96 TIMBER 



of 8 ft. in the first year. It has a fairly cylindrical stem 

 and grows to a height of 100 ft. 



The wood is light yellow or yellowish brown in colour, 

 the heartwood being readily distinguishable from the 

 lighter coloured sap which very early turns into heart- 

 wood, and it hardly ever amounts to 20 per cent, of the 

 volume of the tree ; works easily, but splits and shrinks a 

 good deal in drying ; the annual rings are very distinct, 

 medullary rays very minute and not visible to the naked 



I^M^i&'^M 



[.l//cr Roth. 



FIG. 19. Cross section of Chestnut. 



eye (Fig. 19). Coppice chestnut, that is, chestnut grown 

 on old stumps, furnishes better timber for working than 

 chestnut from the nut; it is heavier, less spongy and 

 straighter in grain, easier to split, and stands exposure 

 longer, but the ends are inclined to split after sawing. 

 Chestnut wood is flexible and elastic, not strong, but very 

 durable when in contact with the soil, which is due to the 

 amount of tannic acid it contains. Owing to the very thin 

 sapwood, chestnut is of use when ten or twelve years old, 

 an age when most hardwoods are useless. Many railways 



