Qualities and Uses of the Woods of Ohio 
87 
Since it has been clearly demonstrated that both the crushing 
and shearing strength of wood are greatly reduced by moisture, the 
amount and rapidity of water absorption is a question of no little 
importance. 
Dry wood when subjected to moisture increases in volume and 
in some cases assumes a greater dimension than when green. When 
the dry wood is immersed in water it increases in weight with greater 
or less regularity and rapidity, and usually the increase in weight 
continues for several months or more. From the results of this in¬ 
vestigation we see that the volumetric increase is not exactly corre¬ 
lated with the increase in weight. 
Prolonged immersion causes some woods to lose in weight in 
consequence of the washing out of the constituents soluble in water. 
In order to learn something about the relative rapidity of absorp¬ 
tion and amount of moisture absorbed by air-dried samples of Ohio 
woods the following tests n ere made by the author. 
Sixty-nine (69) samples representing sixty-two (62) species were 
selected for the tests. The samples were from sections of the trunks 
of living, thrifty trees about 15 inches in diameter where the sections 
were made. This size was selected as representing a fair average of 
the timber trees in Ohio, used for ordinary economic purposes. The 
Fig. 8. Forestry students making measurements and estimates of the amount of 
merchantable wood in trees cut for paper pulp. 
