58 
roof for a period of three and a half years. The outer surface Avas almost 
unrecognisable; but the ends of the board were neither split nor shaken. A board 
was planed up, and it had not deteriorated in the slightest, the colour and the grain 
remaining perfect. Comparing cedar with the best English ash, the former timber 
remains sound under treatment which would cause the latter to become rotten. 
Our Sydney timber merchants might be reminded that cedar which is left floating 
in Sydney Harbour deteriorates for the purpose of the carriagebuilder. The salt 
penetrates the timber, and in the best-grade work the painting and varnishing suffer 
accordingly. 
Mr. 13. P. Mitchell, of Gumeracha, South Australia, remarks that cedar 
saw-dust, when used for smoking ham, imparts a peculiarly nice flavour. Red 
cedar makes a luxurious fuel. Cigar boxes are, in this State, made of the softest 
cedar. Fresh uses are constantly being found for this valuable timber. The 
Sydney Morning Herald , of the 7tli June, 1893, announced that the Railway 
Commissioners had accepted a tender for 200,000 cedar railway keys, at £4 15s. 
per thousand, it having been found that cedar keys arc suitable for the work, and 
that they are a good deal less in cost than the imported article. The cost of cedar 
was about l^d. per foot in A.D. 1800. It Avas at that time Avorked by the 
GoA r ernment. 
Professor Warren, of the Sydney University, has, in his work, “Australian 
Timbers,” given the result of a number of carefully-conducted experiments on the 
strength of Red Cedar, but they are too technical and too lengthy for reproduction 
here, and the reader is referred to the book. I may mention that he gives the 
weight per cubic foot as 28'3 lb. Mr. F. S. Campbell, of Melbourne, gives 2,000 lb. 
to 3,000 lb. per square inch as the tensile strength of the timber, and the Victorian 
Tender Board of 1884 gives other determinations. 
The well-knoAvn “ Toon ” tree of India is, as has already been stated, either 
identical Avitli our Red Cedar or very closely related to it. The folloAAdng notes in 
regard to it, taken from Gamble’s “Manual of Indian Timbers” (1st edition), are 
interesting:— 
Weight of cubic foot, about 35 lb. The wood is durable, and not eaten by white ants. It is 
highly valued, and universally used for furniture of all kinds, and also employed for door panels and 
carving. From Burmali it is exported under the name of “ Moulmein Cedar,” and as such is known in 
the English market. In north-west India it is used for furniture, carvings, and other purposes. In 
Bengal and Assam it is the chief wood for making tea-boxes, but it is getting scarce, on account of the 
heavy demand. The Bhutias use it for shingles and for wood-carving ; they also hollow it out for rice 
pounders. It is, or rather used to be (for very large trees are now getting scarce), hollowed out for canoes 
in Bengal and Assam. It is one of the “ Chittagong woods ” of commerce. 
The 2nd Edition states 
Wood brick-red, soft, shining, even—but open-grained, fragrant, seasons readily, does not split or 
warp. Annual rings distinctly marked by a belt of large and numerous pores. Pores frequently double 
or subdivided, unequally distributed, scanty in the autumn wood, somewhat unequal in size, prominent 
on a vertical section ; those in the spring wood larger. Medullary rays red, fine and moderately broad, 
uniform, bent round the pores, giving a marked silver grain. 
