360 T/ie youriial of Forestry. 



than any advantage it may have gained from eitlier soil or situation. No 

 one will deny that l)oth of these processes are essentially necessary to give 

 any sort of wood a fair chance of resisting decay ; but it surely is no less 

 true that such powerful agencies as climate and soil affect to a far greater 

 extent the quality of forest timber. Moreover, if the spruce on this estate, 

 through a long course of years and in a great variety of ways, has proved 

 itself deficient in lasting qualities, no amount of seasoning can be expected 

 to save it from premature decay. 



Mr. "Wilkie says he has seen railing cut from young spruce last for thirty- 

 one years. "Well, that is something very remarkable; but dees he not see that 

 the whole force of his argument is lost when he tells us immediately after- 

 wards that it was " frequently coated with coal tar well boiled," because 

 at present we are discussing the merits of spruce timber pure and simple, 

 independent altogether of tar or any other preservative; and if these rails 

 required such treatment in order to prolong their existence for thirty-one 

 years, it migh the curioustoinquirehow long they would have lasted without it. 

 AYe must not fall into the error, however, of supposing that a rail standing 

 out exposed to all weathers can last as long as a board of the same material 

 kept dry, under a well-ventilated roof. Unless we observe this distinction 

 it will be impossible to come to a safe conclusion on the subject. The 

 suggestion about inserting a thin strip of hardwood between the paling lail 

 and the stob, as a means of preventing rot at the junction, must be received 

 with caution, because, wherever douljlc nailing is required the hard wood is 

 almost certain to split, even although the trouble is taken to bore it ; 

 and where it can be used with effect with one nail the result will be but a 

 somewhat rickety structure after all, as the rails cannot be so well steadied, 

 resting as they do on a five eighth surface instead of one three inches thick 

 or more. 



The last paragraph of Mr. Wilkic's letter deserves careful attention, as 

 the subject of stob-preserring is to feresters one of the foremost questions 

 of the day, and he will confer a benefit on many of your readers if he will 

 mention the kind of wood the stobs were made of to which he refers, also 

 if he can certify that they stood for the thirty-one years without ever needing 

 to be renewed, because it does not matter how long a fence may have 

 stood in any locality unless we knowdefinitely whether or not it has tinder- 

 gone any repairs and their extent during that time. 



DalMfh Parle, Av(just\W(. E. Baxtee. 



PRICES OF SAWING. 

 Sii?, — Please allow me to correct an error in the "Prices of Sawing," 

 as given l»y me in your last number ; viz., Scantling, Joists, Beams, 

 &c., should be per 1,000 feet lineal, and not per 100 feet. 



Boards, Planks, and Deals, and also Larch, Scots Fir, and Spruce Staves 

 should be per 1,000 feet superficial, and not per 100 feet as stated. 



D. F. McKenzie, 

 Mehlri'ni House. Forcsfcr, dc. 



