338 BEST TIME FOR CUTTING TIMBER. 



THE BEST TIME FOR CUTTING TIMBER, &c. 



Experience has proved that trees for timber, if cut at one season of the year, are far 

 more durable than if cut at another. Various reasons have been suggested why this is so, 

 and it is not perhaps yet fully determined ; still, as the time which experience has pointed 

 out as the best for durability is during the autumn, it is generally supposed that this property 

 is modified by the amount of sap in the trunk, and the maturity of the wood itself. In the 

 spring, or at any early period of it, the trunk of most trees is pressed with the ascending 

 sap. The leaves as yet are still folded in the bud, and the surfaces for exhalation are 

 only sufficient to carry off very slowly the watery part of the sap. Even after the leaves 

 have expanded, or until mid-summer has arrived, the tree abounds in juices. When, 

 however, the dry and sultry summer has arrived, and the new wood and buds have been 

 matured and formed, the watery part of the sap is mostly exhaled, and probably too the 

 circulation is less active as the leaves become sere. 



It is stated by Mr. Emerson, author of the valuable report on the trees and shrubs of 

 Massachusetts, thi;t the soft maple cut in September is three times more lasting than ash 

 or walnut cut in the winter ; and from numerous inquiries which he has made in various 

 quarters, and from information obtained from reliable sources, it seems he has established 

 the fact that autumn is the time for cutting timber. When it is determined to cut timber, 

 it is of considerable importance to strip off the bark in the spring, that the body of the tree 

 may dry during the summer. W T hen, however, it is an object to reproduce a forest from 

 the remaining stumps, the winter, or the very first of spring, is much more favorable to 

 the growth of sprouts. 



There are then two seasons for cutting wood : if it is expected to last, it must be cut the 

 last of summer, or during the early part of autumn ; if it is wished to clothe the surface 

 with a new growth of trees, the cutting must be made late in winter. It is, however, 

 possible to modify these arrangements : if, for example, the wood is designed for timber, if 

 it is deprived of its bark in the spring, it may be allowed to stand and season till winter 

 arrives, which is a period when farmers have less to do than in the summer or autumn. 



In seasoning, wood retains an amount of water which may be regarded as its constitu- 

 tional supply. This constitutional water is very important ; for, upon its presence some 

 of the most valuable properties of the wood depend. I refer to elasticity and strength. If 

 wood, for example, is dried in a water bath at 212° till it ceases to lose weight, its elasticity 

 and strength is very much diminished. Hickory, when dried in this way becomes as 

 brittle as pine. In ordinary seasoning, or in steaming, I believe the strength of wood is 

 not diminished. This observation may not. be of much practical importance, as this last 

 plan of seasoning is rarely followed. The amount of water varies, as will be observed, in 

 different species of trees, ns well as in herbaceous plants. 



