148 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



felling ; and hence the desired object is, to procure timber as 

 free as possible from this ingredient. To this end it has been 

 recommended to fell the tree in the winter season, as it is then 

 deemed to contain the smallest quantity of sap ; and such, we 

 believe, is the general practice. 



This doctrine, however, was opposed with great ability 

 by the late Cplonel Pickering, who states, and with truth, that 

 trees are not devoid of sap in winter, but that it exists in 

 abundance, though greatly thickened by the cold. He main- 

 tains, therefore, that it is much more difficult to expel than in 

 summer, when in a more liquid form, and that the proper time 

 for felling the tree is, not when it contains the least sap, but 

 when the sap which it does contain may most easily escape or 

 be expelled. 



This opinion certainly seems to be the better one ; though 

 the winter season is so much more convenient on many ac- 

 counts than any other for the procuring of timber that the old 

 practice will probably maintain its ground. But whatever may 

 be thought of the correctness of Colonel Pickering's theory, no 

 one will question the propriety of the suggestion with which 

 he concludes his remarks, that the point should be determined 

 by actual experiments, under the direction of our navy board, 

 or some other high scientific authority. 



Besides the white oak, there are four other species in our 

 vicinity which grow to a large size. Of these, the most valua- 

 ble are the swamp white and the black oak. The swamp 

 white oak is not abundant, and grows only in moist soils. It 

 has been less used than the white oak, partly on account of 

 its rarity ; but its timber is heavier, and it is thought that it 

 may be found, on accurate examination, to be superior. 



The black oak is valued, not for its timber, which is of an 

 inferior quality, but for its bark; for it is this which furnishes 

 the quercitron, so much used for imparting a beautiful yellow 

 dye to wool, paper, &c* 



* In a communication in the fourth volume of "The New England Farmer," 

 made m \ ra] years ago by one of our most distinguished fellow-citizens, mention 

 is made of the trunks of several Luge oaks in Dorchester, in one of which he had 

 counted upwards of two hundred annual rings. 



The largest oak, and indeed the largest tree, which 1 have seen in this country, 



