278 



Canadian Vorestry Journal. June, 1920. 



Fir beam, 72 feet 9 inches long, 



17.5 inches square $217.00 



Fir beam, 65 feet 5 inches long", 



17.5 inches square 173.60 



Fir beam, 58 feet 2 inches long, 



17.5 inches equare 130.20 



Fir beam, 50 feet 11 inches long, 



15.5 inches square 52.08 



Fir beam, 40 feet 9 inches long, 



17.5 inches square 42 40 



Fir beam, 43 feet 8 inches long, 



13.1 inches square 34.72 



Fir beam, 40 feet 9 inches long, 



11.6 inches square 26.04 



Pine beams, at the same prices 



as for fir. 

 Oak beam, 20 feet 4 inches long, 



12.4 inches square 1.09 



Ash beam, 20 feet 4 inches long 



8.8 inches square 1.09 



The portion of the edict is broken 

 off at this point, so that we know no 

 other prices for lumber items. In 

 comparing them with the prices of 

 today, we should remember that these 

 are maximum prices, and that the em- 

 peror expressly ordered dealers not to 

 sell so high if they could sell at lower 

 figures ! Which did not work out in 

 practice, for within four years Diocle- 

 tian gave up the struggle and abdicat- 

 ed the imperial power, disgusted with 

 the state of affairs. Just what hap- 

 pened we do not know, except for the 

 vague news that the fixing of max- 

 imum prices resulted in much blood- 

 shed and in hoarding of goods which 

 produced a still greater scarcity and 

 the edict was repealed at some date 

 unknown. 



But we should think of these prices 

 rather in comparison with the wages 

 of laborers ; for the Emperor Diocle- 

 tian tried to set maximum limits also 

 for these. The highest wages were, 

 for a shepherd, 9 cents a day ; for a 

 farm laborer, a camel driver, an ass 

 driver, a mule driver, 11 cents; for a 

 mason, a carpenter, a wagon smith, a 

 ship builder working on ships for nav- 

 igating rivers, 22 cents ; for a ship 

 builder working on ships to sail the 

 open seas, 26 cents ; for an inside 

 house painter, ?>?> cents ; for a paintei 

 of wall decorations, 65 cents. All of 



these were, however, provided with 

 their meals ; but a lawyer could not 

 charge over $5.45 per case, no matter 

 how long it lasted, and his meals were 

 not provided while it went on, either! 



The most astonishing thing is that 

 such large timbers as those first on 

 the list should have been sufficiently 

 regular articles of commerce to be 

 listed in the edict. The first item is 

 6o per cent, larger than the "big sticks 

 sawed on a special order, 9^^ inches 

 by 24 inches by 62 feet," featured in 

 a recent advertisement. Again, the 

 question has been raised as to how 

 they were used by the ancients ; and 

 a conjecture that they were used in 

 ship building is confirmed by another 

 advertisement which offers big tim- 

 bers for this very purpose. 



But these big sticks were far sur- 

 passed by others of which we hear in 

 the Natural History of Pliny, the Ro- 

 man statesman, scholar, admiral, and 

 scientist, who lost his life while in- 

 vestigating the eruption of Mount 

 Vesuvius in 79 A.D. In the twentieth 

 book of this Natural History, which 

 is really an encyclopaedia, Pliny tells 

 us that the largest beam ever seen 

 at Rome was one of larch, brought 

 there as part of a consignment of lum- 

 ber in the reign of the Emperor Tib- 

 erius, who ruled from 14 to 37 A.D. 

 This particular beam was of such size, 

 that instead of being used for con- 

 struction, it was exhibited as a curios- 

 ity until some time in the reign of 

 Nero (54-68 A. D.); it was 120 Ro- 

 man feet in length (about 116 of our 

 feet), and two Roman feet square 

 throughout its length. This somewhat 

 surpasses in length the 110-foot tim- 

 bers advertised in magazines re- 

 cently, the breadth and thickness of 

 which are not stated. We hear else- 

 where that larch logs were brought 

 from the Rhaetian Alps, on the north- 

 ern border of Italy ; and we are left 

 to wonder how a beam of such length 

 and weight could have been transport- 

 ed by the ancients, devoid as they 

 were' of steam and electrical power, 

 and even of wagons running on rails. 

 Human and animal power alone were 

 theirs, but they knew and used the 

 windlass and the lifting crane. From 



