&8 



GENESEE FARMER. 



Proper Time for Cutting Timber. 



Several correspondents of the New England 

 Farmer are discussing the much mooted ques- 

 tion, " At what season of the year ought timber 

 to be cut or felled to be the least liable to decay 1" 



Gen. Dearborn remarks that, "from experi- 

 etice, and the information I have received iVom 

 various parts of the Union, I am fully satisfied 

 that for wood to be used as fuel, or in the arts, 

 the trees should be felled when they are in full 

 foliage, and never after they have ceased to 

 grow. Why timber is more durable when trees 

 are cut down in summer than in winter, is a 

 question in vegetable physiology which has not 

 been explained, — and may not be ; but the fact 

 is undfeniable." 



This assumption of a " fact" is not only ques- 

 tioned, but, as the critic seems to believe, quite 

 oyerthrown. Professor Brande and Cuthbert 

 W. Johnson are quoted to prove that " trees 

 should be felled from the time the leaves begin to 

 fall till they begin to bud-" 



The latter is the popular opinion among Au- 

 thors, who copy from one another with a degree 

 of carelessness, and lack of original investiga- 

 tion, not very creditable to the profession. So 

 early as 1669, a law was enacted in France for- 

 bidding the felling of timber between the months 

 of April and Novernber. This was based on the 

 common belief that trees cut in the season of 

 their growth, made less durable timber and lum- 

 ber than if felled when their foliage was off. 

 Like most other old and venerated customs, this 

 came to be questioned, and was required to pass 

 the searching ordeal of modern investigation. 

 Accordingly, the French government employed 

 DuHAMEL, a gentleman distinguished for his sci- 

 ence, and long experience in forest culture, &c., 

 (being at the head of that department of civil af- 

 fairs,) to test the question of the durability of 

 timber cut at different seasons of the year. He 

 found that the common opinion which assurnes 

 that a green tree has more water or sap in it in 

 summer than winter, not founded in fact. The 

 difference in the moisture when accurately mea- 

 sured by perfect drying, whether the tree be cut 

 in June or January, is very small. The earlier 

 decay of timber cut when the leaves are on, and 

 the tree is growing, is attributable, not to an ex- 

 c>eas of sap in its trunk, but to its ascending to 

 the leaves, and rapid evaporation, after the stem 

 of the tree is severed by the axe, and the supply 

 from the root cut off. When no more sap can 

 pass up in the alburnum (sapwood) atmospheric 

 air enters all the sap vessels at the butt of the 

 tree and extends quite up to the leaves, filling 

 what would otherwise be a vacuum. If there was 

 no green foliage on the tree, all evaporation from 

 its vast surface of leaves would be suspended ; 

 and especially, if its sap was frozen, would its 

 circulation be next to nothing. It is known that 

 if tlie stem of a green plant be placed in a tum- 



bler of water, its leaves will keep fresh much 

 longer than they will if denied that advantage. 

 Corn leaves curl up in July and August, and be- 

 come partly dried in a hot sun, when they evapo- 

 rate moisture faster than a parched soil can sup- 

 ply water to their roots. 



Some may ask "what evidence is there that 

 atmospheric air on penetrating the trunk and 

 branches of a tree felled in June, will excite fer- 

 mentation in its partly organised juices, affect in- 

 juriously its cellular tissues, and thus induce pre- 

 mature rotting, or decomposition ?" 



The process marked out by the Creator for the 

 purpose of transforming organized vegetable 

 and animal tissues, and other substances, back 

 again into their original elements of air, water, 

 and earth, is a sfiidy which cannot be despatched 

 in a single paragraph. Suffice it to say, in this 

 connection, that the oxygen of the air, heut and mois- 

 ture, are the principal agents employed by Na- 

 ture to accomplish this important work. In all 

 the cells and tubes of all plants there is a nitro- 

 genous substance, that is, a substance, unlike 

 woody fibre, starch, oil, sugar, and gum, but like 

 the sticky matter in wheat bread, and the white 

 of an egg that contains nitrogen. In the pres- 

 ence of a due degree of heat, moisture, and at- 

 mospheric air, this glutinous, albuminous, nitro- 

 genous substance, (we repeat the terms that they 

 may be the sooner understood by all our rea- 

 ders) acts as a ferment (yeast) to ferment the 

 whole lump. If a tree or stick of timber be well 

 dried or seasoned, then fermentation or incipient 

 decay is prevented. The same is true of lean 

 meat. The chemical action of salt on the tis- 

 sues of meat, wood and other organized substan- 

 ces, should be known to every farmer. A strong 

 solution of common salt, chloride of lime, cop- 

 peras, blue vitriol and other salts, may be made 

 to permeate and fill all the pores in timber at no 

 very great expense, and thus prolong its dura- 

 bility for an indefinite period. Timber has been 

 so saturated with salts of iron as to answer in the 

 place of iron rails for cars and locomotives to 

 pass over. The logs are placed upright on end, 

 and the solution is supported in contact with the 

 cut surfiice above the end by water tight, gum- 

 elastic bags. Entering the end of the log, the 

 fluid passes down through it and drips like sap 

 at the bottom. By taking off the pressure of the 

 atmosphere from the lower end of the log, by 

 the aid of an air pump properly adjusted, the so- 

 lution descends far more rapidly. A good air 

 pump for extracting the sap and air from a fence 

 post and other timber, and filling the same with 

 strong brine, will cost $2o. Among other chemi- 

 cal apparatus for experimenting for the benefit of 

 agriculturists, we have purchased an instrument 

 of this kind. It can be used probably to some 

 advantage in curing meat. We have something 

 to say on the latter topic, and the cheap purificiv 

 tion of commen salt for dairy purposes. At 



