240 AMERICAN AGRICULTURE. 



the fuel and timber are good for most purposes. Every one 

 who has seen the patriarchal elms which grace the beautiful 

 villages of the Connecticut valley and other old towns of 

 New England, must wish to see them universally dissemi- 

 nated. The rock or sugar maple is a beautiful tree, having a 

 straight trunk and regular upward-branching limbs, forming 

 a top of great symmetry and elegance. Besides the ornament 

 and thick shade it affords, it gives an annual return in its 

 sap which is used for making into sugar and syrup ; the fuel 

 is equal to any of our native trees ; the timber is valuable, 

 yielding the beautiful glossy bird's-eye maple so much 

 esteemed for furniture. The black walnut is a stately, grace- 

 ful tree, of great value for wood and durable timber, and 

 besides its extensive use for plain substantial furniture, the 

 knots and crotches make the rich dark veneering, which 

 rivals the mahogany or rose-wood in brilliancy and lasting 

 beauty. In a fertile soil it likewise bears a highly flavored 

 nut. The lohite ash has a more slender and a stiffer top than 

 either of the preceding, yet is light and graceful. The fuel 

 is good and the timber unequalled in value for the carriage 

 maker. The weeping willow is a tree of variegated foliage, 

 and long flexile twigs, sometimes trailing the ground for 

 yards in length. Its soft silvery leaves'are among the ear- 

 liest of spring, and the last to maintain their verdure in 

 autumn. Its timber is worthless and the wood of little value. 

 The black oak on soil adapted to it, is a tree of commanding 

 beauty and stalwart growth. The foliage appears late, but 

 is unsurpassed for depth and richness of color arid highly 

 polished surface, and it retains its summer green, long after 

 the early frosts have mottled the ash and streaked the maple 

 with their rain-bow hues. When grown on dry and open 

 land, both fuel and timber are valuable. The locust is a 

 beautiful tree, of rapid growth, flowering profusely and with 

 layers or massive flakes of innumerable leaflets of the 

 deepest verdure. The wood is unrivalled for durability as 

 ship timber except by the live-oak; and for posts or exposure 

 to the weather, it is exceeded only by the savin or red cedar. 

 It has of late years been subject to severe attack and great 

 injury from the borer, a worm against whose ravages 

 hitherto there has been no successful remedy. The button- 

 wood, sycamore, plane-tree, water-beach or cotton-tree, by all of 

 which names it is known in different parts of this country, is 

 of gigantic dimensions when occupying a rich and moist 



