X XIX. THE COMMON LOCUST TREE. 463 
ptirposes, as much of it 1s consumed as can be obtained. ‘The 
aborigines of the south used the wuod for bows, on account of 
its toughness and elasticity. It is used for mill-cogs and for 
other articles exposed to constant wear. 
The leaves are used, 10 some parts of Europe, either fresh or 
cured, as nourishment for horses: the seeds are found very 
nutritious to fowls. The leaves may be made a substitute for 
indigo in dyeing blue, and the flowers are used by the Chinese 
for dyeing yellow. 
The practice of planting tnis tree by road-sides and along the 
enclosures of pasture lands has much increased, of late years, 
but has been checked by the fact that, in such situations, it is 
exposed to the inroads of an insect, whose worm penetrates to 
the heart of the tree and destroys its life. An unexpected remedy 
has, however, been suggested by the success of Joseph Cogs- 
well, Esq , in the cultivation, some years ago, of a large planta- 
tion of the locust. He found that when it forms a wood, those 
trees only are attacked by the worm which form the outskirts, 
exposed to the sun and free air. Whether itis that the msect 
parent of the worm delights, as many do, in the sun light, and 
avoids the shade of the woods. or from whatever cause, it was 
found that all the interior ot the plantation was free fiom its 
attacks. If this conclusion should be confirmed by further ex- 
perience, it wil] be best. whenever the tree is cultivated for its 
timber, to plant it in masses of several acres in extent, and to 
substitute, in the sunny and exposed situations which it has 
usually held, some of those numerous trees which flourish best 
in them. 
No tree promises better, as a cultivated forest tree, than this. 
Its very rapid growth, its numerous and valuable properties as 
timber, and the fact, that the sap-wood is converted into heart- 
wood earlier than in almost any other tree, are very strong re- 
commendations. It is the experience of many persons in differ- 
ent parts of the State. that the locust grows on poor land better 
and more rapidly than any species of hard wood. On such 
land, however, large, sound timber of locust cannot be produced, 
and it would always be good economy to fell it within thirty or 
forty years, or, at least, not te allow it toe grow, for timber, to a 
