2 NOTE ON BIJA SAL OR VENGAI. 



moisture in the soil and will grow well on rocky laterite. Well suited 

 to gneissic soils, but will not grow on the sandy soils of the coast/' 



3. Description, Properties and Uses of Timber. 



The sapwood is narrow, soft, and white, the heartwood handsome, 

 hard, yellowish or reddish-brown showing yellowish smooth vertical 

 streaks on a vertical section. It is often cross-grained but takes a fine 

 polish and seasons well. The yellow stain contained in the wood comes 

 off when it is wet. 



Durability. It is a durable timber but should be kept dry, and is not 

 liable to split. It has been tried for sleepers on the Mysore State Rail- 

 way, twenty out of twenty-five being found to be serviceable after seven 

 years' use, and lasts a long time as door and window frames. The Great 

 Indian Peninsula Railway Company laid down 322 sleepers in 1879-80 

 and reported in 1883 that those which had been cut out of heartwood 

 lasted very well and held the spikes firmly. Edward Balfour in " The 

 Timber Trees, Timber and Fancy Woods," as also, " The Forests of India 

 and of Eastern and Southern Asia," 1862, says that it was much used 

 for buildings on the Bombay side, but should not be exposed to wet, and 

 was not attacked by white-ants for at least twenty years. It was tried 

 for sleepers on the Rajpipla State Railway in Bombay in 1897 and lasted 

 for three years only. Wood placed in the sea in Madras was found to 

 be badly attacked by the teredo. 



Weiglit. The average weight of the wood per cubic foot is about 

 55 Ibs., the highest recorded being 63 Ibs. and the lowest 47 Ibs. 

 (Gamble) . 



Strength. The value of P, which represents the strength of a bar of 

 timber calculated from the length between supports, breadth and thick- 

 ness of the bar, and the weight in pounds which, when placed on the 

 middle of the bar, causes it to break, is 718, the figure for Sal being 790, 

 Teak 600, and Shisham 796 (Gamble). 



Fissibility. The wood is difficult to split as it is cross-grained, 

 coming almost at the bottom of a list of 61 Indian woods tested by 

 Mr. R. S. Troup. Teak, one of the easiest to split, is represented by the 

 figure 1*75 in this list. Sain by 4'63, Sal by 9'33, and the timber under 

 report by 11 '33. 



Calorific power. Lt is used for fuel, but is not one of the best woods 

 for the purpose, the number of British Thermal Units being about 7,324, 



