68 
LOCUST 
The greatest consumption of Locust wood is for posts, which are 
preferred for enclosing court-yards, gardens and farms, in the districts 
where the tree abounds, and in the circumjacent country. They are trans- 
ported for the same use to Lancaster, Baltimore, Washington, Alexandria, 
and the vicinity. When the trees are felled in the winter, while the cir- 
culation of the sap is suspended, and the posts allowed to become perfectly 
dry before they are set, they are estimated to last 40 years. Experience 
has shown that their duration varies according to certain differences in the 
trees from which they are formed : thus about Lancaster and at Harrisburg, 
a town on the Susquehanna, where a considerable trade is carried on in 
wood that is brought down the river, those trees are reputed the best whose 
heart is red ; the next in esteem are those with a greenish yellow heart ; 
and the least valuable are those with a white heart. From this variety in 
the color of the wood, which probably arises from a difference of soil, are 
derived the names of Red, Green and White Locust. In the Western 
States, there is a variety which is sometimes called Black Locust. 
Great quantities of Locust posts are sold at Harrisburg ; they are 7 or 8 
feet long and the price is 18 cents each in the rough state, or 25 cents 
when hewn and mortised. They are made from stocks less than a foot in 
diameter, split into two pieces. I have remarked that when the trunk of 
the Locust exceeds 15 inches in diameter it is frequently decayed at the 
heart ; but I presume this defect is not found in trees that grow further 
south. Posts of Locust and of Red Cedar of the same dimensions are sold 
in the lumber-yards of Baltimore ; those of Locust at 40 cents, and those 
of Red Cedar at 30. This difference is probably attributable to the great 
strength of the Locust. In the Western States also, where this tree is 
larger and more abundant than in the country east of the Mountains, it is 
the most esteemed and the most generally employed for posts. 
In naval architecture, the ship- weights use as much Locust wood as they 
can procure. It is as durable as the Live Oak and the Red Cedar, with 
the advantage of being stronger than the one and lighter than the other. 
It enters, with the Live Oak, the White Oak and the Red Cedar, into the 
upper and lower parts of the frame, though in a very small proportion ; for 
in the interior of Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia, where, as I have 
observed, it grows naturally and whence it is procured, nine-tenths of the 
Locusts do not exceed a foot in diameter, and from 36 to 40 feet in height: 
it thus becomes difficult to procure timber of the requisite size. Another 
very important use of the Locust in ship-building is for the treenails, or the 
pins destined to attach th eside planks to the frame. Instead of decaying, 
they acquire with time an extreme hardness, and they are used, to the 
exclusion of all others, in the pm-ts of the Middle States. The mean price 
at Philadelphia, whither they are brought from the river Susquehanna, is 
