OF FOUEST-TREES. 231 



which frequently produces a kind of fungus, especially if there be any CHAP. IV. 

 sappy parts remaining. 



Some there are yet, Avho keep their timber as moist as they can, by 

 submerging it in water, where they let it imbibe, to hinder the cleaving ; 

 and this is good in Fir, both for the better stripping and seasoning ; yea, 

 and not only Fir, but in other timber : lay, therefore, your boards a fort- 

 night in the water, (if running, the better, as at some mill-pond head,) 

 and then setting them upright in the sun and wind, so as it may freely 

 pass through them, (especially during the heats of summer, which is 

 the time of finishing buildings,) turn them daily, and, thus treated, even 

 newly-sawn boards will floor far better than a many years' dry-season- 

 ing, as they call it. But to prevent all possible accidents, when you lay 

 your floors, let the joints be shot, fitted, and tacked down only for the 

 first year, nailing them for good and all the next ; and by this means 

 they will be staunch, close, and without shrinking in the least, as if they 

 were all of one piece ; and upon this occasion, I am to add an obser- 

 vation which may prove of no small use to builders : that if one take 

 up deal boards that have lain in the floor an hundred years, and shoot 

 them again, they will certainly shrink ( toties quoties ) without the former 

 method. Amongst wheel-wrights, the water-seasoning is of especial 

 regard, and in such esteem amongst some, that 1 am assured the Vene- 

 tians, for their provision in the arsenal, lay their Oak some years in 

 water before they employ it. Indeed, the Turks not only fell at all 

 times of the year, without any regard to the season, but employ their 



I leave to philosophers to determine. This black mould is, of all others, the most proper 

 to mix with compost earth ; and I use it in general for Pines, and almost for every thing 

 that grows in pots. For flowers it is most excellent. The remainder of this vegetable 

 mould may be employed in manuring the quarters of the kitchen-garden ; for which pur- 

 pose it is highly useful. 



" Leaves mixed with dung make excellent hot-beds, and I find that beds com- 

 pounded in this manner, preserve their heat much longer than when made entirely with 

 dung. In both cases the application of leaves will be a considerable saving of dung, a 

 circumstance very agreeable, as it will be the means of preventing the contests frequently 

 observed in large families between the superintendent of the gardens, and the director of the 

 husbandry. 



«W. SPEECHLY." 



Welbeck, Feb. 20, 1776. 



Gg2 



