THE LOCUST TREK, 399 
in which the locust continues to be planted for the sake of its 
timber. Yet in favourable situations it very quickly produces 
small timber, suitable for props for flowers, stakes for peas, 
and such purposes, preferable to almost any other tree. As 
a coppice it becomes feeble after being frequently lopped, and 
it does not thrive as an underwood ; neither is it adapted for 
a situation of great exposure, as its branches are remarkably 
brittle, and more apt to be broken by wind than any other tree. 
Like many other timber trees which spread their roots near 
the surface of the ground, the trunk has a tendency to become 
hollow in the centre before it attains a great age. One of the 
finest recorded specimens of the tree in South Britain has been 
grown at Claremont. It stood about seventy feet high, with 
a trunk four feet in diameter, and fifty feet diameter of top. 
In North Britain the best specimen stands at Beaufort Castle, 
about forty feet high, with a trunk upwards of two feet in 
diameter at three feet from the surface. 
As a post its timber is remarkably durable, even when 
young, and in some districts in France it is cultivated in cop- 
pice and in pollards, and cut every four years for vine-props ; 
and the leaves and young shoots are sometimes used in feed- 
ing cattle. 
In the native districts of the tree, even where it grows best, 
only a small proportion of timber is produced of sufficient size 
for shipbuilding, the trees generally not exceeding one foot 
in diameter. The timber has a high reputation for strength 
and durability, and its lateral strength in resisting fracture is 
greater than that of the best oak. In America it is more 
extensively manufactured into tree-nails, used in ship-build- 
ing, than any other timber. It is also esteemed by the 
cabinet-maker, and in articles of turnery it is often substituted 
for box-wood. 
