336 AUSTRALIAN NATIVE PLANTS. 
and the wheel almost fall to pieces. To obviate this, many good 
makers block out the wheels roughly, and let them season for a 
time before finishing. In any case it is highly important that the 
parts of the wheel should not be put together before the wood has 
entirely ceased to shrink. This remark applies equally well to 
agricultural implements, furniture, &c. (Bale.) Some authorities 
recommend the boring of a hole through the centre of a log to 
facilitate seasoning, and the author knows wheelwrights in New 
South Wales who regularly practice it with Eucalyptus timbers, 
though to what extent the method is adopted he cannot say. 
Mr. T. Laslett objects to ringbarking Teak with the view to 
seasoning it, and inasmuch as the practice of ringbarking is all 
but universal in Australia, whether to bring the land under 
cultivation or pasture, or to utilize the timber, it will be well to 
consider his observations on the effect of the practice as regards 
the quality of the timber. 
“Tt is the practice in Burmah to girdle the Teak trees three 
years before they intend to fell them. . . . . The natural 
juices contained in a tree being gradually run off by the root 
while it stands. This, and the great heat of the climate combined, 
seasons the wood, and renders the log—which in its green state 
would have a specific gravity of at least 1.000, and be difficult to 
move if felled—so much lighter that it flows easily over the 
shallows of the streams or rivers to the port of shipment. 
The practice of girdling is, I think, objectionable, inasmuch as the 
timber dries too rapidly, is liable to become brittle and inelastic, 
and leads frequently to the loss of many fine trees by breakage in 
falling ; further, it must be regarded as so much time taken from 
the limit of its duration, which is of great importance. Girdling 
has been discontinued in the Annamallay forests of Malabar, 
under the impression that it causes, or at least extends, the heart- 
shake.” (Zimber and Timber Trees, p. 115.) 
The best method of seasoning timber in Australia is still, 
however, unsettled. With the object of ascertaining the best 
method of treating timbers with the view to seasoning, the 
Victorian Carriage Board recommends that ‘a number of trees of 
each several kind might be rung and left standing in the forest, a 
