THE ELM. 1 13 



is sown by the nurserymen to procure new sorts, as well 

 as by the managers of the National Forests, to obtain a 

 large supply of plants at an inferior cost. When once 

 planted, the English Elm rarely requires the pruning knife, 

 though it will bear lopping to a greater extent than al- 

 most any other tree with which we are acquainted, as 

 a convincing proof of which we need only instance the 

 treatment it undergoes in many parts of England, where 

 it is periodically divested of the whole of its side branches, 

 and the naked stem left standing with a mere brush or 

 besom-like head, to the great disfigurement of the country. 

 We have hitherto been considering the English Elm rather 

 in the light of an ornamental than a valuable timber tree ; 

 in the latter character, however, it is equally entitled to 

 our regard, producing a material of excellent quality, and 

 applicable to a great variety of purposes, both of land and 

 sea carpentry. The wood when matured is of a deep 

 brown colour, compact and fine grained ; according to 

 Loudon it loses nearly two thirds of its weight in drying, 

 as when first cut it weighs nearly seventy pounds the 

 cubic foot, and when seasoned not more than twenty-eight 

 pounds and a half. In the lateral adhesion of its fibre 

 it surpasses the U. montana, though perhaps inferior to 

 it in longitudinal toughness, and therefore not capable 

 of supporting so severe a cross strain. The former pro- 

 perty, however, eminently qualifies it for every purpose 

 where a strong wood that will not split or crack, either 

 from concussion, or the action of sun and wet, is required ; 

 on this account, Matthew, in his able treatise on naval 

 timber, strongly recommends it for the " blocks, dead 

 eyes, and other wooden furniture of rigging."" In country 

 carpentry it is very extensively used in all the southern 

 parts of England, but the purposes to which it is applied 



