288 THE TIMBERS OF THE WORLD 



cost has tended somewhat to reduce its use for window-sills and frames, 

 and other forms of joinery work, for all of which purposes there are, 

 fortunately, at present abundant supplies of equally satisfactory timbers 

 which can be obtained at less cost. In India it was formerly largely 

 used for sleepers, and all kinds of building construction, but here also 

 the increased cost has made it necessary to adopt substitutes. Where 

 used in India for sleepers, and in England for posts buried in the ground, 

 it has been found to be very durable, more so indeed than oak. In 

 strength, resistance to crushing, and transverse strain it ranks high, 

 although not so high as many other Indian timbers. R. S. Pearson, 

 F.L.S., has made very exhaustive tests which give the relative strengths 

 of the product of teak grown in plantation and natural forest respectively, 

 and which can be seen in an admirable pamphlet {Forest Bulletin, No. 14, 

 1913), entitled " A Further Note in the Relative Strength of Natural 

 and Plantation-grown Teak in Burma." " As a rule, teak in Burma is 

 felled when it reaches a girth of 7 feet at breast height. It then varies 

 in age from no to 190 years in natural forest, the average being 150 " 

 (R. S. Troup, private notes). 



Large areas of artificial plantations have been formed. These were 

 commenced in 1862, and have been continued ever since, their total 

 area at present amounts to nearly 70,000 acres. It will probably be 

 about thirty to forty years before they commence yielding regular 

 supplies of large size, but the out-turn then will be by no means 

 negligible. The famous teak plantations of Nilambur in Malabar deserve 

 special mention. These plantations were commenced in 1842, since 

 which date continual additions have been made. They now aggregate 

 about 5,000 acres, though probably only one-third of this area will produce 

 timber of large size. Already, however, a good many trees have reached 

 a girth of over 7 feet. 



The out-turn of teak from BuiTna in the 5 years preceding the war 

 was : 



1908-1909 . . 270,140 ton.s. 



1909-1910 . . . 284,607 ,, 



1910-1911 . . . 309,787 „ 



1911-1912 . . 252,723 „ 



1912-1913 . . 255,876 „ 



It is worthy of note that before the European war the Germans were 

 purchasing regularly one ton of teak seed for planting in the colonies 

 which they then possessed in East Africa. The enterprise thus shown 

 with regard to this valuable timber might well be more largely followed 

 by the British Government. 



Rows of regularly arranged pores mark the annual rings ; the 

 other pores, which are variable in size, are scattered and few in rmmber. 



