 

 colour. 



The wood of the alder is used [in Europe] 

 for making charcoal and heating ovens, and is 

 valuable for piles, pumps, sluices, and in ge- 

 neral for all works underwater; "because," 

 says Pliny, " it will endure for many years." 

 It is said to have been used under the R.ialto 

 at Venice ; and we are told that the morasses 

 about Ravenna were piled with it in order to 

 l:iy fimndations for building upon. In Flan- 

 ders and Holland it is raised in great quantities 

 for this purpose. It serves also many domestic 

 and rural uses, such as for cart-wheels, spin- 

 ning wheels, milk-vessels, bowls, spoons, and 

 other turnery ware, troughs, handles of tools, 

 clogs, pattens, and wooden heels. The roots 

 and knots furnish a beautiful veined wood for 

 cabinets. The Scottish Highlanders often 

 made chairs of it, which are very handsome, 

 and of the colour of mahogany. 



Sir Thomas Dick Lauder tells us that the 

 old trees, which are full of knots, cut up into 

 planks, make very handsome tables. "We 

 have seen some of these," says the baronet, 

 "made from some enormous trees that grew 

 at Dalwick, on the property of Sir John Nas- 

 myth, in Peebleshire ; and no foreign wood we 

 have ever seen can match them for beauty." 



The bark, though nearly superseded by log- 

 wood, is used by dyers, tanners, and leather- 

 dressers; and also by fishermen for dyeing 

 their nets. Both the baric and young shoot 

 dye yellow, and with a little copperas, a yel- 

 lowish grey, very useful in the demitints anc 

 shadows of fles'h colour in tapestry. The 

 shoots cut in March will dye a cinnamon 

 colour ; and a fine tawny, if they be dried anc 

 powdered. The fresh wood yields a dye the 

 colour of rappee snuff. The catkins dye green 



and the bark is used as a basis for black. The 

 bark and leaves have been sometimes employed 

 in tanning leather, the whole tree being very 

 astringent. 



The alder delights in a very moist soil, 

 where few other trees will thrive : 



"The Alder, owner of each waterish soil." 



Fairfax's Tasso. 



It is also an old opinion that it does not in- 

 ure grass, but rather nourishes its growth: 



"The Alder, whose fat shadow nourisheth; 

 Each plant set neere to him long flourisheth." 



W. Browne. 



Marshall is of a very different opinion. " In 

 ow swampy situations," he says, " where the 

 ground cannot be drained but at too great an 

 expense, the alder may be planted with pro- 

 iriety and advantage ; but wherever the soil is 

 or can be made pasturable, the alder should by 

 no means be allowed to gain a footing. Its 

 suckers and seedlings poison the herbage ; and 

 t is a fact well known to the observant hus- 

 bandman, that the roots of the alder have a 

 peculiar property of rendering the soil they 

 row in more moist and rotten than it would 

 be if not occupied by this aqueous plant. 

 Plantations of alders should therefore be con- 

 fined to swampy, low, unpasturable places ; 

 except when they are made for the purpose of 

 ornament ; and in this case the native species 

 ought to give place to its more ornamental 

 varieties, of which Han bury makes five, 

 namely, the log-leaved alder, the white alder, 

 the black alder, the hoary-leaved alder, and the 

 dwarf alder." (On Planting, ii. 37.) The cut- 

 leaved is a pretty variety. 



It is propagated by layers, cuttings, or 

 truncheons, about three feet in length. Such 

 truncheons are often employed for securing 

 the banks of rivers, either by planting them 

 very close, or crosswise. For general pur- 

 iiowever, we approve of raising the 

 young trees by layers. 



The distance at which these trees should be 

 placed, if intended for a coppice, is g, yard 

 square ; and at the expiration of seven years, 

 when they may be felled for poles, every other 

 stool may be taken away ; and if the small 

 lateral shoots be taken off in the spring, it will 

 very much strengthen the upright poles, pro- 

 vided a few small shoots be left at certain dis- 

 tances upon the trunk, to detain the sap for the 

 increase of its bulk. 



The alder may be raised from seeds sown in 

 beds in the same way as is usual for birch ; 

 but propagation by truncheons or layers is the 

 most speedy process for obtaining young 

 plants. 



The best time for planting alder truncheons 

 is in February or March. They should be 

 about three feet in length, sharpened at one 

 end, and the ground loosened with an instru- 

 ment before they are thrust into it, lest by the 

 stiffness of the soil the bark should be torn off, 

 which may prevent their growing. They should 

 be put into the earth about two feet, to prevent 

 their being blown out of the ground by strong 

 winds. After they have made stout shoots, the 

 plantations should be cleared from all such 

 weeds as grow tall, otherwise they will over- 

 bear the young shoots; but when they have 



