372 HIGHWAYS AND HORSES. 



it is really too porous to receive a painted surface 

 properly. Deal is employed for the flooring of 

 carriages. Wide American pine cut into very thin 

 boards is used for roofing. Fustic, a hard, yellow 

 wood obtained from Central and South America, is 

 sometimes employed for the naves of wheels which are 

 intended for hot climates, as being less likely to shrink 

 than English timber. Lance-wood, a yellow, close, 

 straight-grained, elastic but brittle wood, is much used 

 for the straight shafts of carts ; but for curved shafts of 

 Stanhope gigs and four-wheeled carriages it cannot be 

 employed. American birch is much used for flat 

 boarding on account of its great width, its homo- 

 geneous character, its freedom from rents, the small - 

 ness of its pores, the readiness with which it yields to 

 the plane, and the non-appearance of the grain when 

 painted. It is, however, brittle, and cannot be bent 

 like mahogany for panels. Sycamore, chestnut, and 

 plane-wood are occasionally used as substitutes for 

 some of the above-mentioned woods. 



Tim' er employed in coach-building is dried in a 

 dr\ing-kiln. Mr. Parsons, the proprietor of the 

 common-sense drying-kiln, speaking at a meeting of 

 the members of the Institute of British Carriage Manu- 

 facturers, describes the effect produced upon wood 

 subjected to the process of drying in the above-men- 

 tioned kiln. " Here," he said, " is a piece of persim- 

 mon, which was originally ly^ inches thick; it is now 

 reduced to i/^ inches thick. Here is a piece of stone- 

 wood, originally i^ inches thick; it is now 1% inches 

 thick. Here is a piece of beech, that was 2 inches 

 thick ; now it is 1% inches thick." 



This system of drying timber gets rid of all the 

 sap and seasons the wood at the same time. The 



