184 CONVERSATIONS ON THE 



wood as there are in America, beech-wood is 

 put to a great variety of uses : there they 

 make it into tables, and bedsteads, and other 

 furniture ; into screws, and rollers, and dishes, 

 and corn-shovels ; into wheels, and oars, and 

 a great many other things for which we prefer 

 ash or hickory. A great deal of it is burnt, 

 too, to make potashes. 



" You remember that I told you before 

 about hedges ; well, in some parts of Europe 

 they make the hedges of young beeches, placed 

 seven or eight inches apart, and bent so as to 

 cross each other ; and very solid and elegant 

 they are too ; far better than any fence in the 

 world. 



" But these are not all the uses of beech- 

 trees ; you know 1 told you before that the 

 bark is used for tanning : that is where oaks 

 are scarce ; and besides this, an excellent 

 oil is got from the nuts, almost as good as the 

 olive oil. In some parts of France vast quan- 

 tities of the nuts are gathered every year for 

 this purpose. They gather them as soon as 

 they are ripe, and spread them out in garrets 

 or barns to dry ; as soon as they are quite 

 dried, they are ground into a paste with a very 

 little water ; then the paste is put into sacks, 



