DECIDUOUS ORNAMENTAL TREES. 
175 
trannels, (the wooden pins which fasten the side planks to the 
ship frame,) and it is now extensively substituted for the iron 
ones formerly used for that purpose, a considerable quantity 
of the wood is now even exported to England for this 
purpose. For posts it is more durable than the Red cedar, 
and is therefore in high estimation for fencing. In France, 
where the tree was introduced by Jean Robin, herbalist to 
Henri IY., (whence the name Robinia ,) it is much cultivated 
for the poles used in supporting the grapes in vineyards. 
It has the remarkable property, says Michaux, of beginning 
from the third year to convert its sap into perfect wood ; 
which is not done by the elm, oak, beech or chestnut, until 
after the tenth or fifteenth year. Hence excellent and dura" 
ble timber can be obtained from this tree, in a shorter period 
than from any other.* 
The locust can be cultivated to advantage as a timber tree, 
only upon deep, mellow, and rather rich, sandy soils ; there, 
* Cobbett, who, en passant, though a most remarkable man, was as great a quack 
in gardening as the famous pill-dealers now are in medicine, carried over from 
this country when he returned to England, a great quantity of seeds of the lo- 
cust, which he reared and sold in immense quantities. In his “Woodlands,” 
which appeared about that time, he praised its value and utility in the most ex- 
aggerated terms, affirming “ that no man in America will pretend to say he ever 
saw a bit of it in a decayed state.” And that “ its wood is absolutely indestructible 
by the powers of earth , air , and water." “ The time will come,” he continues, “ and 
it will not be very distant, when the locust tree will be more common in England 
than the oak ; when a man would be thought mad if he used anything but lo- 
cust in the construction of sills, posts, gates, joists, feet for rick stands, stocks and 
axletrees for wheels, hop-poles, pales, or for anything where there is liability to 
rot. This time will not be distant, seeing that the locust tree grows so fast. 
The next race of children but one, that is to say, those, who will be born 60 years 
hence, will think the locust trees have always been the most numerous trees in 
England ; and some curious writer of a century or two hence will tell his read- 
ers, that wonderful as it may seem, ‘ the locust was hardly known in England 
until about the year 1823, when the nation was introduced to a knowledge of it by 
