TIMBER 



AND TIMBER TREES. 

 iSart I-.— On ^imbtv in ©encral 



INTRODUCTION. 



ON THE NATURE OF TIMBER, OR WOOD. 



Timber, a word derived from the Saxon, signifies wood 

 of such kind and size that it can be employed in con- 

 struction, building and engineering works, ship and 

 carriage making, carpentry, and for numerous other 

 purposes, and a timber tree is one that yields such 

 wood. 



If, now, we take any convenient piece of wood of the 

 kind mentioned, and submit it to the examination of 

 various experts used to the investigation of natural 

 objects used in commerce, we shall find their reports 

 upon it differ considerably according to their points 

 of viezu, and according to the kind of training they 

 have received. The report of the carpenter will differ 

 altogether from that of the chemist, that of the physicist 

 will be of a kind utterly unlike that of the timber-mer- 

 chant, and that of the engineer will have little or nothing 

 in common with that of the botanist or of the forester^ 

 and so on. 



