138 MANAGEMENT AND SALE OF TIMBER. 



6 in. side of the square, J of length, 3 ft. true contents. 



The relative proportions are easily remembered, which 

 greatly assist the measurer in arriving at the contents of a tree. 

 The intermediate figures soon also become familiar to the mind 

 when extensively in practice. In making the strap, it is ad- 

 vantageous to mark one side with white paint for measuring 

 peeled timber, when no allowance is made for bark ; thus 

 the side of the square of a tree 3 feet in girth is 9 inches. 

 The other side may be marked with red paint, allowing for 

 bark at the rate of one inch to the foot in girth ; thus the side 

 of the square of a tree that girths 3 feet is indicated upon the 

 strap 8\ inches, and so on in the same proportion throughout 

 the whole length. 



The purposes to which timber is applied are various. For Larch 

 the principal and best quality is used for boat and ship building, 

 for which the proprietor receives from Is. 3d. to Is. 6d. per foot. 

 The most valuable part of the larch tree for boat building is that 

 portion of it where the strong horizontal root forms an angle with 

 the trunk. In order to procure those valuable crooks or knees, as 

 they are termed, the tree in place of being cut down in the usual 

 way is grubbed up by the root, carefully preserving the main 

 roots to a length of 2| to 4 feet according to size, with a portion 

 of the trunk attached of about the same length. This is placed 

 upon a saw pit and reduced to the desired thickness, and is used 

 in the vessel in supporting the decks. Larch is also extensively 

 used by carpenters, builders and others in forming trams for 

 carts, beams, and lintels in buildings, bridges, fencing, &c. 

 The demand for larch timber of large dimensions, and sound 

 quality, at the present day far exceeds the supply — hence the 

 great inducement there is to plant where the soil is capable of 

 bringing larch to proper maturity, and to a large size. 



Oak is used to some extent in almost all superior buildings 

 in the form of safe-lintels, door-posts, staircases, &c. Various 

 implements of husbandry are also partly or wholly made from 

 oak, but its principal and chief consumpt has hitherto been, and 

 still is, for ship-building purposes, for which there is always a 

 ready market. The descriptions of trees most esteemed for 

 ship-building are those either with a tall, straight, clean trunk, 

 or those of a short crooked bole capable of squaring to at least 



