1905 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



89 



more heat than the same variety 

 grown in the forest, and up to full 

 maturity wood improves as a heat pro- 

 ducer, but later it diminishes as it does 

 in strength and elasticity. The in- 

 crease of pitch or turpentine in old 

 trees gives them a fuel value far above 

 that of the soft pine or immature 

 growth. 



A few observations on heat may 

 appropriately follow : The most vi- 

 talizing heat is that of the sun in its 

 direct rays ; next is the radiant heat 

 from burning wood or coal. The 

 shepherd and the poultryman know 

 that the direct rays of the sun have a 

 vivifying effect upon the young lamb 

 or chicken, surpassing that derived 

 from any other source, excepting per- 

 haps that from the body of the mother. , 

 The heat radiated from a close stove 

 or steam, or hot water pipes may 

 warm the body, but it seems to lack 

 something that is conveyed by the 

 sun's rays. 



An open fire is company, with its 

 brisk flame, and lively crackle de- 

 manding frequent attention, ungrudg- 

 ing bestowed by any one who accepts 

 its companionship. It wdiiles away the 

 idle hour between daylight and dark, 

 called "candle-lighting" in the old 

 times, when the blazing hearth bore 

 the backlog and fore stick with high 

 piled lighter wood ; with an ample bed 

 of red-hot ashes and coals, fit to re- 

 ceive chestnuts or potatoes, to season 

 them wlnle you wait with the peculiar 

 flavor that those embers alone bestow. 



The open fire is always drawing the 

 family together with an unconscious 

 force that no radiator or furnace pos- 

 sesses. It gives a silent lesson in 

 good behavior, though often enforced 

 in words, "Don't go before the fire," 

 "Don't stand before the fire" (that is, 

 before some other person). This is 

 a lesson in unselfishness that is the 

 foundation of all good manners. An 

 old friend standing with me before a 

 blazing fire, recently said, "An open 

 fire is better than a minister in a fam- 

 ily any time." 



One of the great pleasures of the 

 open fire is in watching the decaying 



embers as the white ash encircles the 

 buring stick, or the decaying coal, still 

 retaining its size and form to the last. 

 There is a great difference in wood 

 in this respect, and on familiar ac- 

 quaintance it becomes companionship, 

 so that it is hard to conceive of lone- 

 someness in the presence of a lively 

 fire, with a store of wood to replenish 

 it. 



The weight of opinion is largely in 

 favor of dry wood, and in most va- 

 rieties this is true, yet there are some 

 hard facts in favor of some kinds of 

 green wood, or conditions of the fire, 

 that cannot be disputed. 



Men who run engines for sawing 

 lumber use the green slabs for fuel, 

 and as soon as the fire is well started, 

 do not hesitate to feed in the green 

 slabs covered with snow and ice, 

 claiming that such make the hottest 

 fire. 



In the olden times, with their big 

 fire places, green hickory brush was 

 highly prized for fuel ; piled high in 

 the old fire place, it made a roaring 

 fire, stronger and more durable than 

 dry brush. So green hickory wood 

 has the preference to-day in many 

 cases. Is there not a highly inflam- 

 mable volatile oil in the hickory bark 

 while green, which is lost in drying? 

 So with the black birch. What boy 

 would expect to find in the dry birch 

 bark that delicate aroma and flavor 

 which he finds in the green bark ? 

 That volatile oil is all gone then, and 

 the farmer says birch burns the best. 



Where else do we find the odor of 

 woods and fields, the odor of spring 

 in more sublimated form than when 

 the bursting buds of the birch unite 

 with the fragrance of the wild grape 

 in a perfume unsurpassed by the odors 

 of Araby? 



Now the old farmer who has 

 watched on his hearthstone the burn- 

 ing of different kinds of woods, as 



O 



well as the collier who annually burns 

 his thousands of bushels of charcoal, 

 have some notions about these things 

 that do not exactly harmonize with the 

 claims of the scientist in his labora- 

 tory, and it belongs to the latter to 



