TTP RERESe TEEN 
On the Dry Rot. 77 
It is a well known fact, that the building of the Constitution 
commenced when we were on the eve of a maritime war with 
France, or it had already commenced, and therefore we may sup- 
pose that the completion of the ship was hurried; and that her 
frame did not all arrive from the south in time, so that they were 
compelled to employ the white oak in her construction: probably 
the season in which it was cut was not much regarded, and there~ 
fore some of her white oak timber lasted forty years. 
I saw in one of the Reviews of the day a circumstance of this 
kind, although I cannot now give the reference. In a mine, I 
believe in one of the German states, the timbers made use of to 
support the roofs of the galleries, were in a few months destroyed 
by the dry rot, and this could not be obviated by every experi-~ 
ment that was tried, until they made use of the locust. The 
effect was aecoutited for in this way: the dry rot, it is true, 
destroyed the alburnum immediately; but the decayed 
answered for a coating to defend the heart-wood from its influ- 
ence. If this be the fact, why did not the decayed alburnum of 
the other timber answer the same purpose? But however, if the 
histories of those locusts were reverted to, it would most probably 
be found that they were killed some time in the summer; and it 
will also be found that if the decayed alburnum be not removed 
it will generate another disease, which in some respects resembles 
and is very often taken for the dry rot. 
Numerous other instances can be brought to bear in this case. 
Farmers cut their rails in the summer, when the bark will peel, 
and they last from fifty to a hundred years. They account for 
the fact in this way: if they cut them in the winter, the bark 
will stick to the rails, and after a little while, the water gets under 
it and causes them to decay sooner. On the contrary, they cut 
their posts in the winter ; probably _ sor done for the « convenience 
of cutting holes in th ls 
$0 long, yet their is eine ‘ac ania seven or eight 
years, according to the soil in which they are placed. When 
fr necessity they re oblige to cut a few posts in the summer, 
the expectation however that they will soon decay, )if they 
f this 
inquiré into the natural cause, nor alter their practice. There are 
other instances of the extraordinary a of timber; wooden 
Vor. XXXIV.—No. 1. 
