CHAPTER X 



TIMBER TESTING 



Everyone who is practically interested in 

 timber desires to know something of its prop- 

 erties. Needless to add that the properties 

 essential for the various uses to which wood is 

 put, are as varied as are those uses. The suit- 

 ability of a timber for a special purpose may be 

 discovered in two ways, either by practical 

 tests in actual use or by tests in the laboratory. 

 If the latter tests are carefully carried out by 

 recognized and well-tried methods, they have 

 much to recommend them, for the results may 

 be expressed in terms which serve for comparison 

 with other similarly tested woods. Unfortun- 

 ately it is only in quite recent years that any- 

 thing worthy of record has been accomplished 

 in the matter of timber testing in this country ; 

 it is to America, Canada and Australia that we 

 must turn for our information on this important 

 subject. In the little serious testing that has 

 been done in Britain, there appears to be a 

 tendency to regard the timber under test as a 



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