HOW TO GROW GOOD TIMBER. 305 



exceedingly objectionable, not only from the ill effects 

 on the scene of interminable rows of one kind of 

 tree, but the drip and the peculiar growth of the 

 roots render it most destructive to the growth of 

 crops planted beneath its shade. 



The uses to which the wood of this tree is turned 

 are multifarious in the extreme. Walking-sticks are 

 made from ash saplings ; and as, from youth to age, 

 it is so tou£?h and elastic, it is used for handles and 

 other parts of farm implements and machinery of all 

 kinds. The wheelwright and coachmaker employ the 

 wood extensively ; so also the cooper. As a firewood 

 its " offal " is always welcome, as it burns with a 

 clear, bright flame, and that nearly as well in the 

 green as in the dry state ; and the whole tree is 

 so rich in potash that this alkali is often made from 

 its trimmings and loppings. 



We had already mentioned some of the supersti- 

 tions connected with the ash, and at p. 250 will be 

 found directions for making a shrew-ash ; we shall 

 now, therefore, only direct attention to another prac- 

 tice which this tree was employed for, even to a 

 somewhat recent period, as it will account for some 

 curious growths of ash which will sometimes be met 

 with. Evelyn says : — 



I have heard it affirmed with great confidence, and upon expe- 

 rience, that the rupture to which many children are obnoxious, is 

 healed, by passing the infant through a wide cleft made in the bole 

 or stem of the growing ash-tree ; it is then carried a second time 

 round the asb, and caused to repass the same aperture as before. The 

 rupture of the child being bound up, it is supposed to heal as the 

 cleft of the tree closes and coalesces. 



As, then, the healing of the child would seem to 



