[iL og 7] 
P.S. To explain what is meant by the modern im- 
provement in hewing, to thofe who are not’con- 
verfant in the bufinefs, let circles No. 1 and 2 [7 
the plate annexed] f{uppofed to reprefent the central 
part, or ufual girting place, of a fhaft of oak forty 
feet long, and the periphery of fuch circles to be 
four feet round; then the girt, which is one quarter 
of the periphery, will be twelve inches, and the 
meafure of fuch fhaft will be forty feet, or a ton.* 
When timber was hewed after the old method, 
the fegments a, 4, c, d, No. r were chipped off. 
A rule was then laid from e tof, and the number 
of inches between the perpendiculars ¢, b, and f, g, 
were confidered as the fide of a fquare; which mul- 
tiplied into itfelf gave the number of inches con- 
tained within its compafs, which multiplied by 
twelve gave the contents of one foot in length, and 
that again by forty the contents of the tree. 
Thus the circle itfelf girting twelve inches, con- 
tains within the periphery 144 {quare inches ;f the 
triangles e, f, g, b, though areas only, are in fquare 
timber taken as folids; then by multiplying the 
* The feale of thefe circles and fquares being an eighth of an inch 
to an inch, they will bear trial, and be found on examination to and 
the teft, as near at leaft as my dim eyes could draw them. 
+ Such circle certainly contains more fquare inches ; but from time 
immemorial, the girt-line folded into four (i. e. quartered) has been 
received by the timber-meafurer as the bafis of adimeafurement, being 
convenient, though incorrect, 
fide 
ee 
