252 CONIFEROUS TREES 



130 years ; cubic contents, no feet ; soil, gravelly, 

 with a little loam. A goodly specimen that was 

 straight as an arrow, and contained 99 feet of 

 wood, was partly uprooted during a storm three 

 years ago, and advantage was taken of the oppor- 

 tunity to have the timber converted in various 

 ways, so that its value for estate purposes generally 

 could be determined. Owing to the great quantity 

 of resin present in the timber, the tree was weightier 

 for its bulk than any other species that had come 

 under my notice, with the exception, perhaps, of 

 Abies grandis. A great part of it was sawn into 

 boards of 2 inches in thickness, and as many of 

 these boards were fully 3 feet wide, their value for 

 constructive purposes, had the timber been of good 

 value and worthy of conversion, would have been 

 great. The wood works beautifully and clean, 

 taking a smooth glossy surface under the tools 

 of the carpenter, and several of these 3-feet wide 

 boards were cut into 6-feet lengths, and planed 

 smoothly for preserving as samples of the wood. 

 The remaining boards were applied to various uses, 

 but one instance of their lasting quality will be 

 sufficient. Fully thirty were placed as boarding 

 for the floor of a dry-faggot shed or barn — a well- 

 built structure, though not thoroughly ventilated. 

 On examining these boards a few weeks back, it 

 was found that they were one and all perfectly 

 rotten and falling to pieces, after they had been in 

 position not more than about eighteen months. 

 Every board had to be removed, having become 

 permeated with dry-rot to such an extent that 

 when dropped on the ground it fell to pieces. 

 This was all the more strange as the boards had 



