COMMON ASH. 95 



used almost exclusively for the handles of spades and sho- 

 vels, as well as for axes, picks, &c, and its elasticity 

 renders it one of the best materials for boat oars. In 

 many parts of England milk-pails are made of thin boards 

 of this wood, each rolled into a hollow cylinder, with 

 a bottom affixed to it, and Loudon recommends it as 

 particularly adapted for kitchen tables, on account of its 

 not being liable to splinter when under the operation of 

 scouring. 



The Ash also possesses the additional recommendation 

 of becoming useful when quite young, the wood being 

 as durable and as perfect in regard to its other properties 

 at a very early age, as it is when it has attained its greatest 

 dimensions. Coachmakers, indeed, and other manufacturers, 

 consider it to be best adapted to their purposes between 

 the age of thirty and sixty years, as large trees of older 

 growth are frequently found to have lost that elasticity 

 and adhesiveness of fibre which constitute the peculiar 

 excellence of the Ash, and to have become brittle and 

 short, or, as it is called, /rush, in the grain, in consequence of 

 the decreased lateral adhesion of the annual layers. 



From the early age of five or six years the planter begins 

 to derive profit from the Ash, for we find that at this 

 age it is fit to make into walking-sticks, the growth of 

 which alone is found to be profitable in Kent, and other 

 districts in the neighbourhood of London ; at twelve or 

 fourteen it is of a size sufficient to form hop-poles, hoops 

 for casks, crates, and light hurdles, and for one or other 

 of these various purposes it is extensively cultivated in 

 Kent, Staffordshire, Wiltshire : the usual mode is to 

 grow it in holts or coppices, which are either cut over 

 entirely, at the end of a certain period, or else divided 

 into portions, which are cut in succession each year, by 



