Il. 3. THE CHESTNUT. 167 
is so far inferior to hickory and oak, that it is never used when 
they can be had. Its specific gravity is .522. 
It is ill adapted to use as fuel, except for closed fires, the air 
in its numerous pores causing it to snap disagreeably; its value, 
according to Bull, being as 52 to 100, compared with hickory. 
But it forms an excellent charcoal; the younger trees furnishing 
the best and heaviest. For this purpose Michaux recommends 
its cultivation in copses. Its vigorous growth from the stump 
of a tree of any age, recommends it. Springing from the stump 
of a young tree, the shoots often make six or eight feet ina 
single year, and in the period of sixteen to twenty-five years 
they are fit to be cut. 
‘Chestnut copses,”’ says Michaux, ‘are considered in France 
as the most valuable species of property; every seven years 
they are cut for hoops, and the largest branches serve for vine- 
props; at the end of fourteen years they furnish hoops for large 
tubs, and at the age of twenty-five years they are proper for 
posts and for light timber. Lands of a middling quality, which 
would not have produced a rent of more than four dollars an 
acre, in this way yield a mean annual revenue of from sixteen 
to twenty-four dollars.” 
The bark of the chestnut abounds in tannin and in coloring 
matter. It is therefore valuable to the tanner, and may be 
used by the dyer. With iron, the extract may form an exceed- 
ingly black ink. The wood seems to abound in tannin, and if 
reduced to chips, it would probably be found of value in tan- 
ning leather. 
A large number of chestnut trees, which had grown in the 
forest, of from thirty-six to fifty-one years’ growth, and varying 
from thirty-four to forty-one inches in circumference, gave, 
when carefully measured, very nearly three-tenths of an inch 
for the annual growth in diameter for the first forty or forty- 
two years. The circles, taken all together, were very nearly 
uniform. On the whole, they were decidedly broader near the 
circumference, showing that these trees were still growing, and 
more rapidly than ever before. The circles of one which had 
fifty-one circles in thirty-six inches, were very close near the 
centre,—twelve within one inch. It had probably been much 
