vigorous tree, by fermenting, actively assists it ^ ; the venerable old monarch of the forest, decayed at heart, 

 is tlie prey of large external Funguses ; not Dry-rot, which is brought into being by the more restless 

 agency left to work in the prostrated, but not yet defunct "stick of timber". 



Had the sap been suffered to descend before the oak was feUed, it would not in all probabihty have left 

 behind this embrj-o pest, which was circulating with it ; at any rate, the food for its nutrition would not have 

 been there ; the proper season therefore for taking down timber, is clearly after the fall of the sapless leaf, 

 not when every one of its pores is filled with an active power for evil or for good, provided to impel forward 

 new fohage but perverted into dry-rot. Such timber it is not possible to exsiccate by any after care ; the 

 only thing that can be done is to substitute some poison, by saturation, for its proper juices, or to force 

 them out by tremendous pressure. This latter alternative however has the disadvantage of rendering the 

 wood too sohd. 



K noble oaks are doomed, " when ripe for the harvest " let them be taken down in January, without 

 any reference to the tanner ; such timber warranted would always command a market, and deficiencies in 

 bark may be suppHed fi'om Australian or chemical resources. 



Charring affects only the external surface. " Although, says Persoon, the Fungus tribe love humidity 

 they are never found under water "-. Immersion has been proved to be an effectual preventive of Dry-rot 

 and that not necessarily in salt-water, to which the permanent dampness it gives, is an objection. Probably 

 a lengthened immersion substitutes water for the sap entirely ; it is said that the timber for threshing-floors 

 and the wainscoting of old mansions was formerly soaked in running streams, with the butt end towards the 

 current, so that the water was injected throughout the whole length of the sap vessels. The mode of preparing 

 timber for masts, is to keep it in mast-locks, and one taken out of the mud in Deptford dockyard, where it 

 had lain for fifty years, was used for the Kangaroo sloop of war and proved most serviceable. At Brest, 

 where dry-rot is unknown in ship-bmlding, aU the timber is kept in a creek of the harbour. Might not 

 this principle of seasoning be appKed more generally, and in houses ? All timber is not equally prone to 

 decay from dry-rot, some trees, even though full of sap when cut, never showing a symptom of it ; there are 

 therefore soils and situations exempt from the spores of Merul'ms laclirymans ; but, whether or not its 

 germs are in the tree, cannot be detected while it is yet soimd. It is probable that open airy plains wQl 

 fiu-nish the most healthy, close dank woods the most diseased, timber. Tliis was the belief of our forefathers; 

 Plot goes so far as to recommend that no timber gro\ni among underwood or coppices shoidd be bought for 

 the king's Yards, 



' The half-built vessels were stove-heated to dry them faster, when the growth of the Fungus was materially 

 accelerated ; a result the botanist would have anticipated, though the carpenter did not ; as the effect was to apply 

 the hot-house system of forcing. 



The cupidity of quacks often interfered to prevent the truth bemg ehcited. In the article 'Dry-rot ', in Eees' 

 Eucy., drawn up appai'ently by a practical biulder, it is gravely stated that one JIi'. Johnson found out that Dry-rot 

 was caused by a plant Uke a riue, the leaves of which he kept to show. Wherever this fell plant touched it poisoned 

 the wood, and, hydra-hke, sprouted when deemed dead ! 



2 It is well known that although dew, and electric showers promote the growth of the common Mushroom, 

 heavy cold rains destroy the spawn, " they drown it " says an experienced Mushroom gatherer. 



Now that so many labourers cannot find employment in winter, the takuig down trees at that time may be true 

 economy, and save in poor-rates what is lost by stripping the trees standing. 



