DECIDUOUS ORNAMENTAL TREES. 159 



The wood of our Black birch is by far the finest ; and, 

 as it assumes a beautiful rosy color when polished, and is 

 next in texture to the wild Cherry tree, it is considerably 

 esteemed among cabinet-makers in the eastern states, for 

 chairs, tables, and bedsteads. 



In Europe, the sap of the birch is collected in the 

 spring, in the same manner as that of the maple in this 

 country, boiled with sugar and hops, and fermented with 

 the aid of yeast. The product of the fermentation is 

 called bir-ch wine, and is described as being a remarkably 

 pleasant and healthy beverage. 



Though perhaps too common in some districts of our 

 country to be properly regarded as an ornamental tree, 

 yet in others where it is less so, the birch will doubtless 

 be esteemed as it deserves. With us it is a great favorite ; 

 and we regard it as a very elegant and graceful tree, not 

 less on account of the silvery white bark of several 

 species, than from the extreme delicacy of the spray, and 

 the pleasing lightness and airiness of the foliage. In all 

 the species, the branches have a tendency to form those 

 graceful curves which contribute so much to the beauty 



canoes. To procure proper pieces, the largest and smoothest trunks are 

 selected ; in the spring, two circular incisions are made several feet apart, and 

 two longitudinal ones, on opposite sides of the tree : after which, by intro- 

 ducing a wedge, the bark is easily detached. These plates are usually ten or 

 twelve feet long, and two feet nine inches broad. To form canoes, they are 

 stitched together with fibrous roots of the white spruce, about the size of a 

 quill, which are deprived of the bark, split, and suppled in water. The seams 

 are coated with resin of the Balm of Gilead. Great use is made of these 

 canoes by the savages, and the French Canadians, in their long journeys through 

 the interior of the country : they are light, and very easily transported on the 

 shoulders from one lake to another, which is called the portage. A canoa 

 calculated for four persons, with their baggage, weighs from forty to fifty 

 pounds ; and some of them are made to carry fifteen passengers." 



