he ash for
his carts, ladders, and other tackling, from the pike to the plow,
spear, and bow; for of ash were they formerly made, and therefore
reckon'd amongst those woods, which after long tension, has a natural
spring, and recovers its position; so as in peace and war it is a wood
in highest request: In short, so useful and profitable is this tree,
(next to the oak) that every prudent lord of a mannor, should employ one
acre of ground, with ash or acorns, to every 20 acres of other land;
since in as many years, it would be more worth than the land it self.
There is extracted an oyl from the ash, by the process on other woods,
which is excellent to recover the hearing, some drops of it being
distill'd warm into the ears; and for the _caries_ or rot of the bones,
tooth-ach, pains in the kidneys, and spleen, the anointing therewith is
most soveraign. Some have us'd the saw-dust of this wood instead of
_guiacum_, with success. The chymists exceedingly commend the seed of
ash to be an admirable remedy for the stone: But (whether by the power
of magick or nature, I determine not) I have heard it affirm'd with
great confidence, and upon experience, that the rupture to which many
children are obnoxious, is healed, by passing the infant thro' a wide
cleft made in the hole or stem of a growing ash-tree, thro' which the
child is to be made pass; and then carried a second time round the ash,
caused to repass the same aperture again, that the cleft of the tree
suffer'd to close and coalesce, as it will, the rupture of the child,
being carefully bound up, will not only abate, but be perfectly cur'd.
The _manna_ of Calabria is found to exsude out of the leaves and boughs
of this tree, during the hot summer-months. Lastly, the white and rotten
dotard part composes a ground for our gallants sweet-powder, and the
trunchions make the third sort of the most durable coal, and is (of all
other) the sweetest of our forest-fuelling, and the fittest for ladies
chambers, it will burn even whilst it is green, and may be reckoned
amongst the +akapna xyla+. To conclude, the very dead leaves afford
(like those of the elm) relief to our cattle in winter; and there is a
dwarf-sort in France, (if in truth it be not, as I suspect, our
witchen-tree) whose berries feed the poor people in scarce years; but it
bears no keys, like to ours, which being pickled tender, afford a
delicate salading. But the shade of the ash is not to be endur'd,
because the lea