314 FAGUS. 



oil. It is, however, very extensively used, not only in 

 Britain, but upon the Continent. In England, a great 

 proportion of common furniture, such as chairs, tables, 

 bedsteads, &c, which are usually either stained to imitate 

 mahogany, or painted in imitation of rose, and other foreign 

 woods, are made of Beech. It is also used for panels 

 for carriages, and for many purposes in joinery and turnery, 

 such as planes, screws, wooden shovels ; common fowling- 

 pieces and muskets are also stocked with it, and before 

 cast iron came into use for wheels and pinions, cogs of 

 Beech were greatly used.* 



Within a late period, it has been in demand for rail- 

 road sleepers, and should it prove durable and answer the 

 purpose as well as timber of a higher marketable value, 

 the proprietors of Beechen woods are likely to derive a 

 large profit from what was previously unsaleable and an 

 incumbrance upon the ground. 



As a wood for fuel, the Beech is considered superior 

 to most other trees, and upon the Continent, where mineral 

 coal is seldom used, and more particularly in France, it is 

 consumed to an immense extent. It evolves much heat 

 and burns with a clear flame, in a fresh as well as in a dry 

 state, and, in both these respects is only inferior to the 

 sycamore and the ash, being superior to the oak in the 

 proportion of 1540 to 1497. The charcoal it produces 

 is of excellent quality, and in Buckinghamshire Beechen 

 wood from coppices is charred in great quantities for the 

 gunpowder manufactories. Upon the Continent the dead 

 leaves, which, when dry, are of an elastic and very im- 

 perishable nature, have long been used for filling beds, for 



* Loudon enumerates, among other articles, Beech staves for herring-barrels. 

 The coopers upon the eastern coast, however, do not use them, as they will not 

 retain the pickle used in curing the fish. 



