No. 133.J 407 



top, and water the tree thoroughly when planted ; in a few years 

 it will surprise you by its wonderful growth. It delights in a 

 fertile, moist, loamy soil; still it prospers in gravel, but particu- 

 larly abliors a dry sand. I don't know a more singular timber 

 than the elm; it bears two extremes admirably, and may either 

 be kept continually dry or wet, consequently it is used for mills, 

 water work-, pipes, pumps, ship planks on the bottom of vessels, 

 aqueducts, etc., and has been found buried in bogs for centuries, 

 and tlien polished to appear like the finest ebony. It is used by 

 wheelwrights for hubs, axle-trees; by carpenters for handles 

 dressers ; by butchers for chopping blocks ; by sextons for coffins ; 

 by hat makers for hat blocks ; and by carvers. The leaves may 

 be stripped oil for feeding cattle on in winter ; they prefer them 

 to oats, and will grov/ ftit upon them. The poet said, fecunda 

 frondibus ulmi — fruitful in leaves, the elm. The green leaves, 

 when crushed, will heal a recent wound or cut immediately. The 

 tree is incomparable for shade, and Virgil says they may be en- 

 grafted upon the oak. Both these trees, when required for use 

 should be cut in November or December ; so cut, even sapplingg 

 will last without decay as long as the heart of old trees. There 

 are five varieties, the white, Ulmus Americana, Wahoo, Ulmus 

 Alata,Conimon,Ulmiif Carapestris, Red, Ulmiis Rubra, Dutch Elm, 

 Ulmus Suberosa. 



(THE BIRCH, BETULA.) 



Is a tree of easy culture, and grows readily on the most barren 

 and forbidding soil, whether it be dry, wet, sandy, marshy or 

 stony, high or low, it is all the same. It is not considered of any 

 value as timber, still is put to various uses, such as the manufac- 

 ture of biooms, ox-jokes, hoops, baskets, arrows, dishes, bowls, 

 ladles, can(jes, buckets and various other domestic utensils. The 

 inner silky bark was much used in former times to write upon, 

 before ];)aper was invented — and the outer bark served as covers 

 for houses before slati s and tiles were known. The roots are 

 sometimes exceedingly curious, I have seen them representing 

 birds, beasts and other forms ; the mould taken from hollow, de- 

 cayed birch trees, is capital for raising rare and tender plants. 

 If tapped in spring, a clear and limpid liquor flows from the tree, 



