86 FOREST TREES. 
in the manufacture of farming tools. It is said that 
European farmers prefer agricultural implements of 
American manufacture to those of the same pattern 
made at home, on account of the excellence of the 
Ash timber used in their construction. The rapid 
consumption of Ash wood for this and other purposes 
must soon greatly enhance its price, and there is little 
zoom for doubt that the Ash will be found one of 
the most profitable trees that can be planted. 
1. Fraxinus Americana— White Ash. 
Branchlets and petioles, smooth; leaflets, seven to 
nine, ovate or lance-oblong, pointed, pale, smooth or 
pubescent underneath, somewhat toothed or entire; 
fruit, terete, and marginless below; above, extended 
into a lanceolate, oblanceolate, or wedge linear wing. 
Among the American species of Ash, the White 
Ash is one of the most valuable and worthy of 
culture, for the qualities of its wood and the rapidity 
of its growth. When full grown, it is one of the 
largest trees of our forests. I well recollect trees in 
Western Massachusetts three feet in diameter, with a 
straight shaft free from branches to the height of 
forty feet or more, but such are no longer to be found 
in the thickly settled parts of the country. The 
largest Ash tree I ever met with was one near my 
native place, which was felled more than forty years 
since for the manufacture of scythe snathes. The 
trunk was five feet in diameter, and perfectly sound. 
The tree was not lofty, the top having been broken 
off by a tornado many years before. 
