100 WOOD OF THE WALNUT-TREE. 



that prostrates the apple-tree and the pear^ is 

 a noble and majestic tree. It often attains the 

 size of a middling oak ; and the fine structure 

 of its massy trunks with its bold and stubborn 

 branches, give it all the characteristics of a 

 considerable timber-tree. It is too scarce and 

 valuable to be used in the construction of any- 

 thing but furniture and somewhat costly im- 

 plements. During the war, the consumption 

 of walnut-trees for gun-stocks was so great, 

 that they were much thinned ; and it is not 

 likely they will be replaced. There is no 

 wood, I believe, that resists the shock of a dis- 

 charged barrel like this ; and many hundred 

 pounds were given, twenty or thirty years ago, 

 for any thing like a good tree. At present, 

 I should think, the demand for this timber is 

 but small ; and I should judge it more profit- 



