LOCUST. 
71 
vicinity of Paris. Italy and the southern departments of France are the 
countries of Europe where the greatest advantages may be expected from 
the rapid growth of the Locust. Individuals, who are more in haste than 
governments to realise their gains, may obtain from it, at the end of 20 or 
25 years, a mass of wood twice as great as from any other species of tree : 
and it might be formed in this country, as in America, into tree-nails, for 
the purposes of ship-building, and sold at a high price in the sea-ports. 
Raised upon uncultivated and open grounds, the quality of the wood would 
be superior to that of trees growing in the primitive forests of the New 
World, where it is injured by the humidity of the atmosphere. 
It appears from the authors who at different periods have written on the 
Locusts, that about a hundred years since it was in great request in Europe on 
account of the beauty of its foliage and of its fragrant flowers. It was 
afterwards found to have defects, and declined so far in public favor, that 
during half a century it fell into entire neglect. Within 10 or 15 years, 
several agriculturists have given it fresh celebrity, by representing it as a 
useful rather than an ornamental tree ; though its merit in this last respect 
is undeniable. 
In France, and still more in Germany, much has been published in favor 
of the Locust, and very little has been written against it ; but the greater 
part of those w T ho are engaged in forming plantations oppose its propaga- 
tion. It appears to have been too much praised on the one hand, and 
too much decried on the other, and not to have been justly appreciated in 
those respects in w’hich it has an incontestable superiority over most other 
trees of the temperate zones. 
If I maybe allowed to give an opinion, I should say that its principal 
advantages consist in the rapidity of its growth, and in the excellent qual- 
ities by which its wood is fitted for the most important uses. To these must 
he added another property by which it is distinguished from other trees of 
rapid growth, and which has not been placed in a sufficiently striking light 
by the authors who have treated of the Locust: it is that of beginning from 
the third year to convert its sap into perfect wood ; which is not done by 
the Oak, the Chesnut, the Beech and the Elm, till after the 10th or the 
15th year. Hence, if all these species were planted at the same time upon 
good land, in 25 or 30 years the Locusts, already one third larger in gen- 
eral than the others, and often twice as large, would be found almost wholly 
composed of heart, and would be of sufficient dimensions for the various 
uses to which their w'ood is adapted ; while the others, besides being too 
small at this age to be employed with advantage, would have only half the 
diameter of the trunk converted into perfect wood. This is a most impor- 
tant consideration, for it is well known that every species of wood must 
be deprived of the sap before it is used, as this part is subject to become 
worm-eaten if it is sheltered, and to decay if it is exposed to the air. 
