408 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[December, 



of a very dark colour, but this probably is owing to the resinous texture 

 of the wood, which causes dust to adhere to its surface, and might be 

 prevented by washing the floor with alkaline ley, or any other solvent 

 of resin. 



While Spruce Deals. — Of the American white spruce deals, none, 

 not even the very best, are to be compared for quality to the white 

 deals of the north of Europe. They have two faults — they are very 

 liable to warp, and the knots in them (owing to the bark adhering to 

 the branch while the wood grows over it), are liable to fall out and 

 leave a hole in the board. However long they may be kept they 

 never lose their property of warping, and are consequently unfit for 

 joiner's work. They are used only for the floors of the most ordinary 

 houses. They are extremely liable, if placed in damp situations, to 

 decay. An instance of this is mentioned by Mr. Warburton, in his 

 evidence upon the Select Committee on the Timber Duties, ls3.">, as 

 having occurred in the floor of his counting house at Lambeth, which 

 he had caused to be made of spruce deals as the cheapest material. 

 An unusually high tide in the Thames overflowed it. It was covered 

 at the time with oil-cloth, and the oil-cloth being replaced upon the 

 floor before it was thoroughly dry; in less than a week the dry rot had 

 spread over the whole floor, and had penetrated in some parts below 

 the surface of the deals. Of this species, as well as of every other 

 description of American deal, and most especially of yellow pine 

 deals, it may be observed, that they ought only to be used in situa- 

 tions that are perfectly dry, or if not dry, that are completely ex- 

 posed to the air. Spruce deals (particularly the spruce planks 1 1 and 

 12 inches wide) that come from St. John's and St. Andrew's in New 

 Brunswick, are chiefly used for making packing cases. 



It is stated that every deal of yellow pine that has been shipped in 

 America in a wet state, when it arrives here, is covered over by a 

 net-work of little white fibres, which is the dry rot in its incipient 

 state. There is no cargo (even if it has been shipped in tolerably dry 

 condition,) in which, upon its arrival here, some deals will not be found 

 with the fungus begining to vegetate on their surface. If they are 

 deals that have been floated down the rivers in America, and shipped in 

 a wet state only, they arrive quite covered with this net-work of fungus, 

 so that force is necessary to separate one deal from another, so strongly 

 does the fungus occasion them to adhere -, they will grow together 

 again, as it were, after quitting the ship while lying in the barges 

 before being landed. Accordingly if a cargo has arrived in a wet 

 condition, or late in the year, or if the rain falls on the deals before 

 they are landed, and they are piled flat, one ou the other, after the 

 usual manner of piling deals, in six months time or even less, the 

 whole pile of deals will become deeply affected by the dry rot, so 

 that wherever the flat surface of one deal lies upon the flat surface of 

 another deal the rot penetrates to the depth perhaps of one-eigth 

 of an inch. Its progress is arrested frequently by re-piling the deals 

 during the dry weather of the month of March, and by sweeping the 

 surface of each deal before it is re-piled with a hard broom ; but, 

 perhaps the best way is to pile the deals in the first instance upon 

 their edges, by which means the air circulates round them, the 

 growth of the fungus is checked, and the necessity of re-piling them 

 prevented. 



As respects the dry rot, it may be noticed, that there are but very 

 few cargoes of timber in the log that come from America, in which, in 

 one part or other of every log, a beginning of the vegetation of the 

 dry rot is nots. pparent. Sometimes it will show itsplf only by a few 

 reddish discoloured spots on the surface of the log, which, if scratched 

 with the nail, it will be seen that to the extent of each spot the tex- 

 ture of the timber to some little depth is destroyed — it will be re- 

 duced to powder: a white fibre will generally be seen growing on 

 these spots. If the timber has been shipped in dry condition, and the 

 voyage has been a short one, there may be some logs without a spot; 

 but if the cargo has been shipped in a wet condition and the voyage 

 has been a long one, then a white fibre will be seen growing over 

 every part of the surface of every log. It should further be noticed 

 in connexion with this subject, that there are two descriptions of 

 European timber likewise very liable to take the dry rot, yellow Pe- 



tersburg deals and yellow and white battens from Dram in Norway. 

 Battens that have been received from Dram and allowed to be a long 

 time in bond in this country, without being re-piled in time, (as they 

 ought to have been,) have been as much effected by the dry rot as 

 manv American deals, though this has not happened in as short a 

 time as has been known to be sufficient to rot American deals. That 

 the fungus growing on the surface of American timber is the dry rot 

 appears to be quite certain: it has all its character, as to appearance 

 and as to effect, for whenever it spreads over the surface, the deal, if 

 neglected, is reduced to the state of powder. 



These are a few leading facts connected with the important subject 

 of the selection of such timber as is placed within our reach, and to 

 which for the most part our choice is limited. For a mass of infor- 

 mation on everything connected with the subject we may refer to the 

 documents from which these few particulars have been chiefly ga- 

 thered, the Evidence given before the Parliamentary Committees on 

 the Timber Duties. 



RAILWAYS IN INDIA. 



Ix a preceding article we have spoken of the political and mercantile 

 advantages derivable from the further extension of steam navigation 

 in British India: we will now folljwup the subject with a few further 

 remarks on the still more important subject of railroad*. India is 

 confessedly an agricultural country; its internal sources of agricul- 

 tural wealth, and its capabilities of production are literally boundless, 

 sufficient to supply more than thrice its present population of 150 

 millions of inhabitants, with all the necessaries and luxuries of life ; 

 and, so far as regards its exports, to satisfy the wants of Great Bri- 

 tain, rendering her independent of foreigners for her supply of cotton, 

 tobacco, sugar, and tea. Lords of the soil, the East India Company 

 depend chiefly upon agriculture for their immense annual revenue, 

 and consequently for the maintenance of their power: it is to this 

 certain source the merchant looks for his wealth, the many millions 

 for their support, anil the manufacturers of this country for the means 

 whereby they are enabled to maintain tens of thousands at home, and 

 to supply every quarter of the globe with the fruits of their industry : 

 nay, the very existence of the Honourable Company depends at the 

 present moment, much more upon an immediate development of its 

 internal resources, than upon continuing their career of conquest and 

 acquisition of territory now so happily begun. It is not sufficient 

 that they encourage private or public speculation, that they incur a 

 large annual outlay in promoting agricultural objects, and use their 

 endeavours to introduce better modes of culture and manufacture of 

 the chief staple commodities: other, and more extensive measures 

 must be immediately entered upon, in order to meet the wants and 

 expectations of the age in which we live: the country must be thrown 

 open to class colonization, to men of spirit and possessing some small 

 capital, and its agriculture must be promoted by the means of railways 

 in those central provinces which are deficient of navigable rivers. 



Upon looking over the map of India it will be observed that many 

 of the finest and most productive provinces are isolated, possessing 

 neither good roads nor navigable streams; the rich products of 

 Malwah, the southern parts of Allahabad, Gundwana, and Hyderabad, 

 have to be conveyed to the respective markets on the backs of 

 oxen; thus the cottons of these insulated provinces, after being col- 

 lected and rudely cleansed, are transported to the banks of the Ganges 

 in this manner, over, in some places, almost impassable roads, the 

 journey being performed in not less than 20 or 30 days, during which 

 time, the loosely packed bales are exposed to a burning tropical sun as 

 well as to the dews of the night, and other mischances attending long 

 and dangerous journeys: who then, after considering the rude manner in 

 which this commodity is cultivated and cleansed, can wonder at its 

 being inferior to the produce of the West? the only surprize is, that 

 after this rude journey, and its equally rude modes of conveyance 

 down the Ganges to Calcutta, it should be worth any thing at all. 



The valley of the Ganges extending over a surface of 400,000 



