24 James Mann : 



satin, on the " backed " side, the appearance is an alternate 

 dark and light grey. Figure somewhat like cedar. It should 

 be a fair wood for light work of any description where it can 

 be kept dry, as it takes up moisture very quickly. After being 

 planed, the surface took on a yellowish green tinge, which 

 nearly disappeared after standing in the air for a few days. 

 It is easily worked on the " backed " side, but on the " quar- 

 tered " face rough bands appear, as in Kokoilo and Madave. 

 (See photographs of fractures). 



Weight per Cubic Foot and Moisture Percentage. 



All timber contains moisture, either as liquid in the cells or 

 moisture in the cell walls. The free liquid drains from the 

 wood in a comparatively short time, reducing the apparent weight 

 as nmch as twenty-five per cent, in a few weeks, but it takes 

 much longer to evaporate from the cell walls. 



Timber is never absolutely dry unless it is submitted to a 

 continuous heat sufficiently intense to drive off all the moisture. 

 The changes which take place in the wood, during this drying 

 process, may be chemical or simply drying due to evaporation ; 

 in the same way celluloid, glue and albumen occupy a much 

 larger space Avhen moist than when dry. The three examples 

 quoted illustrate fairly the state of the cell walls before season- 

 ing or drying. Before drying, the cell walls are thick, after 

 they are thin, that is, a circular, oval or polygonal cell wall 

 may be when wet or unseasoned comparatively thick, and the 

 pores or cells comparatively small, but when dry, or nearly 

 dry or seasoned, the cell walls have shrunk and become thinner 

 and the pores larger, but the space occupied by a certain area 

 of the seasoned wood is not so great as that of the unseasoned, 

 otherwise there would be no shrinkage, only loss of weight. 

 Matured wood shrinks much less than semi-nmtured, and semi- 

 matured less than young saplings. Hence in the wood of a 

 sapling, large checks appear, in semi-matured wood smaller, 

 and in matured wood only small checks are discernible. The 

 various stages can be readily traced in beams cut from different 

 parts of trees, but far more easily from young, semi-matured 

 and matured logs. 



