56 
BURR STONE MILLS.-SEASON FOR CUTTING TIMBER. 
supply of moisture at their roots. To effect this 
object, in autumn or winter, they may be allowed 
to remain out of doors as long as there is no dan¬ 
ger of their being injured by frost. 
It may be laid down, as a general rule, that, the 
plant, which is between the extremes of leanness 
and obesity, as we may say, is in the most proper 
state for resting ; for the least tendency to the one 
state or the other must be at the future expense of 
growth, bloom, or fruitfulness. All plants should 
be encouraged to make fresh growth directly after 
they have done flowering; and, when such are ma¬ 
tured, they should be subjected to a period of rest; 
otherwise, the blooming season will become dis¬ 
turbed, which is indeed apparent by some of the 
shoots producing blossoms long before the general 
time of flowering has arrived, destroying, of course, 
the beauty of the plant. 
BURR STONE MILLS. 
Fig. 13. 
Burr Stone Mills (fig. 13), are adapted for 
grinding all kinds of grain. 
16 inch stones grind 2| bushels per hour. 
20 “ “ 3 “ “ 
24 “ 3 h “ “ - 
30 “ “ 5 “ “ 
These mills are ready framed and rigged to attach 
the power, and are more particularly designed for 
plantations at the south. When we speak of their 
erformance, it is to be required that they should 
e driven at a proper speed and with sufficient 
power. 
Consumption of Wood in the United States. 
—According to the careful calculation of a skilful en¬ 
gineer, the present demand for wood, as fuel, in 
this country, is equal to 10,220,000 cords per an¬ 
num. 
SEASON FOR CUTTING TIMBER. 
There are few subjects connected with rural 
economy, about which more has been written and 
with more opposite opinions, than the proper sea¬ 
son for felling timber. 
One class pertinaciously contend, that timber in¬ 
tended for building houses and ships, or for making 
farming tools, machines, &c., should be cut near 
the end of the third quarter , or beginning of the 
fourth quarter of the moon , in February , at v/hich 
period, they say, there is the least sap in the trees, 
and when, if cut, their timber is less liable to pow¬ 
der post, or rot. Another class maintain, that it 
should be felled between the time of putting forth 
of the leaves and the period of suspension of the 
ascent of the sap (from May into August, in the 
middle and northern states), which is then thin and 
easy of evaporation, while the pores of the wood 
are most open, and devoid of fermentable matter, or 
starch : for, after August, it is asserted that, decid¬ 
uous leaves form no more wood—all of the car¬ 
bonic acid, which the trees then absorb, being em¬ 
ployed for the production of nutritive matter for the 
succeeding years. Instead of woody fibre, it is 
found, that starch is formed and diffused through¬ 
out every part of the sap wood by means of the 
descent of the autumnal sap. Hence, they say, at 
mid-summer, the trees afford no nourishment to 
worms, which are the origin of powder post, nor to 
parasitical fungi, the immediate or approximate 
cause of dry rot. 
A third class advocate the operation of felling 
to be performed in Autumn, after having taken off 
the bark of the trunks of the trees early in the 
spring, and suffering the new foliage to put forth 
and die. By this process, it is said, that, in conse¬ 
quence of the germination of new buds, the starch, 
or saccharine matter in the tree is expended, and 
that the sap wood then becomes nearly as hard and 
durable as the heart wood, being stronger and less 
liable to decay, or to be penetrated by insects, or 
worms. 
If all of the above methods have in truth the 
good effects thus attributed to them, the dispute in 
relation to the season of the year proper for felling 
timber is needless ; but as most of the experiments 
heretofore tried, were made upon hickories and 
oaks, there is no certainty that these practices may, 
be extended to various other trees. A majority of 
instances, both in Europe and this country, is in 
favor of winter felling ; although there are nume¬ 
rous well authenticated cases where timber has 
proved equally durable, that has been cut in June 
or July. After all, much may depend upon the 
soils, aspects, latitudes, and elevations, in which 
the trees may grow; and more, perhaps, in the 
manner of seasoning and preserving the timber after 
it is felled, the two latter of which, will form the 
subject of an article in our next number. 
To Promote the Vegetation of Old Seeds.— 
A small portion of superphosphate of lime mixed 
with seeds, when sown, in sufficient quantity to 
give them the appearance of being limed over, will- 
cause them to germinate quicker and stronger, 
more especially in the case of old seeds; and it is 
also found that the plants are less liable to be in-l 
jured by insects. 
