TIMBERS. A55 
26,700. The timber was very good, well seasoned, and beautifully 
clean and straight in the grain. 
Mr. J. M. Balfour (see p. 341) has experimented upon several 
‘samples of timber of this species, all from Tasmania, except 
perhaps the first :— 
1. A fine, well-seasoned sample, cut from an old window 
sill. Specific gravity, 1.153 (or weight of cubic foot 71.871Ib.); 
Eyree2-2, S, 317. 2. Mean results with three samples :— 
Specific gravity, 1.014 (63.19lb. per cubic foot); E, 312; S, 269, 
3. Mean results with four other samples :—Specific gravity, 
1.078 (67.26lb. per cubic foot); E, 259.8; S, 239. 4. Curled 
Blue Gum; mean with five samples :—Specific gravity, .988 
(61.57lb. per cubic foot); S, 95.8; E not given. Summary— 
General mean of eight experiments, exc/uding the curled variety : 
Specific gravity, 1.061 (66.17lb. per cubic foot); E, 291.1; 
S, 260. General mean of thirteen experiments, zzcluding the 
curled variety :—Specific gravity, 1.035 (64.5lb. per cubic foot) ; 
S, 196.8. The ordinary Blue Gum broke with a fibrous fracture, 
but all the samples of curled broke nearly straight across, though 
tried in all positions of the grain. ‘“ Obviously the ‘curl’ extends 
over a considerable thickness, and larger samples would probably 
give much higher results, as the timber looks well in large pieces.” 
Attached to Mr. Balfour’s result is the following note: ‘“‘ Diameter, 
5 to 30ft.; average of those felled for use, 6ft.; height, 150 to 350ft.” 
Rankine gives the resistance to crushing of this timber (in 
pounds per square inch crushed along the grain) at 8800, and the 
specific gravity at .843 (1 cubic foot weighing 52.5]b.) 
A tree of this species, measured at Tolosa (Tasmania) in 
1848, had an estimated height of 33o0ft., and the actual measure- 
ments were—circumference at ground, 78ft. gin.; at 6ft. 
above the ground, 71ft. gin. (Proc, R.S.. VD. Land, 1851.) 
In moist and rich ground in Tasmania this tree attains a 
diameter of 24 to 30in. in twenty years»~ The diameter of the 
tree is greatly increased near the ground by the spreading of the 
bole, and, in consequence, the sawyers and splitters have to erect 
stages ten feet and more above the ground, and then chop and 
saw it through where the diameter is much less, say ten or twelve 
feet. 
