Wellington Philosophical Society. 473 



the cut surfaces, I am decidedly of opinion that the loss of gum would be 

 followed by a loss of power in the timber to resist decay, and that in such 

 instances "ringing" is objectionable. 



One great advantage of charring the lower end of posts is that the sap is 

 dispersed at that end. If, in addition to charring, the heated end is 

 immediately plunged into cold tar, made more liquid by the addition of 

 kerosene, I think the post below the ground would be almost indestructible. 

 The moisture left in the charred end, when the post is first removed from the 

 fire, would be in form of steam, and on its condensation by the cold of the tar 

 bath in which it is plunged would produce a vacuum into which the tar would 

 be forced by atmospheric pressure. 



I may mention that careful experiments have been made in the United 

 States of America by Generals Cram and Gillmore, and the result of their 

 investigations is, that Seely's process is the best. It consists in subjecting the 

 wood to a temperature above the boiling point of water and below 300° Fahn, 

 while immersed in a bath of creosote a sufficient length of time to expel the 

 moisture. When water is thus expelled the pores contain only steam; the 

 hot oil is then quickly replaced by a bath of cold oil, by means of which 

 change the steam in the pores of the wood is condensed and a vacancy 

 formed, into which the oil is forced by atmospheric pressure and capillary 

 -attraction. 



I find that in California they are already alarmed at the rapid destructiop. 

 of their forests, containing the largest and finest trees in the world. It is 

 estimated that one-third of all the available timber has been consumed, and 

 that the whole of the available timber will be consumed in twenty years. One 

 of the worst features of the settlement of new countries is the reckless way in 

 which the timber is destroyed. Not only is the practice condemned in severe 

 terms by thoughtful men in California, but the opinion must be gaining 

 ground that the State should interfere. The only remedy seems to them to 

 be for the Legislature to take up the matter, and by proper laws to provide 

 not only for the preservation of the forests, but for the planting of trees j?«n 

 passu with the settlement of the country. 



It is maintained by writers on the subject in America, that at least one- 

 third of the surface of any country should be forest — that this proportion 

 between clear land and forest is one which will secure the greatest results in 

 an economic point of view. It is also insisted upon that a fertile country, if 

 stripped of its forests, may be half overwhelmed by desolation from the 

 consequent change of climate. That, in fact, a country so denuded of rain- 

 gatherers is either dried up in summer or the soil is washed off from the hill- 

 sides by the heavy rains of winter. Marsh, speaking of the destruction of 

 forests upon the different countries of the earth, says : — "There are parts of 



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