Logs to burn..........

Beechwood fires burn bright and clear

If the logs are kept a year:

Stow your beech for Christmastide,

With new cut Holly laid beside.

Chestnut's only good, they say,

If for years 'tis stored away:

Birch and firewood burn too fast,

Blaze too bright and do not last;

Flames from Larch will shoot up high,

Dangerously the sparks will fly.

But Ashwood green and Ashwood brown

Are fit for a Queen with a golden crown.

Oaken logs, if dry and old,

Keep away the winter's cold;

Poplar gives a bitter smoke,

Fills your eyes and makes you choke;

Elm-wood burns like churchyard mould,

E'en the very flames are cold.

Hawthorn bakes the sweetest bread -

So it is in Ireland said;

Applewood will scent the room,

Pear-wood smells like flowers in bloom,

But Ashwood wet and Ashwood dry

A King may warm his slippers by.

Lovely poem, but no inkling as to the original author in theh magazine cutting I have.