84 S Y L V A BOOK in 



be boared through from end to end ; it is an excellent 

 preservative from splitting, and not unphilosophical ; 

 though to cure this accident, the rubbing them over 

 with a wax-cloth is good, painters putty, &c. or 

 before it be converted, the smearing the timber over 

 with cow-dung, which prevents the effects both of 

 sun and air upon it ; if of necessity it must lie exposed: 

 But besides the former remedies, I find this, for the 

 closing of the chops and clefts of green timber, to 

 anoint and supple it with the fat of powder'd beef- 

 broth, with which it must be well soak'd, the chasms 

 fill'd with spunges dipt into it ; this, to be twice done 

 over : Some carpenters make use of grease and saw- 

 dust mingled ; but the first is so good a way (says my 

 author) that I have seen wind-shock-timber so 

 exquisitely closed, as not to be discerned where the 

 defects were : This must be us'd when the timber is 

 green. 



6. We spake before of squaring, and I would now 

 recommend the quartering of such trees as will allow 

 useful and competent scantlings, to be of much more 

 durableness and effect for strength, than where (as 

 custom is, and for want of observation) whole beams 

 and timbers are apply'd in ships or houses, with slab 

 and all about them, upon false suppositions of strength 

 beyond these quarters : For there is in all trees an 

 evident interstice or separation between the heart and 

 the rest of the body, which renders it much more 

 obnoxious to decay and miscarry, than when they are 

 treated and converted as I have described it ; and it 

 would likewise save a world of materials in the build- 

 ing of great ships, where so much excellent timber 

 is hew'd away to spoil, were it more in practice. 

 Finally, 



