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it is much prized for the decks of vessels and the flooring of verandahs. Speaking 
of this timber, Mr. Baeuerlen wrote to me :— 
I have just seen a staircase, and eleven months ago the tree from which the wood was taken was 
growing in the forest. It was cut at once, green as it was, and up to the present no sign of shrinking or 
cracking can be seen. 
It warps neither in plank nor in log. It is excellent for picture-frames, and is a 
wood frequently chosen where it would not he safe to trust a wood of which there 
might he douhts as to whether it would shrink or warp. It is used for the floats of 
mill-wheels, the jamhs of windows, and for innumerable other purposes. It would 
be almost impossible to misplace it for ordinary indoor carpentry work. If I were 
asked to name the three most valuable timbers of New South Wales I would say, 
Grey Ironbark, Cedar, and Beech. 
One drawback to this valuable timber is that where it is used for flooring 
which is exposed to the weather, around every nail there becomes a hole in the 
course of a few years. This is usually explained by ascribing to Beech some property 
which eats or rusts away the nails. Eor the same reason, wine-casks of Beech can 
never be hooped with black iron. So far as I am aware, no chemist has ever examined 
Beech to see if it contains a trace of free acid or some salt which would explain the 
corrosion above referred to. 
Beech is largely used for the manufacture of vats for wine, and I believe it 
is an admirable wood for the purpose. It is too short in the grain to split, so that 
split staves cannot be made of it. 
As regards its use by coach-builders, Mr. S. Lownds, Teacher in Coach¬ 
building at the Technical College, informed me— 
This is a very useful timber for panels and thin boards It is pretty durable, but rather soft, but 
its softness is, in some instances, an advantage. Where extreme heat or moisture has to be considered, as 
in bakers’ carts, Beech will be found to withstand such influences better than most timbers. It paints 
and polishes well, is very easily worked, and does not readily split. 
It is pale-coloured, white with a tinge of brown. As a very general rule, it 
is plain, but occasionally it shows a neat grain, which is ornamental. It is rather 
close-grained and excellent to work. If it be glued with Russian glue, mixed with 
sour milk, it will hold like solid wood when made into furniture. It is very 
extensively used for ships’ blocks. 
Up till a few years ago it Avas remarkable that no engineering tests had been 
made of such an universally-appreciated timber. Professor Warren has rectified the 
omission in his work on Australian timbers, published for the Chicago Exhibition. 
The timber referred to as White Beech is the one under discussion, the other beech 
(Negro-head) is a Fagus. Professor Warren gives the weight of some beech he 
tested as 49T lb. per cubic foot. I examined some which was bone-dry, having 
been seasoned over a quarter of a century ; its weight was 36 lb. per cubic foot. 
On the average (as found in the market), its weight is between 40 and 50 lb. per 
cubic foot. 
