EXPORT TIMBER TRADE. 115 



This laburnum is more easily affected by the atmosphere, 

 and where it is exposed to water it much sooner rots. 



' When the boards are sent out from the mills they are 

 stacked so as to allow as much air to get to them as 

 possible. One layer is put on the flat, the next is put on the 

 edge, and so on ; thus the air gets at them, and they season 

 and dry. In the spring they are all bracked or assorted, 

 1st, 2nd, and 3rd sort, battens and deal ends. The first 

 sort of deal ends only are exported, the other sorts are 

 retained for home use. Much judgment and a quick eye is 

 required, for often by cutting a piece off the board f may 

 pass as 1st sort, and the other make a 2nd sort deal end ; or 

 perhaps by cutting it in half, half may pass as No. 2 sort, 

 and half as No. 3 sort. Sometimes by merely cutting a few 

 inches out, the two lengths are good enough to pass into 

 the 1st sort. In the spring all the ends of the deals are 

 cut, this takes off the rough end left by the felling axe, and 

 as this process is only done after the boards are bracked, 

 it ensures that each board goes through the brack er's hand. 

 He writes the sort on each with a piece of red chalk, makes a 

 line where it is to be cut, and a cross on the place to be 

 thrown away, or a D if into a deal end, and 1, 2, or 3, if 

 into different sorts. 



' They are then stacked into close stacks, all the boards 

 on the flat, and quite close together, or with merely 

 an inch "between every two. They are then taken down 

 the river in crafts, and go down to a place called Ki Ostroff, 

 a little island at the mouth of the rivei, I might almost 

 say of the bay, some twelve miles off. Here they are again 

 stacked, and when the ships come they are loaded into 

 crafts, and are taken by the tug to the anchorage grounds 

 some three miles off. The loading is difficult, as the place 

 is open to the winds from the N.N W. Even with all these 

 difficulties, and the great distance it is from the civilised 

 world, the Onega Wood Company used to realise about 

 33 per cent, profit after having paid all expenses/ 



The communication was accompanied with sections of 

 trunks drawn to scale, from which it appears that from each 



