78 IMPORTANT TIMBER TREES 



tortuous interlacing of fibres, but it is erroneously claimed 

 by some that there is a uniform law shown in spiral wind- 

 ing, and that the wind is always in the direction of the 

 sun's course in the heavens, that is, from east to west on 

 the south side of the tree and consequently in the opposite 

 direction on the other side. An examination of a large 

 number of peeled Hemlock logs, cut in localities far apart, 

 during twoscore years of lumbering experience, this tree 

 being more given to that kind of irregularity than almost 

 any other of our timber trees, shows that about ten per 

 cent was without any wind, approximately twenty per cent 

 with the sun and seventy per cent against it. No law ap- 

 pears, in the case of trees, to govern in either irregularity, 

 although, as a rule, climbing plants twine against the sun ; 

 nor is it known that any treatment of a growing tree can 

 in any way modify or change the wind. It would be well 

 for the Government to undertake the task of finding out 

 whether winding is hereditary, for if growing trees from 

 seed of only such as are straight-grained will produce 

 others of like condition, much good would come from it. 



