460 REVIEWS OF BOOKS. [Nov, 



Selection and Seasoning of Wood. By Le Comte M. de Vasselot. 

 Translated by A. W. Heywood, Forest ]3epartinent, Cape of 

 Good Hope. Cape Town : W. A. Pdchards & Sons. 



This little work is a valuable contribution to forestal literature. It 

 deals with the ripe or mature tree only, but it docs so both from 

 the buyer's point of view and that of the seller in a manner 

 complete and exhaustive, and with an excellence of method that 

 renders it valuable alike to the forester and wood merchant. It 

 should be remarked, however, that the information it gives relates to 

 the practice in use at the Cape chiefly ; but the principles on which 

 that practice is founded are applicable, under intelligent modification 

 to meet altered conditions, to the requirements of any country in 

 which wood is bought or sold. The first chapter is devoted to a 

 consideration of the structure and composition of wood, and is 

 purely elementary, but singularly free from technicalities. Nothing 

 . new is given in reference to the growth, structure, and composition 

 of trees, but the old facts are presented in language which the novice 

 in forestry lore will easily comprehend. Faults and defects in wood 

 are next dealt with, and fifteen of the most common are described, 

 and their influence on the value or quality of the wood indicated in 

 each case. The inspection of wood with the view of testing its 

 fitness and quality for different purposes forms an interesting 

 ■chapter, in which the means and tests used for discovering many of 

 the defects and faults noticed and described in the previous chapter 

 are described. The tools used in applying these tests are also 

 •described, and the mode of measurement in a variety of cases of 

 supposed peculiarity or irregularity is very clearly stated. The time 

 for felling is discussed in a short chapter, the opinions of eminent 

 authorities being given with great fairness, and with the result of 

 proving that winter felling is the most favourable to the securing of 

 the best qualities of the timber. The remaining chapters are 

 devoted to the effects of barking trees ; the precautions to be 

 taken for properly seasoning wood ; the influence of seasoning on the 

 durability of the wood ; and the identification of wood, — all of which 

 are treated in a clear and practical manner. 



In an appendix, examples of " completed contracts " and ])ro 

 forma conditions for the classification of logs are given, and 

 " precautions observed in preparing colonial wood for the Railway 

 Department," with other special instructions on matters bearing on 

 the subject from a purely colonial point of view, but not therefore 

 devoid of interest to buyers and sellers of wood in this country. 



