THE ASPEN, OR TREMBLING POPLAR. 187 



wooded slopes in upland districts, where it might be 

 planted to advantage in the moister parts, as it grows 

 rapidly and soon attains a profitable size. 



The wood is white, light, and rather tender, but well 

 adapted for the staves of herring-casks, milk-pails, &c. 

 It is also employed by turners, and, cutting clean and 

 sweetly with the chisel, is adapted for carving in wood ; 

 it is also applicable to various purposes in house carpentry, 

 provided it be kept dry, but in this respect is much inferior 

 to the wood of the Grey and the Black Italian Poplars. 

 The bark contains a considerable percentage of tannin, 

 and is used, with that of other species, by the tanner, and 

 it was the favourite food of the beaver when that animal 

 abounded in the north of Europe. It is sometimes used 

 as a vermifuge for horses, and in some countries is a 

 domestic medicine for scorbutic and other cases. 



Unlike many of its congeners, the wood of the Aspen 

 burns with a clear flame, but gives out very little heat ; 

 its value as a fuel, compared with the beech, being, accord- 

 ing to Loudon, as 970 to 1540. 



The spray and leaves are greedily eaten by deer, goats, 

 sheep, and other herbivorous quadrupeds, and in countries 

 where hay and fodder are scarce, the young shoots and 

 leaves are cut and dried for winter food. 



The soil in which it grows most luxuriantly is a moist 

 loam, but as the roots run near the surface it does not 

 require it to be deep. In such situations, planted in mass 

 at six or eight feet distance, it will, in the course of twelve 

 or fourteen years, make a profitable return, as at that age 

 it will be of sufficient size to saw up into herring-barrel 

 staves, for which at present there is so great a demand. 

 It attains perfection in fifty or sixty years, after which 

 it begins to decay at the heart. At this age it has fre- 



