72 FAMILIAR TREES 



inches in diameter it is as valuable as the timber ol 

 the largest tree. In the Potteries it is largely used for 

 crate-making, and in Kent for hop-poles. Both the 

 spokes and the felloes of wheels, carriage-poles and 

 oars are made from it, and from its flexibility it is in 

 fact " the husbandman's tree " for every kind of agri- 

 cultural implement. The tree lives to an age of 

 several centuries, but can be most profitably felled at 

 from eighty to a hundred years old. For smaller 

 wood it is, of course, largely treated as coppice, being 

 then known as " Ground Ash." 



The timber, when beginning to decay, becomes 

 stained of a blackish hue at the heart, and the young 

 shoots, like those of the holly, are very Uable to the 

 malformation known as " fasciation "~" the wreathed 

 fa"scia " of the older writers — ^in which several branches 

 grow together in a flattened and often spirally twisted 

 form. 



Few trees are less particular as to soil and situation 

 than the Ash. It grows at altitudes of 1,350 feet in 

 Yorkshire, and up to 4,000 feet in the Alps, but for 

 perfect development it requires shelter ; it loves a deep 

 loamy soil ; and, though it will grow fast in such a soil 

 if constantly moist, old and sound timber is the pro- 

 duct of well- drained, almost dry ground. 



