F R A X I N U S. 
21 
that the cattle then pick up tlie decayed leaves, particu¬ 
larly of the afh : but the cafe is tlie fame in the great low 
paflures which are open and without trees, as in upland 
inclofures, which abound in them. The only way to 
avoid the ill tafte in butter at that feafon, is to churn 
bftener, and to fpend the butter whilft it is new. 
The afh is, however, a very improper tree for hedge¬ 
rows and the borders of arable land : the drip of it is 
very unfavourable to all other vegetable productions ; it 
exhaufts the foil very much ; and the roots fpread widely 
near the furface ; fo that it injures the hedges, and im- 
poveriflies the crops that are fown near them. Nor, 
though it be a handfome tree, ought it by any means to 
be planted for proteCfion or ornament, becaufe the leaves 
come out late, and fall early. The fertile trees alfo ge¬ 
nerally exhauft themfelves fo much in bearing keys or 
fruit, that their foliage is fcanty, and their appearance 
unfightly. The trees, however, which bear female flow¬ 
ers only, have a full and verdant foliage, and make a 
handfome figure, though late in the feafon. It is well 
calculated for ftandards and clumps in large parks and 
plantations, and for groves and woods. If planted by 
ditch tides, or in low boggy meadows, the roots act as 
underdrains, and render the ground about them firm and 
hard; the timber, however, is in this cafe but of little 
value. It was natural that our remote anceftors, when 
the ifland was over-run with wood, fhould value trees 
rather for their fruit than their timber: it is no wonder, 
then, that by the laws of Howel Dda, the price of an oak 
or a beech (hould be 120 pence; while the afh, becaufe 
it furnifhed no food for fwine, was valued only at four- 
pence. The Edda of Woden, however, holds the afh in 
the highett veneration; and man is deferibed as being 
formed from it. Hefiod, in like manner, dedivces his 
brazen race of men from the afh ; and in his Tlieogany, 
has nymphs of the name It is probably owing to 
the remains of Gothic veneration for this tree, that the 
country people, in the fouth.eafl: part of the kingdom, 
fplit young alhes, and pafs their diflempered children 
through the chafm, in hopes of a cure. They have alfo 
a fuperflitious cuftom of boring a hole in an afh, and faft- 
cning in a fhrew-moufe: a few ffrokes with a branch of 
this tree is then accounted a fovereign remedy againft 
cramps and lamenefs in cattle, which are ignorantly fup- 
pofed to proceed from this harmlefs animal. In many 
parts of the highlands of Scotland, at the birth of a child, 
the nurfe or midwife puts one end of a green flick of this 
tree into the fire, and, while it is burning, receives into a 
•fpoon the fap'or juice which oozes out at the other end, 
and adtiiiniflers this as the firtt fpoonful of liquor to the 
new-born babe. 
It is not common to fee the afh of a very great fize: 
inftances, however, of large trees, are not wanting. Dr. 
Plot mentions one of eight feet diameter, valued at thirty 
pounds, Mr. Marfham informs us of another in Benel 
church-yard, near Dunbarton, in Scotland, meafuting, in 
3768, fixteen feet nine inches in girth, at five feet from 
the ground. Mr. Evelyn fays, that divers were lately 
fold in Effex, in length one hundred and thirty-two feet. 
Mr. Arthur Voting, in his Irilh tour, mentions fome of 
feventy and eighty feet in height, which were only of 
thirty-five years growth. The trunk of one on the bank 
of tlte Avonmore, was above fourteen feet round, and 
carried nearly the fame dimenfions for eighteen feet. An 
afh at Dunganftown is twelve feet round, and quite clear 
of branches for thirty feet, where it meafures ten feet 
round, and the arms extend in beautiful forms twenty- 
eight yards. At Tiny-park is another, the circumference 
of which', in the fmalleft part, fomewhat exceeds nineteen 
feet, or (lx feet four inches diameter. At Luttrelftown, 
the feat of the earl of Carhampton, are feveral afli-trees 
frona eleven to thirteen feet fix inches round; one here 
was fold for 13I. At Leixlip-caftle is a row of eighteen 
alh-trees, on a very bleak expofure, meafuring from nine 
t® twelve feet round, with fair Hems of confiderable height, 
VOL.VIII. No. 480. 
and fine branching heads. At Donirey, near Clare-caflle, 
in the county of Galway, is an old afli, tliat at four feet 
from the ground meafures forty-two feet in circumference, 
at fix feet high thirty-three feet; the trunk has long been 
quite hollow, a little fchool having been kept in it; there 
are few branches remaining, but thele are frefli, and very 
vigorous. Near Kennity-church, in the King’s-county, 
is an afh whofe trunk is twenty-one feet ten inches round, 
and it is feventeen feet high before the branches break, 
out ; thefe are of enormous bulk. When a funeral of the 
lower clafs palTes by, they lay the corpfe down for a few 
minutes, fay a prayer, and then throw a (tone to increafe 
the heap, which has been accumul.rting round the root. 
Finally, in the church-yard of Lochabar, in Scotland, 
Dr. Walker meafured the trunk of a dead afh, which at 
five feet from the furface of the ground, was fifty-eight 
feet in circumference. 
It is pleafant to obferve, that amidft the deplorable de- 
ftrudlion of valuable timber, the planting of this fo exten- 
fively ufeful tree has lately not been negleCfed; as will 
appear from the following account: Twenty acres, by 
William Wollafton, efq. at Great Finborough, Suffolk; 
thirty-five acres, by Thomas White, efq. at Butsfield, 
Lanchefler, Durham; fixteen acres, by Mr. David Day, 
Frindfbury, Kent ; 63,000 trees, by Edward Loveden 
Loveden, efq. Bufeot, near Farringdon, Berks; 6000, by 
John Sneyd, efq. Belmont, Staffordfliire, between 1784 
and 1786; 20,000, by Dr. Richard Watfon, bifliop of 
Llandatf, near Amblefide, in Weftmoreland, 1788; 42,000, 
by George Rofs, efq. Cromarty; 57,500, by the earl of 
Fife, in the county of Murray. 
The, facility with which the afli is propagated, and 
adapts itlelf to any foil or (ituatioti, even the worft ; tlie 
quicknefs of its growth, and the general demand for the 
timber in every part of the country, for a variety of rural 
and economical purpofes, recommend this tree very much 
to the planter. As a farther encouragement, Mr. Bout- 
cher has given an inflance of the great profit of an a(k 
plantation, in a fmall experiment, which he thus relates : 
On half a rood of heavy meadow, chiefly barren red clay 
and mofs, he planted afli-trees fix years old, and eight 
feet high, in rows four feet afunder, and two feet diftance 
in the low- ; after four years he cut them down within 
five or fix inches of the ground. Having more than he 
wanted, in feven years he fold half for pollards and hoops 
for 40s. In fix years lie cut them again, and fold them 
for 30s. In fix years after this he cut them again, and 
fold them at the fam@ price. There remained now twenty 
trees, intended to ftand for timber, but he was obliged 
to fell them at twenty-three years growth for 7s. a tree. 
Tlnis would an acre of indifferent ground properly fitu- 
ated for fale yield in twenty-three years 115I. los. with¬ 
out any other expence than digging the ground for the 
firft five or fix years, and cutting the coppice. Care 
fliould be taken to cut them flanting, with a (harp inftru- 
ment, leaving all the wounds fmooth and clean. Obferve, 
that no price is mentioned for the firft cutfjng, which he 
tiled himfelf; and that he found he Ihould have had at 
leaft one-third more for the price of the laft cutting. He 
alfo found that he had planted too thick, and that he 
Ihould have had more wood, if the rows had been fix feet 
afunder, and the lets three feet diftant in the row. 
The varieties of the common alh-tree are., i. That with 
fimple leaves, which, however, fometimes has them lobed 
and even teiiiate. 2. With pendulous branches, called 
the weeping afh. 3. With variegated leaves, both yellow 
and white ; or gold-ftriped and (ilver-ltriped, as the nur- 
ferymen call them. Micheli has fome other varieties, 
from the different fliape of the fruit, the fize and form of 
the leaves, &c. Kov. Gen. 223. 
2. Fraxinus rotundifolia, or manna alli-tree: leaflets 
roundilb, acutilh, doubly ferrate, fubfeflile ; flowers with 
petals. The flioots of the manna-alh are much Ihorter, 
and the joints clofer together, than the common afli : the 
leaflets are Ihorter, with deeper ferratures on their edges, 
G ani 
