BARREN AND EDMONSON COUNTIES. 17 
wagons, and buggies. No iron bands are required, and they 
may be very light; at the same time they are strong, and 
neither split or crack if properly seasoned. A large quantity 
of this wood is found of the right size for the uses named. 
Mulberry, sassafras, chestnut——The value of the trees just 
named for fence-posts is not well understood. Mulberry is 
equal to black locust in all respects, except that it does not 
become quite so hard. The sassafras is scarcely, if at all, 
inferior to either, and both are found here in considerable quan- 
tities. , he sassafras is a tree of rapid growth, and springs up 
everywhere in old fields and abandoned ground. The wood is 
light, but tough enough to hold nails, and is very enduring in 
all exposures. The chestnut is valuable wood for posts, but it 
should be cut at the season when there is the least sap in the 
wood to prevent the ravages of insects, and that decay pro- 
duced by decomposition of the sap. The month of August or 
September, when the growth of the season is completed, and 
there is usually a deficiency of moisture in the ground, would 
be the best time to cut it. By dipping the end of the seasoned 
wood which is to go into the ground in hot coal-tar, a post will 
be secured which will outlast a generation. The time is com- 
ing when either fencing must be abandoned, or some other 
material than oak on the one hand, which is too perishable, or 
locust or cedar on the other, which will be too expensive, must 
be found. With seasoned posts of. either of these trees, and 
seasoned chestnut boards, a fence will be made which will last 
a generation. 
Turning-wood.—The elm (Ulmus alata), which is a fine- 
grained white-wood, the dogwood (Cornus Florida), buckeye 
(Aesculus of several species), the holly (//ex opaca), the hop- 
hornbeam (Ostrya Virginica), and the ironwood (Carpinus 
Americana)—these and other trees, suitable for the manufac- 
ture of turned work of various kinds, exist in great abundance. 
The dogwood is specially abundant, and of large size for that 
little tree, sometimes eight or nine inches in diameter, and is 
of well-known properties; the wood is very hard and compact 
when seasoned, and useful for any kind of turned work requir- 
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