192 SYLVAN WINTEE. 



Oak, in the wide utility of its timber, the purposes 

 to "whicli the Ash (Fraxinus excelsior) is put are 

 very numerous. Its strength and elasticity com- 

 bined are so great that, when employed in build- 

 ings, it will bear an enormous strain — if used for 

 joists — without breaking. For domestic purposes 

 also it is invaluable, because it does not splinter 

 like deal. Hence, for stairs, for kitchen tables, 

 even for flooring, it is a most desirable wood. In 

 coach-building, too, and in the manufacture of the 

 wooden parts of all sorts of farming and garden- 

 ing instruments — ploughs, harrows, and various 

 tools — it is invaluable, as also for hurdles, fences, 

 hoops of casks, crates, hop and other poles, wooden 

 rods, oars, fishing-rods, pulley-blocks ; for carpen- 

 tering purposes when wood has to hold to wood 

 by tenons and mortises, for turning in the lathe, 

 for carts, ladders, and, in short, for all purposes in 

 which strength, lightness, and elasticity combined 

 are required. Ash is in great request. 



Who knows that the wood of the Beech — from 

 its capability of being cut into very thin layers — ' 

 forms the substance of strawberry baskets ? A 

 useful and pleasant purpose, surely, but the least 



