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resemblance, except that it is much lighter in weight. The uses of the two 

 timbers are much the same, e,.g., for tables, cabinets, and furniture in, 

 general, also for doors and fittings of buildings, where the cost does not 

 stand in the way. When kept dry it is very durable. Pieces are now in 

 existence which were taken from buildings erected in the very early days of 

 the State, and are as sound as the first day they were used. Cedar often 

 shows a beautiful figure, and it would be difficult to find any timber to 

 surpass the beauty of picked specimens. Its colour is a pleasing red; it 

 turns a deep rich colour with age. It is very rarely indeed attacked by 

 white ants. 



This is the first and foremost among colonial timbers for carriage build- 

 ing. Some grades of this, with clear, straight grain, dense and tough, make 

 excellent framing for many parts of oarriages^in fact, I have been informed 

 that Sydney cabs of excellent quality have been built with cedar alone, 

 except the shafts and wheels. The features that recommend it for the 

 special use of the carriage builder are that it is light, and easily worked. It 

 bends well for panels when seasoned. If a log be cut through the centre, 

 then quartered, and flitches ciit from each of these quarters, the result will 

 be that panels even a quarter of an inch thick will not split at the ends 

 more than an inch or so — an important matter in, a good and expensive 

 timber. Mr. Samuel Lownds, late teacher of coachbuilding at the Sydney 

 Technical College, informed me that he examined some samples which had 

 been exposed to the sun and rain, and also to the drip of water from a 

 galvanized'-iron roof for a period of three and a half years. The outer 

 surface was almost unrecognisable; but the ends of the board were neither 

 split nor shaken. A board was planed up, and it had not deteriorated in 

 the slightest, the colour and the grain remaining perfect. Comparing cedar 

 with the best English ash, the former timber remains soimd under treat;- 

 ment which would cause the latter to become rotten. Our Sydney timber 

 merchants might, be reminded that cedar which is left floating in Sydney 

 Harbour deteriorates for the purpose of the carriage builder. The salt pen^ 

 trates the timber, and in the best-grade work the painting and varnishing- 

 Buffer accordingly. 



Mr. B. P. Mitchell, of Gumeraeha, South Australia, remarks that cedar 

 sawdust, when used for smoking ham, imparts a peculiarly nice flavour. 

 Cigar boxes are, in this State, made of the softest cedar. It is used for 

 railway keys. Fresh uses are constantly being found for this valuable 

 timber. 



Size. — A middle-sized to a very large tree, varying in height up to 200 

 feet, and with a trunk diameter up to 10 feet, though exceptional trees have- 

 exceeded these large dimensions. The size of the average trees now yielding 

 X3edar is about half the above. 



" A tree cut down near Lisnn ire in the good old days, which measured 

 10 feet in diameter at the base, was calculated to yield 30,000 foist of saleable 

 timber." (Moore.) In INlay, 189S, tlio steamer " Wodonga " brought from. 

 Barron Falls, Cairns, Queensland, a .log weighing. 8 .tons. 



Mr. A. R. Crawford, of Mooiui Plains, Walcha, gave me particulars of an 

 even larger tree. He writes : — 



This half flitch of cfdiir was cut frein ;\ tviM' which sircw on Mr. II. Sauer's- 

 selection in ;\rullii frcok, 45 miles from Kempsey. anrt was cut from the trunk 

 66 feet from the stumii. This tree was measured, after hoiiiR felled, hy Messrs. 

 O. O. Daiigar and W. Nance, aud found to contain SO.OOO feet of sound cediar; 



