TIMBER 



AND TIMBER TREES 



INTRODUCTION. 



THE properties and characteristic qualities of the timber 

 available for works of construction are so numerous 

 and important, and yet so little understood generally, 

 that I am induced by the solicitations of many friends 

 to give, in these pages, all the information respecting 

 them which I have been able to collect. This collection 

 has been made during a long course of practice in the 

 working of forests, and in the employment of a great 

 variety of woods, and I am not without hope that the 

 results will be of service to many who are engaged in 

 carpentry, shipbuilding, and engineering. 



To the students of these branches of art, it will be 

 my aim to make the work especially useful, as I propose 

 to treat, not only of the timber known to, and dealt with 

 in commerce, but to extend my observations to a few 

 others which, for the most part, are equally valuable, 

 although, at present, they are scarcely known beyond 

 the localities in which they grow. I propose also to 

 treat of the defects most frequently met with in timber, 



B 



