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THE WESTERN POMOLOGlST. 



1871 



will make a good hop-pole. 



For transplanting get young trees — not oyer two 

 years old, and we are told that yearlings are still 



THE BTTEK JttST OPENING. 



better. We would not take the gift of trees more 

 than two years old from the seed. We would refer 

 those who wish to purchase trees, to our advertising 

 columns. 



Fnn^ tn Timber-- Interesting Discoveries. 



It is a well known fact that animals have been 

 destroyed by the growth of a vegetable fungus 

 within them, which eats away the vital organs and 

 thus produces death. This fact attracted the atten- 

 tion of scientific men, and very many experiments 

 were made, Which have established the fact that the 

 premature decay of timber is owing to the presence 

 of this fungi. Found, as it is, through all parts of 

 the wood or injured portions of living trees, as well 

 as the Cut timber, the manner of its presence be- 

 comes of vital importance. The puff ball found on 

 low, sour land wlien placed under a powerful glass 

 is found to be filled with seeds, of such minute pro- 

 portions, however, as to appear to the naked eye, 

 when forced from the ball in any quantity, to be 

 nothing more than a vapor, yet each of these seeds 

 contain the germ of life. 



The immense number of plants of the fungus 

 order give forth their myriads of minute seeds, 

 which settle on the soil around the trees; these 

 seeds being washed through the earth by the rains, 

 pass into the roots of the trees and are carried by 

 the sap through every pore ; they do not germinate, 

 however, until decay sets in and fermentation takes 

 place. If the timber, therefore, be treated in such 

 a manner as to prevent fermentation these seeds 

 will not germinate, or if they do commence, the 

 growth is stopped until reproduced by like causes. 

 If there be any doubts as to the seed of the fungi 

 being carried through the tree they may be dispelled 



very readily by examining different kinds of wood, 

 the mo.st porous of which show large quantities of 

 foreign matter through every portion of the tree. 



Certain kinds of ash are so filled with grit as to 

 dull the sharpest tool in a few minutes. The lighter 

 the soil upon which the ash grows the greater the 

 difficulty. During our experience in the carriage 

 shop we have been called upon to use ash from 

 North Carolina, which grew on light sandy soil, 

 the grain was coarse and hard, while the porous 

 strata between the grain was very open and so filled 

 with grit as to cause a great deal of annoyance 

 when dressing it up ; this grit was not confined to 

 the outside of the plank, but was found to be equal- 

 ly marked in its presence in the center of a six 

 inch plank as on the surface. An examination of 

 this grit under a powerful microscope revealed 

 minute particles of white sand, which must have 

 been carried into the tree by the sap as it coursed 

 upward. Following up the idea thus obtained, 

 that this sand found its way to the timber through 

 the roots of the tree, we extended our observations, 

 and by a series of experiments reached the conclu- 

 sion that certain kinds of soil were better adapted 

 to grow prime qualities of timber than others. 



We found that ash grown on heavy clay soil was 

 entirely free from the gritty particles, while that 

 grown upon sandy soil, in the same section of the 

 country, was filled with grit. Knowing this to be 

 the case, we are ready to believe that the seed of 

 the fungus, which is so minute as to require the 

 assistance of the most powerful glass to detect its 

 presence can be very easily drank in with the moisture 

 by the roots of the tree, and thus plant itsself in 

 every pore. These fungi show themselves in two 

 forms, one the drj' rot, which completely kills the 

 fiber of the wood, but yet leaves it in the same 

 form, when undisturbed, as though it were not 

 present, and the other in powder-posting, which 

 reduces the porous portion of the wood to a fine 

 powder. 



In the case of the dry rot the first indication of 

 its presence is in the appearance of a series of 

 minute wliite potnts, from which a filimentous sub- 

 stance radiates, which permeate eveay pore, and as 

 it gathers strength, passes through the grain rob- 

 bing the wood of all vitality, rendering it brash, 

 and finally reducing it to a powder. Powder-post 

 proper is alike the result of a fungus, which, how- 

 ever, instead of permeating the wood in every 

 direction, follows the pores only, reducing the softer 

 portion to a powder in which a small grub is bred ; 

 in most instances this grub exhausts itself in the 

 wood and dies, leaving a thin shell to show where 

 it had been ; sometimes it eats its way out, as we 

 have seen it repeatedly in wooden axles and some- 

 times in spokes. 



In one instance that came to our notice a spoke 

 had been in use eight years, and kept well painted 



