&OTE ON BIJA SAL OR VfcNGAI. 3 



Only a few of the Indian woods tested by Mr. Puran Singh come below 

 this, and Sal, Teak, and Blue and Chir pines give much higher values. 



Seasoning. In Orissa the logs are usually seasoned in tanks, and in 

 the Central Provinces this method is also used at times or the logs are 

 left unbarked in the forests. In Bombay the trees are sometimes girdled 

 three years before felling. Both methods probably have their advan- 

 tages depending on whether the gum resin, which stains yellow when 

 damp and apparently repels white-ants, is to be removed or not. For 

 ordinary purposes the timber can be well and thoroughly seasoned by 

 stacking it in shady, airy places. 



Uses. This timber is, after teak and blackwood, the most valuable 

 tree of Southern India, and especially of Mysore. It is much used for 

 door and window frames, posts and beams, furniture, agricultural imple- 

 ments, boat and cart building, and especially spokes and felloes. When 

 used for furniture it is heavily varnished to prevent the exudation of the 

 strong yellow dye which may take place when wet after years of season- 

 ing. In the Central Provinces it is also used for drums, idols, grain- 

 measures, pit-props in the Mohpani coal-mines, and spokes and felloes of 

 gun-carriages in the Gun Carriage Factory at Jubbulpore. In certain 

 parts of Madras its use for building is confined to Government buildings 

 and temples, and in Coimbatore it is not placed where it can come into 

 contact with the feet, in deference to local superstition. In Bombay it 

 has been used for railway carriage building, and it has been several times 

 tried in various places for sleepers as noted above, but is not common 

 enough to be considered as an available future source of supply. About 

 the year 1883, 80,000 sleepers were put down in the line between Katni 

 and Bilaspur in the Central Provinces. In 1900 a number of sleepers 

 were supplied from Warangal to the Hyderabad-Godavery Valley Rail- 

 way and lasted for seven or eight years though cut from unseasoned 

 wood. In Balfour's work quoted above it is noted fifty years ago that 

 the timber was apt to be unsound and to contain numerous faults of a 

 coal black and charred appearance, thereby being often unsatisfactory 

 for joists, but when these were not present it was a most valuable timber. 

 Vessels built at that period in Ganjam were planked with it. It was 

 evidently much more plentiful then than at the present day, especi- 

 ally on the Nilgais and the Malabar and Kanara Ghats, large trees 

 being common and the wood much used. Its price at Nagpur was at 

 that date 5 annas per cubic foot. 



