THE MANUFACTURE OF HOME-GROWN TIMBER. 153 
infrequently happens that numbers of good pieces of wood come 
off either too small, or otherwise deficient, to make a spoke, in 
which case such pieces are utilised for ladder steps or rounds, the 
common size of which is 14 inch square. Nothing can be com- 
pared with these for strength, and were they always employed by 
ladder makers, many serious accidents would be prevented. In 
converting small and suitable trees into these commodities, little 
or no waste is made, further than the necessary amount of chips 
and shavings, so that the whole is profitably utilised. 
The larger timber was principally used in former times for ship- 
building, but since “ wooden walls” have given place to iron ships, 
a very limited amount of oak is now applied to that purpose. The 
introduction of railways, however, has opened up a new field for 
the consumption of heavy oak timber in the shape of waggon- 
building, and so great is the demand from this source that our 
home supply has fallen far short of it, with the result that the 
importation of American oak has enormously developed, first by 
shipments of the logs, and conversion of them on this side of the 
water, and within recent years by having the exact sizes for 
waggon construction cut in America, and imported direct to 
consumers. In this way not only is the country deprived of the 
revenue derivable from the raw produce, but much Joss is also 
sustained from our labourers being deprived of a large amount of 
work in the sawmills. The available oak timber of a suitable size 
produced in our own country is almost exclusively utilised for this 
purpose, and from its superior quality it is held in greater favour, 
and commands a higher price, than the American oak. In the 
cutting out of waggon wood, a very comprehensive specification of 
lengths and sizes is fortunately available, otherwise the amount of 
waste would be ruinously great. The first and important item in 
the specification of a set of waggon timbers is, the sole beams or 
trams, which vary from 14 feet to 17 feet in length, but excep- 
tional lengths may be a little shorter or longer, the breadth being 
from 11 to 12 inches, and the thickness from 4 to 5 inches. 
These must be cut from absolutely straight trees, and are the first 
to be selected. The large scantling necessarily entails the throw- 
ing off of heavy slabs, or outside pieces, amounting often to nearly 
one half of the cubical contents of the tree; but, as already men- 
tioned, the specification embraces about twenty sizes of smaller 
dimensions, which are economically manufactured from these thick 
outside slabs. The smaller sizes run down to 4 inches by 1} 
