308 THE BIRCH. 
chairs, tables, dishes, and spoons of it, and even manufactured 
ropes and horse harness by heating and twisting the spray. 
The brushwood is used in forming wicker fences, to prevent 
the inroads of cattle and sheep, in thatching cottages, and in 
forming brooms or besoms. The tree attains maturity at 
various ages, according to the description of soil and situation 
which it occupies, but it seldom increases after seventy years 
old. 
The wood of both varieties is of a light colour, shaded with 
red, and its grain is intermediate between coarse and fine, and 
not of great durability, except when grown in a stunted form 
at a great elevation. It is chiefly employed in the manufac- 
ture of fish-casks, and commonly sells at from 6d. to 8d. per 
cubical foot. When formed into stave-wood and delivered at 
the shore, the common price is £3, 15s. per 1000 superficial 
feet. As fuel, it occupies the twelfth place among twenty-one 
different kinds. It is much esteemed in smoking hams and 
herrings, in consequence of the fine flavour which it imparts. 
The tree occasionally produces knots of timber, beautifully 
marbled and veined, which are susceptible of a high polish, 
and are valuable in veneering. In remote parts throughout 
the Highlands of Scotland manufactories are in operation for 
converting birch wood into bobbins, and in the absence of 
roads these are carried to the nearest rail or water communi- 
cation with manufacturing towns. 
The bark of the birch is among the most incorruptible of 
vegetable substances. It is in demand for tanning, and it is 
preferred by fishermen to the bark of any other tree for pre- 
serving nets and cordage ; it yields a softness and elasticity to 
nets, which cause fish to enter the meshes more readily than 
when they are preserved by any other material. 
It commonly sells at from £5 to £6 per ton, according to 
its quality, or the state in which it has been prepared. 
Birch wine is produced by the tree being tapped, by boring 
a hole in the trunk during warm weather, in the end of spring 
or beginning of summer, when the sap runs most copiously. 
It is recorded that during the siege of Hamburgh in 1814, 
