1960

ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM.

PART III.

barking the tree while standing. Mathews, who always writes from experience,says that the timber of the beech “ soon corrupts, if it be not speedily dried,or kept in water after being cut down;” and that it is equally liable to cor-ruption in the tree, when deprived of life by wounds or other injury. Thebeech has, he says, “ a matured and a sap wood, although they are not verydistinguishable, being nearly of one colour. The former has considerabledurability when kept dry; but the latter is speedily consumed by worms.”(On Naval Timber, &c., p. 49.) Mathews recommends the beech with yellow-coloured wood, found on good soil, as superior in durability to that with whitewood, which is only to be found on light soils. The grain of the wood is notsufficiently homogeneous to receive a very high polish. The uses of the woodof the beech, notwithstanding all its faults, are more extensive than those ofalmost any other tree. The keels of vessels are often made of it; and Mathews,as we have seen (p. 1953.), says that a tree, when properly trained, affords,probably, the most profitable hard wood that we can raise for planking thesides and bottoms of vessels. Beech wood is employed in making piles,ringing inill-wheels (in which situation, according to South, it has stood un-injured for more than 40 years), for weirs, sluices, flood-gates, and, in general,for all w'orks which are to be constantly under water. Before cast-iron wheelsand pinions became general, beech was much used for making the cogs ofwooden wheels. In England, at the present time, the beech is principallyemployed in making bedsteads and chairs; and it is also in great demand forpanels for carriages, and for various purposes in joinery, cabinet-making, andturnery. Screws, wooden shovels, peels for bakers’ ovens, and rims forsieves, are also made of it. In Scotland, the branches and spray are distilledfor producing the pyroligneous acid ; and the wood is used there not only forthe same purposes as in England, but also for making herring barrels; andthe wood, the branches, the chips, and the spray are much used for smokingherrings, in the Highlands, along the sea coast. The bedsteads, and otherarticles of furniture, made of the beech, are stained in imitation of mahogany ;and the chairs are either stained or painted. For various minor uses, suchas handles to jugs, teapots, &c., it is stained in imitation of ebony; and, ac-cording to Evelyn, it is blacked and polished with a mixture of soot and urine,to imitate the walnut: but the colour thus produced does not last. InFrance, it is used as a substitute for walnut as gun stocks. In German}',the carriages of cannon are frequently made of it, particularly at sea ports;it being found to last longer where the atmosphere is humid and saline, thanthe wood of the elm. It is also used there, and in many other parts of theContinent, for the felloes of wheels, and for bowls, porringers, salt-boxes,screws, spindles, rollers, spinning-wheels, pestles, presses, and bellows. It isin very common use for tables, and for the framework and boards of beds ;for wardrobes, chests of drawers, desks, hames for horses’ collars, frames forsaddles, hoops for sieves and riddles, bushel and other measures, cases fordrums, and for a great variety of other purposes. Sawn into thin boards, itforms a great variety of boxes and packing-cases, also scabbards for swords,and cases of various kinds. It is used by the German bookbinders, instead ofpasteboard, for forming the sides to thick volumes, which were originallycalled books, from the German name of this wood, buch. According toBory St. Vincent, it is the best of all wood for forming the upper board ofthat kind of press (for pressing and drying plants) which, in France, is calleda coquette. (See Diet. Class. d’Hist. Nat., art. Hetre ; and Annales des Scien.Nat., t. iv. p. 504.) It is used for making cricket-bats both in France andGermany, as the willow is in England ; and in both countries, also, the socksof the old heavy wooden ploughs are made of it. Baudrillart informs us that,in some parts of France, little boats are hollowed out of the trunks of largebeech trees, for using in small rivers, and in fishing-ponds ; and he adds thatit is preferred to all other woods for the oars of galleys. But the most im-portant manufacture of beech wood on the Continent, and especially in France,is that of the wooden shoes called sabots. These sabots are rather more