The Locust. 



few years ago, two very large butts, cut down in the garden 

 at the Stable Yard, St. James's Park. These were, 1 should 

 think, full three feet through ; and there is a Locust-tree, in 

 the garden of a school, formerly kept by a Miss Tasker, at 

 Brook-Green, Hammersmith, with a trunk ten feet round, and 

 guessed to be fifty -four feet high. But, one gieat excellence 

 of this tree is, it is fit for use at any age above four or five 

 years. At this first age, it will do for stakes. It has no 

 sappy part. Mr. Gunter's trees would now make as good 

 Locust'pins as any older tree. So that as to what age the 

 tree will continue to thrive, is of no consequence at all. If 

 Mr. Gunter's trees were now to be cut down, the fourteen 

 Locusts would be worth ten times as much as all the rest of 

 the plantation, though they make about a hundred and sixty 

 in number. What, then ! will the Goveimment send to Ame- 

 rica for Locust-pins, while they may have them grown in 

 WooLMER Forest, in about ten or fifteen years ? Will they 

 not plant these trees ? It will be done, at last, in spite of 

 the pretty gentlemen, if not with their good will. They 

 must, however, take care what seed they get. There are seve- 

 ral sorts of Locusts, that I know of, and they are all called 

 Locusts in America. As to getting the seed from France, 

 where, as well as in England, the sorts have been planted 

 promiscuously, and without knowing any thing of the quali- 

 ties of the wood, such seed never can be relied on. I do 

 not know the seed of some of the sorts, one from the 

 other; but I know the plants the moment they appear above 

 ground. But, if I have a channel that I can rely on for the 

 obtaining of this seed, surely those may, who have hun- 

 dreds of thousands to expend in naval victories on the Ser- 

 pentine River, and on enterprises equally useful and equally 

 glorious. 



378. 1 was just about to close, or rather to cease to 



