THE MOUNTAIN, WYCH OR SCOTCH ELM. 131 



of thinning, soon repay the cost of planting, by furnish- 

 ing a supply of posts, railing, &c. 



As an ornamental tree in parks and lawns, where the 

 soil is of good quality, it may be freely introduced, and 

 in all rich districts it ought to constitute one of the prin- 

 cipal hedgerow trees. 



The Wych Elm produces timber of good sound quality, 

 and applicable to a great variety of purposes in carpentry 

 and wright-work, though upon the whole we consider 

 it as inferior to that of the English Elm, as it neither pos- 

 sesses so much heart-wood, nor the lateral adhesion of 

 that tree, in consequence of which deficiencies it is less 

 fitted for purposes where a hard, tough wood that will 

 not easily split, is required, such as the naves of wheels, 

 blocks, Sec. This opinion as to the comparative qualities 

 of the timber of the two species is, we are aware, at 

 variance with that of Sang and other Scottish writers, 

 who state the wood of the U. montana to be superior 

 to that of the U. campestris ; but upon what ground their 

 opinion of its superiority is founded they do not mention, 

 and we are at a loss to conjecture, as from the rarity 

 of the true U. campestris in Scotland and its inferior age, 

 no proper comparative trials of their respective merits 

 can have been made. We are, therefore, inclined to think 

 that their estimate has been drawn from a comparison 

 of the wood of the U. montana with that of the U. sule- 

 rosa, (considered by them to be the English Elm,) which 

 produces a soft, spongy wood, greatly inferior to most 

 other trees of the genus. 



Its elasticity, or toughness of longitudinal fibre, is, how- 

 ever, considerable, which qualifies it to be used as a sub- 

 stitute for the ash, when that wood cannot be procured ; 

 at the same time, it is less durable and decays much 



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