34 TREES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
The same writer says,* that maple wood felled in June is 
liable to white rot, while that felled in September remains 
sound in the same situation; and that timber felled in Septem- 
ber will not suffer from red rot or from powder-post. It seems 
reasonable, that a tree felled after the growth for the year is 
completed, and before the leaves have fallen, should have all its 
wood more mature, and should, at the same time, be prepared to 
be more easily and thoroughly seasoned, than if felled at any 
other season. The evaporation which takes place from the sur- 
face of living leaves is very great. If, therefore, the tree is 
felled while the leaves are fresh, their evaporative action, which 
continues for some time after the tree has fallen, will speedily 
dissipate all the wnappropriated moisture which the trunk con- 
tains. If, on the contrary, the tree is felled after the leaves 
have been shed, all this moisture must remain to be slowly 
thrown off by the usual process of drying. If, again, the tree 
is felled earlier in the season, while full of sap, and when the 
newly formed wood has not yet been ripened by the action of 
the sun, there must be much of crude and acrid juices, not 
easily to be got rid of, and many particles of immature wood, 
at least in the outer layer, which will render the process of 
seasoning slower and more uncertain. 
There is much evidence to be found in books and in the expe- 
rience of ship-builders, that sticks of timber cut in the end of sum- 
mer, and seasoned only by this speedy action of the leaves, often 
out-last winter-cut timber, which has had years of seasoning. 
The naturalist, Buffon, after numerous experiments carefully 
made on a large scale, and continued through many years, ar- 
* Ibid, VI., 394. He subjois a table of the comparative value of timber felled 
at the two seasons of the year mentioned, which he thinks correct or nearly so — 
Oak, cut in September, 10.0—in June, 45 
Maple. cee «“ 100—« « O94 
Walnut, (Hickory), “ 6 10.0—“ «« 985 
Elm, cote ‘ 10.0—*§ “© 16 
Ash, ee ‘“c 10.0—< “¢ 39 
The four last, compared with white oak, provided all were felled in September, 
will stand thus :-— 
Oak, 10.0—Maple, 5.5—Walnut, 6.2—Elm, 4.5—Ash, 5.6. 
