TIMBER AND TIMBER TREES. 



However, given certain rough corrections, a sort of 

 average is obtained for each kind of timber, that seems 

 to satisfy the requirements of the practical man. 



By noting these properties, and taking into account 

 the relative hardness or softness of different woods ; 

 their freedom from resin or oil, and conversely ; their 

 tendency to warp, crack, shrink, etc., as they lose water 

 in "seasoning"; and some other points which the 

 expert is on the look-out for, the engineer or builder 

 selects his wood for bridges, railway stations, sleepers, 

 roofs, mills, piers, ships, and so forth. 



3. BY THE CARPENTER, TURNER, ETC. 



Here we have critics with somewhat different ends in 

 view, and if we include the cabinet-maker, carver and 

 gilder, and other specialists who work with smaller 

 quantities of wood, the points to be examined in our 

 piece of wood are numerous and various. 



One essential will be what is called the " grain " of 

 the wood ; a term it is not easy to define on paper, but 

 which refers to the kind of surface— rough, smooth, 

 coarse or fine— left after the action of a tool. Some 

 woods, for instance, have a beautifully smooth, even 

 "gfain," so that a sharp saw cuts directly through and 

 leaves the surface compact and level ; others, again, are 

 apt to tear under the tool, and the surface is rough, or 

 " woolly," with ragged ends of torn fibres. " Cross- 

 grained " is a curious term, which refers to the fact that 

 the fibres, etc., are so irregular in their course, that the 

 tool is sure to meet many of them at a wide angle 

 with their longitudinal axis at that spot. 



The terms hardness and softness, and the word 

 surface are used somewhat loosely, and are sometimes 



