Woods and Woodlands. 871 



Here, too, I will not quote the special authorities, but in the various 

 agricultural papers and other publications there is a considerable amount 

 of testimony to the point, that timber cut in summer, peeled at once, and 

 laid up from the ground to season, is much more durable when used as 

 timber, and spends better as fuel. Mr. L. F. Allen says, " We have 

 numerous examples of timber cut at this period wdiich hcs exhibited a 

 durability twice or even three times as great as that cut in winter when 

 placed under precisely the same circumstances." This testimony is 

 substantiated by many others. I have collected much testimony either 

 orally or in published statements from this State, New York, New Jersey, 

 Ohio, and Pennsylvania, and it seems to rae that the testimony is ample. 

 I am the more particular in dwelling on this because the experience is 

 different from what it is in Europe, judged from the statements of such 

 standard writers as I have consulted. 



We greatly lack full and complete experiments and tests on the strength, 

 expansion, and other properties of American timbers, tested under various 

 conditions. There are very many such relating to European woods, but 

 regarding ours they are all incomplete. The papers have had accounts of 

 some recent interesting experiments by Prof. Thurston, of the Stevens 

 Institute of Technology, on the ability of American woods to resist torsion 

 or twisting, but I have not the detailed results. 



I will notice hastily another item I have noted down to speak about — 

 that is, the preservation of woods partly in the ground, like posts, and 

 other positions exposed to rot. As before said, posts cut in summer, 

 peeled and well seasoned, are more durable than when cut in the winter — 

 often twice or thrice as durable. Again, posts set with the little end down 

 — that is, inverted from the position in which they grew — will last longer 

 than if set the other way. All the testimony with which I am familiar, of 

 those who have given it a fair trial, agree to this, and some say the 

 durability is sometimes quite as great. 



Many preservatives have been recommended, of which I will only speak 

 of some that are most available to our farmers. The simplest of all is 

 charring the surface ; sometimes this retards decay, at others not, the 

 time of cutting of the post, and the degree to which it is seasoned before 

 setting, affect the efficacy of the charring. Posts cut in winter sap-rot 

 quicker than those cut in the summer, and when decay once begins it 

 extends, for rot is to a certain extent infectious. When speaking of 

 seasoning timbers, I ought to have spoken of smoke-seasoning, a practice 

 old as the days of the ancient Romans, but less common in these days 

 of kiln-drying than formerly. It is undoubted that smoke-dried timber 

 has its durability increased, perhaps by the creosote, which is a very 

 powerful antiseptic. Salt is sometimes used ; it is efficacious so long as 

 the salt remains in the stick, but it soon washes out, and the post rots as 

 if it had never been salted. Better than this is sulphate of copper, or 

 blue vitriol. A weak solution of this, in a half-hogshead tub, into which 

 the previously dried posts are set for a few days, greatly increases the 

 durability. Crude kerosene is sometimes used, and crude gas tar. I 

 cannot speak well of the results ; sometimes they are successful, at others 

 it has been questioned. The heavy oil obtained in the distillation of coal 

 tar, called in this country " dead oil," but in great Britain *' creosote 

 oil," is extensively used for this purpose, and is rather efficacious . Some 

 of these same materials have been used also for fences, shingles, and other 

 structures above ground. Lime-water, lime whitewash, oils, various 

 paints, undoubtedly increase the durability of exposed timbers ; anything 

 that keeps out the water, or kills microscopic fungi, which usually accom- 



