CHAP. XLI. u.ui MiN-vYi:.!.. Koni'N/yf. 621 



being exposed to the air for 7 or 8 days to dry, they arc taken home, and 

 put in a barn or into a rick, between layers of straw, to which they commu- 

 nicate their fragrance and sugary taste. When the shoots are to be eaten 

 iM'tvn, none are taken but those of the same season; because in them the 

 prickles are herbaceous, and, consequently, do not injure the mouths of the 

 animals. The roots of the locust are very sweet, and afford an extract which 

 might supply the place of that obtained from liquorice roots ; the entire 

 plant is also said to afford a yellow dye. The flowers have been employed 

 medicinally as antispasmodics, and to form an agreeable and refreshing syrup, 

 which is drunk with water to quench thirst. M. Francois says he never 

 drank any thing to be compared to a liquor distilled from locust flowers in 

 St. Domingo. These flowers, he adds, retain their perfume when dried ; and 

 those of a single tree are sufficient to give a scent resembling that of orange 

 blossoms to a whole garden. 



As an ornamental tree, when full-grown, according to Gilpin, the acacia is 



an elegant, and often a very beautiful, object ; whether it feathers to the ground, 



as it sometimes does, or is adorned with a light foliage hanging from the 



shoots : but its beauty, he adds, is frail ; and " it is of all trees the least 



able to endure the blast. In some sheltered spot, it may ornament a garden ; 



but it is by no means qualified to adorn a country. Its wood is of so brittle 



a texture, especially when it is encumbered with a weight of foliage, that you 



can never depend upon its aid in filling up the part you wish. The branch 



you admire to-day may be demolished to-morrow. The misfortune is, the 



acacia is not one of those grand objects, like the oak, whose dignity is often 



increased by ruin. It depends on its beauty, rather than on its grandeur, 



which is a quality more liable to injury. I may add, however, in its favour, 



that, if it be easily injured, it repairs the injury more quickly than any other 



tree. Few trees make so rapid a growth." (Gilpin's Forest Scenery, i. p. 72.) 



On the whole, it would appear, that, in Britain, the locust is only calculated 



for favourable climates and good soils ; and that, when grown in these with a 



view to profit as timber, it should be cut down at the end of 30 or 40 years. 



Perhaps it may prove more profitable as a copse wood, for producing fencing 



stuff, or fuel : but, even for these purposes, we feel confident that it cannot 



be grown for many years together, with advantage, on the same soil. We do 



not think it at all suitable for hop-poles ; because, even when crowded together 



in nursery lines, it cannot be got to grow straight, and it almost always loses 



its main shoot : besides, if it did grow straight, there is no evidence to prove 



that stakes made from young locust trees, and used for hop-poles, are more 



durable than stakes of the ash, chestnut, or any other tree. It is worth}' of 



notice, that Cobbett, apparently without ever having seen a hop-pole made of 



locust, boldly affirms that the tree is admirably adapted for that purpose ; 



that trees from his nursery, after being 4 years planted on Lord Radnor's 



estate at Coleshill, were " fit for hop-poles, that will last in that capacity for 



20 or 30 years at the least " (Woodlands, 380.); that such poles are worth 



a shilling each (that is, nearly double what was at that time the price of good 



ash hop-poles)"; that 5 acres would thus, in 5 years, produce 529/.; and that 



each stump, left after the pole was cut down, would send up 2 or 3 poles 



for the next crop ; which, being cut down in their turn, at the end of 



another 5 years, would, of course, produce two or three times the above 



sum " ! ( 382.) ; that locust wood is " absolutely indestructible by the 



powers of earth, air, and water;" and that " no man in America will pre- 



tend to say that he ever saw a bit of it in a decayed state." (Ibid., 328.) 



After this, it will not be wondered at that Cobbett should call the locust " the 



tree of trees," and that he should eulogise it in the following passage, which 



is so characteristic of the man, and so well exemplifies the kind of quackery in 



which he dealt, that we quote it entire: " The time will come," he observes, 



" and it will not be very distant, when the locust tree will be more common in 



England than the oak ; when a man would be thought mad if he used anything 



but locust in the making of sills, posts, gates, joists, feet for rick-stands, stocks 



