BIRCH. 131 



years regularly tapped, which thrived and 

 grew to an unusual size for this kind of tree. 



This tree, which some learned etymologists 

 think gave the name to Berkshire, should 

 have a place in all extensive shrubberies, or 

 plantations, from its picturesque appearance, 

 and from its being amongst the earliest trees 

 that regale us with its fragrant buds. Indeed, 

 this vernal perfume seems renewed after every 

 shower, and those birch-trees whose pliant 

 twigs are pendent, we consider more cheerful 

 and not less beautiful, than the weeping willow. 



The timber of this tree is less valuable than 

 most others in our woods, yet it may, in cer- 

 tain situations, be turned to good account, 

 since it will grow to advantage upon land 

 where other timber will not thrive. Miller 

 says it loves a dry barren soil, where scarcely 

 any thing else will grow; and will thrive on 

 any sort of land, dry or wet, gravelly, sandy, 

 rocky, or boggy; and those barren heathy lands 

 which will scarcely bear grass. In Martyn's 

 edition of Miller, we are told that upon ground 

 which produced nothing but moss, these trees 

 have succeeded so well as to be fit to cut in 

 ten years after planting, when they have been 

 sold for near ten pounds the acre standing, 

 and the after produce has been considerably 

 increased ; and as the woods near London 



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