936 PRACTICE OF GARDENING. PART III. 



men of war is deal : but these woods bear no proportion, in respect of me quantity used, 

 to the oak. The timbers of a ship are principally crooked, but the planking is cut out 

 of straight pieces. In a seventy-four gun ship, the crooked and straight pieces used are 

 nearly equal, but the planking under water is of foreign oak : therefore, of English oak, 

 the proportion of crooked to straight pieces is almost two to one. Masts and yards are 

 of deal. The blockmakers use elm, lignum vitae, box, and other hard woods. Upon 

 the whole, it may be said, that, in the construction of a ship, oak is the only English wood 

 made use of ; and that of this English oak nearly two thirds are requisite to be more or 

 less crooked." (Planting and Rural Ornament, i. 49.) 



6748. In the construction of merchant-vessels, Monteath, in 1820, states, that " the out-keel commonly 

 used is of beech or elm, and made generally of two or three trees or pieces joined together to whatever 

 length is required; these require to be nearly straight. The keel-stone, or inner keel, requires trees of 

 nearly the same description, but chiefly oak. Floor timbers are sometimes used of elm and beech, and 

 are a little crooked. First crooks are a good deal crooked towards the one end, as they begin to ascend 

 up the vessel, and are more valuable than the floor timbers, but are also used sometimes of elm and 

 beech. Upright timbers are always made of oak, and are considerably crooked, for elm or beech is seldom 

 put into a good vessel, except the lower part, where the vessel is always under water when light. Top 

 timbers are also of oak, but not so valuable, as they are mostly straight. Beams go under the deck of the 

 vessel, and are also all oak, and have but a small crook, but require trees of considerable length. Knees 

 are always of oak, and are the most principal crooks in the vessel. The stem-piece is a very particular 

 crook. Breast-hooks also have particular crooks. Stern-posts and windlass are straight pieces. Trees 

 that will cut up for planking are used of as great a length as they can be got, and are the better for having 

 a considerable crook or curve one way ; these are used of elm or beech for planking under water, but 

 four planks of oak are required for one of beech or elm for this purpose." (Forester's Guide, p. 111.) 



6749. Straight timber is bent to any form by the use of steam, and other improvements in ship-building ; 

 and thus the larch or any sound resinous timber may be employed, and is so to a certain extent for com- 

 mercial ships. Sir A. Grant, an experienced planter, is of opinion, that " the larch will, in a short pe- 

 riod, instead of the oak, bear the thunder of Britain on her element, the ocean." (Gen. Rep. of Scot. ii. 

 270.) In a communication to the President of the Board of Agriculture, by Wilson, of London, dated in 

 1797, the idea is suggested of combining small timbers for all the purposes of ship-building. He suggests, 

 that oak of only thirty-three years' growth, by this mode of combining, may be employed where trees of 

 a hundred years old would be requisite by the old method : and he maintains, that ships so built sail faster, 

 and are less liable to accident. (Gen. Rep. ii. 199.) The use of timber of small growth has been already 

 introduced in the construction of masts for the largest vessels, either by splicing pieces properly adapted 

 together ; or, by forming hollow masts from small timber, which, uniting strength with lightness, have 

 advantages which solid ones do not possess. (P 'erring and Money on Ship-building.) 



6750. In the construction of machines) the millwright's chief material is oak, beech, and 

 crab-tree for cogs ; alder, and sometimes willow, for float-boards ; and fir and oak for 

 shafts and frame-work. The waggon and cartwright uses oak and ash for bodies, axles, 

 and spokes ; elm for naves, fellies, and linings ; sometimes also the softer woods for lin- 

 ings, as poplar, willow, lime, and horse-chestnut. The coachmaker and ploughwright use 

 more ash than any other sort of timber. Gates are made of oak and deal, and their posts 

 of oak or larch ; the soft woods are sometimes used, but are far from being durable. 

 Ladders are formed chiefly of deal, or of poplar and willow, as being light ; pumps and 

 water-pipes generally of elm and alder ; beech and sycamore are used in making calen- 

 ders and cheese-presses, &c. For all these purposes the timber must be full-grown, with 

 some exceptions, as young or root-cut oak and ash for spokes and shafts. 



6751. For implements, root-cut ash is in general use for the handles of such as require 

 to bear great stress, as of the spade, fork, mattock, forge-hammers, &c. ; willow or deal, 

 of the lighter tools, as the hoe, rake, scythe ; beech and sycamore for the common tools 

 and instruments of carpenters ; box, holly, elder, &c. for the more select tools of artisans, 

 and for mathematical and gaugers' instruments. 



6752. For utensils, under which is included household furniture, the chief British wood used by the 

 cabinet-maker is beech for bed-frames, chairs, and sofas ; next, birch and broad-leaved elm for the same 

 purposes ; oak for gothic furniture ; the cherry, plum, holly, yew, box, walnut, lime, poplar, and a great 

 variety of woods for occasional purposes ; and deal enters more or less into the construction of almost 



ends ; these, since a law passed authorising herrings to be put into barrels made from British timber, have 

 been in great demand (Monteath) ; ash for dairy utensils, butter-firkins, flour-barrels, &c. ; oak for well- 

 buckets and water-pails, and, in some places, for milk-pails and other dairy utensils; beech is occasionally 

 used for the same purpose, and for soap-firkins, and willow, oak, ash, and hazel for hoops. The brush- 

 maker uses beech, sycamore, birch, and some holly and box, and also poplar and lime-tree ; locksmiths, 

 the soundest oak, from the root-cut or but-end of the trunk ; the block-maker, for printing and bleach- 



straw utensil makers use the bramble and willow ; besom-makers the spray of the birch, broom, heath ; 

 last and patten makers, alder and birch ; the toy-maker, lime, and other soft woods, and also box, holly, 

 and yew. For most of these purposes, the trees must have attained a timber size, and for some of them, 

 they should be full-grown. 



6753. For fuel, any ligneous vegetable may be used at any age, and either the body 

 or trunk and root of the plant, or its branches and spray. Resinous trees, excepting the 

 larch, afford most flame, and may be used the soonest after being cut ; the ash next in 

 order, then the birch, whose oily bark burns clear ; oak and elm burn the slowest ; and 

 the roots of trees are generally of more slow combustion than their tops. To produce 

 iel in a short time, the most rapid-growing tree is the common tree-acacia (Robinin 



