286 REMARKS ON THE DRY ROT. 



sending forth a very disagreeable odour. A new- 

 plinth was immediately put down; and holes 1^ in. 

 in diameter, at every yard, were bored through it. 

 This admitted a free circulation of air ; and to this 

 day the wood is as sound and good as the day on 

 which it was first put down. The same year, I 

 reared up, in the end of a neglected and notoriously 

 damp barn, a lot of newly felled larch poles; and I 

 placed another lot of larch poles against the wall 

 on the outside of the same barn. These are now 

 good and well seasoned: those within became 

 tainted, the first year, with what is called dry rot, 

 and were used for firewood. 



If, then, you admit a free circulation of air to the 

 timber which is used in a house (no difficult matter), 

 and abstain from painting that timber till it be per- 

 fectly seasoned, you will never suffer from what is 

 called dry rot. And if the naval architect, by 

 means of air-holes in the gunwale of a vessel (which 

 might be closed in bad weather), could admit a free 

 circulation of air to the timbers; and if he could, 

 also, abstain from painting, or doing with turpen- 

 tine, &c., the outer parts of the vessel, till the wood 

 had become sufficiently seasoned, he would not 

 have to complain of dry rot. I am of opinion, that, 

 if a vessel were to make three or four voyages 

 before it is painted, or done with turpentine, &c., 

 its outer wood would suffer much less from the in- 

 fluence of the weather than it usually suffers from 

 its own internal juices, which cannot get vent, on 

 account of artificial applications to the pores. But 

 still the timber would be subject to the depredation 



