TIMBERS. 335 
Water seasoning is accomplished by immerson in water for a 
long time. It is a slow and imperfect method, but for timber to 
be used in water or in damp situations, it answers well. The sap, 
in this case, is removed by solution. (Thurston, of. ci#.) Timber 
thus seasoned is less liabie to warp and crack, but is rendered 
brittle and unfit for purposes where strength and elasticity are 
required. Care must be taken that the timber is entirely 
submerged. Partial immersion, such as is usual in timber ponds, 
injures the log along the water-line. It must then be carefully 
dried, with free access of air, and turned daily. Timber that has 
been saturated should be thoroughly dried before use; when taken 
from a pond, cut up and used wet, dry rot soon sets in. Salt- 
water makes the wood harder, heavier, and more durable, but it 
should not be applied to timber for use in ordinary buildings, 
because it gives the wood a permanent tendency to attract 
moisture; also, if salt-water be used, great watchfulness must be 
exercised to prevent any damage to the timber by salt-water 
borers. Two or three weeks’ water-seasoning is sometimes found 
to be a good preparation for air-seasoning, by dissolving out the 
more soluble salts contained in the wood. (Thurston.) 
Steaming timber is a method of seasoning sometimes em- 
ployed. It, however, impairs the strength, but it preserves from 
decay (as it is considered by some to prevent dry rot), as well as 
from injury by warping or cracking. 
Boiling timber in water has much the same effect as steaming, 
but objections to both processes are their cost, and their weakening 
effect on the timber. 
Seasoning by botling tn oil is resorted to for some purposes, 
as in making teeth in mortice gears. The temperature should be 
kept at, or somewhat under 121° C. The wood should be 
seasoned in blocks roughed out to near the finishing size, and they 
become not only well and uniformly seasoned, but, as shown by 
the experiments of Mr. G. H. Corliss, considerably strengthened. 
(Thurston, op. cz?.) 
It is especially necessary that timber used for wheelwright 
purposes should be thoroughly well seasoned, as it will be found 
that often, after very little use, the spokes will shake in their places, 
