162 Transactions.—Miscellaneous. 
three-feet trees have only about three inches of sap, which is tolerably well 
defined, and the heart shows at an earlier stage of growth. 
Red pine frequently grows with a twist in the trunk, and more sap-wood 
on the one side than on the other, consequently the timber is cross-grained 
and irregular in strength and consistency ; mature trees are also subject to 
heart shakes and cracks. This defect is occasionally a want of cohesion 
between the annual rings in the inner core of three or four inches, but 
oftener it consists of a straight crack from three to nine inches long, filled 
with gum or resin. This opening is of little moment in straight logs, but 
it renders the whole centre unserviceable for sawing up when the timber is 
twisted. The state of the bark is a good indication of the ripeness of red 
pine; trees in vigorous growth have large dark-coloured scales that adhere 
closely at certain seasons, and those of mature age have short light-coloured 
scales, easily removed at any season of the year. 
The colour of red pine timber is very variable; it ranges from light 
yellow to deep red, and there is generally a handsome figure in boards. Tt 
is the third in order of strength of our Otago pines, but is more irregular in 
erain than black pine or miro, consequently is less trustworthy in beams. 
Red pine is much used in house framing and general carpenter-work, for 
which it is well adapted; but on account of being harder and more brittle, 
and more given to shrink irregularly, it is not equal to white pine for floor- 
ing, weather-boards, and internal joiner-work. Red pine is much prized as 
a furniture wood, some of its figures being remarkably beautiful. When 
well fitted and seasoned, it stands as well as most foreign timbers that are 
used for this purpose. 
The heart of red pine is durable; any quantity can be got in the forest 
quite fresh after lying for ages, but in consequence of its small size, and the 
danger of using sap instead, we must treat the whole tree as perishable. 
The ordinary red pine of the market is very liable to decay in any exposed 
situation. A survey peg which I put into the ground at Tokomairiro in 
August, 1869, was quite rotten in April, 1872. Beams eighteen inches by 
fifteen, put into the Southland railway bridges in 1863, were a mass of 
putrefaction in 1868 ; nothing but a crust about half an inch thick remained 
solid, and this was in the most favourable situation possible, for there was 
no planking on the bridges, and no mortice holes or checks on the upper side 
of the beams. Although not nearly so bad, a similar state of things was 
observed in the old Bell Tower, Dunedin, erected in 1864, and pulled down 
in 1872; some of the timbers were fresh in the middle, but all were rotten 
at the joints. 
Rimu, the native name of this tree, is now tolerably well known in 
Otago. So if professional men and timber merchants would only encourage 
