176 OUR FORESTS AND WOODLANDS 



circumstance gave rise to such rural adages as 

 that about alder in Dorset 



* Thatch me well and keep me dry, 

 Heart of oak I will defy.' 



** 



In the midland counties the same idea is ex- 

 pressed in very similar words as regards poplar 

 and willow. 



Alder wood is largely used for making herring 

 barrels and as charcoal for gunpowder; while 

 on the Continent it is much used for cigar boxes. 

 Its superiority for gunpowder has long been 

 known, at any rate since before the days of 

 Evelyn : c The poles of Alder are as useful as 

 those of Willows; but their coals far exceed 

 them, especially for Gun-powder? 



Before that, however, it had also other minor 

 uses, for Holinshed speaks of * the alder, whose 

 barke is not unprofitable to die blacke withall, 

 and therefore much used by our countrie wives 

 in colouring their knit hosen.' In localities 

 where the wood can be disposed of profitably to 

 a powder factory, or for clog-making or other pur- 

 poses, alder coppice can prove very remunerative. 

 But the better classes of land, which would yield 



