io8 OUT-OF-TOWN PLACES. 



the end corning swift. But a good, stanch tree trunk, 

 cut in its best season (late autumn), is a very toler- 

 able sort of God's work, and, seems to me, can be put 

 to very picturesque uses. I don't think the curate's 

 porch is a bad one ; as a hint for better ones, I think 

 it is specially good. 



Upon the question of the use of right material for 

 rustic work, there is very much to be said ; here, I 

 have only space for a suggestion or two. There are 

 some trees which hold their bark wonderfully well ; 

 of such is the sassafras, which, after its tenth year, 

 takes on a picturesque roughness and a rhinoceros- 

 like thickness of skin, which admirably fits it for 

 rustic use. The white ash, assuming after fifteen 

 years a similar thickness of outer covering, holds its 

 coat with almost equal tenacity. The ordinary " pig- 

 nut " hickory holds its bark well ; the oak does not ; 

 neither does the chestnut. The cedar is perhaps most 

 commonly employed for rustic decoration ; cut in the 

 proper season, and due precaution being taken, by 

 coating of oil or varnish, against the ravages of the 

 grubs (which have an uncommon appetite for the 

 sap wood of cedar), it may hold its shaggy epidermis 

 for a long time. I would suggest to those using it 

 for architectural purposes a wash of crude petroleum ; 

 it is a wash that, so far as I know, is proof against 

 the appetite of all insects. Its objectionable odor 



