The Elder. 



it may not be so well known to every body that it may be 

 raised from seed, as well as from cuttings; and that its 

 wood yields to that of very few trees, in point of compact- 

 ness, hardness, and durability. Elder-wood, when it attains 

 any size, is frequently made use of for inlaying, for the 

 making of rules, and for many of those purposes to which 

 the wood of the box is applied ; and it is not much inferior 

 to the box in point of fineness of grain, though it is not so 

 clear, and not quite so yellow, as the wood of the box. 

 There is scarcely any tree which shoots so far in a year, as 

 the Elder; yet, even in its young state, it is a very hard 

 and durable wood. For the first year, the shoot is abso- 

 lutely hollow : it is a piece of pith surrounded by a crust of 

 ^vood; and every man knows that, when a boy, he has made 

 l^op-guns of it ; and most of the men now alive, who look 

 well at the consequences of other guns, that have brought 

 so much dignity to the Dogwood, must heartily wish that 

 the whole nation could return to the exclusive use of the 

 Elder. In the third year of its growth, however, the 

 wood gets rid of this pith; and by the end of the fourth or 

 fifth year, the shoot will make a stake, the durability of 

 which has long been so proverbial, as to give rise to the 

 following couplet 



Au Elder stake and aHtwel heather 

 Will make a hedge to last for ever." 



The reader must know, that the stakes are the upright 

 supporters of the hedge ; but he may not so well know, 

 that the heather, which ought, perhaps, to be header, are the 

 rods which are put along on the top or head of the hedge, 

 to fasten the bushes, or other stuff, down. 



223. The propagation of the Elder is generally, if not 

 always, by cuttings (cut off any time between September 



