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FARMERS' REGISTJER 



107 



building £89,030, and alier she had only been five 

 months at sea, ilic rcpaiis lor dry-rot cost 26,683/. 

 The six ships that had only served two years at 

 eea cost in buildint!: their hails in 1810, 1811, 1812, 

 and 1813, £349,971, and afterwards in repairs lor 

 dry-rot £297,368. Ei<xhteen frigates, rating irorn 

 twenty-lour to thirtv-six guns, cost in repairs 

 in 1805, £253,148 YTs. 5(Cand if they had been 

 built anew, would oidy have cost £150,208 15s., 

 being in the projHirtion of three lor building, and 

 five lor repairs. But the case of the Victory we 

 shall particularize as a ship that can never cease 

 to excite public interest The building of a 120 

 gun ship during the war, according to Edye's cal- 

 culations, costs' £97,400. In the very first year, 

 1800, the Victory, 100 guns, was repaired in Chat- 

 ham, and her repairs did not terminate until 1803, 

 until after they had cost £96,020. This was be- 

 fore the battle of Tratalgar in 1805. But in 1814, 

 1815, and 1816, she was aijain repaired at Ports- 

 mouth at the cost of £47,558. So that she has 

 altogether cost lor repairs £ 143,578 in fifteen years. 

 But all these are isolated instances. The total 

 sum lor repairs for the whole navy cut a conspicu- 

 ous figure. From 1800 to 1820, over and above 

 the ordinary repairs of wear and tear, which were 

 £6,412,592, the repairs cost £11,037,188, beino: 

 an annual averafje of £551,859. The greater part 

 of this period was in the tiaie of war, but even in 

 time of peace the dry-rot appears to have made 

 as great ravages ; tor from 1822 to 1832 the cost 

 for all repairs amounted to £7,971,852: 7: 4, be- 

 ing an annual average of nearly £800.000, which 

 was about the war average. As the usual wear 

 and tear should be much greater in war than in 

 peace, it follows that the dry-rot is committing 

 greater ravages now than in the war. That beau- 

 ttliil ship the Vernon, 56, has been siezed with 

 this hurtful disease, and must, of course, go into 

 dock at an enormous cost lor re|)airs. 



These facts call loudly lor the adoption of some 

 means tor the prevention of so raging a malady. 

 Many expedients, we believe, have been attempt- 

 ed by the Adniiralty to assuage the evil, and tests 

 have been used to ascertain the soundness of tim- 

 ber by immersing it in fungus-pits, but all have 

 Jailed. Now, however, that Kyan's process has 

 been proved to be efficacious in preventing this 

 dire disease, the Admiralty ought to make a trial 

 at least of one ship so prefiared. Much money 

 would no doubt be siived to the public by its adop- 

 tion. What with exlraordinary repairs, and build- 

 ing and ordinary repairs, the annual expenditure 

 ibr timber in the navy-docks during the war was 

 about two millions, one half of which might have 

 been saved by the adoption of this process. But 

 besides the prevention of dry-rot in ships, the 

 stock of timber kept lor seasoning may be dis- 

 pensed with, besides the savinir in repair of pub- 

 lic works, such as docks:, buildings, &c. 



Important as Kyan's discovery is, in a national 

 point of view, in regard to the navy, it ie also 

 important, in a national view, to the landed inter- 

 est. If by this process proprietors of wooded es- 

 tates can not only use the timber they grow in 

 buildings, lences, implements, and for all country 

 purposes; but dispose of it to others who have 

 no wood fit for use, a stimulus will be given to 

 planting which will soon cloihethe waste places 

 of the country with arrowing timber, and in time 

 render the agricultural interest entirely indepen- 

 dent of Ibreigu timber. Iiideed; it is proper to be 



prepared lor such an event, for the settlement of 

 the Canadas by emigration will in time so denude 

 them of their magnilicent Ibrests, thai no timber 

 will then be available l()r exportation to this coun- 

 try. The value of this process is not confined to 

 hard timber, it seasons sap-wood in as short a 

 time, and preserves it also Irom decay. This pro- 

 perty of it will have the efiiect of increasing largely 

 the quantity of useful timber, if a tree, Ibr instance, 

 which may be squared to thirteen inches of heart 

 timber, can be squared to sixteen inches in- 

 cluding the sap-wood, its value as a marketa- 

 ble coinmodity will, by this process, be greatly 

 enhanced; much timber being thus rendered ser- 

 viceable, which would othervvise be wasted. The 

 applicability of home timber to every purpose 

 of building, fencing, and implements, would in- 

 sure a great saving to the landed interest. That 

 this process renders wood Ibr any species of work 

 durable, may be shown liom the testimony of 

 many credible witnesses. Two pieces of the 

 same wood and from the same part of the wood, 

 the one prepared the other not, were put into a pit 

 in Wesminster where a great deal of rotting was 

 going on; that piece which had undergone no pre- 

 paration became pulverulent and crumbled down 

 under the pressure of the fingers, the other, both 

 being sap-wood, became like heart-wood, and 

 manlli^sted no tendency to crumble, though it had 

 been cut with a knife. Captain Alderson, of the 

 Royal Engineers, made some experiments in the 

 Royal Carriage Office, Woolwich, to ascertain 

 the efiect of the process upon limber used in the 

 construction of gun-carriages. He obtained pieces 

 of oak, ash, and elm, quite green, with the bark 

 on and twigs with leaves upon them. Half of 

 the pieces were steeped in the solution, and the 

 whole of thetn put into the fungus pit to rot in 

 March 1835. They were taken out in September 

 1836, when the unprepared were quite rotten, 

 and the other, even to the preservation of the 

 bark, sap-wood, and leaves, were perlectly sound. 

 The spokes, felloes, and shafts of carts and car- 

 riages could thus be rendered durable for an inde- 

 finite length of time. Sir Robert Smtrke put a 

 couple of posts under a dropping eave, and both 

 were exposed to the same actions. After a cer- 

 tain time the unprepared decayed, the other still 

 stands. He also put up a considerable quantity 

 of paling about three years before he gave his 

 evidence on this subject before the committee of 

 the House of Commons, when it was in quite as 

 good a state as at first, though it was partly in the 

 ground; whereas, some paling which he had put 

 up the year belbre, not fixed into the ground, but 

 close upon it, unsleeped, was obliged to have its 

 lower part cut away in three years. The fencing 

 of plantations, young hedges, and the preserva- 

 tion of hurdles, field gates, watering troughs, 

 thus may be almost permanently insured. 



The sleepers used for railways may be used by 

 this process with advantage instead of stone, and 

 to all who have ever travelled on a railway laid 

 on wood, it is obviously a much pleasanter motion 

 than on stone. Now that the rage for railways 

 [jrevails, the supply of timber in any part of 

 the country through which the railway passes, 

 will render its construction n.ore economical. 

 Pieces of green larch were used as sleepers on the 

 Southampton railway ; some of them having 

 cracks wide enoujih to admit a penny piece. 

 After being steeped they became compact, and 



