Wood for Garden Tallies. 321 



ascertain its effects, I caused to be cut down from the nursery- 

 specimens of all the British and foreign trees that I could spare, 

 and having had them shaped into number-sticks, sent them to the 

 tank that was to confer upon them equal durability. With these 

 sticks freshly cut down, and with the sap in them, I sent others 

 that had been shaped a year or two before, and had become well 

 seasoned. Soon after they were returned to me I applied them 

 to the purpose for which they were originally intended, and 

 now, at the lapse of between two and three years, I proceed to 

 give you the result. 



On no one specimen of those that were cut down green and 

 immediately immersed has fungus of any kind appeared, be the 

 wood hard or soft, British or foreign ; but on some of those 

 that had been previously seasoned, small quantities now and 

 then appear, thus proving to a demonstration, that, for complete 

 success, it is essential that the active vital principle of the wood 

 should not be obliterated. 



We now come to the question of durability. In the eager- 

 ness of first discovery, the advocates of the process entirely 

 overlooked the fact, that wood was injured or destroyed by other 

 agents than by dry-rot, and hence a great disappointment has 

 ensued among the hop planters, because, during the tempestuous 

 weather of the past autumn, when the poles were'supporting the 

 greatest weight, those Kyanised would -not resist the wind bet- 

 ter than those that had not been submerged in the solution. The 

 truth is this, the preparation can only preserve such fibres as it 

 has to act upon. When applied to woods that have inherently 

 no strength, on account of the want of interlacing of the con- 

 centric and longitudinal fibres, it would be unreasonable to 

 suppose that, by preserving from decay, it could give texture and 

 resistance equal to those kinds of wood where toughness and 

 durability are naturally obtained by the arrangement of fibre. It 

 follows, then, that at least one of the evils may effectually be 

 prevented to which all hop growers are subject, namely, by 

 choosing their poles of proper woods, and by sending them, 

 while in a green state, to the tank, they will prevent the necessity 

 for sharpening at each successive year ; and, as far as I can at pre- 

 sent judge, if a good pole would, in the ordinary course, last three 

 or four years, its duration will, in all likelihood, be extended to 

 double that period ; but where the material is bad, although the 

 pole is not destroyed by its parasite, it is equally subject to the 

 accident of wind. 



Exotic Nursery, St. Peter's, Canterbury, 

 March 20. 1839. 



Vol. XV. — No. 111. 



