176 On the Dry Rot. 
it would otherwise be. It is invariably the case, that by the 
time the planks become thoroughly seasoned the alburnum be- 
comes so injured by the dry rot as to be unfit to be used ; and for 
my own part I never saw any timber of this sort where the heart- 
wood was affected at all, unless the tree had contracted the dis- 
ease before its death. Now I appeal, for the truth of these asser- 
tions, to all the experienced ship-carpenters who are in the least 
acquainted with this kind of timber. The season of peeling is 
from the third week in May to the second week in June. It is 
not probable that all the timbers required for a seventy-four, or 
indeed any other public vessel, are cut in the compass of any one 
month, but that they commence perhaps in October, and continue 
the cutting into April, and sometimes into May, and in cases of 
great emergency, into June. Then, if I am right in my views, 
various periods must elapse before all the timbers will have been 
attacked by the disease ; and when the planks are taken off from 
any one of them preparatory to their being repaired, do not the 
nae eed that appearance? Are there not those on which the 
exhausted all its power and finished their destruction, 
<itninaaamas less decayed, others not so much? Indeed, 
the disease can be traced until you find those which seem to defy 
and continue to defy its energy, even after the vessel has under- 
gone repeated repairs, and these circumstances occur too, even 
after the timbers have been subjected to some artificial —— to 
make them more durable. 
The following is a case in point. In the North pt Re- 
view, No. xcv. for April, 1837, pp. 343—44, in the article on the 
Sylva Americana, the following passage occurs. ‘ The white 
oak was largely employed in the frame of our favorite frigate (the 
Constitution) which was built forty years ago. In the course of 
the very thorough repair to which this vessel was lately subjected, 
many of the white oak timbers of her frame were found in ex- 
cellent condition ; and it is stated on the best authority, that in 
several instances the timbers of this description were sound, while 
others by their sides, of the southern live oak, had decayed. Now 
the superiority of the live oak, in point of durability, over the 
oak of any other country, has never been doubted.” Why didnot . 
all the white oak timber last forty years, if there had not been 
some variation of the season of ents them ? nell. 90: 
live oaks. 
