PROPERTIES AND USES OF TIMBER. 381 



Among the qualities which render larch so suit- 

 able for ship-building, I should not omit its pliabi- 

 lity, or easy adaptation to any desired set, espe- 

 cially when cut into planks. Oak, and indeed al- 

 most every other kind of timber used in ship-build- 

 ing, requires to be bent by the process of steaming, 

 an operation generally unnecessary with larch. This 

 of itself is a great advantage. In building vessels 

 of larch, great care should be taken to exclude the 

 sap-wood, a thing which will be neither difficult nor 

 expensive, as larch trees which have attained a size 

 fit for ship-building, particularly if on favourable 

 soil, and of the age of thirty-five or forty years, will 

 have very little sap-wood to be removed, after the 

 logs are squared, as that process should take off 

 the whole, or nearly the whole of it. The sap- 

 wood of the larch is peculiarly liable to the attacks 

 of the dry-rot, and the injury thence arising has 

 gone far to create an unjust prejudice against this 

 sort of timber altogether. 



Larch is very apt to shrink and warp, if wrought 

 before being properly seasoned, although the season- 

 ing is of less importance in ship-building, where the 

 wood is used in thick logs or planks, than when 

 used for other purposes in thinner deals. Still it is 

 proper to be observed, wherever it can be convenient- 



