INDIAN FOREST RECORDS. 
Vol. II] 
1909 . 
[Part II 
A Note on the Fissibility of some Indian Woods. 
By R. S. TROUP, F. C. H., 
Imperial Forest Fconomisf. 
I. Introductory. 
Fissibility, or the capacity for being split, is under certain conditions 
an important property in wood, closely affecting, as it does, the utility 
or otherwise of wood employed for various purposes. Thus for split 
fuel fissibility is a decided advantage, whereas it is the reverse in the 
case of wood employed for any purpose in which it is subjected to great 
strain or shock. Again, the manner of splitting, particularly as re- 
gards the straightness of grain and the evenness of the split surface, is 
an important factor in the ease of woods employed for such purposes as 
oars, carriage- shafts, wheel-spokes, sieve-frames, cask-staves, split 
shingles, basket-work, and many other purposes. Hence it will be seen 
that an accurate knowledge regarding the general qualities which affect 
the fissibility of wood, as well as the particular properties possessed by 
various woods in this connection, is of considerable importance. 
Little has been known hitherto regarding the relative fissibility of 
various Indian w'oods or the manner in which different w'cods behave 
when acted on by a splitting- wedge. In order to make a commence- 
ment in compiling information on the subject, therefore, the writer 
recently carried out splitting tests at Debra Dun wTl,h GI different 
species of Indian woods. The results of these tests are given below ; 
these results, it may be mentioned, are in some respects not entirely in 
accordance with accepted theories. 
B 
