216 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
reasons it is inexpedient to fell the timber when full of sap, 
and there are many objections to the plan which has been 
recommended of leaving the felled timber for several years 
in the forest after it has been cut down, for it is then exposed 
to the attacks of various vegetable parasites and fungi which 
abound in such places. He advocates that directly the leaves 
or new fir-needles have been formed, those trees which are 
hereafter to be felled in the autumn should be ringed round 
by the removal of a wide strip of bark, including the bast 
and sap layers.!_ This would hinder the ascent of moisture from 
the ground, and would cause the foliage to extract from the 
trunk all the sap and liquid particles in the cells. This 
procedure, moreover, enables the wood to dry very rapidly 
after being felled, and then the log should be at once removed 
from the forest and stored in a dry situation for use. By 
emptying the sap-vessels in this natural way, the attacks both 
of animal and vegetable parasites, which prey on the juices, 
are avoided, and in practice this plan has been found to give 
most excellent results—Zhe Timber News and Saw-mill 
Lingineer, August 5, 1905. 
Wuat 1s A Loap oF TIMBER? 
Fifty cubic feet of oak, ash, birch, teak, greenheart, pitch pine, 
pine, and, in short, every wood but one, constitute a load. The 
exception to this rule is wainscot oak, which has only 18 cubic 
feet to the load, and it is designated as a ‘‘wainscot oak load.” 
Place does not alter these rules; that is, they obtain all over 
England.— Abridged from Zhe Timber News and Saw-mill 
Engineer, January 14, 1905. 
1 This is what is known as ‘‘girdling” in India, which has from time 
immemorial been practised in Burma, to season teak on the stool for two 
or three years before felling, and to render it lighter and more buoyant for 
floating. —Hon. Ep. 
2 There appears to be some confusion here. A J/oad of timber=4o cubic 
feet in the rough (which means ‘‘square-of-quarter-girth measure ” =nearly 
50 cubic feet actual contents), and 50 cubic feet of squared or converted timber. 
The local load of beech in Bucks is 25 cubic feet. For railway transport a fom 
of timber is 40 cubic feet for hardwoods and 50 cubic feet for softwoods.— 
Hon. Ep. 
