AMENTIFERA. 161 
to the oak, it will make a fair show outwardly, when it is all decayed and rotten 
within; but this is in some sort recompensed, if it be true that the beams made of the 
chestnut tree have this property, that being somewhat brittle, they give warning, 
and premonish the danger by a certain crackling; so as it is said to have frighted 
those out of the baths at Antandro, whose roof was laid with this material, but which 
Pliny says was of hazel, very unlike it.” But though far more brittle and perishable 
than it was formerly considered, chestnut is by no means so worthless a wood as 
modern writers have represented it. In fences it seems as durable as most other 
woods, posts of it having stood little injured for forty or fifty years; and in houses 
and outbuildings it has been known to last as long, even where exposed to weather. 
The wood of the chestnut has the remarkable property of being more durable when 
it is young than when it is old; and Mr. Kent, in the “ Transactions of the Society of 
Arts in 1792,” observes, “When the chestnut is suffered to stand beyond its full 
growth it is the worst of all timber, being more brittle and more apt to fly into 
splinters than any other; but I have never known this to be the case with young 
chestnut.” Hence he directs the tree to be cut when it is in a growing or healthy 
state, because it is “so early useful, that if it be cut when it squares only six inches, 
it will be as durable as an oak of six times its size and age.” French writers state 
that chestnut wood is a good deal used for making wine-casks, a circumstance noticed 
by Rapin, in his poem entitled “‘ The Garden :’— 
“With close-grain’d chestnut wood of sovereign use, 
For casking up the grape’s most powerful juice.” 
Wine is said to ferment in chestnut casks more slowly, and be less likely to evaporate 
than in vessels of any other wood. According to Du Hamel, there is no wood which 
makes better hoops, as it resists the dry rot in cellars, As fuel, the wood of chestnut 
is not much approved; it throws out sparks and smoulders rather than flames, and 
the charcoal is not of the first quality. Michaux informs us that the ashes of the 
wood furnish a great deal of potash. The bark is used for tannin, but it only sells 
for half the price of that of oak. The leaves in country places in France are used as 
a litter for cattle, and when dried they are made, like beech leaves, into beds for the 
poor. “But these leafy beds,’ says Evelyn, “for the crackling noise they make 
when one turns upon them, the French call lits de parlement.’ As a fruit tree, 
the chestnut is not estimated in England, according to its worth, the nuts being 
seldom eaten but as a desert, and then in only one universal form, plainly roasted, 
and occasionally as a stufling for turkeys or fowls. Possibly if the fruit attained a 
greater perfection in this climate, it might be more generally used, as it is in France 
and other countries in the south of Europe. The seeds or nut, as they are commonly 
called, contain large quantities of oil, and in Italy and the south of France serve as a 
substitute in a great measure for potatoes and bread. LHvyelyn writes, ‘‘ We give that 
fruit to our swine in England which is amongst the delicacies of princes in other 
countries ; and being of the larger nut, is a lusty and masculine food for rustics at all 
times, and of better nourishment than cale and rusty bacon, yea, or beans to boot. 
How we here use chestnuts in stewed meats and beatille pies, our French cooks teach 
us; and this is, in truth, their very best use, and very commendable ; for it is found 
that the eating them raw or in bread, as they do in Limousin, is apt to swell the 
belly, though without any other inconvenience, that I can learn; and yet some 
condemn them as dangerous for such as are subject to the gravel in the kidneys; and 
however cooked and prepared, flatulent, offensive to the head and stomach, especially 
to those who are subject to the cholick. The best way to preserve them is to 
VOL. VIII. te 
