OOO TRANSACTIONS OP THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



by the dry rot, as if worms had been gnawing at it. It is also observed 

 that frequently the surface remains perfectly sound, while the whole cen- 

 tral portion is rapidly decomposing-. Wherever the air can circulate freely 

 around the timber, and it is protected from moisture, or where the air is 

 entirely excluded, as in tight structures of masonry, or beneath the surface 

 of the water, particularly salt water, or where the wood is buried among 

 antiseptic matters, as peat, tar, etc., all these circumstances favor the 

 preservation. Many methods have been adopted to preserve timber from 

 decay, and I will enumerate the principal remedies resorted to: 



1. Though seasoning in dry air causes the destructive juice to be hard- 

 ened, it is an imperfect mode of protection, for it may remain harmless as 

 long as the timber remains dry, but when exposed to damp situations the 

 moisture re-dissolves the juice, and the fungus soon makes its appearance 

 again. 



2. The seasoning in water has the advantage of removing the juice and 

 fungus and washing it off. 



3. The Earl process was introduced on the South Carolina railroad in 

 1836, by steeping the timber in a hot solution of copperas. 



4. The Kyanising process was recommended by Sir Humphrey Davy as the 

 best remedy, and consisted in the steeping of the timber in a concentrated 

 solution of corrosive sublimate, or deuto chloride of mercury. 



5. Sir William Burnet has introduced into the British navy the chloride 

 of zinc as the most powerful antiseptic, and he forces this substance by 

 hydraulic pressure in timber, from which the air is first extracted. 



6. De la Boucherie, a celebrated French chemist, published, twenty years 

 ago, a work, in which he strongly recommends the pyroligneous acid and 

 pyrolignite of iron for the prevention of dry rot. 



7. In 1832 I applied the liquid silex or soluble glass, by order of the 

 government, to many spiles and piers at the Brooklyn navy yard, which 

 proved highly successful. It is still my opinion that the soluble glass may 

 be very beneficially introduced for the protection of timber, which can, at a 

 trifling expense, be rendered fire and water proof at the same time. The 

 posts, planks, joists, or railroad sleepers, or any other cut timber, is put in 

 close steam-boxes, and after destroying the organic matter by boiling, the 

 soluble glass is introduced, and the pores are filled up by the mineral sub- 

 stance. 



Fences, wooden buildings, bridges, and wooden warehouses, may eflfectu- 

 ally be secured against fire at a trifling expense, by painting the outside 

 with a silica paint, so that rain, snow and sun will not affect them. 



Six Best Varieties of Grapes for Out-door Culture. 



Mr. Prince recommended the following as the best six varieties for out- 

 door culture in this latitude, viz.: 1st, Black Imperial; 2d, August Coral 

 (bright red); 3d, Catawissa, large size, good flavored; 4th, Clinton (colors 

 well) ; 5th, Hartford Prolific, musky if plucked before ripe, and the grapes 

 drop on wet land; 6th, Adirondac is a good grape; when exhibited at 

 Boston, September 24th, it was unripe, and therefore improperly condemned. 



Adjourned. JOHN W. CHAMBERS, Secretary. 



