I
10 TThe Conservative *
THKKS NOTKD FOK SPKCIl'IO
VIKTUES AXI ) USES.
SAL-LOW , excellent for hurdles , handles
of hatchets , and shoemaker's boards.
The honey of the catkins is good for
bees , and the Highlanders use the bark
for tanning leather.
SPKUOE TKEE ( The ) will reach to the
ago of 1000 years and more. Spruce is
despised by English carpenters , "as a
sorry sort of wood. "
SYCAMORE TUBE , used by turners for
bowls and trenchers. It bursts into
leaf between March 28 and April 28.
St. Hieroui , who lived in the Fourth
Century , A. D. , asserts that he himself
had seen the sycamore tree into which
Zaccheus climbed to see Jesus in His
passage from Jericho to Jerusalem.
Strutt tells us of a sycamore tree in
Coblmm Park , Kent , 26 feet in girth
and 90 feet high. Another in Bishop-
ton , Renfrewshire , 20 feet in girth and
GO feet high.
Grass will flourish beneath this tree ,
and the tree will thrive by the sea side.
TAMARISK TREE does not dislike the
sea-spray , and therefore thrives in the
nefghborhood of the sea.
The Romans used to wreathe the heads
of criminals with tamarisk withes. The
Tartars and Russians make whip-
handles of the wood.
The tamarisk is excellent for besoms.
UPAS TREE , said to poison everything
in its vicinity. This is only fit for
poetry and romance.
WALNUT , best wood for gunstocks ;
cabinet-makers use it largely.
This tree thrives best in valleys , and
is most fertile when most beaten.
WHITETHORN' , used for axle-trees , the
handles of tools and turnery.
The identical whitethorn planted by
Queen Mary of Scotland in the garden-
court of the regent Murray , is still olive ,
and is about 5 feet in girth near the
base.
The Troglodytes adorned the graves
of their parents with branches of white
thorn. It formed the nuptial chaplet of
Athenian brides , aild the fasces inqHiar-
um of the Roman maidens.
WILLOW , used for clogs , ladders ,
trenchers , pill-boxes , milk-pails , butter-
lirkins , bonnets , cricket bats , hop-poles ,
cradles , baskets , crates , etc. It makes
excellent charcoal , and a willow board
will sharpen knives and other tools like
a hone.
It is said that victims were enclosed
in wicker-work made of willow wood ,
and consumed in fires by the Druids.
Martial tells us that the old Britons
were very slullful in weaving willows
into baskets and boats. The shields
which so long resisted the Roman
legions wore willow wood covered with
leather.
WYCII ELM , once in repute for arrows
and long-bows. Affords excellent wood
tor the u heeler and millwright. The
young bark is used for securing thatch
and bindings , and is made into rope.
The wych elm at Polloc , Renfrew
shire , is 88 feet high , 12 feet in girth ,
and contains 069 feet of timber. One
at Tutbury is 16 feet in girth.
At Tield , in Staffordshire , is a wych
elm 120 feet high and 25 feet in girth
about the middle.
YEW TREE. The wood is converted
into bows , axle-trees , spoons , cups , cogs
'for mill-wheels , flood-gates for fish
ponds ( because the wood does not soon
decay ) bedsteads ( because bugs and fleas
will not come near it ) . Gate-posts of
yew are more durable than iron ; the
steps of ladders should be made of this
wood ; and no material is equal to it for
market-stools. Cabinet-makers and iii-
layers prize it.
In Aberystwith churchyard is a yew
tree 24 feet in' girth , and another in Sel-
boni churchyard of the same circumfer
ence. One of the yews at Fountain
Abbey , Yorkshire , is 26 feet in girth ;
one at Aid worth , in Berkshire , is 27 feet
in girth ; one in Totteridge churchyard
82 feet ; and one in Fortiugal church
yard , in Perthshire ( according to Pen
nant ) , is 52 feet in circumference (4 ( feet
from the ground ) .
The yew tree in East Lavaut church
yard is 81 feet in girth , just below the
spring of the branches. There are five
huge branches each as big as a tree.with
a girth varying from 6 to 14 feet. The
tree covers an area of 51 feet in every
direction , and above 150 feet in circuit.
It is above 1000 years old.
The yew tree at Martley , Worcester ,
is 846 years old , being planted three
days before the birth of Queen Eliza
beth. That in Harlington clmrchyard
is above 850 years old. That at Auker-
wyke , near Staiues , is said to be the
same under which King John signed
the Magiia Clmrta , and to have been
the trysting-treo of Henry VIII and
Anne Boleyne. Three yew trees at
Fountain Abbey , wo are told , were full-
growii trees in 1128 , when the founders
of the Abbey held council there in the
reign of William Rufus. The yew tree
of Braburu in Kent , according to
De Caudolle , is 8,000 years old ! !
It may be so , if it is true that the yew
trees of Kingley Bottom , near Chiches-
ter , were standing when the sea-kings
lauded on the Sussex coast , and those in
Norbury Park are the very same which
were standing at the time of the ancient
Druids.
Grass will grow beneath alder , ash ,
cypress , elm plane , and sycamore : but
not beneath aspen , beech , chestnut , and
fir.
Sea-spray does not injure sycamore or
tamarisk.
Chestnut and olive never warp ; larch
is most apt to warp.
For posts the best woods are yew , oak ,
and larch ; one of the worst is chestnut.
For picture-frames , maple , pear , oak ,
and cherry are excellent.
Fleas dislike older , cedar , myrtle and
yew ; hares and rabbits never injure
lime bark ; moths and spiders ovoid
cedar ; worms never attack juniper.
Beech and ash are very subject to at
tacks of insects. Beech is the favorite
of dormice , acacia of nightingales.
For binding faggols , the best woods
are guelder rose , hazel , osier , willow
and mountain ash.
Knives and all sorts of instruments
may be sharpened on ivy roots , willow
and holly wood as well as on a hone.
Birdlime is made from holly and the
guelder rose.
Baskets are made of osier , willow and
other wicker and withy shoots ; besoms
of birch , tamarisk , heath , etc. ; hurdles ,
of hazel ; barrels and tubs of chestnut
and oak ; fishing-rods of ash , hazel and
blackthorn ; guustocks of maple and
walnut ; skewers of elder and skewer
wood ; the teeth of rakes of blackthorn ,
osh oud the twigs called withy.
The best woods for turnery ore box ,
alder , beech , sycamore and pear ; for
Tuubridge ware , lime ; fpr wood carv
ing , box , linio and poplar ; for clogs ,
willow , alder and beech ; for oars , ash.
Beech is called the cabinet-makers'
wood ; oak and elm , the ship-builders' ;
ash , the wheel-wrights' .
There are several beautiful lists of
trees given by poets. For example , in
Tasso , "Jerusalem Delivered , " iii , at
the end , where men ore sent to cut
down trees for the funeral pile of
Dudou. In Statius , "The Thebaid , "
vi , where the felling of trees for the
pile of the infant Archemorus is de
scribed. In Spenser , "Fairy Queen , "
I. i 8 , 9 , where the Red Cross Knight
and the lady seen shelter during a storm ,
and much admire the forest trees.
THE nmsixiGENT Editor Louis R
OR THE UNINTEL- Post , ill The Pub-
I.IGKNT. lie of October 1 ,
1898 , comes at THE CONSERVATIVE'S con
tention that "the rights of the unintel
ligent should be defined and defended
by those who ore intelligent" with
great vigor. But Mr. Post does not
deny that the rights of the ignorant
ought to be "defined and defended. "
He merely denounces the injustice of
exalting intelligence as the lexicographer
for ignorance. Mr. Post and his Public
having denied the right of definition ,
oud defence to the intelligent neces
sarily claim that the ability to deter
mine "the rights of the unintelligent"
belongs exclusively , and by virtue of
their ignorance , to the aforesaid un
intelligent themselves.
But THE CONSERVATIVE contends that
successful self-government must be a
government of the intelligent for the
intelligent by the intelligent.