544 [Assembly 



The baik of trees enables us to foresee the time of the perfec- 

 tion of the tree and its beginning to decay. It requires time, 

 close observation, ai:d exjierience. The bark of all sorts of 

 building timber first deserves our attention. For without it we 

 ruin our great ships and most costly edifices. 



In general the growth and increase of hard strong timber 

 (which is weak in the beginning) augments regularly up to the 

 twentieth or live and twentieth year, becomes uniform from that 

 up to sixty or eighty years, after which it begins to decline. 

 When the growth declines so that last year's is not equal to the 

 average growth of the preceeding years, or which is the same 

 thing, when the timber has attained its maturity, which is deter- 

 mined by nature in the condition of the bark, we take the timber 

 in perfection. We must be careful not to confound disease in 

 the bark with the condition or maturity of the timber, because 

 in that case we have a timber with tlie seeds of disease in it, 

 which will progressively cause the decay of the wood. The 

 signs of maturity and of decline may be classed in the three fol- 

 lowing : — 1 , Those signs which announce vigorous health. 2. 

 Those which announce the ripeness (maturity) of the wood. 3. 

 Signs of decline. 



First. The branches, especially the lower ones, show the vigor 

 of a tree being annually grown stouter, and longer, and leaving 

 all over them abundance of lively, bright green leaves, wliich 

 do not fall until some later in autumn than others. The bark is 

 clear, smooth, fine and uniformly so from the root to the first 

 branches. The upper branches growing larger than the others, 

 is an evidence of vigor. 



Second. — Indications of Maturity. — Ordinarily, the top of a tree 

 is roundish, but the growth diminishes gradually every year, the 

 limbs augment more than the buds. The tree brings out its 

 leaves very early in the spring, and then turn yellow early in 

 autumn, at which time tlie leaves are greener on the lower than 

 on the upper pait of the tree. The branches commonly incline 

 with the earth at angles from 60 to 70 degrees. These signs and 

 a suitable attention to the soil and circumstances, enables us to 



