96 THE NEW FORESTRY. 



Black Poplar. Populus nigra. — There are several species 

 of poplar all producing timber of much the same quality, but 

 the black poplar is perhaps the most rapid grower of the family, 

 the hardiest, and the most profitable to grow. It exceeds all 

 other broad-leaved species in the rapidity of its growth, tower- 

 ing above its neighbours at an early age, and hence it is an 

 undesirable tree in a mixed wood. Moist or wet soils suit it 

 best, and in such situations it should be planted thickly alone, 

 or mixed or under-planted with willow. As the timber is not 

 durable, and is used mainly for indoor purposes, the demand 

 is not great, but it can always be disposed of in moderate 

 quantities at from tenpence to one shilling per foot 



WiLLOW, Common. Salix alba. — Like the poplar this 

 species thrives in swampy soils, where it attains to a large 

 size. The timber is in moderate demand for special purposes 

 in which lightness and toughness are required — as in cricket 

 bats, oars, etc., but recently there has been an increasing 

 demand for this wood for brakes for railway trains and 

 waggons, it being found that willow timber, owing probably 

 to its peculiar fibre, wears rough and takes a better grip than 

 harder and heavier woods that wear smooth by friction. The 

 only other wood that is used for the same purpose is poplar, 

 which is sometimes substituted for the willow, both fetching 

 the same price. 



Lime Tree. Tilia Europaa-. — The lime is well-known as 

 an ornamental tree that attains to a great height in parks and 

 avenues, but as a timber tree it is not much grown. London 

 and some of the larger towns are the best markets for this class 

 of timber, which is used in turning and for cutting-blocks, as 

 the wood does not blunt the knives. Nice butts fetch from 

 one shilling to one shilling and threepence per foot The tree 

 is liable to be broken and disfigured by gales when grown in 

 the open. 



SPANISH Chestnut. Castanea vesea. —This would be one 

 of our most valuable forest trees but for its liability to ring- 

 shake after middle-age, and which, as purchasers and foresters 

 know, renders any kind of tree almost worthless. In a ring- 

 shaken tree the annual rings shrink and part, and when the 

 tree is sawn up it falls to pieces. On this account consumers 

 do not care to buy Spanish chestnut standing, and felling 

 always reveals a large proportion of shaken trees. Ring-shake 

 may be .worse in some localities and soils than in others, but 

 timber merchants who buy over wide districts say that it is 

 common everywhere in this tree. Up till forty or fifty years 



