CRAIB—REGIONAL SPREAD OF MOISTURE IN WOOD OF TREES. 5 
_ Several trees have been examined since the date of the one 
last referred to, and it is intended that the work should be con- 
tinued throughout the summer. In the meantime, however, 
it has been decided to publish the main results derived from the 
examination of the five trees enumerated. This course of action 
has been decided on primarily from practical considerations. 
Under present conditions, when all questions affecting timber 
are of the utmost importance, it is desirable that any new facts 
bearing on thesubject should be published assoon as possible, and, 
moreover, since the period under survey—October to March— © 
includes the extreme limits of what used to be regarded as the 
felling season, the results supply us with some definite know- 
ledge as to the varying moisture spread in Acer Pseudoplatanus 
throughout the felling season. From a more scientific point of 
view the course of action is based on the consideration that the 
five trees have been examined at various times throughout a 
distinct phase of the tree’s life, viz. the dormant or, as it is 
often loosely and erroneously called, the inactive period. .The 
first tree was examined at the time when foliar activity had just 
ceased for the year, and in the March tree the buds were almost 
on the point of bursting. Many problems of scientific interest 
have arisen in the course of the work, but discussion of these 
must be omitted for the present as far as possible. The main 
question to be dealt with in the present paper is: What is the 
moisture distribution in felled timber throughout the felling 
season? A true appreciation of these new facts and their 
practical bearing would appear to be desirable, if not essential, 
for the successful handling of timber. 
With this object in view, I have decided to treat the trees 
seriatim, giving under each tree the main results derived from 
its examination, and afterwards to give a summary of the main 
conclusions for the whole period. 
Results obtained from the October tree :— 
1. That as regards the bole the centre ts decidedly the richest 
in moisture, and that as regards the crown the region of maximum 
content is also in the central area, but some little distance from 
the actual centre. 
2. at the moist Pp g ce 4 
3. That the outer few years’ wood contains a comparatively 
large amount of moisture. 
4. That the percentage of moisture in the youngest wood 
increases upwards. : 
5. That between the two regions of maximum content there 
is a region of lower moisture content, the moisture content, 
however, showing a more or less uniform increase towar 
‘the centre, and 
- falh Z 7 i 4 
