monteath's forester's guide. 157 



ness and elasticity ; at least, timber when dried 

 slowly is harder and stronger than wiien dried quick 

 ly, the dryness in both cases being carried to the 

 same extent. The comparative strength of timber 

 scorched and timber not scorched, after botli are 

 soaked in water, as in the low^r timbers and plank 

 of vessels, should be subjected to experiment. 



Oiu" author's directions (although the practice is 

 also not new^) to season larch by peeling off the bark 

 one or more years previous to cutting, in order to pre- 

 vent it from warping or twisting in framed house- 

 work ; and his hints recommending stripping off 

 the bark from most kinds of timber a season pre- 

 vious to cutting, are also deserving of notice. We 

 greatly wwder that something efficacious has not 

 been done in regard to dry rot by our Navy Board, 

 and consider the subject of such importance, that we 

 think a rot-prevention officer or wood physician 

 should be appointed to each war vessel from the time 

 her first timber is laid dowTi, to be made in some 

 shape accountable if rot to any extent should ever 

 occur ; and that this officer should be regularly bred 

 to his profession at an institution estabhshed for the 

 study of this branch of science at the King's largest 

 building yard. Perhaps it might be as well to endow 

 several professors' chairs at the universities to followr 



