MR WITHERS. 



213 



ferent combinations. Now we like this division of 

 labour. 



But to return to our subject. The facts stated 

 go to prove, that the quality of timber depends much 

 upon soil, circumstance, and more especially on va- 

 riety ; and that in the early period of the growth of 

 trees, before much seeding, and when the soil is not 

 much exhausted of the particular pabulum neces- 

 sary for the kind of plant, that rather slow grown 

 timber is superior in strength to quick grown, espe- 

 cially when the quickness exceeds a certain degree ; 

 when this degree is exceeded, the timber is not so 

 weighty, and is well known not to be so durable. 

 However, when timber is required of considerable 

 scantling, it is only in good soils, where the tree 

 increases moderately fast, that timber will attain 

 sufficient size for this, at an age young enough to 

 retain its toughness throughout, or to continue 

 forming firm dense w^ood on the exterior. This is 

 particularly so in the case of hard- wood timber, more 

 especially when oak grows upon a moist soil, where 

 the matured wood, of brownish-red colour, is often 

 unsound, and where decay commences at a compara- 

 tively early period. In the pine, owing to the olea- 

 ginous undrying nature of the sap (resin), the tim- 



