366 



NEWENGLAND FARMER, 



MAYar, 1835. 



WtmW l2SfKS5£>-£s.^2S' SJ^mSSSaSJBa 



ItO^TON, \V3DN15SDAV EVENING, MAY 27, 1835. 



PARMER'S 1VORK FOR MAT. 



[Concluded from page 358.] 

 Felling Trees, Moon's Influence, &c. — In our last, 

 under tlie above head, we gave the opinions, and usa- 

 ges of several writers on agricultural topics, as well as 

 of practical dealers and workmen in timber-implements 

 4&C., in favor of cutting timber, in which durability is a 

 prime object in May or June, or at a lime when the sap 

 is flowing with the most freedom. We now will give 

 some authorities in favor of cutting timber in February, 

 with reference to its strength and duration. 



The venerable Samuel Preslon ol Stockport, Pennsyl- 

 vania, in a communication for the New England Farmer 

 published, vol. i. p. 3UC, states some anecdotes relative to 

 a very worthy and respectable character of his acquain- 

 tance," whose name was Alexander Brown. He was 

 more curious, pariicuUir and exact in everything he did, 

 or had done, than any other man. It gave rise to a say- 

 ing more nice than wise, like Alexander Brown." • " • 



" He used to say that the nerves and strength of old 

 trees like those of old men, began to fail many years 

 before they died: and that for his buildin-is and fences, 

 he only look such limber, as he termed in the vigor and 

 prime of life: iind all his limber for fences or other uses 

 he wovhl hare felled in Fchruury, when hardest frozen, 

 saying then thme was the least sap in the pores to corrode 

 and rot the wood. ♦ » * 



" The next man I shall mention of great observation 

 and experience in the strength and durability of timber 

 is Thomas Ellicott, noted as the most ingenious mill- 

 wright of his lime. With him I was intimately acquain- 

 ted ; he followed building and repairing mills and wag- 

 ons on a large scale, successively for forty years. I have 

 felled timber for his ]]urposes. As to the proper season, 

 he was a disciple of Alexander Brown. White oak 

 timber, for wagons or mills was all felled in Fehrusry, 

 when hardest frozen. His rule to select the hardest and 

 solidi St wood was to cut into the trees, and take those of 

 the largest growth. If by culling in the growths near 

 the bark were smaller than the others he considered the 

 wood declining, and rejected such trees. He never used 

 more than about twelve feel of the butt for wagon 

 wheels ; then generally came a saw log for mill works. 

 His better mode for seasoning his timber for the most 

 slrongdurahle work, was, at first soak it three months in 

 a pond of water to take out the sap, and prevent what 

 they call ' powder posting,' or being eaten with small 

 worms. Such was the pradice of Thomas Ellicott, 

 founded on accurate oh-^ervation and extensive experi- 

 ence. He never would cut timber fur his business only 

 when hardest frozen in the winter, except small tough 

 white ash, for cradle fingers. He found by experience 

 that kind of icood temiicied b si for that purpose if cut 

 down irhenfull of sop and the barkloose.^' 



This F.llicott, the millwright mentioned by Mr Preston 

 as authority for cutting limber in February, is doubtless 

 the same Ellicot, quoK d by Col. Pickering, as having 

 direclcd ihat hickory limber intended for the cogs of 

 wheels should be cut when the when the sap was run- 

 vim'. * But still his direction-! or pracliccB are not in- 

 consi.stent. The substance of his advice is, either cut 

 ifour timber when there is least sap in it, which happens 

 in Fehruary, or cut your timber when full of sap in May 

 or June, rohen the sap is most easily erpeUed, in conse- 

 quence of the sap vessels or pores nf the tree being open. 

 In the firmer case iho enemy is not in force in the 

 castle, and in the latter rase he muslers strong within the 



• Sec current vulume of N. K. l-armcr, p. 358. 



walls, but the gates are open and the foe is ready and 

 willing to walk out. If you can peel or thoroughly sea- 

 son your timber before using it, June is the time to cut it . 

 But if it must remain for a considerable time with the 

 bark on, and the sap vessels as it were, hermetically seal- 

 d, cut it when frozen hardest. We might close here, 

 but the importance of the subject must be our apology 

 for a few more observations. 



A writer for the American Farmer, who appears to be 

 an advocate for cutting timber in June says : 



" A large beech tree may I e girdled in the month of 

 February, and one of the same character in every res- 

 pect in the following May, the latter will rot two years 

 sooner than the former ; and so it would be of two trees 

 felled at the same periods, and left M)i7/i Me bark on; but 

 if made into rdiils, the bark taken q^, or for other purposes 

 the latter would be much the most durable.* 



But we have an advocate for still a ditferent time for 

 felling timber. Mr Phineas Slevens of Andover, Mass. 

 observes that " September is the best time, although I be- 

 lieve that if the bark of timber trees could be taken off 

 in June, without felling the tree, or injury to the wood, 

 and then let it stand till September, the timber would be 

 stronger and more durable.! Another very sensible 

 writer with the signature " D." [New England Farmer 

 vol. viii. p. 85,] at the close of a disertation entitled 

 " Proper season for cutting timber' observes, " we may 

 come to the conclusion if the premises be correct that 

 green timber, put inio the ground will soon decay, and 

 tl at timber cut in summer, and immediately divested of 

 its bark, or otherwise having its surface of naked wood 

 exposed to the air, will remain sound a long series of 

 years, and become as ' hard as horn,' or if it bo cut in 

 winter, to soak it in water for some days, and as soon as 

 the season will admit, to strip off the bark, that probably 

 with this process, but little advantage or disadvantage 

 will be derived by cutting timber at any particular season 

 of iheyear; but that very much must depend on the 

 manner of preserving it afterwards. " 



There is another class of economists who recommend 

 cutting trees in the winter, before the frost is out of 

 lliem, letting them remain until spring at full length, 

 that the bark may be the more easily peeled off, which all 

 agree is of prime consequence. But if trees are intended 

 for rails, we cannot perceive why It may not be as we 

 to cut and split fencing limber of suitable lengths and 

 sizes in winter and take the bark from the rails as soon 

 as it can be peeled in the spiing. Others advise to cut 

 timber late in the spring after the sap has evaporated or 

 has been elaborated into leaves, sap wood, &c. In fact 

 the question in some of its bearings and points is not yet 

 settled. 



With regard to the mailer of the moon's influence on 

 timber, &,c., we have repeatedly professed our incre- 

 dulity. We must confess, however, that Mr Walker's 

 statements of facts which have fallen under his partic- 

 ular notice} have somewhat staggered our faith, or rather 

 our want of faith in the nuxm's agency in some things 

 which seem somewhat out of her line, if not her sphere of 

 action. Perhaps her invisible fingers have meddled with 

 more things than our "philosophy ever dreamptof." 

 We lately lighted on the fiillowing passages from Mar- 

 tin's History of the British Colonies. "The Wallaba 

 (resinous tree common in the Demarara woods) if cut 

 down in the dark, a few days before the new moon, is one 

 of the most dur:ible woods in the world for house build- 

 ing, posts, &c. ; in that slate attempt to split it, and with 

 the ulinost difliculty it would be riven in the mostj:igged 

 unequal manner that can be imagined ; cutd<iwn anotli- 

 er wallaba (that grew within a few yards of the former; 



♦ N. E. F. vol. V. p. *347. t'b. vol. ii. p. 371/. } lb- V. liii. p. 337. 



alfull moon, and the tree can easily be split into the 

 finest smooth shingles of any desired thickness, or into 

 staves for making casks ; but in this state applied to 

 house-building purposes, it speedily decays. Again, 

 bamboos, as thick as a man's arm, ate sometimes used 

 for paling, &c. ; if cut in the dark of the moon they 

 will invariably endure for ten or twelve years; if at full 

 moon, they will be rotten in two or three years, thus it 

 is with most if not all the forest trees. 



" Of the eft'ects of the moon on animal life very many 

 instances could be ciled. I have seen in Africa, newly 

 littered young perish in a few hours, at the mother's 

 side, if exposed to the rays of the full moon; fish be- 

 comes rapidly putrid, and meat if left exposed, incurable 

 or unpreservable^hy salt; the mariner heedlessly sleep- 

 ing on deck, becoming afflicted with nyctolopia or night 

 blindness, at times the face hideously swollen if exposed 

 during sleep to the moon's rays ; the maniac's paroxysms 

 renewed with fearful vigor at the full and change, and 

 the cold damp chill of the ague supervening on the as- 

 cendency of this apparently mild yet powerful luminary. 

 Let Jier influence over this earth be studied; it is more 

 powerful than is generally known." 



Daniel Staples of Livermorc, Me., slates that timber 

 cut in the wane of the moon will be much more durable 

 than it would be if cut between the new and full moon. 

 Her operations are so great and so different in the various 

 parts of her orbit, that by cutting one tree three hours 

 before the new moon, and another of thesame kind six 

 hours afterwards, and preserving them one year, a strik- 

 ing difference in the soundness of them will be discov- 

 ered," &-c. Further experiiiients and accurate notes of 

 their results, on this subject are very desirable. 



RcFFis's Essay on Calcareous Manures. — We 

 have rcceiNcd from tiie auiiior, an excellent work, with 

 iheahcve title, which w& consider a valuable addition to 

 the science of Agriculture, and of great importance to 

 ihe practical cultivator. The treatise deserves an ex- 

 tended and elaborale notice, which we intend to bestow 

 as soon as room and leisure will permit. 



JIASSACHUSETTS HORTICVLTURAI, SOCIETT. 



TLOWERS EXHIBITED. 



Saturday, May If;, 1835. 

 By a lady of Roxbury, presented by Deacon William 

 Davis. — Iris, Primroses, Koses, Tulips, Hyacinths and 

 Cariialions equal to any ever exhibited at the Society's 

 Rooms. 



Tim committee were much gratified to see such fine 

 specimens, and were more pailicularly pleased on learn- 

 ing that their exhibition was from a gentleman, who has 

 for many 3'ears evinced so fine a taste and excellent judg- 

 ment, both as an amaleur and connoisseur in floriculture. 

 For the Committee, 



JoNA WiNSHfp, Chairman. 



FLOWERS EXHIBITED. 



Saturday, May 23. 

 M. P. Wilder, Dorchester. — A beautiful double flower- 

 ing hybrid, Eschscholtzia Californica. 



Hovey &Co.,Cambridgeport. — Fine specimens Hya- 

 cinths, Crimson Nasturtium, double annual Chrysanthe- 

 mums, seedling Polyanthus, &c. 



Thomas Mason, Charlestown Vineyard. — Fine speci- 

 mensofPyrus Japonica ; a variety of Tulips; Gerani- 

 ums; Roses; Pariheiiium ; Antirrhinum, &c. &c. 

 For the Committee, 



Jon A. WiNSHip, Chairman. 



Mr Fessenden— I noticed one or two niiatakesin my communi- 

 calion ill llic l.isl I'arnicr whir.h pcrllaps it luay be well to rectify. 



In Ille2d column, it ^-Iiould read, sevenlyfive pounds of dry well 

 rincnt'd ears eslinialed to make a bushel of siu-lled corn; instead 

 of" seventy pi'Ur;ds," &lc. In lite table the product of Uow No. 17, 

 should be 3S bushels 18 pounds ; instead of " 35 bushels 18 pounds,' 

 and in the 3d column-' Row No. 17 gave a prortocteqiial to2-2 bus. 

 Sli pounds per acre more than How No. 3" should read. Row No. 

 3 gave .1 product equal to 22 busl'e Is 56 pounds per acre more tlian 

 Uow No. 17. 



Re. 'erffully }'0urp, tViiLiAM Clafk, jr. 



We hope our readers, wh" keep files of the N. E. Farmer, will 

 with the pen cotrtct tlio above specilieil errata.— £i/iii)r. 



