RED-WOOD WILLOW. 



61 



little attention in the cultivation would afford it of the 

 finest hends, and clean and fresh. Our Navy Board 

 have received some slight teaching from our trans- 

 atlantic brethren, of the superior sailing of fir- con- 

 structed vessels, to those of oak, the result of their 

 superior lightness, pliancy, and elasticity. 



The vmter of this has also had experience of two 

 vessels, one of oak, and the other of larch, on the 

 same voyages, at the same time, and has found the 

 latter superior in sailing to the fonner, in a degree 

 greater than the difference of build could account 

 for. From the superior elasticity and lightness of 

 the willow, even to larch, the lightest and most elas- 

 tic of the fir-tribe, we should expect that vessels of 

 it would outstrip those of fir, at least of Scots or red 

 pine, as much as the latter do those of oak; and 

 that, from this greater elasticity and lightness, they 

 would move through the water, yielding to the re- 

 sistance and percussions of the waves, compared to 

 those of oak, as a thing of life to a dead block. For 

 vessel-timbers, this wood requires to be used alone ; 

 as, when mixed with other kinds less pliant or elas- 

 tic, the latter have to withstand nearly all the im- 

 petus or strain, and are thence liable to be broken, 

 or from the vessel yielding more at one place than 

 another, she is apt to strain and become leaky. 



