180 



&l)e larmcr's ittcmtl)le lltsitor. 



Cause of Decay in Timber.— Season for Fell- 

 ing. 



Considering the magnitude of the interests in- 

 volved in the preservation of timber, it is surely 

 a disgrace to us of the present day, that douhts 

 should be as strong as ever concerning the true 

 causes of its decay. In an absence of certainty 

 as to these, for many years, attention has been 

 turned away from the essential part of the in- 

 quiry, and directed merely to secondary points. 

 The problem to be solved is, What causes the 

 decay of limber ? 



In the first place, it is presumed that no one 

 will dispute the fact that ancient limber lasted 

 longer than modern. That being granted, we 

 have only to ascertain what can have caused the 

 difference. Our Anglo-Saxon forefathers knew 

 nothing of hi-chloride of mercury, sulphate and 

 pyrolignite of iron, chloride of zinc, nor cresote. 

 There were no Ryans nor Burnetts, no Paynes 

 nor Boncheries, in their days; yet they perfectly 

 understood the art ol" rendering wood imperish- 

 able, as is sufficiently attested by what remains 

 of their works. The great, though forgotten ar- 

 chitects, who fixed the wooden roof of West- 

 minster Hall, in the time of Richard II., and 

 those who erected the old country churches and 

 corner castles of England, must have known 

 much better than the architects of the present 

 day how to prepare their timber, or their wood 

 work would not have remained as sound as 

 when it was put together by their artisans. 



As ancient practice is not sufficiently recorded, 

 we can only look to the nature of the timber it- 

 self, in order to learn the causes which hasten 

 its decay. Foremost among these is its exposure 

 to any moist atmosphere exceeding a tempera- 

 ture of 38 deg. Farenheit; and the decay will 

 proportionably he hastened as the temperature 

 of that atmosphere is increased. Timber, abso- 

 lutely dry, would be unable to undergo decom- 

 position at any appreciable rate. A piece of 

 wood found at the back of one of the friezes, at 

 Athens, by Lord Elgin, is as sound at present as 

 it could have been in the days of Phidias, more 

 than two thousand years ago. Even animal 

 matters, rapidly as they putrefy, are preserved 

 for centuries in the absence of moisture. Trav- 

 ellers assure us that in the arid plains that 

 stretch northwards beyond the Himalayan range, 

 the corpses of men and the carcasses of animals 

 dry up, instead of rotting. The Gaucho hangs 

 his beef in the sun, and in the dry climate of the 

 pampas it hardens as so much hide, like which 

 it may be kept for use. 



If, then, mere dryness is sufficient to arrest the 

 deeay of animal matter, how much more effect- 

 ual must be its action upon vegetable substances. 

 in which a natural tendency to rot is infinitely 

 less inherent. Sawdust is but timber broken to 

 pieces; damp sawdust rots rapidly ; dry sawdust 

 will all but last forever. Charcoal, one of the 

 most unchangeable forms of vegetable maiter, 

 is only timber from which the last trace of wa- 

 ter has been expelled by heat. Absence of 

 moisture is therefore the great cause of preser- 

 vation, as its presence is that of decay. 



Complete dryness may be assumed to have 

 been the cause of the durability of ancient tim- 

 ber. At least, in the present state of our infor- 

 mation, we can refer it to nothing else; and dry- 

 ness is amply sufficient to account for it. In the 

 opinion of one of the most experienced and 

 philosophical of modern writers, the late Sir 

 Samuel Bentham, dryness was the great object 

 to be obtained in preparing limber for naval pur- 



poses. Drying bouses were recommended by 

 him; and during all the period of his employ- 

 ment as civil architect of the British navy, this 

 distinguished officer never ceased to point out 

 the indispensable necessity of securing the dry- 

 ness of timber before all other things. To the 

 artificial methods available for this purpose we 

 need not here allude. What we hnve to deal 

 with is the natural means of bringing it about. 

 Those natural means are much more effectual 

 than any others, and it is a question whether 

 they can he superseded by any artificial method 

 whatsoever. The means which trees possess of 

 relieving themselves from moisture are then- 

 leaves, which serve as a very powerful pumping 

 apparatus, incessantly drawing moisture from 

 their interior, and giving it off to space. It is 

 true that the same action which produces a dis- 

 charge of fluid from the surface of leaves, has at 

 certain seasons, the counter effect of again 

 charging the apparatus with more fluid, to re- 

 place that which is thrown oft"; but this happens 

 only at certain seasons. In spring, a tree is in 

 full force ; the roots then draw fluid from the 

 soil, the trunk draws it from the roots, leaves 

 draw it from the trunk — and waste it ; and this 

 goes on so long as the soil is filled with the rains 

 of spring — so long as vitality is active. But as 

 summer advances, the earth becomes dry, refuses 

 the same abundant supply as before, and all 

 vegetation slackens. The leaves, however, still 

 go on — pump, pump, pump ; till at last, the roots 

 becoming torpid, the leaves draw off all the free 

 fluid that the trunk contains; and when the last 

 supply that it can yield is exhausted, they perish. 

 At that time, the trunk, by natural means, is 

 dried to a great degree ; the free water lying in 

 its cavities is gone ; and the whole fabric ac- 

 quires a hardness it did not know before. Until 

 the leaves are renewed iii the succeeding spring, 

 but small internal change occurs; the roots are 

 torpid, and will scarcely act; the pumps are 

 broken; and little more fluid is introduced into 

 the wood. Hence it is obvious that the period 

 when the timber of a tree is naturally free from 

 moisture, and therefore least prone to decay, is 

 between the fall of the leaf in autumn and the 

 renewal of vegetation in the spring; and the 

 nearer the fall of the leaf, the most free. 



In this point of view, timber which is intend- 

 ed to be durable should be felled late in the au- 

 tumn, or in midwinter. No artificial processes 

 will relieve its moisture so economically and so 

 well as the means which nature has provided. 

 On the other hand, if it is felled when the tissue 

 is full of fluid, it is much to be doubted whether 

 any artificial methods of exhaustion are capable 

 of seasoning it properly. — American .Agriculturist. 



Flax Culture. — Mr. J. Galbraith of Wiscon- 

 sin, has undertaken to introduce the culture of 

 flax into that State. He has been about two 

 years in Wisconsin, and is well versed in the 

 methods followed in Ireland, Holland and Bel- 

 gium. His first trial was made at Musquinago, 

 with fifty acres, and this year he has harvested 

 the products of one hundred acres. The fabric 

 is said to be quite equal to that of Irish and Bel- 

 gium flax. 



He who takes the papers, 



And pays his bill when due, 

 Can live in peace with God and man, 



And with the printer too. 



Own land. — An old Almanack of Charles IPs 

 time, quoted by Scott, recommends the reader to 

 walk a mile or two every morning before break- 

 fast in the month of July, and, if he can possibly 

 so manage it, to let his exercise br on his own land! 



New England Agriculture. 



Boston, Dec. 15, 1849. 



To the Hon. Marshall P. Wilder: Dear Sir:— 

 Allow me to thank you for the excellent address 

 delivered before the Norfolk Agricultural Society, 

 which you kindly sent to me. I have read it 

 with great interest, both as the production of an 

 esteemed friend, and as being replete with high- 

 ly instructive and valuable hints on one of the ' 

 subjects most important to mankind. I hope 

 that what you and other gentlemen are doing to 

 advance the cause of agriculture, will have its. 

 desired effect, in checking the ardent rush into 

 speculation ; in attaching our New England sons 

 to their native soil; in making them love to lin- 

 ger around the dear spot that gave them birth, 

 and drink the pure water from the old oaken 

 bucket; in turning our swamps and marshes, 

 our barren plains and rugged hills, into green 

 meadows, fruitful gardens, and smiling pastures; 

 in rebuking indolence, vice, and lust of ungodly 

 gain, and introducing over the length and breadth 

 of New England — so dear to us still — and, final- 

 ly, over the whole land, the millenial reign of ' 

 industry, content, plenty, purity, peace, and pre- 

 paration for heaven. * 



This subject is of vastly greater moment than 

 is by most imagined. When all the lights and 

 resources of science shall be brought to co-ope- 

 rate steadily and perseveringly with art and in- 

 dustry, when experience, guided by science, and 

 science taught by experience, shall do all that 

 can be done in this great work, we shall no long- 

 er hear about barren New England, nor the ne- 

 cessity of migrating to the Western prairies, to * 

 obtain the means of subsistence. These hills 

 and valleys will bud and blossom as the rose. " 

 The ruggedest mountains, the very rocks them- 

 selves, will put off their frowning features, and 

 laugh with abundance. We shall hear less of 

 the shining dust of California, and the exhaust- 

 less alluvia of the Great Valley, and more of the 

 sun-lit summits, the pure breezes, the crystal # 

 waters, the viue-clad hills, the teeming valleys, 

 and the noble spirits of New England. 3 

 have the honor to remain, with sentiments of 

 grateful esteem, your obedient and obliged friend, 



H. W. 



Improvement in Paper-making. — The readi- 

 ness and facility with which the manufacture of 

 paper is now carried on is really astonishing. 

 The Journal of Commerce remarks : " We were 

 informed a few days since, by a large paper 

 dealer in New York, that it was not uncommon 

 for him to have in his warehouse, and sell, at 

 nine o'clock in the morning, paper which was 

 in rogs a hundred and fifty miles from New York 

 at nine o'clock of the previous morning. A bet- " 

 ter illustration of the power of steam could not 

 be given, or of the progress of the age. The rags 

 are placed in the duster, thence conveyed to the 

 troughs or vats, where (in some kinds of paper; 

 the sizing is mixed with the pulp, and from these 

 vats the paper passes over heated rollers, and' 

 finally between two immensely heavy iron rol- 

 lers, which give it the glazed surface, and it is 

 then cut, folded, packed, and sent to ihe rail- 

 road, all in the course of a lew hours. The tel- 

 egraph enables New York merchants to order 

 paper in Massachusetts at any moment, and re- 

 ceive the returns, manufactured, and even ruled, 

 by almost the next steamer." — Protective Union. 



Harvest in Canada. — The fall wheat harvea." 

 in this neighborhood is now almost entirely j 

 gathered, and we are happy to say that the yield 

 is most abundant — greater than for many years 

 past. We hear of thirty, forty, and even fifty < 

 bushels to the acre on many farms. — Toronto 

 Globe. _ 



Honor to Maine. — The legislature of Maine - , f 

 which has just adjourned, has passed a Home- * 

 stead Bill that will gladden many a poor man's 

 heart, and keep many an improvident woman 

 from obtaining credit lor luxuries. It provides 

 not only for the exemption of real estate to Ut£ 

 value of $500, but it also provides lor the ex- 

 emption of §500 worth of personal property, i', 

 case the man is not the owner of a homestead. 

 The exemption is in both cases only as against 

 debts contracted subsequent to the passage ol 

 the net. — J3ff. 



