Preserving Fence-posts. 



By D. SYM SCOTT, Forester, Ballixacourte, Tipperary. 



Theoretically the season of the 3^ear, even the age of the moon, in 

 which timber trees ought to be felled, has occasioned widely diver- 

 gent opinions. Pmcticnlly, however, the question is easily settled, 

 and the period usually chosen well defined. Objections to felling 

 timber during the summer months are based on the notion that trees 

 being then in an active state of growth contain a greater preponderance 

 of sap, which renders the wood wlien used extremely liable to rot ; 

 but when felled in winter, when comparatively inert, the timber resists 

 decay or rot more effectually. True, a tree apparently has a larger 

 proportion of sap when in its full vigour of growth, but the dead 

 weight is much lighter during the same period, as the sap is at that 

 time more rarefied. Any forester can test the validity of my theory 

 by taking each month a number of pieces of the same kind, but from- 

 different trees, each piece to be of equal size, which are to be weighed, 

 and the weights of each month carefully registered. This to continue 

 over the year. To make the experiment so as to insure the greatest 

 accuracy, the test ought to extend to more than one kind of tree, and 

 be carried on in different plantations, of course noticing the weight 

 of each specimen separately. From my own experiments I found 

 timber cut in June and July to be much lighter than that cut in 

 December and January. I attribute this difference in tlie weight 

 wholly to the consistency of the sap, and that much of the sap leaves 

 the body of the tree when making leaves, new wood, and bark. Hard 

 wood contains about 40 per cent., Conifera? 45 per cent, of sap, and 

 the object of seasoning timber is to get rid of this moisture. There 

 are two methods employed for this purpose, the natural and the arti- 

 ficial. The natural, as with everything else, is the simplest and by 

 far the best. By this method the sap is allowed to evaporate of its 

 own accord. Timber cannot be kept too much exposed to the free 

 action of pure air, as churches and open-roofed houses bear witness ; 

 but as the natural system of seasoning encroaches considerably on 

 our time and patience, it is generally expedient that we should give 

 it some assistance. This can be done without detracting in any way 

 from its merits. 



Timber should be well seasoned before being used in buildings ; 

 but proprietors, as a rule, very much neglect this important point, 



