EXPORT TIMBER TRADE. 115 
This laburnum is more easily affected by the atmosphere, 
and where it is exposed to water it iuch sooner rots. 
‘When the boards are sent out from the mills they are 
stacked so as to allow as much air to get to them as 
possible. One layer is put on the flat, the next is put on the 
edge, and so on; thus the air gets at them, and they season 
and dry. In the spring they are all bracked or assorted, 
Ist, 2nd, and 38rd sort, battens and deal ends. The first 
sort of deal ends only are exported, the other sorts are 
retained for home use. Much judgment and a quick eye is 
required, for often by cutting a piece off the board } may 
pass as 1st sort, and the other make a 2nd sort deal end; or 
perhaps by cutting it in half, half may pass as No. 2 sort, 
and half as No. 3 sort. Sometimes by merely cutting a few 
inches out, the two lengths are good enough to pass into 
the 1st sort. In the spring all the ends of the deals are 
cut, this takes off the rough end left by the felling axe, and 
as this process is only done after the boards are bracked, 
it ensures that each board goes through the bracker’s hand. 
He writes the sort on each with a piece of red chalk, makes a 
line where it is to be cut, and a cross on the place to be 
thrown away, or a D if into a deal end, and 1, 2, or 3, if 
into different sorts. 
‘They are then stacxed into close stacks, all the boards 
on the flat, and quite close together, or with merely 
an inch between every two. They are then taken down 
- the river in crafts, and go down toa place called Ki Ostroff, 
a little island at the mouth of the river, I might almost 
say of the bay, some twelve miles off. Here they are again 
stacked, and when the ships come they are loaded into 
crafts, and are taken by the tug to the anchorage grounds 
some three miles off. The loading is difficult, as the place 
is open to the winds from the N.NW. Even with all these 
difficulties, and the great distance it is from the civilised 
world, the Onega Wood Company used to realise about 
33 per cent. profit after having paid all expenses.’ 
The communication was accompanied with sections of 
trunks drawn to scale, from which it appears that from each 
