[Illustration:  CARPINUS VIMINEA.]

In any soil or position the hornbeam will grow readily, except exceedingly dry or too marshy spots.  On chalky hillsides it does not grow so freely as on clayey plains.  Under the latter conditions, however, the wood is not so good.  In mountainous regions the hornbeam occupies a zone lower than that appropriated by the beech, rarely ascending more than 1,200 yards above sea level.  It is not injured by frost, and in Germany is often seen fringing the edges of the beech forests along the bottom of the valleys where the beech would suffer.  Scarcely any tree coppices more vigorously or makes more useful pollards on dry grass land.

[Illustration:  BRANCH OF CARPINUS BETULUS.]

On account of its great toughness the wood of the hornbeam is employed in engineering work for cogs in machinery.  When subjected to vertical pressure it cannot be completely destroyed; its fibers, instead of breaking off short, double up like threads, a conclusive proof of its flexibility and fitness for service in machinery (Laslett’s “Timber and Timber Trees").  According to the same recent authority, the vertical or crushing strain on cubes of 2 inches average 14.844 tons, while that on cubes of 1 inch is 3.711 tons.

[Illustration:  LEAVES OF CARPINUS BETULUS QUERCOFOLIA.]

A few years ago an English firm required a large quantity of hornbeam wood for the manufacture of lasts, but failed to procure it in England.  They succeeded, however, in obtaining a supply from France, where large quantities of this timber are used for that purpose.  It may be interesting to state that in England at any rate lasts are no longer made to any extent by hand, but are rapidly turned in enormous numbers by machinery.  In France sabots are also made of hornbeam wood, but the difficulty in working it and its weight render it less valuable for sabotage than beech.  For turnery generally, cabinet making, and also for agricultural implements, etc., this wood is highly valued; in some of the French winegrowing districts, viz., Cote d’Or and Yonne, hoops for the wine barrels are largely made from this tree.  It makes the best fuel and it is preferred to every other for apartments, as it lights easily, makes a bright flame, which burns equally, continues a long time, and gives out an abundance of heat.  “Its charcoal is highly esteemed, and in France and Switzerland it is preferred to most others, not only for forges and for cooking by, but for making gunpowder, the workmen at the great gunpowder manufactory at Berne rarely using any other.  The inner bark, according to Linnaeus, is used for dyeing yellow.  The leaves, when dried in the sun, are used in France as fodder; and when wanted for use in water, the young branches are cut off in the middle of summer, between the first and second growth, and strewed or spread out in some place which is completely sheltered from the rain to dry without the tree being in the slightest degree injured by the operation.” (Dict. des Eaux et Forets, art.  Charme, as quoted by London).