TIMBER. 
required before-band. Fir is used for floor- 
ing, wainscoting, and the ornamental parts 
of building within doors. Elm is the next 
in use, especially in England and France; 
it is very\ tough and pliable, and therefore 
easily worked ; it does not readily split ; 
and it bears driving of bolts and nails bet- 
ter than any otlier wood; for which reason 
it is chiefly used by wheel wrights and 
coach-makers, for shafts, naves, &c. Beech 
is also used for many purposes ; it is very 
tough and white when young, and of great 
strength, but liable to warp very much 
when exposed to the weather, and to be 
worm-eaten when used within doors; its 
greatest use is for planks, bedsteads, chairs, 
and other household goods. Ash is likevrise 
a very useful wood, but very scarce in most 
parts of Europe : it serves in buildings, or 
for any other use, when screened from the 
weather; handspikes, and oars are chiefly 
made of it. Wild chesnut-timber is by 
many esteemed to be as good as oak, and 
seems toi have been much used in old 
buildings; but whether these trees are 
more scarce at present than formerly, or 
have been found not to answer so well as 
was imagined, it is certain this timber is 
now but little used. Walnut-tree is excel- 
lent for the joiner’s use, it being of a more 
curious brown colour than beech, and not 
so subject to the worms. The poplar, abel, 
and aspen trees, which are very little dif- 
ferent from each other, are much used in- 
stead of fir ; tliey look well, and are tougher 
and harder. 
The goodness of timber not only depends 
on the soil and situation in which it stands, 
but likewise on the season w'herein it is 
felled. In this, people disagree very much ; 
some are for having it felled as soon as its 
fruit is ripe, others in the spring, and many 
in the autumn. But as the sap and mois- 
ture of timber is certainly the cause that it 
perishes much sooner than it otlierwise 
would do, it seems evident that timber 
should be felled when there is the least sap 
in it, aiz. from the time that the leaves be- 
gin to fall, till the trees begin to bud. This 
work usually commences about the end of 
April in England, because the bark then 
rises most freely ; for where a quantity of 
timber is to be felled, the statute requires 
it to be done then, for the advantage of 
tanning. 
The ancients chiefly regarded the age of 
the moon in felling their timber; their rule 
was to fell it in the wain, or four days after 
the new moon, or sometimes in the last 
quarter. Pliny advises it to be in the very 
article of the change, which happening to 
be in the last day of the winter solstice, 
the timber, says he, will be incorruptible. 
Timber should likewise be cut when of a 
proper age ; for when it is either too young, 
or too old, it will not be so durable as 
when cut at a proper age. It is said, that 
oak should not be cut under sixty years old, 
nor above two hundred. Timber trees, how- 
ever, should be cut in their prime, when al- 
most fully grown, and before they begin to 
decay; and this will be sooner or later, ac- 
cording to the dryness or moistness of the 
soil where the timber grows; as also ac- 
cording to the size of the trees ; for there 
is no fixecf rules in felling of timber, expe- 
rience and judgment must direct here as in 
most other cases. 
After timber um been felled and sawed, 
it must be seasoned: for which purpose 
some advise it to be >id up in a very dry 
airy place, yet out o'c .he wind and sun, or 
at least free from the extremities of either; 
and that it may not decay, but dry evenly, 
they recommend it to be daubed over with 
cow-dung. It must not stand upright, but 
lie all along, one piece over another, only 
kept apart by short blocks interposed to 
prevent a certain mouldiness, which they, 
are otherwise apt to contract in sweating 
on one another; from which arises fre- 
quently a kind of fungus, especially if there 
be any sappy parts remaining. Others ad- 
vise the planks of timber to be laid for a 
few days in some pool or running stream, in 
order to extract the sap, and afterwards to 
dry them in the sun or air. By this means, 
it is said, they will be prevented from ei- 
ther chopping, casting, or cleaving, but 
against shrinking there is no remedy. Some 
again are for burying tliem in the earth, 
others in a heat: and some for scorching 
and seasoning them in fire, especially piles, 
posts, &c. which are to stand in water or 
, earth. The Venetians first found out the 
method of seasoning or charring by fire; 
which is done after this manner ; they put 
the piece to be seasoned into a strong and 
violent flame, in this they continually turn 
it round by means of an engine, and take it 
out when it is every where covered with a 
black coaly crust : the internal part of the 
wood is thereby so hardened, that neither 
earth nor water can damage it for a long 
time afterwards. 
To measure round timber, let the mean 
circumference be found in feet and de- 
cimals of a foot: square it, multiply this 
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