26b 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



November 10, 1916 



f 



the same as for Nos. 1 and 2 common regular grades; back of 

 cuttings must be sound. 



Standard Inspection 



Basswood, Soft Elm, Soft Maple and Buckeye — Firsts: No 

 changes. Seconds (changes): Seconds must be 5 inches and over 

 wide. 



Selects (new rule): Grade to be made from best face of piece. 

 Selects must be 4 inches and wider, 6 feet and over long. Pieces 

 4 inches wide shall have one clear face. Pieces 5 inches wide, 8 

 to 11 feet long, shall have one clear face. Pieces 5 inches wide, 

 12 feet and longer, admit one standard defect or its equivalent. 

 Pieces 6 inches and over wide shall grade not poorer than seconds 

 on one face. The reverse face shall not be below the grade of 

 No. 2 common. 



No. 1 Common — Changes: Six feet and longer. 



No. 2 Common — No changes. 



No. 3 Common — No changes. 



After short talks by Mr. Kellogg and Mr. Phillips, the meeting 

 adjourned. 



Selects must be 4 inches and wider, 6 feet and over long. Pieces 

 4 inches wide shall have one clear face; pieces 5 inches wide, 8 to 

 11 feet long shall have one clear face. Pieces 5 inches wide, 12 

 feet and longer admit one standard defect or its equivalent. Pieces 

 6 inches and over wide shall grade not poorer than seconds on one 

 face. The reverse face shall not be below the grade of No. 2 

 common. 



No. 1 Common — -Changes: Six feet and over long. 



No. 2 Commpn — No changes. 



No. 3 Common — Changes: No. 3 common must be 3 inches and 

 over wide, 4 feet and over long, and must contain at least 33% 

 per cent of sound cuttings. Minimum width of cuttings 1% inches 

 and no cutting considered which contains less than 48 square 

 inches. 



Under Special Inspection 

 Birch — Nos. 1 and 2 common (flooring stock) shall be graded 

 from the best face, 3 inches and wider, 4 feet and longer; heart 

 rule does not apply. Percentages of clear face cuttings to be 



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Fallacy, foolishness, and fact are all found mixed together in pop- 

 ular opinions of forests and their activities. It is pretty hard to tell 

 where the notion originated that trees do their growing at night. That 

 belief finds adherents among people who cannot be classed as igno- 

 rant, and it is not impossible that respectable authorities might be 

 quoted to sustain that view. The opinion is based on a half-truth. 

 That is, trees do some of their growing during darkness, if otEer 

 conditions are favorable; but they grow also in the light; but to say 

 that their growth is by night and not by day is making a statement 

 which would be pretty hard to substantiate. 



A recent issue of the Southwestern Electrician discussed this mat- 

 ter somewhat cautiously, but positively asserted that trees do not grow 

 in the daytime. It said: 



It Is a fact worth noting that when an arc light Is placed in such way 

 that a tree will be under Its rays all night, the tree Inevitably loses Its 

 virility and dies. Just what the cause Is we are unable to say, unless It 

 lies in the fact that trees, to grow and thrive, must have a certain numl>er 

 of hours darkness out of each twenty-four. The laws of nature are exactly 

 and evenly balanced. It has been proven that a human being grows only 

 In the daytime, and that trees grow only at night. 



The same belief is held by a good many other people. It may be 

 that a strong electric light falling on a tree for a long time will 

 kUl it; but even that is doubtful. If it were so, a well lighted city, 

 like Washington, D. C, would have no street trees, yet Washington 

 has 90,000 in full and perfect vigor, and the death rate among them 

 is so low that a dead tree is unusual. When a dying tree is found 

 near an electric light, it would be good policy to examine the gas 

 mains near its roots to see if leaking gas below the ground rather 

 than electric light above is not responsible for the tree's drooping 

 appearance. If no gas is found, take a look for insects. 

 When Trees Grow 



The modus operandi of tree growth is so well known that a gen- 

 eral description is superfluous. It may be summarized, however, by 

 itating that the green leaves manufacture the material of which the 

 wood is made, and this material is carried by water (sap) from the 

 leaves downward to every part of trunk and stem, just beneath the 

 bark, and there a thin layer of wood is formed each season. That 

 is where the tree's growing takes place — just beneath the bark. 



The water which carries the building material from the leaves to the 

 place where it is needed, has served its purpose and is no longer 

 needed. The tree gets rid of it one way or another. Most of it 

 passes out through the bark by small openings called lenticels. Usu- 

 ally it passes away as vapor and no one sees it; but sometimes this 

 water escapes so profusely that it falls in drops from the branches in 

 sufficient quantity to dampen the ground beneath. 



Nearly every observant person who has passed through a forest of 

 broadleaf trees in the warm days of early summer has noticed thi^ 

 dripping water. It answers the question whether trees grow or not 

 by day. The dripping water actually is a measure of the growth going 

 on. It is the sap being rejected after the building substance has been 

 extracted. Every drop of water that oozes through the bark and 

 falls represents a small particle of wood that has just come into 

 existence under the bark. It is daylight work chiefly, but the process 

 does not necessarily cease with the coming of darkness. 



Proof prom the Polar Regions 



North of the Arctic circle there is, according to common saying, 

 "six months day and six months night." That condition does not 

 hold on any known land area, but the year is halved by light and 

 darkness at the pole, while on the northernmost land the sun shines 

 continually during several weeks. In some of those regions tliere 

 ie rank vegetation during the short summer. All the growing is done 

 during the light, for as soon as the sun disappears below the horizon 

 the cold is too great to permit any growth. 



Robert E. Peary, the discoverer of the North Pole, told the writer 

 of this article that he had seen thickets of willow growing on the 

 northern coast of Greenland, and he spoke particularly of their very 

 rapid growth during the one long summer day which constituted their 

 whole growing season. These willows were hundreds of miles north 

 of the great ice sheet which covers most of Greenland. 



In northern Norway there is a considerable period of unbroken 

 day each summer, and it is then that the alders, aspens and birches 

 do their growing. 



It would be useless to tell the miners in Alaska, who raise little 

 gardens during the two months of summer, that the radishes and 

 lettuce do their growing at night. 



One trouble with the accepted idea that honesty is the best policy 

 comes from the fact that it is diluted with about 50 per cent of sel- 

 fishness. The man who takes to honesty because it helps serve his 

 ends is only half way honest at heart, and it is only he who sticks 

 to honesty when he is tempted by chances of personal gain to lay 

 it aside who is the truly honest man. 



Real courtesy in business correspondence hinges on the language 

 used in the body of the letter and is not necessarily dependent upon 

 stereotyped forms of greetings and superfluous assurances of esteem 

 in closing phrases. Useless appendages can be eliminated from 

 correspondence and still all the elements of courtesy retained. 



