CHAP. CIV.

.betula'ceae. se'tula.

1699

ground, and on the south side of the trunk. In England, several holes are sometimes bored in thesame tree at once; but, in France, this method is thought to deprive the tree of its sap too suddenly.Each hole should have a kind of fosset fixed in it, which may be made of a piece of elder wood, withthe pith scooped out, or of a large quill. The outer end of this tube is placed in a vessel or largebladder, to reserve the sap. In some places, the collectors of the sap cut off the extremity of eachbranch, tying a bladder or vessel to the end of the wounded part. "When a sufficient quantity of saphas been collected, the hole in the tree is stopped with a wooden peg; or the end of the woundedbranch is covered with pitch. This operation is always performed in spring; and most sap is said to beprocured after a very severe winter. Several trees should be bored at the same time, in order that asufficient quantity of sap may be obtained in one day, as it is spoiled by being kept. It has been observedthat the sap flows in greatest abundance about noon. When the wine is to be made, the sap shouldbe boiled with moist sugar or honey, in the proportion of four pounds of sugar to every gallon ofliquor. While boiling, the scum is taken off" as fast as it rises, till the liquoris quite clear. It isthen worked with yeast in the usual way. The juice and rind (pared very thin) of a lemon, and of aSeville orange, may be added to every gallon of clear liquor, and will be found a great improvement.Some persons also put a few twigs of sweet briar into the cask when the wine is tunned, to give it aperfumed flavour ; and anciently it was the custom to put cinnamon and other spices into this wine.In Moscow, they add dried sprigs of mint. The wine should be kept three months before it is bottled,and twelve months before it is drunk. Birch wine has an agreeable flavour, and is considered verywholesome. That made in Russia effervesces like champagne.

Birch Oil is obtained from the bark, by a kind of distillation, which is thus effected:— An excava-tion is made in the soil, on the side of a bank 10 ft- or 12 ft. deep, and in the form of an inverted cone,like a common limekiln, which is lined in theinside with clay. The bark, being collected, and placedin the kiln, is covered with turf, and then ignited : the oil flows through a hole made in the bottomof the kiln, into a vessel placed to receive it, from which it is transferred to casks for exportation.The liquor produced consists of oil and pyroligneous acid, and is used for tanning hides, to which itgives that powerful fragrance, so well known as peculiar to Russia leather. The oil, when purified,is quite clear, and is used in medicine, both internally and externally; and the pyroligneous tar-likeliquor, which is separated from it, is used for greasing wheels, and for other purposes.

In the Highlands of Scotland, Sang observes, birch may be said to be theuniversal wood. “ The Highlanders make every thing of it : they build theirhouses of it; make their beds, chairs, tables, dishes, and spoons of it; con-struct their mills of it; make their carts, ploughs, harrows, gates, and fencesof it; and even manufacture ropes of it.” (PL Kal., p. 80.) The branchesare employed as fuel in the distillation of whisky; and they are found to con-tribute a flavour to it far superior to that produced by the use of fir-wood, coal,or peat. Birch spray is also used for smoking hams and herrings, for whichlast purpose it is preferred to every other kind of wood. The bark is usedfor tanning leather, dyeing yellow, making ropes, and sometimes, as in Lap-land, instead of candles. The spray is used for thatching houses ; and, driedin summer with the leaves on, it makes an excellent material for sleepingupon, where heath is scarce. The wood was formerly used in the Highlandsfor arrows ; and the bark, it is said, on the sea coast, for making boats, as thatof B. papyracea is in North America.

In addition to the above, we might enumerate a number of minor usesmentioned by authors, when speaking of the tree as belonging to the mostnorthern parts of Europe; and some of which, we have reason to believe, arenow become obsolete. Among these are what Evelyn calls “ the whitest partof the old wood, found commonly in doating birches,” from which, he says, ismade “ the ground of our effeminate-formed gallants’ sweet powder; ” and ofthe quite consumed and rotten wood,” he says, is “ gotten the best mouldfor the raising of divers seedlings of the best plants and flowers.” (Hunter’sEvelyn , vol. i. p. 224.) The use of the birch in artificial plantations, in Britain,is chiefly as an undergrowth, and as coppice-wood. In both cases, it is cut,every 5 or 6 years, for brooms, hoops, wattle-rods, crateware, &c.; every10 or 12 years, for faggot-wood, poles, fencing, and bark for the tanners, thevalue of which, in Scotland, is about half that of oak bark; and not oftenerthan once in every 15 or 20 years, when it is wanted for herring casks. In allthese cases, the spray is used for besoms, rods, ties, and similar purposes. Inthe Highland districts, standard trees are left to attain a timber size. Thebirch, as already observed, is very frequently used as a nurse to other trees;and especially to the oak, the chestnut, and other hard woods. Many of theextensive oak plantations made by the late Duke of Portland in Nottingham-shire were raised between rows of birch trees, planted two or three yearsbefore the acorns were sown; as has been recorded in detail by Speedily',and by Hunter in his edition of Evelyn’s Sylva, and in his Georgical Essays.Hedges are, also, frequently made of the birch in poor, mossy, or sandy soils;the tree bearing the shears as well as any ligneous plant whatever.

The birch, in landscape-gardening, is an interesting tree, from its form, and

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