Spruce Timber. 



By DONALD F. McKENZIE, FORESTEB, MELDEUM HOUSE, 

 ABERDEENSHIRE. 



By way of corroborating Mr. McCorqiiodale's views ou the dura- 

 bility of spruce timber uuder various circumstances, I take the liberty 

 to state the following facts. 



By the House, in the county of Aberdeen, was built about the year 

 1593, which date it bears, and some of the timber used in its erection 

 was spruce, particularly the lintels of the windows, which are, so far 

 as can be ascertained, all of spruce ; and although they have stood in 

 a rather humid locality for nearly three centuries, they are still in 

 good condition. In the same locality, but of much later date, are 

 buildings in which I find the same kind of timber used, and which is 

 yet quite sound, and in such a good state of preservation that it bids 

 fair to see several generations pass away without being much the 

 worse. On examining the wood I found it very hard and close- 

 grained. I have no means of knowing where the wood was obtained. 

 The oldest of that class of fir on the estate is about 130 years. The 

 wood seems to have been roughly hewed with an axe or adze. In the 

 same building Scots fir is also used, some of which is of very good quality; 

 although of small dimensions the trees were sound and well hearted, 

 but the portions of sapwood still left are completely riddled with insects, 

 although very few marks of insects are found on the spruce timber. 

 On this estate there are outhouses built of spruce fir, some of which 

 are about forty years old. The posts and bars are of larch and Scots fir, 

 bat all the outside linings are of spruce, and except where in contact 

 with the soil the wood is yet perfectly sound, and the only painting 

 it ever got was a few thin coats of coal tar. Long ranges of fences, 

 composed of larch posts and spruce bars or rails, which were erected 

 more than twenty years ago, are still in a fair state of preservation, 

 but are now beginning to require a good deal of repair, not so much 

 on account of the bars, as the posts rotting and breaking over at the 

 surface of the ground. The rails were sawn from small spruce trees 

 of from fifteen to thirty years old, slightly slabbed, and stripped of 

 their bark. The wood got no paint of any kind, and except where 

 nailed to the post or stake it is as sound as when erected, and much 

 harder. I may add, however, that these fences are in sheltered situa- 

 tions, which would account to a good extent for their durability. 



