130. PINUS sylvestris. THE SCOTCH FIR.--A very useful tree in
plantations for protecting other more tender sorts when young. It is
also now very valuable as timber:--necessity, the common parent of
invention, has taught our countrymen its value. When foreign deal was
worth twenty pounds per load, they contrieved to raise the price of this
to about nine or ten pounds, and it was then thought proper for use;
before which period, and when it could be bought for little money, it
was deemed only fit for fuel. On the South Downs I know some plantations
of this tree, which have been sold, after twenty-five years growth, at a
price which averaged a profit of twenty shillings per annum per acre, on
land usually let for sheep-pasture at one shilling and six-pence.
131. POPULUS alba. WHITE POPLAR. This is a very ornamental tree. The
leaves on the under surface are of a fine white, and on the reverse of a
very dark green; and when growing on large trees are truly beautiful, as
every breath of air changes the colour as the leaves move. The wood of
all the species of poplar is useful for boards, or any other purposes if
kept dry. It is much in demand for floor-boards for rooms, it not
readily taking fire; a red-hot poker falling on a board, would burn its
way through it, without causing more combustion than the hole through
which it passed.
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