24 Indian Forest Records. [Vol. VII. 
It will be seen that those logs which were seasoned under cover dried 
out to 19-72 per cent, and 16*70 per cent, of moisture in a little over 
5 years, whereas those seasoned in the open still contained 32*44 per 
cent, and 31-10 per cent, of moisture respectively at the end of the same 
period. The figures also clearly show that this timber readily reabsorbs 
moisture, especially during the monsoon. 
(ii) RESULTS OF SEASONING EXPERIMENTS.— Sal timber 
develops cracks while seasoning, the most common type being heart or 
star-shakes and surface cracks. The major cracks are generally fairly 
straight, large and few in number, while the surface shakes invariably 
result in a network of alternate oblique cracks in echelon, following 
the interlocked grain of the timber. This is typical of most Dipterocarp 
timbers and markedly so in Sal, and is more prevalent in the older 
timber of large logs than in the outer zones of the heart-wood. 
The various methods adopted for seasoning Sal were as follows :— 
(i) Logs seasoning under shelter in the log for 7 years, followed 
by conversion and seasoning the scantlings under cover for 
a further period of 15 months :— 
(< a ) The shelter being a thatched roof. 
(h) The shelter being a tin roof. 
(ii) Logs seasoning in the open for 7 years, followed by conversion 
and seasoning the scantlings under shelter for a further 
period of 15 months. 
(in) Logs immersed in water for 2 years and 7 months, then on land 
in the open for 4 years and 5 months, followed by conversion 
into scantlings and seasoning under shelter for a further 
period of 8 months. 
(iv) Logs from trees felled in June and December, seasoned for from 3 
years and 9 months to 4 years and 9 months in the open, 
followed by conversion and a further period of seasoning in 
scantling shape for 8 to 15 months. The logs were inspected 
at least once a year, and diagrams prepared of the state of 
each end of each log, in order to maintain a continuous record 
of their condition and the rate at which they developed cracks. 
The following notes record the condition of the timber at 
the time of the last inspection :— 
Experiment— 
(i) (a) Logs seasoned for 7 years under a thatched roof and then 
converted into scantlings. 
Notes.—N ot seriously cracked, only in a few cases had the heart-shake crack 3 
extended to the circumference and these were neither large nor deep. A system of fine 
hair cracks had developed, chiefly from the circumference and were considered to be of no 
importance. 
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