THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. 59 



THE BEST TIME TO CUT TIMBEB. 



WHEN autumn comes, and leaves are dr7, 



And rustle on the ground, 

 And chilling winds go whistling by, 



With moaning, pensive sound, 

 Cut, timber then for posts, and beams, and rails, 

 For tongues, and thills, for whippletrees and stales." 



61. Late autumn is the best time for felling timber for almost 

 any purpose; and it is particularly so when timber is to be 

 worked up into rails, or stakes, or posts for fencing. At that 

 season of the year, the new wood has arrived at its most complete 

 maturity, and there is less sap and albumen in timber then than 

 there is at any other season of the year, which albumen, when 

 exposed to the influence of the weather, hastens the decay of 

 timber. If timber be cut and split out in the latter part of autumn 

 the seasoning process is much more gradual and perfect, because 

 the grain of the timber contracts more equally and uniformly, 

 rendering the timber firmer and less porous, and less cracked and 

 checked than when it is cut at many other seasons of the year. 

 Besides this, timber that is cut in late autumn and split out or 

 sawed out before spring, will not " powder post," nor be injured by 

 the worms working in it, nor be injured by the dry rot, as is the case 

 with timber many times, %fhich has been cut at some other season 

 of the year. Fence posts and stakes particularly, no matter what 

 the kind of timber may be, when felled and split out in late autumn, 

 will outlast other posts and stakes of the same kind of timber 

 which may be cut at a different season of the year, by several 

 years, according to the time when it may be cut. Reason teaches 

 us that this is so, and the experience of the most successful ex 

 periments in timber furnish the most indubitable testimony to 

 substantiate this fact. 



62. The treatment which timber receives immediately after it 

 has been felled, effects its durability, and also its firmness and 

 tenacity, to a much greater degree than many are wont to suppose. 

 For this reason many farmers in experimenting on the durability 

 of timber, have failed, almost entirely, to allow this consideration 



