332 AUSTRALIAN NATIVE PLANTS. 
SEASONING OF TIMBER. 
It is hoped that the few notes which follow may be of service. 
The method the author has adopted for seasoning logs of 
timbers for exhibition in the Technological Museum is as 
follows :— 
The logs are stood on end, and the upper end, which is 
exposed to the atmosphere, is soaked with boiled linseed oil, and 
this is covered with white-lead of the consistency of cream one or 
two days after. The other end of the log stands on the floor, and 
is not sealed up in any way, as this would prevent the moisture 
draining away or evaporating. Two iron bands are made, of the 
same diameter as the log. The ends are free, are turned out at 
right angles, and holes are bored to receive a screw-bolt. By 
means of nuts, each band is tightened up as much as possible, 
having previously, by a few blows of the hammer, caused each 
band to follow the outline of the log. Every few days the bands 
are tightened up. The author has only adopted this method for 
eighteen months, so it would be premature to say too much about 
it, but up to the present he has no reason to suppose that it will 
not be effectual. 
A similar plan seems to be adopted in the Mauritius, where 
ebony, when freshly cut, is beautifully sound, although it splits like 
all other woods by neglectful exposure to the sun. The workmen 
immerse it in water as soon as it is felled for six to eighteen 
months; it is then taken out, and the two ends are secured from 
splitting by iron rings and wedges. 
This method is, of course, somewhat expensive and tedious, 
but even if it should be considered out of the question to thus treat 
the most valuable of our Eucalyptus timbers, many of our smaller 
ornamental timbers would well repay the moderate amount of 
trouble involved in treating them in this way. 
As a matter of fact, the timbers in Australia rarely receive any 
seasoning or care whatsoever. ‘Timber of a particular kind often 
appears in patches in a forest, and wherever convenient a sawpit is 
established in a position as central as possible. After a tree is 
felled, it is usually converted into sawn stuff with a minimum of 
delay. Seasoning is, as a rule, never thought of, though some go 
