28 CONVERSATIONS ON THE 



spots ; the acorns are large and sweet ; and 

 the wood is the best and the most used of all 

 the American oaks. It is preferred to all other 

 wood for the timbers of houses, bridges, and 

 mills ; for the frames of coaches, wagons, and 

 ploughs ; the spokes and felloes of wheels, 

 and for the backs of chairs. When the trees 

 are quite young, the wood splits well, and is 

 easily bent, and is used to make baskets, sieves, 

 and whip-handles ; and in some parts of the 

 country vast quantities of it are made up into 

 pail-handles, and axe-handles. It is very 

 much used, too, for fences, and it is the only 

 kind of oak wood that is proper for staves of 

 wine barrels. You would be astonished if I 

 were to tell you how many millions of staves 

 are made every year of white oak ; fifty-three 

 millions were exported in one year to the 

 West Indies alone. White oak is very much 

 used, too, in ship-building, but it is not so 

 good as the timber of the live oak. 



" The live oak grows only in some parts of the 

 Southern States; it is best in Florida and Louis- 

 iana ; it requires a mild climate and sea air, 

 and is never found more than fifteen or twenty 

 miles from the shore. It seldom grows very 

 large, the height being in general about forty- 



