LIBRARY

FACULTY OF FORESTRY
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO

SCHLICH'S
MANUAL OF FORESTRY

FOREST UTILIZATION.

THE MANUAL OF FORESTRY consists of the following

O

volumes : —

Volume I. — FOREST POLICY IN THE BRITISH EMPIRE.
„ II. — SYLVICULTURE.
,, III. — FOREST MANAGEMENT.
,, IV. — FOREST PROTECTION.
,, V. — FOREST UTILIZATION.

Volume I. was published in 1889, under the heading
" The Utility of Forests and Principles of Sylviculture ; "
its title was changed as ajbove in the third edition pub-
lished in 1906; Volume II. was published in 1891, the
third edition in 1904; Volume III. in 1895, the third
edition in 1905 ; these three volumes have been written
~by me. Volume IV. wras published in 1895, second edition
in 1907, and this and the present Volume V. have been
•written by my colleague Mr. W. E. Fisher.

W. SCHLICH.
OXFORD,

July 1st, 1908.

[ l-'

SCHLICH'S

MANUAL OF FORESTRY

VOLUME Y.
FOREST UTILIZATION.

BY

W. R. FISHER, M.A., CANTAB. ET OXON.,

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF FORESTRY, UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD J LATE CONSERVATOR OF FORESTS
TO THE (.OVKHNMKNT OF 1X1>IA.

WITH 402 ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT, 5 FULL PLATES,
AND FRONTISPIECE.

BEING
AX ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF

DIE FORSTBENUTZUNG," BY DR. KARL GAYER,

LATE PRIVY COUNCILLOR IX BAVARIA, AND PROFKSSOR OF FORESTRY
AT THE UNIVERSITY <)F MUNICH.

SECOND EDITION.

LONDON :

BRADBURY, AGNEW, & CO. LD., 10, BOUVERIE STREET.

1908.

BRADBURY, AGNEW, & CO. LJ\, PRINTERS.
LONDON AND TONBRIEGE.

SD

311

533

PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION.

THE present book, with Dr. Schlich's permission, forms
Volume V. of the Manual of Forestry. It is an English
translation of the volume on FORSTBENUTZUNG * hy Dr. Karl
Gayer, Professor of Forestry at the University of Munich, the
first edition of which was published in 1863, and the eighth
and last edition in 1894. Dr. Gayer's book is the recognised
standard German work on the subject of Forest Utilization ;
although it may appear somewhat detailed for the present
condition of British Forestry, yet it is fitting to complete the
Manual of Forestry by giving a full account of the economic
methods of working forests as they are practised in Continental
Europe.

I have added considerably to the original work by notes and
illustrations from my own and other experience in Britain,
France, and India ; the number of plates in the original work
(297) has also been increased to 343 in the translation.

Monsieur L. Boppe, the Director of the French National
Forest School at Nancy (where I received my first instruction
in Forestry), has kindly allowed me the use of many of the
plates in his TECHNOLOGIE FORESTIERE,! which have been
acknowledged duly in the text, wherever they occur. Chapter
VIII. of Part III., which deals with resin-tapping, is taken
mainly from Mr. Boppe 's book.

The last chapter of my book, dealing with the extraction of
oil of turpentine and rosin, from crude resin, is taken chiefly

* '• Die Forstbenutzuug." von Dr. Karl Gayer, eighth edition, Berlin. Pub-
lished by Paul Parey, 1<), Hedemannstrasse. 1M»1.

f A considerably enlarged edition of a work by H. Nanquette, Honorary
Director of the Nancy Forest School, Paris, 1887, Berger-Levrault et Cie.,
">, Hue des Beaux Arts.

VI PREFACE.

from papers by Mr. N. Hearle and Mr. E. Me A. Moir of the
Indian Forest Department, that appeared in the Indian
Forester.

The enormous consumption of timber, in North America
and elsewhere, points to a period in the immediate future
when the world-supply of timber will be greatly restricted ;
it is already the duty of statesmen in all civilized countries to
adopt measures for rendering them, in a certain degree,
independent in this respect. A careful method of utilizing
the resources of their forests is of the highest importance for
the vast dependencies of the British Empire, whether in
India, Canada, Australasia or South Africa, as well as for the
United States. It may therefore be asserted confidently that,
the general principles of the economic working of forests, now
almost for the first time* expounded in the English language,
are applicable wherever that language is spoken.

I have to thank my colleagues, Dr. Schlich and Dr. Matthews,
for their kindness in assisting me to revise the proofs, and for
some valuable suggestions they have made. Professor Hearson
has also helped me in dealing with superstructures (pp. 113—
114), and Professor Heath, in the antiseptic treatment of
timber (p. 659).

W. R FISHEE.

COOPERS HILL COLLEGE, .

Mtuj 1st, 1896.

* The Utilization of Forests, by E. E. Fernandez, Dehra Dun, 1891, is appli-
cable chiefly to India and less comprehensive than the present volume.

PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION.

THE first edition of this book (1,500 copies), which was
published in 1896, has been sold, and it has become my duty
to prepare a second edition. Schlich's Manual of Forestry is
intended to give a clear picture of forestry, as practised in
those countries where the industry has been brought to the
greatest perfection, and that purpose has been followed in the
instruction given by us to the forest students who go to India
or the Colonies, or who remain in this country.

No writer on Forest Utilization fulfils this purpose, as do
Gayer and his eminent co-author and successor, Dr. Heinrich
Mayr. The latter has travelled through most of the forests
in Europe, America, Japan and India, and has used the store
of knowledge he has gained, in rearranging Gayer 's book,
which is brought up completely to date in this, its ninth
edition. The author's preface to this edition, that follows,
shows, to some extent, how greatly this old classic work has
been improved. An important book, " Traite d'exploitation
commerciale des bois," in two large volumes, written by
Alphonse Mathey, published in 1900 and 1908, gives the
French views of Forest Utilization, and contains much
original matter dealing with French indigenous and colonial
forest produce. As the French have never had separate
instruction in Forest Protection, a subject dealt with in
Volume IV. of this Manual, the diseases in trees due to fungi,
are therein described in detail that is not required here.
Mathey's second volume is a compendium of the usages of
the French timber trade, and deals also with French minor
produce in a comprehensive manner. This work, however,
follows Gayer in general matters, and reproduces many of
Gayer's plates.

Vlll PREFACE.

R. S. Troup has written a treatise on "Indian Forest
Utilization," that is based also on Gayer's book, and brings
up to date Fernandez' " Notes on the Utilization of Forests,"
written from an Indian point of view. The American forestry
department has published a number of pamphlets on various
matters connected with Forest Utilization, but I know of no
American general treatise on the subject, except a short book
of 118 pages, by C. A. Schenk, 1904. I append a list of
American books on the subject kindly sent me by Mr. G.
Pinchot. In Britain, the only text-books available are on
timber, by Laslett, Stone, and Boulger, and from these I
have borrowed an occasional note.

Many friends have urged me to write an original book on
Forest Utilization, but I could do so only by borrowing from
Gayer on a very large scale, and in fact by following closely
in the excellent lines he has laid down. Such a book could
be only a compilation, and it seems to me to be not only more
honest, but also more useful for students of forestry, to trans-
late the only general work on the subject that exists, while
making additions to it, from an English point of view, wherever
they are needed. All these additions are made in parentheses
and signed by the translator.

Although this edition contains much matter that is not in
the first edition, Mayr has been able to compress Gayer's
book, so that in the translation there are now 840 instead
of 774 pages, while the number of plates in the text are 402
instead of 329, besides five full-page plates instead of three.
Gayer's book contains 341 plates only.

LIST OF AMERICAN BOOKS ON FOREST UTILIZATION.

Prepared by RAPHAEL Zox. October llth, 1907.

"Forest Utilization," 0. A. Schenck, Biltinore, N. C., 1904. Pp. 118.
15.

"Road Making and Maintenance," Chapter on "Wood Paving," by
Thomas Aitkins, 1900. J. B. Lippincott, Co., Philadelphia. Pp. 323 to
347. $G.

PREFACE. IX

"Treatise on Eoads and Pavements," by Ira Osborn Baker. J. Wiley
A: Sons, Xew York, 1903. Pp. 655. $5.

"Pavements and Roads," by Edward G. Love. Engineering and
Building Record, New York, 1890. $5.

"'Roads and Pavements," by Fred P. Spaulding. J. Wiley & Sons,
Xew York, 1906. Pp. 235. $2.

"Timber Physics, Materials of Construction," by J. U. Johnson.
J. Wiley & Sons, Xew York, 1897. $6.

" Handbook of Timber Preservation," by Samuel M. Rowe. Pettebone,
Sawtelle & Co., Chicago, 190J. $5.

11 History of the Lumber Industry in America," by James Elliot
Defebaugh, Vol. I. The American Lumberman, Chicago, 11)0(5. $5.

" Proceedings of the American Forest Congress, Forestry and Irriga-
tion," Washington, D. C., $1-25.

" Forest Mensuration," by II. S. Graves. J. Wiley & Sons, Xew York,
llMMi. Pp. 458. #4.

"Principal Species of Wood; Their Characteristics and Properties"
by Charles Henry Snow. J. Wiley & Sons, Xew York. Chapman &
Hall, London, litn:;. pp. i>o;j. $:'>•:,(>.

"Economic Uses of Wood," by W. R. Lazenby, Columbus, Ohio.
Ohio State University, 1904. Pp.14, Free.

AUTHOR'S PEEFACE TO THE NINTH
EDITION.

IN order to preserve for my book on Forest Utilization the
place it has gained in forest literature, and owing to my
advanced age, I have shared the work of writing its ninth
edition with my successor in the Chair of Forest Utilization,
Dr. Heinrich Mayr.

We have determined to bring the book up to date, by
utilizing all the available research of the nineteenth century,
by making purely German matter most prominent, but also
by taking into consideration matter from other countries, so
that the book may be built on a broader foundation than
before.

The table of contents will show that considerable changes
have been made in the arrangement of material. Some
changes have been made also in the technical treatment of
the subject. Several chapters, or sections, have been rewritten,
or expanded, chiefly from a scientific point of view, while other
parts of the book have been curtailed.

Fifty new plates have been added, bringing the number of
these up to 322.

Our acknowledgments are due to the publishers, who have
done their duty excellently.

It is our hope that the book, in its new form, will meet
with extensive support, and will prove useful to students and
to practical foresters.

GAYER.

MUHICH,

190:5.

SHORT BIOGRAPHY OF DR. JOHANN
KARL GAYER,

JOHANN KARL GAYER, State Councillor, and Professor of
Forest Utilization at the University of Munich, I). Oec.,
honoris causa, was born at Speyer, in the Eheinpfalz, on the
15th October, 1822. He first studied Natural Science ami
Mathematics, and afterwards Forestry. In 1851, he managed
the forests at 'Wiesenheim and Berg ; in 1855, he was appointed
second Professor of Forestry at the Forest School of Aschaffen-
burg. This enabled him to visit the most important forests
of South Germany, and to collect material for his two classic
books on Forest Utilization and Silviculture, that have had
very important influence on the Science of Forestry. In
1863, the first edition of his Forest Utilization was published,
the third edition in 1873, and the sixth edition in 1883.
Gayer was still full of mental vigour, when, in 1<)02, he
brought out the ninth edition of this book, with the assistance
of his pupil and successor, the writer of this notice.

Gayer published his Silviculture in 1880, the fourth edition
of which appeared in 1898. The silvicultural principle of the
book is to preserve the natural productivity of the forest soil
by the natural regeneration of woods of mixed species ; this
principle has been adopted by the Bavarian State Forest
Department.

In 1878, part of the Forestry Instruction was transferred
from Aschaffenburg to Munich, so that Gayer then became a
University Professor. He was elected and became Rector of
the University of Munich in 1889—90. In 1892, bodily
weakness compelled him to give up teaching, but his mind
remained as active as before.

X1V PREFACE.

Besides his two principal books he wrote the following : —
"Die neuen Wirtschaftsriehtungen in den Staatswaldungen
des Spessarfc," 1884; "Der bayerische Wald und schmalschlay-
weise Verjungung," 1892 ; « Ueber den Fehmelschlagbetrieb
und seine Ausgestaltung in Bayern," 1895, etc. His work on
Silviculture was translated by Bocarme into French, and by
van Schermbeck into Dutch, and his Forest Utilization into
English by W. E. Fisher. He was decorated by Bavaria,
Eussia and Greece, and was Honorary Member of several
Forestry Societies. He died on the 1st of March, 1907,
honoured and lamented by thousands of his pupils, friends,
and by foresters all over the world.

H. MATE,

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

PART I.

HARVESTING; CONVERSION AND DISPOSAL OF PRINCIPAL
FOREST PRODUCE; WOOD.

CHAPTEB I.

PEOPKKTIKS OF WOOD.

PAGE

A. ANATOMY OF WOOD. ITS STi:rcTn;i: AND TI:XTI I;K : IDENTIFICA-
TION OF \\'ooj)S 7

(A) Brondleaved woods l!»

(B) Coniferous woods :;*;

(C) Palmwoods 12

(D) Bamboos 43

15. PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OE WOOD 43

•lour 43

2. Lustre 47

3. Scent 47

1. Hardness 48

5. Specific Weight :,i>

»'.. Coherence 6.">

7. Hygroscopicity (If,

8. Practical results of warping 72

'.'. Effects of heat on wood 7~>

10. Conductivity of wood 78

(a) For heat 78

(b) For electricity 78

(c) For sound '78

(d) For light 71)

C. CHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF WOOD 7i>

D. MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF WOOD 83

1. Fineness of grain 83

2. Fissibility 86

3. Strength 88

1. T. .u-_' In i cs> or pliability {).">

•"». Durability .... .07

XVI TABLE OF CONTENTS.

1). MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF WOOD— cm/'. PAGE

<;. Heating-power and combustibility 107

7. Aptitude for being worked Ill

(a) By implements Ill

(b) By grinding into pulp 115

(c) By polishing 115

(d) Wood-bleaching 115

(e) Staining HG

(f) Pyrography 116

(g) Charcoal-making . . 116

(h) Impregnation 11G

8. Dimensions of trees 117

!). Shape of trees 119

10. Yield of the chief species 124

E. DEFECTS IN WOOD 124

1. Defective structure 124

(a) Abnormal tissues 124

(b) Abnormal direction of fibres 128

(c) Defects in sound wood 138

(d) Diseased wood-fibres 141

2. DEFECTS IN TJHE PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF WOOD . . .142

(a) Discolouration 142

(b) Abnormal scents 148

(c) Diminished hardness and sp. weight 148

(d) Defects in economic properties 148

(e) Defects in chemical properties . . . . . .154

CHAPTER IL

FELLING AND CONVERSION OF WOOD.

SECTION I. — MANUAL LABOUR int;

1. General remarks l.~<>

2. Demands on woodcutters 1 58

3. Wages 102

4. Organisation of Labour . . . . . „ . . .168

5. The forest labour-question 1 72

SECTION II. — WOODCUTTERS' IMPLEMENTS 174

1. Hewing implements .174

•2. Saws 1S1

3. Tools for splitting wood 1!»4

4. Implements for extracting and splitting stumps and roots . . U'7
>i;i TION III. — SEASON FOR FELLING 204

1. Climatic conditions 204

2. Available labour-force 205

:i. Mode of felling 2()5

4. Quality of out-turn 207

:>. Species of tree -07

('. Special application of material . K>s

TABLE OF CONTEXTS, XV11

SECTION III.— SEASON FOR FELLING— cont. PAGE

7. Modes of Transport .......... 208

8. Demands of timber-market ........ L'H.S

'.i. Summary ............ 20J

SECTION IV. — METHODS OF FELLING ....... 211

1. General account .......... 211

2. Modes of felling .......... 212

(a) Utilization of the stem ........ 213

(b) Utilization of roots and stumps ...... 217

3. Felling rules . .......... 223

SECTION V. — ROUGH CONVERSION ........ 229

1. Mode of conversion to be applied . ...... 231

2. Timber assortments .......... 2:'..".

3. The work of conversion . ........ 239

(a) Timber ........... 2!<>

(b) Firewood ........... 245

4. Removal of wood before conversion ....... 2.~>2

5. Occasional non-conversion of firewood . ..... 2-* 2

(5. General rules regarding conversion ....... 2.">3

SECTION VI.— SORTING AND STACKING CONVERTED .MATERIAL . . 2:, I

1. General account .......... 2~>i

2. I )^ tailed account .......... L'.V.

3. List of wood assortments , ...... 257

SECTION VTI.-7-CUEABING TIM; Fi'LLi M;-ARI:A ..... 2<!2

1. Explanation of the term ......... 202

2. Purpose of the clearance ......... 2"'.:;

3. Choice of a forest-depot ......... 263

4. Material to be removed ......... 2(14

~>. Modes of clearance . ......... 2 <'>.">

<>. Season for clearance .......... 2*o

7. (ieneral rules ........... 2*2

si:ci ION VIII.— SORTING CONVERTED MATERIAL AND FIXING SALE-

LOTS ..... * ........ 2X1

1. Single pieces forming a lot ........ 284

2. Number of pieces forming a lot . . . . . . . 285

:'». Stacked wood ........... 2M5

4. Protecting the forest-depot ........ 2!tO

SECTION IX.— ESTIMATING THE YIELD ....... 291

1. Numbering the lots .......... 291

2. Estimating quantity of produce ....... 2'.i;i

:;. Estimating quality of produce ........ 2!><;

4. Valuation ............ 290

SECTION X.— CONCLUDING THE BUSINESS OF FELLING AND CONVER-

SION ............. 297

1. Kcgist iy of produce from the felling ...... 297

2. Revision of the record ......... 298

3. Payment of woodcutters ......... 298

F.U. b

XV111 TABLE OF CONTENTS.

CHAPTER III.

WOOD TRANSPORT BY LAND.

PAGE

INTRODUCTION 300

SECTION I. — FOREST-ROADS 301

A. Construction and maintenance 301

B. Mode of conveyance 310

SECTION II. — TIMBER-SLIDES 31 6

„ III. — FOREST-TRAMWAYS 334

., IV. — WIRE-TRAMWAYS 346

CHAPTER IV.
WOOD TRANSPORT BY WATER.

1. Conditions for streams to be utilizable
2. Improvement and maintenance of watercourses
3 Booms ..........

. 354
. 356
. 382

4. Method of floating wood

SECTION II. — RAFTING . .
1. Rafting-channels
2 Rafts

. 399

. 407

'. 408
. 409

3. Dimensions of rafts
4. Mode of rafting

. 415
. 416

CHAPTER V.

COMPARISON BETWEEN DIFFERENT MODES OF TRANSPORT. 420

CHAPTER VI.

WOOD-DEPOTS 429

1. Land-depots 421)

2. River-depots 431

3. Methods of storing wood 436

4. Registration of receipts 439

CIIAlTKi: VII.

DISPOSAL AND SALK OK WOOD -I -10

SKCTION I. — DISPOSAL <•!•• WOOD -Mo

„ ll. — SALI: OF WOOD 447

III. UrsiNKSS I'UINCIl'LKS iNVOIAKI) IN S.VLKS . . . -16S

TABLE OF CONTENTS. XIX
CHAPTER VIII.

PAGE

AUXILIARY FOIIKST INDl'STIilKS 482

A. DETAILED Cox VERSION iM_'

SECTION J.— SAWMILLS is;;

II. — OTHER WOOD-WORKING MACHINES 491)

B. TREATMENT FOR IMPROVING WOOD r>i>2

SECTION I.— IMPROVEMENT IN APPEARANCE AND QUALITY . . . .">(.):>

II.— ANTISEPTIC TREATMENT r>m»

in. — ALTEBING COMBUSTIBILITY or WOOD .... ~>2:\

C. CHANGES IN THE STUSTANCE OF WOOD :>L':,

SECTION I. I'.v HEAT :,L>.-,

jr. CHARCOAL KILNS .-IT

III. Co.MnrsTioN OF WOOD

IV. — CHEMICAL A<;ENCII> r>:>l

(a) Ct-llulose . ~>:>\

(b) Sugar and alcohol .V> I

(c) Oxalic acid f>.V.

(_d) Bamboo-fibre 7>:>:>

CHAPTEB IX.

IXDCSTKIAL I'SHS oF WOOD.

.-DIVISION I.— TIMBER.

[ON I.— CLASSES OF <'ONV!:I;T]:I> TIMISEII .~,:,i;

,. II.— TlMJJKIl I'SED IN SUPEUSTKrcTTRES 5G1

III.— TI.MUKI: rsEu ON. OR IN, THE GROUND .... 567

„ IV.— TIMBER USED IN CONTACT WITH WATER .... r>71

,. V.— TIMBER USED IN MACHINERY r>7<;

., VI. — SHIP AND BOAT BUILDING • :»77

., VII.— JOINERY AND CABINET-MAKING :>xi

,, VIII.— MiscEi.LA.MjM-s l"si;> 589

„ IX.— AVHEELWRK;HTS' WOOD 591

X.— COOPERS' WORK 51)4

,, XI. — SUNDRY USES OF SPLIT WOOD GOO

XII. — WOOD FOR WINDOW-FRAMES <;i>7

XIII.— WOOD-CARVING Cos

„ XIV. — TURNERY Gil

XV.— PLAITED WOOD-WORK . .612

XX TABLE OF CONTEXTS.

PAGE

SECTION XVI. — WOOD USED IN AGRICULTURE 014

XVII.— KEFDSE WOOD r,lG

SUB-DIVISION II. — FIREWOOD 617

SUB-DIVISION III. — LIVING PLANTS OR PARTS OF PLANTS . . . (ill)

SUB-DIVISION IV. — WOODS ARRANGED ACCORDING TO THEIR USES . G2<>

PART II.

PROPERTIES, ULILIZATION, VALUATION AND DISPOSAL
OF MINOR FOREST PRODUCE.

CHAPTER I.

BARK G29

SECTION I. — ANATOMY OF BARK G29

„ II. — CHEMICAL, PHYSICAL AND ECONOMIC PROPERTIES OF

BARK 631

„ III. — PROPERTIES OF THE CONSTITUENT PARTS OF BARK . 633

A. Tanning materials 633

B. Tannin from young oak-bark 636

„ IV. — THE BARK OF OLD OAKS r.r>7

„ V. — SPRUCE-BARK . . . 65'j

„ VI.— BIRCH 661

„ VII.— LARCH 661

„ VIII.— WILLOW 661

„ IX.— BARK CELLULOSE GGI>

„ X.— CORK 663

CHAPTER II.

UTILIZATION OF THE FRUITS OF FOREST TREES . . . KM

SECTION I. — CHARACTERISTICS OF SEEDS MC,

„ II.— DATES OF SEED-BEARING <>6i>

,, III. — DATES OF RIPENING AND FALL 671

„ IV. — HARVESTING SEED ('^-

„ V. — SEED-HUSKING ESTABLISHMENTS 67:;

VI. — STORING SEEDS . . . 087

TABLE OF CONTENTS. XXI

PAGE

SECTION VII.— AVERAM-: QUALITY ()i" SEEDS r.uo

„ VIII.— SALE AND DISPOSAL OF SEEDS r,;ii

CHAPTER III.

UTILIZATION OF LEAVES. TWIGS AND ROOTS OF FOREST

TREES. . «;;>i

IV.

PROPERTIES, HARVESTING. SELLING AND DISPOSAL OF

RESIN ............. .;«.»!>

SECTION L— ANATOMY .......... 699

II.— CHEMICAL AND PHYSICAL PROPERTIES . . . .703

III.— DISTRIBUTION OF RESIN IN TI;I:I:S ..... 7<>!

IV.— RESIN TAI-LMNC OF STANDINC; TI;I;I:S .... 7<u>

V.— YIELD OF RI>IN AND EFFECTS OF TAI-PINC . . .722

VI.— EXTRACTION OF OIL <n-' TURIM-:NTIM-: FROM CBUDE

RESIN ........... 723

„ VII.— COMMERCIAL PRODUCTS FROM CKIDI: Ri:six . . . 72<">

V.

OTHER .MINOR PRODUCE FRo.M TREES (CAMPHOR, CONIFEKIN,
VANILLIN. SUGAR TREES, DVKS. GUMS, LAC, CAOUTCHOI]
GUTTA-PERCHA, ETC.) .... 72S

PART III.

UTILIZATION AND DISPOSAL OF MINOE PRODUCE
THE SOIL OF THE FOREST.

CHAPTER I.

FOREST HERBAGE.

ION I.— PASTURE 737

„ II.— GRASS-CUTTING . . 71i;

XX11 TABLE OF CONTENTS.

CHAPTER II.

PAGE

FIELD-CROPS IN COMBINATION WITH FORESTRY . . . 7-iO

CHAPTER III.
FOREST-LITTER 7.~s

CHAPTER IV.
DIGGING AND PREPARATION OF PEAT 790

CHAPTER Y.

LESS IMPORTANT MINOR PRODUCE (GRASS-SEEDS, MOSSES,
EDIBLE FRUITS, HERBAGE FOR INDUSTRIAL PURPOSES.
EDIBLE FUNGI, ETC.) 824

PART IV.

UTILIZATION OF COMPONENTS OF THE FOREST SOIL

(STONE, GRAVEL, ETC.) 831

INDEX . - - 835

FOREST UTILIZATION,

INTRODUCTION.

THE annual produce of forests affords the most striking
proof of their utility; it enables us to satisfy a great number
of our wants, and we can never dispense, with forest produce,
or only do so with the greatest difficulty.

In earlier times, when forests extended far beyond human
requirements and unimpaired natural forces maintained them
intact without any artificial assistance, Forest I'tili/ation com-
prised the whole art of forestry. Protection, tending, sowing
and planting were unnecessary; superabundant supplies of
forest produce were available I'm- all possible requirements,
and had only to be utilized. This was done for a
without any regard to economy or to the wants of future
generations.

An utterly wasteful utilization of forest product; continued,
until a wood-famine was impending; for the demands made
on agricultural produce by a steadily increasing population
involved the clearance of vast areas of woodland, while the
prolonged maltreatment to which forests were subjected had
diminished their productiveness considerably. Unfortunately,
in many countries, matters have not improved in this respect.
If forests are to be maintained, the woodcutter's axe and the
utilization of all forest produce must be brought under control,
land suitable for producing forests should be densely stocked
with trees, and forest utilization subordinated to silviculture.

Forest raw material may be utilized in various ways, but its
utility will be secured most fully when each product is used
for the purpose for which it is better adapted than any other
available material. Then only can a forest respond properly
to the interests of mankind as well as to those of its owner, for

INTRODUCTION.

then only will it yield the greatest pecuniary return. There
was, however, a time when it was considered incompatible
with good forestry to attempt to make a forest yield the best
financial results ; a forest was looked upon as a means of
satisfying, without any speculative motive, the direct and
indirect national requirements. But precisely because a
forest is an important national estate, and because the impor-
tance of any estate is recognized most fully and its protection
best secured when itself and its produce possess a considerable
sale-value, this way of regarding forests is generally erroneous.
The profit obtained from careful forest-management is small
when compared with that from other productive industries,
and apparently will not improve just yet, for substitutes used
in place of wood come more and more into use.* So much
the more, therefore, in the interests of both national economy
and forestry, should every forest-owner endeavour to increase
the pecuniary yield of his woodlands as much as possible,
provided that at the same time he works within the bounds
prescribed by good forest management. Forest utilization
therefore should always keep in view the possibility of a steady
improvement of the forest revenue, without prejudice to its
maintenance or future enhancement.

The foregoing remarks lead us to define the science of Forest
Utilization as a systematic arrangement of the most appro-
priate methods of harvesting, converting and disposing
profitably of forest produce, in accordance with the results
of experience and study, due regard being paid to silvicul-
ture and to the best pecuniary returns.

Wood is usually the chief product of forests, and at present
the aim of forest management is directed chiefly to its produc-
tion. Besides wood, there are other useful products, which
are derived either from the trees or the soil of forests, or con-
sist of the components of the latter. As most of them,
however, are, in general, relatively inferior in value to wood,
in id their production is bound up with the existence of

* [For :i statement of the financial returns from forests, cf. Vol. I. of this
Maniml, :>rd e<L ]>. 2<>L'. There is. indeed, every prospect of in creased profits
from woodlands, now t h;it the demands for wood-pulp for papermakm^ !i;ive
become so enormous and the prices of timber imported into I'.ritaiu and
rising stendijy. — Tr.]

INTRODUCTION. 3

forests, they are considered as accessory, or minor, produce.
A distinction is thus made between principal and minor
forest produce.

A forest-owner is, as a rule, concerned only with the rough
conversion of the produce of his forest, so as to facilitate its
transport. Sometimes, however, and for certain kinds of
produce, it may he advisable for him to prepare forest pro-
duce in the form in which it is directly utilizable for various
industries, in which case he carries on auxiliary forest
industries. To deal with these industries fully is quite
beyond the province of the present book, and they will be
described only in such detail as the ordinary routine of
forestry requires.

The matter of which the science of Forest Utilization, thus
extended, is composed, may be comprised under four principal
headings, which are as follows :—

I. UTILIZATION OF PRINCIPAL FOREST I'ROIHTK, WOOD.
II. UTILIZATION OF MINOR PRODI-CK FROM TRKKS.

III. UTILIZATION OF MINOR PROIMVE i ROM TIIK FOUKST

SOIL.

IV. UTILIZATION OF THE COMPONENTS OK Tin: FOREST SOIL

AND Sl'lU. \CKNT JiOCKS.

B 2

PART I.

HARVESTING, CONVERSION AND DISPOSAL OF
PRINCIPAL FOREST PRODUCE, WOOD.

CHAPTER I.

PROPERTIES OF WOOD.*

A. ANATOMY OF WOOD, ITS STRUCTURE AND TEXTURE;
IDENTIFICATION OF WOODS.

THE elementary organs of which wood is constructed are
the chief means of identifying woods ; their combination, as
seen in various sections, at once strikes the eye. Variations
in the physical and technical properties of woods, e.g., in a
piece of oak as compared with a piece of spruce, also depend
chiefly on their anatomical structure. We cannot, however,
explain all the physical and technical differences in woods by
a microscopical examination of their anatomy. Tin- micro-
scope does not indicate, or indicates very incompletely, the
materials that determine durability of timber; it gives no
information regarding brittleness or elasticity, nor how the
ultimate components of the wood are arranged or react on
one another. Anatomy tells us nothing about the myci'llar
and molecular structure of the cell-walls, the etl'ucts of which
on the chemical, physical and technical properties of wood
are still very obscure. But anatomy is indispensable in
elucidating vital processes in the physiology of trees, in
explaining the processes of the formation and decay of timber.

Microscopes are seldom necessary for identifying woods,
all the characters that follow7 being recognizable by the
naked eye. In the following plates, prepared for the new
(icrman edition of Gayer's book, structural items are repro-
duced in their natural size, the microscopic plates of the
earlier editions having been suppressed. !

Nature has facilitated greatly the study of the structure of

* "Lasiett's Timber and Timber Trees," edited by Marshall Ward. 1S1H;
" Wood," G-. 8. I'.oulyer. l'.t(»2 -. "The Timbers of Commerce," fferbert Stone, P.i'H ;
•• Kx|iloit;itinii CumiiHTCKilr .!••-; BoiB," Mathey. P.M.MJ.

| The translator has, however, retained these plates to illustrate the inicro-
BCOpic account of wood-structure given further on.

S PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

wood, although at first sight it appears to he of manifold
variety. This is hecause the same structural or anatomical
data are characteristic of genera. For instance, all Euro-
pean, American or Asiatic deciduous oaks exhibit the sumo
structure and anatomy ; this is also true for all ashes, spruces,
or lirs, for all two-needle pines (Pinaster type) ; for all five-
needle pines (Cenihran type), and so on. The importance of
this law is not only positive, hy simplifying the study of the
characteristic structures of woody species, hut also negative,
as it thus becomes impossible, either by the naked eye, or
microscopically, to distinguish between different species of any
genus ; e.g., in oaks, to say of what species is any wood-
specimen, or from what locality it conies. Custom-house
experience of recent years has thoroughly confirmed this
statement.

The same anatomical differences that exist in different
species of a genus, for instance between species of oak or
spruce, also exist in varieties of the same species, e.g., in the
sessile oak, or the European spruce. Such are : breadth of sap-
wood ; ratio of spring- wood to summer-wood ; number, height
and thickness of medullary rays ; mass of parenchyma, vessels,
tracheids, etc. Physical and technical characters, such as
lustre, odour, colour, durability, strength, are the only indivi-
dualities of woods of nearly allied species. The iirst three of
these characters change rapidly after a tree has been felled
and converted, so that they are of diagnostic value for a short
time only, while the two last can be decided only by technical
experiments ; their exact determination is therefore very diffi-
cult and not always practicable, nor satisfactory.

Before describing the different components of woody tissue
it is necessary to give a " short description of its anatomical
elements, as seen under the microscope.

The cells of the pith are nearly isodiametric and by their rapid
sub-division cause the longitudinal growth of shoots, in which
process the cells immediately round the pith also participate,
partly by division and partly by being stretched. The pith
cells often lose their contents early and then contain air only;
they often, however, retain their plasmic contents for a longer
period, during which they serve as reservoirs for starch and

ANATOMY OF WOOD. 9

other nutritive materials. Whilst the pith is important in the
growth of yearling shoots, later on, irrespective of its dia-
gnostic value it is unimportant as a factor in the quality of
most woody species. Only, as in palms, in species the annual
shoots of which do not increase in thickness, is the pith of any
moment in the quality of the wood.

Around the pith are some of the longest organs, vessels
(trachea) and tracheids. The widening of the cells of the

-I li

u a b

l-'i-. l. Transverse section of beechwood. Magnified inn in
<i N:irrn\v pith-ray, h I'.road pith-ray. /• I'-oimdary of an annual
rin,L,r. The lar^e pores are transverse sectiona of vessels. The 1 hick-
walled elements with narrow lamina are wood-fibres ; t ho>c with
thinner walls and wider lamina, wood-parenchyma or tracheids.
K. llurtijr.

meristem, or primary growing tissue of the yearling shoot
(perhaps also their lengthening), is caused hy the water taken
from the plasmic contents of the nascent organs. Whenever
vascular cells stand OIK; above the other, the separating trans-
verse walls of a number of them are absorbed so as to form
vessels. Various kinds of thickening then line their lumina,
and they are termed spiral, annular, or scalariform vessels. As
soon as the vessel has attained its normal width, during the
year of its formation, its plasniic contents and the water
contained in its lumina disappear. Mayr's observations are

10

PROPERTIES OF Wool).

opposed to those that represent vessels as the chief conductors
of water ; they show that vessels normally never contain water,
but serve exclusively for aeration and for conducting oxygen
to the neighbouring parenchymatous cells, which are rich in

Fig. 2. — Sprucewood.

1, Natural size. 2, Small part of one ring magnified 100 times (the
vertical tubes are wood-fibres, in this case all " tracheids "). m Medullary,
or pith, rays, n Transverse tracheids of pith-rays, with simple pits.
except in lowest row. a, I, and c Bordered pits of the tracheids,
enlarged. Hartig.

plasma. For this and several other reasons, the theories of
R. Hartig * ascribing the formation of abundant spring- wood to
the great demands of a tree for water are considered erroneous,
and so is his treatise regarding the influence of nutriment and
transpiration on the strength of wood, as if that depended on
the volume of all the vessels in a tree.

* R. Hartig, " Holzuntersuchungen." lierlin, linn.

ANATOMY OF WOOD, ]1

The parencbymatous cells are usually brick-shaped ; they
are more rarely fibres with simple thinnings, termed pits, in
their walls. These pits are small whenever parenchymatous
cells adjoin one another, but large when they adjoin air-con-
ducting vessels. The parenchymatous cells retain their
contents in conifers, until the sapwood becomes converted
into heartwood ; in broadleaved wood they do so still longer :
they are concerned with the storage and chemical conversion
of nutritive material, and probably also with water-transport.
According to the order of their arrangement, there are bands
of parenchyma extending radially, termed medullary rays ;
also longitudinal parenchyma extending vertically alongside
the vessels, but sometimes scattered in the wood, especially
in the last layer of the summer-wood, and enclosing resin-
ducts.

Of the elongated, spindle-shaped cells there are three forms,
tracheids, bordered-pitted cells, and libriform or scleren-
chymatous fibres. The first two form the wood of conifers,
but also occur in bmidleaved wood; (luring their first yi-ar,
after their walls have thickened, these elements lose their
contents, conduct only air and water, and are occupied chiefly
with water-transport. Libriform or sclerenchymatous fibres
are cells with highly thickened walls and very small simple
pits; they lose their contents in their first year and conduct
water and air only, being employed for water-transport ; they
do not occur in conifers.

Fibrous cells are spindle-shaped parenchymatous cells with
similar functions to those of sclerenchyma.

It is easy to see that all the above organs, especially those
with thick walls, tend to strengthen the wood, but the lateral
union of the cell-forms in the woody tissue is no less
important than the structure of the cells for the strength of
wood.

The construction of the bole of a tree is explained best by
observing the formation of an annual shoot, which is similar
to that of a herbaceous plant. This in trees is a prolongation
of the previous year's shoot and is connected with all the
lower parts of the tree, down to the root-tips.

If from a bud, c.y., of a spruce, the scales are removed, a

12

PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

little vegetating spheroid is exposed, constructed of thin-
walled isodiametric cells, the meristem, or primary tissue,
from which all other cell-forms spring. In this bud, when the
growing-season commences, a central cylinder by rapid cell-
division lengthens the bud into a shoot, whilst the externally
surrounding cells (forming with the oldest vessels described
lower down the medullary sheath) participate in the longi-
tudinal growth, partly by cell-division, and partly by being
stretched. At different points outside this cylinder, which
becomes the pith (Fig. 3, A/), the cells are stretched but not

divided, so that elongated
organs are formed, clearly
differing from the pith but
immediately adjoining it and
termed vessels or trachea.
They are followed by other
wider vessels and other
lignified cell-forms, so that
the new strand of tissue is
termed a vascular or woody
bundle (Fig. 3, /, //, etc.).
Each of these bundles ter-
minates externally with a
group of cells, which are not
lignified, the bast or phloem
(Fig. 3) ; between this and
the woody parts termed
xylem, adjoining the pith, a meristem, the cambium, remains
(Fig. 3, c', c). The cambium in the first year increases the
width of the woody bundles, producing bast-cells externally
and internally wood-cells. Between every two adjacent bundles
a narrow band of primary tissue unites the cortex (K) with
the pith. These bands are termed medullary, or pith, rays,
being parenchymatous groups of cells. Within each medullary
ray, also during the first year, and originating with the cainbia of
the bundles, inter-fascicular or medullary cambium connects
the latter into a closed zone, forming in a transverse section a
ring ; it consists of only a few cells in each medullary ray.
The shoot terminates its upward growth by a new bud, its

Fig. il — Diagram .showing the position

« »f the woody bundles, J, //, etc.
c, c1 Cambium. #, x Xylem or wood.
l>> ^ Phloem or bast. M Pith. 11
Cortex. J7, R Medullary ray.

ANATOMY OF WOOD. 18

transverse growth, owing to the activity of the cambium, by a
stiffly constructed mass consisting chiefly of wood (Figs. 4
& 5, 7), inside which on transverse sections is the pith, and
outside, the cortex, while it contains the interposed cambium,
the primary medullary rays (a «), and the secondary rays (/>),
which have no connection with the pith.

In the second and all subsequent years, a new woody zone,
external and adjacent to the first year's zone, is formed by the
cambium ; it surrounds all the growing points of the yearling
plant, the leading shoot, the branches and roots (Fig. 6).

H-. B.

eonilY'roiH (1). and

Fit:. I.

1 li;i'jfi';inis i>i' tnmsvtT-e sections of a two yean'

broa.lleayed (:>).

/The firs! annual /one. //The si.M-.md annual /one. M.<i Primary. M. b
<ee,, Hilary. medullary rays. <•, /• S|iriiiLr-\voi«l. ti ', <l Bummer-wood. Ii

On section r (Fig. G) of the two concentric annual zones of
the plant, two concentric circles appear, the inner circle sur-
rounding the medullary sheath with the pith in its centre and
forming the first annual ring ; the outer circle surrounds the
second year's zone and is the second annual ring. Thus, every
year a concentric zone of wood is produced, and by counting
these zones on a transverse section of wood its age can be
determined.

The annual zones of certain trees exhibit differences in
their anatomical structure, e.g., in oaks and ashes, the vessels
at the commencement of each year's zone are wider than those

14

PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

formed later on towards the close of the growing season, so
that a wide-pored early wood may be distinguished from

Fig. 6. — Diagram of a shoot, showing first year's growth (lined), and

second year's growth (dotted).

a Terminal shoot, first year. I Terminal shoot, second year ; dark
line, pith. /Section of first year's growth. <• Section of second year's
growth, r, tl Surface of ground.

the narrow-pored late wood of the preceding year, a fact
that facilitates the counting of the annual zones. Hence

SPRING-WOOD AND SUMMER-WOOD. 15

Xordlinger termed such woods ring-pored [Fig. 5, //, r, spring-
wood with wide pores (sections of vessels), /, d, summer- wood
with narrow pores ; between them is the annual ring]. The
term ruiy-pored is not happily imagined, as it is doubtful
whether some woods are to be termed ring-pored, or not ;
the term scattered pores is also unsatisfactory, for the wood
of oak and ash also possesses pores, though smaller ones,
outside the ring of large pores ; for this reason, in the
following attempt to classify woods, the use of these terms is
abandoned, though they may be serviceable for descriptions
and tables of identification when unaccompanied by plates.

In some other broadleaved trees, as in elms and cherry-
trees, the early wood is richer in pores than the late wood ; in
others again, such as beech, birch, lime, etc., there is no dis-
tinction between the early wood and late wood in this respect, so
that it is more difficult to count their rings. In coniferous woods
(Fig. 4) vessels occur only in the medullary sheath, and the
annual zone begins with a thin-walled, light-colourecTsoft tissue.
which gradually, seldom abruptly, passes over into a thick-
walled, dark-coloured, hard, late wood, with narrow lamina.
Hence (Fig. 4, //, c) light-coloured soft early wood directly
adjoins the hard, dark-coloured late wood of the previous year.
In conifers therefore there are fairly recognizable annual rings,
which facilitate the determination of the age of the tree.

Owing to the important bearing of the softer early wood and
the harder late wood on the different qualities of wood, attempts
have been made to determine more precisely, within the
annual zone of wood, the periods which produce these layers.
The formation of wood during spring, t>., in Central Europe
from about the end of April till the end of May (in northern
latitudes or higher altitudes from June), has been termed
spring-wood, while the wood formed subsequently during the
same year, is termed summer-wood, or autumn-wood. As no
wood at all is formed in North Europe during autumn, the
latter term must be abandoned.

With a rapid diameter growth and wide annual zones the
soft spring-wood of conifers grows more quickly than the
summer-wood; with broadleaved woods, on the contrary,
wide annual zones imply hard wood, and narrow zones, soft

16 PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

wood. This question will be discussed fully under the head-
ing, "Weight of wood." Only when the whole annual zone
consists of merely two cells, as in very suppressed stems, one
may be termed the early cell and the other the late cell,
and these, naturally, can be seen only through a microscope.

The commencement of the non-growing season is charac-
terised by the close of the annual ring, by the suspension of
cell-division in the cambium, by the emptying of the plasmic
contents of all wood-cells except those of the parenchyma ;
deciduous foliage loses its green colour and falls several weeks
after the completion of the annual zone of wood. The shorter
the period of .rest, the less distinct are the signs of the
annual rings in broadleaved wood. In sub-tropical, evergreen
oaks there are no ring-pores ; woody species in the tropics,
where there is no season of rest for vegetation, have a com-
plete period of cessation in the growth of wood whenever the
tree in question loses its leaves, even if this should be but for
a short period; should leaf-fall recur annually at stated times,
for instance during the dry season, annual zones of wood are
formed, as in the wood of teak, of several tropical leguminous
trees, etc. In most tropical woods, traces of zones resembling
annual rings may be seen on a transverse section, but they
cannot be considered as such, any more than similar formations
in the wide late wood of pines, especially of the most southern
species.

The formation and structure of the wood of monocotyle-
donous plants, palms and bamboos, differs from that of broad-
leaved trees and conifers. In palm-wood (Fig. 27) the
commencement of wood-formation is also in the bud ;
isolated vascular bundles appear in a pith -like primary
tissue, as continuations of the vascular bundles (ribs or
nerves) in the leaves, which spring from the single,
unbranched, stem. These bundles are not, however,
arranged in a circle, do not become united by a cambium,
and are therefore unable to form a cambium for future dia-
metric growth. In the transverse section of a palm-stem, the
thickest vascular bundles are those that are innermost; out-
wardly they increase in number but are smaller, so that the
outermost layer of a palm-stem is the hardest ; the thin outer

MACROSCOPIC STlttTTUBE. 1?

.ortex also becomes rich in silica. As the vascular bundles
from the leaves bend inwards towards the interior of the
stem and then outwards, the isolated brown or black bundles
passing here and there through the wood afford a striking
characteristic of palmwood (Fig. 27).

In Bamboos, numerous buds spring annually from under-
ground rhizomes and grow in a few weeks into tall leafy
shoots (culms). The size of the buds and consequently that of
the culms increases annually from the seedling stage, until for
a fixed term of years an even annual culm-diameter is attained.
When the culms blossom and fructify, the whole plant dies,
including the rhizomes. As in bamboos the pith of the buds
is segmented or chambered, when it extends into the culms
hollows occur separated by solid transverse walls at the nodes,
whence the culm-sheaths (modified leaves) spring (Fi«. 2S).
The length of an internode, or the distance between the bases
of consecutive culm-sheaths, is therefore a measure of the
activity of the growth. The culm-sheaths soon fall, and tlu-ir
scars are visible externally as ring-like projections (nodes),
and at the axils of each sheath, or of the upper ones, leaf-
bearing branches spring from a depression in the culm. Owing
to their internal transverse walls, the culms are utili/able
for many purposes, while their lightness and extraordinary
strength add much to their utility ; their strength is largely
due to the large number of vascular bundles with scarcely
any vessels, that are crowded together near the periphery of
the culm with very little intervening parenchyma.

A knowledge of the structural data of species of woods, as
well as their identification, is best secured by using three
sections made in different directions. The first of these
(Fig. 7, //), a cross or transverse section, is cut perpendicularly
to the pith or longitudinal axis of the wood : in this section
the medullary rays M, M appear cut through longitudinally,
the vessels (at a, e, </.) cut transversely in their width ; the
annual rings, owing to differences in adjacent structure, are
most distinct in this section. Hence most authors, who deal
with the identification of woods or the study of wood-structure,
show transverse sections only. Nordlinger * is the chief write
* II. NiinlliiiKcr, « QnciBchnitte von loo Ilol/sirtcn, 1862, erweit* rt, 1883, mit
ILoixarteu /u 11 Biin<lcu."'

C

18 PKOPERTIES OF WOOD.

following tins plan ; his transparent wood-sections afford
splendid material for studying the anatomical structure of
wood ; li. liartig * gives plates of somewhat enlarged sec-
tions, and his pamphlet is belter written and more practical
than Nordlinger's book. Dr. Moller t also has published an
excellent pamphlet with good plates on the structure of wood.
The transverse section is, however, but rarely exposed in
utilized wood, which usually occurs in longitudinal sections
cut more or less parallel to the axis of the tree. These
sections also show the wood-texture best ; foresters should
recognize European and the more important foreign woods,
not only by transverse sections, but also by the more important
longitudinal sections. The radial or silver-grain section,
more or less in the plane of the medullary rays and radially
inclined to the pith (Fig. 7, S), show's the vessels as finely
carved grooves or lines, of various lengths, the medullary rays
along parts of their length perpendicular to the annual rings,
and in their height or breadth ; the annual rings are less
sharply defined than in the transverse section, but still
sufficiently distinct. The other longitudinal section is more
or less tangential to an annual ring, it is termed the tan-
gential section (Fig. 7, F) : on it the vessels appear as grooves
of various length, the longer, the nearer is the cut to the
true tangent ; the medullary rays (Figs. 7 and 8, F, c) are cut
transversely and show their height and thickness ; the
annual rings appear as wavy bands that greatly improve the
appearance of the wood-texture, so that economically this
section is very important. Burkart (Brunn, 1881) published
a collection of forty wood-species, prepared by Podany in
Vienna; each species was in a frame with three compartments,
one for each of the above sections. By this excellent method,
a work of exceptional utility was produced, but unfortunately
the edition is exhausted. A similar procedure was followed
in America by Pi. B. Hough, of Louville, New York, which
sho\vs the American woods in three characteristic sections,

* It. Mai-tig, " Die Qnterscheidunggmerkmale der wichtigereu in Duiitsdilaud
wachseiiden Jlol/ur," 4 Anil, IS*S. The iJnl edition of llarlig's book is trans-
Lited by Somerville. Douglas, Edinburgh, 1890.

.1. Moller, "Die lloMnf]'-: dr* Tix-hK-rs u. Dreehfllegewerbew.'1 I. Das

llol/..

MACROSCOPIC STRUCTURE. 19

with English, French and German descriptions. Hough's
collection is just as useful as Burkart's, for although his
species are all American, the law already referred to holds
good, that there is no difference in the anatomy or structure
of American, Japanese, or European oakwood, no difference
in spruce wood from these countries ; also that the collection
includes not only typical woods of all European species, hut
of many important American ones as well, such as mahogany,
hickory, &c. For the same reason, Japanese wood-collections
are serviceable also for European study, for the Japanese
possess all our genera of trees and many others besides, and
have also studied the structure of woods.

In the following description of the structural data of the
more important indigenous and foreign wood-species, the
systematic arrangement followed by iSordlinger is rejected.
European wood-species with the most striking structure come
lirst, then those which have no clear characteristics, after which
follow a few of the more important exotic woods. The plates, all
original, show the three sections, natural-sized, of each wood.
AVhen the characters appear indistinct in the plates, they are
so naturally, unless the section is magnilied. The use of the
magnifying-glass would have lightened the work of drawing
the plates, but certainly would have diminished their utility.

[The transverse section of the pith is stellate in the oak, pen-
tagonal in poplar, quadrangular in ash, triangular in alder,
and the pith is segmented in walnuts and bamboos. — Tr.]

(A) Broadleaved Woods.

1. Species of Oak (Qaerciis).
(Including all deciduous oaks of Europe, America and Asia.)

Transverse Section. — Thick medullary rays alternating with
liner ones, they gleam in the dull surrounding tissues. In
the spring- wood is a circle of wide vessels (pores), usually
two along a radius ; the vessels rapidly decrease in width
towards the summer-wood and are arranged in radial rows.
In the summer- wood they often bifurcate, and are visible
because they are surrounded by a lustrous, pale circle of
parenchyniatous cells. JJetwetn these bright radial lines of

PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

vessels and parenchyma there run, in fine sections, as in
Fig. 7, line bright bands of parenchyma parallel to the annual
rings : in very slowly grown wood (Fig. 8), these are hardly
visible without a magnifying glass.

n,. /!

b . v

Fig. 8. — Narrow-zoned oak-
wood. Each ring bordered
bv a /one of wide vessels.

Fig. 7. Type of Oakwood (Quercus).

// Transverse section. *V Radial section.
F Tangential section. J/, M Medullary
rays, r/, c Sapwood. r, a Heart wood.

:'• a

I b'

. a'

Fig. t). — Wooil of the red oak.

a1, r/'2, a* Zones of spring-
wood. JA, 7/2, />;( Zones of sum-
mer-wood, r. r, r1 Medullary
rays.

Radial Section. — The pores appear as depressions like
grooves, rendering the annual rings distinct ; these grooves
gleam slightly if the section is through heartwood, the vessels
being iilled with thyloses (internal growth of cells). The
medullary rays show as broad bands, or as portions of bands,

PLATE I.

.

Sessile Oak. — Section from a tree 190 years old (sp.gr.

691). Slow regular growth in a dense High Forest.
Wood of best quality for cabinet-making. Forest of
Moladier (Allier). Altitude 975 feet.

fo-

site Oak. — Section from a tree from near Lake;
B. -j Thirlmere, in Cumberland. Altitude GOO feet. Glacial

I drift. Slow regular growth .

i rt/uirttd*' ( ><ih. — Section of a tree from the Forest
of Dean, where oak attains (> feet in girth in 75 years.

PLA':

,-ig .qe) bio a*iJB9^ 061 99*ii B moil noi^oaB — .Am

10^ rlgiH 98neb jj rri rDwo'ig 'i^Iu§9i woI8 .([05-0
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PLATE I.

TYPES OF OAKWOOD.

MACROSCOPIC STRUCTURE. 2 1

on account of the obliquity of the cut or the slightly undu-
lating course of the rays through the wood ; according to
their angle of inclination to the light, the rays appear duller
(Fig. 7, S, e) or brighter (Fig. 8) than the surrounding tissue.
The annual rings are seen as dark lines on the medullary
rays, the tangential parenchyma seen on the transverse section
here appears as fine parallel lines.

Tangential Section. — Intersected vessels appear clearly as
more or less lengthy grooves ; in a curved or scalloped
distribution on the section they mark the annual rings.
In the summer- wood these are but slightly marked. The
sections of the medullary rays are arranged vertically
as long, dark, dull lines, somewhat thicker in their middle
parts.

The sapwood is one to three centimetres broad, light-
coloured: the heartwood of variable colour, in freshly cut
wood it is somewhat useful for determining the species and
country of the wood, but this is not reliable enough for com-
mercial purposes. Heartwood of most oaks is dull brown, in
red oak (<J. r ultra) and Turkey oak (Q. Cm-is) somewhat
redder ; numerous other kinds of oak wood arc known in
commerce, e.g., thus stone-oakwood denotes hard quality,
while winter and summer oak wood have respectively hard
and soft woods, but not specific <1 inferences (such as (J. pcdmi-
cnlala and »t>. si'sttilijlttra). Llaek or brown oak is a dark
valuable natural oakwood, that is well known in England; in
Germany, the term is applied to oakwood that has laid long
in river-water, or in chalybeate water. Ha/el-oak is very
narrow-zoned. The colour of oakwood eventually becomes
darker, as do all woods.

2. Species of Beech (Fagus).
(In Europe, America, Asia and New Zealand.)

Transverse Section. — Pores invisible ; on thin transparent
sections very fine, very numerous and uniformly distributed.
Rays some thick, others fine, always forming bright bands,
sometimes lighter, sometimes darker than the surrounding
tissue, according to the angle of incidence of the light.

PROPERTIES OE WOOD.

Summer-wood darker than the spring-wood, hence the annual
rings are fairly distinct.

Radial Section. — The borders of the annual rings are quite
distinct as dark bands of variable thickness. The rays,
according to the incidence of light, are light and lustrous, or

dark and dull, in bands
Jja/\e H. °f varying thickness.

"^w Tangential Section. —

1 /*•'' ^^*?

\. Dark bands show the

summer- wood. The sec-
tions of the rays are
very numerous, dark
' /Q c lenticular streaks.

The sapwood is very
<, broad, the heartwood but
slightl y coloured, or

a distinctly brown ; in

American beechwood,

_ very brown. In Euro-

pean beechwood, the
heartwood becomes

cx clearly distinct after a

felling. A reddish or
dark brown coloured
heartwood near the pith
is abnormal (ride p. 146).
A few days after the

Fig. io.-Type of Beechwood (Fagus). felling, the drying of the
//. >s; F as in Fig. •.». a Spring-wood, wood outwardly from the

1> Summer-wood, c. c Medullary rays. pith becomes apparent

by the lighter colour of

the inner zones of wood; this light colour proceeds up to
I he bark, for the light brown colour of beechwood conies
on gradually.

3. Species of Ash (Fraxwus).

(In Europe, America and Asia.)

Transverse Section.— Pores numerous and large in the
spring-wood. In the summer-wood they are less numerous,

MACROSCOPIC STRUCTURE.

but small and bordered by pale parenchyma, and therefore

visible as bright points

in the surrounding darker

tissue.

chyma

Tangential paren-

is not visible (Fig.

This is the main
difference between ashwood
and hickory- wood, the latter
possessing visible white tan-
gential parenchyma that
is parallel to the annual
rings (Fig. 12A). The rays
are scarcely visible. Sum-
mer-wood somewhat darker
than spring-wood. Owing
to the large pores, the
borders of the annual rings
are distinct.

Radial Section. - Tli<>
borders of the annual rings
are marked byeurved gr<>
of the large vessels in the
spring- wood. The medul-
lary rays ;ire slightly visible
as very numerous, narrow,
bright bands or patches.

Tangential Section. — Ves-
sels as in the radial section,
but in shorter lengths. The
finer pores of the summer-
wood with their parenchyma
are seen only on very smooth
sections, according to the
angle of incidence of light,
as brighter or darker line
lines. The sapwood is very
broad ; the heartwood (light
brown) at first resembles the sapwood, but becomes darker
as the wood dries.

1 1.— Type of Ashwood (Fraxinus).

Fig. 12.
A IhVkovy-wocxl. P.

(Slightly enlarged.)

24 P>« >]>K I1TIES OF AVOOD.

4. Species of Elm (Ulmus).
(America, Europe and Asia.)

Transverse Section. — Pores are larger in the spring- wood
than in the summer-wood, usually one or two in the radial
direction, so that the annual rings are distinct. In the
darker mass of the summer- wood, the pores are arranged

as tangential rows of
dots, which, owing to the
pores heing bordered by
pale parenchyma, appear
as peripheral wavy lines.
The rays are scarcely
visible.

Radial Section. -- The
medullary rays show as
gleaming, light brown, short
j bands or little streaks
among the lighter, slightly
lustrous mass of tissues.
The borders of the annual
zones are distinct, being-
represented by the sec-
tions of the vessels. The
wavy lines of the transverse
section appear as fine
parallel lines.

•Tangential Section. — The
cut vessels are the larger,

the mm'°

Fig.lS.-Up.ofBlmwood(inmM).

tangential is the section,

otherwise as in the radial section. Transverse sections of the
medullary niys are scarcely visible, as very line, dark streaks.
The vessels and lines of parenchyma, of the summer-wood
are distinct as parallel xig/ag lines, somewhat darker than

their environment (Fig. 13).

Kims ha\re a broad, dark brown heartwood, that on drying
rapidly becomes darker.

MACROSCOPIC STRFCTTRE.

25

5. The Street Chestnut (Castmiea).
(America, Asia and Europe.)

Transverse Section. — Vessels somewhat larger and more
numerous in the spring-wood ; in summer-wood often
arranged in radial, bifurcating rows, as in oakwood, and,
owing to their being surrounded by pale parenchyma,

^

. —Type of Sweet Chestnut
Wood (Castanea).

Fi<j-. !.">.— Type of Robinia Wood
(Robinia).

they appear as whitish forked lines in the darker mass.
The medullary rays are scarcely visible.

Radial Section. — The annual rings are distinct, owing to
the sections of the vessels ; the medullary rays are faintly
incognizable as short, bright portions of bands.

Tangential Section. — The vessels and annual rings as in
the radiiil section (showing five years' growth in Fig. 14).

6 PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

Wavy lines of finer vessels and surrounding parenchyma
scarcely recognizable.

6. The llolnnia or False Acacia (llolnnia).

(This includes other Papilionaceae, such as Gleditsia,
Laburnum, etc.)

Transverse Section. — The pores in the spring- wood some-
what wider than in the summer-wood ; in the sapwood
(Fig. 15, left-hand) open, and therefore dark in the plate,
but closed by thyloses in the heartwood, so that they are
but slightly visible in the pale yellow spring- wood. The
vessels in the darker summer-wood are surrounded by
pale parenchyma, and appear as wavy or zigzag lines.
The spring-wood is pale and porous, so that the annual
rings are distinct. The medullary rays appear as pale, fine
lines.

Radial Section. — The borders of the annual rings are quite
distinct, owing to the open grooves of the vessels in the sap-
wood, and the pale zones of spring-wood in the heartwood.
The rays are distinct as bright, pale portions of bands.
The parenchyma of the summer-wood appears as bright
longitudinal lines.

Tangential Section. — The vessels of the sapwood and heart-
wood appear as in the radial section ; the parenchyma of the
summer-wood, as wavy bands parallel to the annual rings,
brighter or darker than the mass of the wood according to
the angle of incidence of light.

Rotainia. — The sapwood is narrow ; the heartwood light
yellowish-green, becoming later brownish-green.

Gleditsia. — Sapwood broad ; heartwood rose-coloured.

Laburnum and Cladrastis. — Very narrow sapwood ; heart-
wood reddish-brown.

7. Species of Walnut (Julians).
(Represented by six species in America, Asia, and Europe.)

Transverse Section. — The pores are pretty evenly distri-
buted throughout the annual zones, but SOUK 'times more

MACROSCOPIC STRUCTURE.

abundant in tbe spring-wood ;
they are also larger in the
spring-wood, The summer-
wood is somewhat darker
than the spring-wood. Hays
scarcely visible.

Radial Section. - The
vessels in the spring-wood
form large grooves, dark
brown or nearly black ; light
brown in the grey walnut.
Hays scarcely visible.

Tangential Section. — The
annual rings are, according
to the incidence of light,
cither bright or dark lines.
The vessels as in radial sec-
tion; medullary rays invisible.

Juglans nigra. — Sap wood
broad ; heartwood reddish-
brown.

Juglans regia. — Sapwood
broad : heartwood light grey
to dark violet.

Juglans cinerea. — Sapwood
brown to greyish-brown.

Fitr. 1 <'». -Type of Walnut-wood
(Juglans).

broad : heartwood light

H. HjM'cirs of M<ij>l<' (Acer).
(America, Asia and Europe.)

Transverse Section. — Spring-wood is pale, summer-wood
• lark, so thai the annual rings are clearly marked. Tbe
vessels arc all very narrow and invisible. The medullary
rays are numerous, and with proper light-incidence appear as
pale., bright lines.

Radial Section. — Annual rings only fine dark lines.
Medullary rays, according to angle of light-incidence, either
pale or dark bands, or specks, silky, narrow and very
numerous.

PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

Tangential Section. — Annual rings only wavy dark bands
varying in breadth with the direction of the cut. Medullary
rays visible as very numerous short streaks, darker than the
surrounding tissue.

Fi«. 1 7.— Type of Maplewood (Acer), Fig. 18.— Type of Hornbeam-wood

and wood of Cherry or Plum (Prunus). (Carpinus).

Sap wood broad ; heartwood bright brown, subsequently
becoming darker.

9. Species oj Cherry and Plum (Prunus).
(American, Asiatic and European.)

These woods greatly resemble that of maples in their struc-
tural elements. The spring-wood exhibits a great number of
line vessels, which render the annual rings distinct. Differ-
encas consist chiefly in the colour of the woods, plum-wood
being yellowish-brown and cherry-wood of a reddish tint in
the heartwood, with a broad sapwood.

MACROSCOPIC STRUCTURE. :2(.)

10. Species of Hornbeam (Carpiny*)
(American, Asiatic and European.)

Transverse Section. — The ordinary medullary rays are very
line and hardly visihle ; where several unite to form a band, a
dull, broad, compound ray occurs. The number of these
broad rays is very variable, depending on the individuality of
a tree and its locality ; many pieces of hornbeam-wood have
no broad rays, while in other pieces they are numerous.
They traverse the wood in slightly curved lines, owing to the
waviness of the annual zones. The annual rings are not
very distinct, as the summer- wood is but slightly darker than
the spring-wood.

Radial Section. — The vessels, annual rings, and line
medullary rays are scarcely visible ; the compound rays are
dull, broad bands, or parts of bands, but are very distinct.

Tangential Section. — The zones of summer-wood appear as
zigzag bands, of which broader or narrower parts may be
seen, according to the direction of the section. The com-
pound medullary rays appear as thick, dark, dull lines of
various length.

Sapwood and heartwood of similar colour.

11. Species of Alder (Alnua).
(European, American and Asiatic.)

Transverse Section. — The vessels and line medullary r;i yh
are invisible. The compound rays, like those of the horn-
beam, are very distinct but often few in number though
sometimes numerous, and thus alderwood is easily recogniz-
able. The annual rings are fairly distinct, owing to the light
sapwood and darker heartwood. The wood is easily distin-
guished from that of hornbeam by the heaviness of the latter.

Radial Section. — The annual rings are most distinct along
the compound rays, which appear as broad dull bands, or
parts of bands, running through the wood. The line rays
are scarcely visible.

Tangential Section. — The annual rings are distinct, especi-
ally at their points of intersection by the compound rays,

30

PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

which appear as long, dark, dull lines. These rays resemble;
those of hornbeam-wood, and may attain 10 c.rn. in breadth.

The sap wood is broad; tin:
heartwood, in the grey alder,
of almost the same colour as
that of the sapwood, in the
black alder it is reddish or
yellowish-red.

Owing to the absence of any
decided characters that could
be reproduced in a drawing,
• , no plates are given of the
4 following woods. They are not,
however, difficult to identify
if the points brought forward
are attended to.

12. Species of Birch (He tula).

(European, Asiatic and
American.)

The annual rings are dis-
tinct on none of the sections ; a
somewhat darker summer- wood
marks their position feebly.
The fine medullary rays are
visible only on a sharply cut radial section. The best charac-
teristic of the wood arises from the narrow vessels, which
on the transverse section appear as tine points; on the longi-
tudinal section, as fine lines ; they are white. When one
holds and turns the piece so that the light falls on it over
the observer's shoulder, the annual rings then appear as thin,
dark lines.

Most birches have sapwood and heartwood of the same
colour, only the wood of the cherry-birch (Bctida lenta) has a
brownish heartwood.

13. tipecics of Lime- trees (Tilia).

Limewood or linden-wood shows its light yellow annual rings
on every section. If the piece of wood is observed as was

Fig. 10.— Type of Alderwood (Alnus).

MACROSCOPIC STRUCTURE. 31

recommended above for birch, the whitish vessels are either
invisible, or are seen here1 and there ; the medullary rays are
somewhat more distinct. The sap wood is broad, the heart-
wood slightly brown. JJirchwood is always heavier than
limewood. [Lime is also the name for species of Citrus. — Tr.]

14. Species of Pear, Apple and

(Including the genera Pirns and Sorbus, represented by
numerous species in Asia, America and Europe.)

Decided characteristics are wanting. The medullary rays
may be distinguished on good sections. Owing to the
uniformity of the spring-wood and summer-wood, no valuable
information is obtainable from an inspection of any of the
sections. The superior hardness and specific gravity of their
wood, when compared with limewood, is a useful test.

The sapwood is broad ; the heart-wood in applewood, reddish-
brown, and browner in pearwood, in the wood of species of
Sorbus, of a lighter yellow or brown.

15. Species of 1'optilus tind S<tli.r.

The soft, light wood of poplars and willows most closely
n .-cinblus that of conifers, but may always be distinguished
from the latter by its numerous very line vessels; it is distin-
guishable also from birch wood, which is heavier, by the
whitish gleam of the pores (obhrrved as in birchwood with a
favourable incidence of light) ; from limewood, by the absence
of bright annual rings.

The sapwood is very broad, in poplarwood of the same
colour as the heartwood, but abnormal colouring owing to
decay is frequent. Various species of willow possess variously
tinted heartwood.

16. N/KTR'.s of Horse -Chestnut (Aesculus).
(Europe, Asia and America.)

On none of the sections is there any decided characteristic,
owing to the almost homogeneous pale-yellow wood ; the wood
can therefore without difficulty be distinguished from that of

PKOPERTIES OF WOOD.

other broadleaved trees, but it is difficult to distinguish it from
conifers, except microscopically. On all the sections, a bright
line between the spring-wood and summer-wood is a good test
for horse-chestnut wood.

Of foreign woods, only those will be described here that
come into the home-market and compete with indige-
nous wood. No foreign woods
either will be described that
have come into any of the
above-mentioned groups, as
they cannot be distinguished
with any certainty from
indigenous woods of the same
genus, either by ocular vision,
or microscopically.

17. Species oj Hickory
(Hicoria (Carya)).

(North American only.)

Hickory-wood (Fig. 12) re-
sembles that of ash most
closely, but may be dis-
tinguished from ashwood by
the fine bright lines of paren-
chyma that run parallel to
the annual rings, and are
xM< ' ./ absent from ashwood.

VV Sapwood broad, heartwood

Fig. 20.— Mahogany-wood (Swietenia), light brown.

18. Mahogany-wood (Swietenia).
(Tropical America only.)

Transverse Section. — The medullary rays are distinct as
numerous, fine, bright lines. The vessels are uniformly dis-
tributed, partly filled with thyloses, and then sum as bright
dots, if not so filled, the dots are dark. Interruptions of
growth are marked by very distinct bright lines, resembling
annual rings ; the mass of the wood is slightly bright

MACROSCOPIC STRUCTURE. 33

Radial Section. — The medullary rays gleam out in the
bright mass of the wood as numerous narrow parts of bands.
The sections of the vessels are dark but lustrous.

Tangential Section. — The lines of interruptions of growth
show as bright bands ; the
vessels as parts of canals,
similar to those in the radial
secfcion. The wood is bright
in this section also.

Sapwood narrow, heart-
wood bright reddish- brown ;
specific gravity like that of
walnut.

19. Sped'1* of C<'drda-wood,
commonly known as Cedar-
irood (Cedreld).

(Tropical and sub- tropical
America, Asia and Aus-
tralia.)

Cedrela-wood or cedarwood
is softer and lighter than
mahogany, though very ncnr
it in structure. The vessels
of the spring- wood are some-
what larger than those of
the summer-wood; the entire pjg 21_Teakwood(Tectonagrandi8).
wood is somewhat less

lustrous, and the tint of the heartwood is of a greyer red than
the bright red of mahogany.

20. Teakwood (Tectona yrandis}.
(Tropical Asia.)

Transverse Section. — The commencement of each season's
growth is marked by a narrow bright zone of very distinct
and usually open pores, which are consequently dark in the
plate; the pores are often in groups. Towards the end of
each season's growth, and therefore resembling summer-wood,

F.T;. D

34* PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

there are closed vessels, which are visible as bright spots.
The medullary rays are scarcely visible.

Radial Section. — Vessels in the late wood show as bright
lines, those in the early wood as dark shining grooves cut
longitudinally. The annual rings form bright lines. The
medullary rays are brighter or darker, according to the angle
of incidence of light, than the slightly lustrous mass of
the wood.

Tangential Section. — Alternately dark and pale bands show
the season's growth ; the vessels are as in the radial section.

No less frequent, but very characteristic features, are the
isolated larger vessels filled with a snow-white matter, that
appear in the transverse action as white points, and on the
longitudinal sections as white lines. Besides the scent,
resembling that of caoutchouc, the brownish-grey tint of
the heartwood is noteworthy.

21. Boxwood (Buxus).

(Chiefly from southern Europe, Asia and America, but also
indigenous in England and France.)

Medullary rays and vessels invisible on all the sections.
The annual rings appear as darker lines in the otherwise
uniformly bright yellow-coloured hard and heavy wood.

22. Oliveicood (Olea).
(Southern Europe, America and Asia.)

Vessels and medullary rays invisible on all the sections, but
differs from boxwood by inferior hardness and specific gravity ;
its colour is also rather pale-brown than yellow, and the
annual rings are often obliterated by a brown colouring
matter, which permeates the wood. By rubbing the wood, a
characteristic scent resembling that of teakwood, occurring
also in boxwood, is noticeable.

23. Lignum-Vitae or Pullcif-icood (Guaiacum) .
(Tropical America.)

The annual rings are distinct on all the sections, owing to a
dark brown zone. Medullary rays invisible ; the vessels are

MACROSCOPIC STRUCTURE. 35

fine but distinct as dark green lines and points. The fibres
change in direction from left to right and from right to left
every year.

Sapwood narrow, pale, and of a dull yellow ; the heartwood
olive-coloured and scented like gum.

24. Ebony-wood (Diospyros).

(Numerous species from warmer and tropical countries.)
The medullary rays are invisible, the vessels in the deci-
duous species are larger than in those that are evergreen ; the
former have also more distinct annual zones. The sap wood of
true ebony is pale and of much lighter weight (about 5 : S)
than the heart wood ; the heartwood of some deciduous species
is light-grey with intervening darker tints. That of some
evergreen species is either dark brown or black, or with bands
of grey and black wood, as in calamander-wood (/>. (iin«'xit<i).--
In black ebony (/>. Eln'num), the vessels appear in longitudinal
sections as lustrous fine dark lines, contrasting with the dull
ground-tissue.

25. Jacaranda,} j'<i1xt>. rose/mod (Machaerium).
(Brazil.)

Very large isolated pale v< venly distributed; their

luniina are filled with a lustrous parenchyma resembling
varnish. Colour violet to brown. AVood sweet-scented.

Thespesia, Calophyllurn, etc.).

(Several species from various tropical countries.)

Vessels fine, but distinct. The wood is brilliantly " flamed "
with red or cherry-coloured streaks, hence its name ; the rosy
colour absent in decayed spots. Medullary rays scarcely
visible. [Palisandre is the French name for rosewood. — Tr.]

Indian Timbers." subdivides ebony-woods as follows : —
1. Heartwood wholly black, or slightly streaked, as in D. /-,'/;/"// /////.
'2. „ streaked black and brown, or grey (D. yitacxifft).

3. „ very small, black streaks in In-own or grey wood (D.

Efmbryopterig).

4. .. none. Wood of various tints (I). Lain*). J-iuropean.
j [Jacaranda is the Brazilian name for Madiaer'nun. The genus .Ji

is a liiirnoniad of no value as wood. — Tr.]

D 2

36 PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

27. Pad-auk (Pterocarpus).

(P. indicus and P. macrocarpus from Burma, P. dalbergioides
from the Andaman Isles, also P. indicus from Cochin-
Chin a and New Caledonia.)

In smooth longitudinal sections, bright lines of parenchyma
occur in the bright red ground tissue. The vessels are dis-
seminated scantily, and their sections are lustrous ; bright lines
of parenchyma concentric with the zones of wood. The colour
of the wood is usually bright red. The Andaman Padauk
appears to be the best (Gamble).

28. Tulipivood, Canary Wliiteirood (Liriodendron) .
(From North America.)

This wood is known also as American poplarwood, which
name is very misleading.

Transverse Section. — The medullary rays are very nume-
rous, distinct, bright lines resembling those in maplewood
(Fig. 17). The annual rings form distinct white lines; the
vessels are invisible.

Radial Section. — The medullary rays are narrow lustrous
bands ; they pass transversely through the annual rings, as
white lines.

Tangential Section. — With a suitable incidence of light the
white annual rings are visible.

The sap wood is broad ; the heartwood, bright yellowish-
green or olive-coloured.

29. Violet-wood or Myall (Acacia Iwmalophylla) .

(South Australia.)

On a transverse section, the vessels are seen equably distri-
buted, the bright bands of parenchyma are scarcely visible;
the general colour is brown to olive-green. Wood scented
like violets. [Acacia pendida, from Queensland and New South
Wales, is in England termed violet- wood.]

(B) Coniferous Woods.

There are no broad medullary rays nor vessels in coniferous
woods; the few vessels which surround the pith are of no
importance for identifying wood. The fine medullary rays

MACROSCOPIC STRUCTURE. 37

are very numerous. Several coniferous genera have resin-
ducts, which are readily distinguished from vessels owing to
their constitution and their position in the wood. Unlike
vessels, they have no proper walls, and are not only vertical,
or parallel to the wood-fibres, but also horizontal, in the
medullary rays. Resin-ducts are full of turpentine from the
commencement of their formation, as intercellular passages ;
as long as the passage widens and the surrounding cells
increase in number, turpentine Hows from these cells into
the resin-duct.* The presence or absence of resin-ducts, their
size, colour, etc., or their local swellings as resin-galls, supply
an important aid in the identification of genera. AH species
that have resin-ducts, when freshly felled exude turpentine
from the sapwood of the sections. Owing to their arrange-
ment in the wood, resin-ducts appear in a transverse section
either as dot-like cross-sections of the vertical ducts, or as fine
radial lines, the longitudinal sections of the horizontal ducts.
On the radial section the ducts appear as lines running verti-
cally or horizontally ; on the tangential section, the horizontal
ducts are fine dots, and the vertical ducts are lines. The
horizontal or medullary -ray ducts are always finer than the
vertical ducts. Eesin-ducts of coniferous woods are always
seen most clearly, if light falls over the observer's shoulder
on to a piece of wood held nearly horizontally. When the
annual zones of wood are narrow, there is usually less
reduction in the summer- wood than in the spring- wood, so
that in general narrow-zoned wood is harder and heavier limn
wide-zoned wood (ride p. 57).

80. SprtK-e (Picea), Pines (Pinus, sections Taeda ami Pinaster),
Larcli (Larid1), Douglas-fir (Pseiidotswja).

The genus Pi<-<'« includes all species of spruce ; the
sections Taeda and Pinaster include certain species of pine ;
Larix includes all larches ; Pseudotsuga four species of
Douglas-fir from America and Asia only, the other genera
being also European.

Transverse Section. — Medullary rays are scarcely visible ;

* H. Mayr, u Das Htirx tier Nadelhol/.er." Berlin, l.s'JI.

38 PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

the vertical resin-ducts appear as fine bright dots in the
darker summer-wood. Fine lines that are bright or dark
according to the angle of incidence of the light in the radial
direction denote horizontal medullary rays. Spring-wood is
soft and pale and suddenly passes into summer-wood, repeti-
tions of soft, pale wood also occur in the latter (Fig. 22).

Fig. 28.— Type of Pinewood. Pinus

Fig. 22.-Type of Sprucewood. Pieea (secti(m Taeda) Pitchpine (PMli

and Pinus (section Pinaster), Larix paiustriis) from the south-east of
and Pseudotmga. North America.

Radial Section. — The resin-ducts appear as fine lines (but
are not clearly shown in the plate). The medullary rays are
faintly visible and render the radial section of conifers lustrous.
The annual rings are clearly seen owing to the difference
between the dark summer-wood and pale spring-wood.

Tangential Section. — The resin-ducts, especially when they
occur in the summer-wood, show distinctly ;is longer or shorter
lines. The annual rings are also distinct.

.ig .qa) bfo 3X89^ 008 ae-iJ doinqa
)f) Ji ni rfiv/oig

JD

•

[•M

^.

)-i ul R $& beoui

Jji

PLATE 11.

A.

Section from a spruce tree 200 years old (sp. gr.
0*627). Slow regular growth in a dense forest. Wood
of best quality for cleaving : used for violins, &c. Forest
of Chamounix (Haute Savoie). Altitude 4,550 feet.

Section from a larch tree. Kegular structure, even
B. -j and moderately fast growth. Kippendavie, Perthshire.
Old red sandstone.

( Section from a larch tree. Very rapidly grown wood
C. j produced at a low altitude. Lord Bathurst's woods,
I near Cirencester. Great oolite.

/;•

PLATE II.

TYPES OF SPRUCE AND LARCHWOOD.

MACROSCOPIC STRUCTURE. 39

Genus Picea, species of spruce. The sapwood of moderate
breadth, the heart wood contains no colouring matter so that
after the sapwood has died, the sapwood and heartwood assume
the same tint and remain similarly coloured. The sapwood is
characterized by an exudation of turpentine, as in all woods
belonging to this type.

Genus Pinus (Pinaster type). — The Pinaster pines are
two-needled, with a moderately wide sapwood and slightly
reddish-brown heartwood, which becomes darker after felling.
The resin-ducts are somewhat larger than in spruces, and a
sudden transition of spring-wood into summer-wood is com-
moner in these pines.

Genus Pinus (Taeda type), three-needle pines. — Sapwood
v; i liable in breadth, heartwood as in Pinaster pines, but
resin-ducts larger and more distinct than in the latter (Fig. 23,
wood of Pinus galustris, pitchpine). There is usually a more
sudden transition into the, broad, hard, reddish summer-wood
than with Pinaster pines, to which section our Central and
Northern European pines belong.

Genus Larix. — Species of larch with narrow pale sapwood
and reddish-brown heartwood. The resin-ducts are always
liner and less numerous than in all the above-mentioned species.

Genus Pseudotsuga. — Spn-irsof l)ouglus-iir. The sapwood
is fairly broad, the heartwood reddish-brown, as in larch, and
cannot be distinguished externally from larch hearlwood.
For a certain diagnosis of the wood of all the above species
the use of the microscope is necessary, and exhibits such great
differences in the anatomy of the medullary rays, the resin-
ducts, and in PseudotsK<j<i, also in the tracheids, which (as was
shown by Somerville) have, like yew, spiral thickenings,
that no possible confusion can arise.

31. Cembran pinewood (Pinus, sections Cembra and Strobus).

(There are eight species of the Cembran type and eight of the
\Yeyniouth type in Europe, Asia and America.)

The resin-ducts on all the sections are more distinct
than in the Pinaster pines, but less so than in the Taeda
pines. The transition from the spring-wood to summer-wood

PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

is gradual, and the latter is limited to a narrow zone.
The sapwood is hroad, the heartwood pale reddish-brown,

becoming darker on seam-

x£\ ing. Narrow-zoned Wey-

Xv < ;A.x mouth pine wood taken from

N^ the outer zones of old trees

is not distinguishable from

y^SS Cembran pinewood, even

X^i microscopic observation fails

S\ to separate them.

32. Woods of Silver-fir,
Abies ; of Hemlock- spruce,
Tsuga ; of Taxodiniae,
Sequoia, Cryptomcria, and
Taxodium ; oj Cedars,
Cedrus.*

The genus Abies includes
all silver-firs in America,
Asia and Europe ; Tsuga is
represented by seven species
only in America and Asia ;
Sequoia and Taxodium in
America only ; Cryptomeria
in Asia ; Cedrus by three
species or varieties in Africa
and Asia.

As there are no resin-ducts,* only differences in colour and
scent apparently are available in the identification of these

* [The wood of Deodar {Ctdrus Libani, var. Deodara) is moderately hard,
strongly scented, and very oily. The annual rings are distinct, owing to the
darker summer-wood. The medullary rays are fine, unequal, and irregular,
fairly numerous, and show as a silver-grain on the radial section. The resin-
ducts are contiguous and arranged in concentric rows of single ducts close to
the borders of the annual zones of wood. They are absent from some of these
zones, and in the specimen before me appear in alternate zones only. More
knowledge is required about these ducts in deodar- wood, and whether they
occur also in the cedars of Lebanon and of the Atlas Mountains. Their
presence in deodar-wood was reported in Gamble's " Indian Timbers." first
edition (1881), but was omitted in the second edition of this book (l«M.)i>). Other
authorities state that ee<larv\oo<l contains no duels. Tr.

B X './

Fig. 24. -Type of Cembran Pinewood
(Pin-ug, group Cewbra), and of Wey-
mouth pinewood (Pi/nts, group Strulus}.
A Cembran pine. B Weymouth pine.

MACROSCOPIC STRUCTURE. 41

woods. Even microscopic observation fails owing to similarity
in their structure.

Species of Silver-fir (Abies) are characterized by the fact
that there is no colouring matter in either sapwood or heart-
wood ; in this they resemble sprucewood, but can readily be
distinguished from the latter by the absence of resin-ducts.

itf. 2"). — Typt of Silver-fir-wood
(Abirx) : of Hemlock- spruce (7X- //<///) ;
of Sftjiiohi. ('ri/i>ttiiiicriii. 7n.nit/i tun,
and ('<•<! rnx.

.—Type of Cypress-wood (('lutnim'-

riJlHiri*. ( Wyy/v-.v.s-//.v. Tlrui/d. L'lltuct'd nix.
,J it in nc r n x. c{ i •. ).

Species of Hemlock-spruce (Tsuga) have a broad sapwood
and a grey or greyish-brown heartwood.

In Sequoia the sapwood is narrow, the heartwood cherry -
red, eventually becoming greyish-brown.

Taxodium has a broad sapwood and a greyish -brown heart-
wood ; Cryptomeria, a broad sapwood and a reddish -brown
heartwood. In cedarwood the sapwood is broad and the

PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

heartwood yellowish-brown. There are some microscopic
differences between the above-mentioned woods.

33. Woods of the family Cupressineae (Genera, Chamaecyparis,
Cnpressus, Thuya, Libocedras, Juniperus, etc.).

There are no resin-ducts, and these woods are difficult to
distinguish from those of the former groups ; the finer tissues,
especially in the summer-wood, and their characteristic scent,

as well as differences in
colour, afford a few not
very trustworthy characters.
Microscopic examination is
also unsatisfactory.

Lawson's Cypress
(Chamaecyparis Laicsoni-
fnia) has a broad sapwood,
••?•/] a Pa^e reddish heartwood,
slightly differentiated from
the sapwood, a character-
istic scent. Cham, obtusa
(Japanese) has a rose-
coloured or reddish heart-
I I wood and a characteristic

scent ; Cham. pisifera
(Japanese), a yellow heart-
wood; Thuya plicata, a

Fig. 27. — Type of Palmwood.

heartwood is almost identical

brownish-grey heartwood
in Thuya occidentalis the
with the sapwood ; Juni-

perus virginiana and J. bermudiana, Pencil-cedar, a narrow
sapwood, the heartwood being bright cherry-red and becoming
later yellowish-brown, with a pleasant cedar-like scent
(Fig. 26).

(C) Palmwoods.

34. Woods of the genera Areca, Arenga, Borassus, Cocos,
Corypha, Lirtatuiia, Sabal, <'(<-.

Transverse Section. — Vascular bundles with thick dark
brown or black wood, that is very hard near the periphery of

PHYSICAL PROPERTIES.

43

the stem, evenly distributed, except that they become more
numerous towards the cortex, but are reduced in thickness.

Badial Section. — Some of the vascular bundles are vertical
and others oblique, running inwards, or
outwards (as in Fig. 27).

Tangential Section. — Some of the
vascular bundles are vertical, others
triangular in cross-section, and if the
section cuts the bundles obliquely, they
are lanceolate (Fig. 27).

Palniwoods, according to genera, ex-
hibit bundles of various colour from rose
to brown and dark black.

(D) Bamboowoods.

35. ll'muls <>/' tin' (jt'ni'i'n Ariui(linar<'<i.

Transverse Section. — From the hollow
outwards the vascular bundles are
arranged in groups of four each, in the
form of a cross, nearer the cortex they
arc reduced to two woody parts, the
inner of which constantly increases in
thickness. The number of the bundles
increases towards the cortex.

Radial Section.— The vascular bundles
appear as light brown or yellowish strands
of varying thickness, they are also twisted
into the transverse wall, that is opposite
to the external projection from which a
sheath-leaf has fallen (Fig. 28).

MuUIi

. L'S.— Type of
Bamboowood.
To the Ici'i exterior,
to the right hollow in-
terior in the part of a
transverse wall, opposite
to the line of insertion
of a sheath-leaf.

B. THE PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF WOOD.*
1. Colour.

Much attention has not been paid to the colour of our
indigenous woods, as only a few of them (except laburnum-

* Jl. Nordlinger's valuable works 1*11 wood comprise : " Der Hoi/ring,"
•• Dii- tf<-hni«-lifii Kip-nsrhaf'tcn der Ilol/er.'' ixilii : " I>ir ;ji'\v<'H>lichrn
srhaiU'iider Jlol/i-r." JS'.io.

44 PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

wood and brown oak) are naturally of a fine colour ; also
desirable colours depend chiefly on fashion, while by bleach-
ing, and by the use of acids and dyes, any fashionable colour
can be produced. The natural colours of our woods are
utilized chiefly in wood-mosaic work. Freshly felled wood,
as a rule, possesses a distinct colour, which is only
transitory.

It is by chemical changes only that the surfaces of planks
and scantlings, at first exhibiting very little trace of colour,
often rapidly acquire a decided tint, e.g., black alderwood ;
such tints moreover cannot be fixed and are usually of no
economic value. It has been surmised that these changes of
colour are due to tannin acted on by oxygen, by the air and by
sunlight. Colourless saps and chromogen, that are the bases
of madder, indigo and litmus and become coloured by oxida-
tion or decay, are absent from wood ; some woods, such as red-
wood or pernambuko-wood* (Caesalpinla brasiliensis), contain
an extractible dye. Caesalpinia Sappan, cultivated in Southern
India and Bengal, said by Gamble to be wild in the Shan
States, yields a red dye, that is much used. Logwood (Haema-
toxylon campechianum) from the West Indies and Central
America, red sanders (Pterocarpus santalinus) from Madras,
and other tropical woods, also yield important dyes. All our
own woods when boiled yield a brown colouring matter (colour
of brown paper).

Owing to the action of the oxygen of the air, all wood
colours become gradually darker ; even what is described as
colourless sapwood becomes darker.

In opposition to the prevailing opinion, we class all woods
into two groups from the fact that all species of wood possess
a heartwood, whether the latter be externally discernible,
owing to its being permeated by colouring matter, or not.
In both these cases, the heartwood has physiological func-
tions, which the sapwood cannot fulfil permanently (water
transport). It is better to renounce such terms as sapwood

* [Mathey, op. cit., p. 7, terms this Brazil-wood, but states that it comes from
Caesalpinia crista and C. e.cliinata of Guiana. Stone (" Timbers of Commerce ")
gives Chlorophora tinctor'm, from Cuba and Brazil, as the origin of Fustic
{Gellx's BrazUkolz). Mathey mentions Jlijpcrn-utn Ixiccifi'riun (yellow) and
(\>i>a'ift>ni bracteata (violet), (Juiana.- Tr.

PHYSICAL PROPERTIES.

trees, trees with incomplete heartwood (Reifholz) and

heartwood trees.

All our
follows : —

species of woods can therefore be grouped as

I. Heartwood
coloured.

Permeated with
colouring matte:.

1 1 . Heartwood
uncoloured,

s«> that sap wood

and heartwood

resemble one

another.

[Heartwood in living trees

containing little water.
Trees die shortly after gird-
ling.

\ Heartwood in living trees

containing much water.
1 Trees may live a few years
\ after girdling.

Heartwood in living
with little water.

Heartwood in living I ives
rich in water.

Pines, larches, hemlock-
spruces, Douglas - firs,
deodar, all Cujtrexthtct/e
and Td.roiTincac.

Oaks, elms, ashes, lilacs,
plums and cherries, mul-
berry-trees, sweet chest-
nuts, Zelcowa and all
Papllionaceae.
. ' Spruces, silver-firs. Sc'nnlo-

, . 77,

/nfi/ft, ( epnalataaovs.
Beeches, hornbeams, birch
(except Bet ul « fctifn}.
maples, horse-chestnuts.

The more important indigenous and foreign species of wood,
shortly after felling, exhibit the following colours :

Sapwood is coloured pale whitish- or reddish-yellow in all
wood-species.*

Heartwood similar to sapwood in colour. — Spruces, silver-
firs, spindle-trees (Kii<»nimus), horse-chestnuts, poplars,
birches (except cherry-birch), Modopiti/*, beeches.

Heartwood only slightly darker than sapwood. — Maples,
limes, Sorbiis, Lawsnn's cypress, Thuya nn-icJoitalia.

In all succeeding woods the colour of the heartwood only
is referred to :

Yellow. — Box, barberry, /.'//MX, orange-wood, pomegranate,
Mar Jura, sandal, Chamaecypari* pi*in-ra (Japan), elder, satin-
wood (Cliloro.ri/hn) (Ceylon), XautJm.ri/lnn (West Indies),
Ferolia (Guiana).

Light-brown. — Oaks, Ailanthus, Celtis, Sorbus, hickory,
sweet-chestnut, plums, elms, ash, pearwood, olive, old pencil-
cedarwood.

Light reddish-brown. — Yew, larch, old mahogany, cedar
(Cedrela), cherrywood, grenadil (Antltyllis, Dalbergia, West
Indies), briarwood (Erica arborea), Scots pine, Cembran pine.

* [H. Stone has two species of seasoned wood (species undetermined) in
which the sapwood is much darker than the heartwood. They are both from
British Guiana, and their native names are Howadanni and Manniballi," balli "
being the Carib word for tree. — Tr.j

46 PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

Dark reddish-brown. — Cladrastis, mulberry wood, some
species of Taxodinm.

Greyish-brown. — Teak, walnut-wood, jacaranda, giant
thuya, swamp-cypress, Catalpa.

Light grey. — Woods from volcanic deposits in Japan.
Dark grey. — Some deciduous species of Diospyros, iron-
woods * (Sideroxylon, Cupania).

Black (or black and brown). — Some evergreen Diospyros
(ebony).

Rose-coloured. — Freshly cut pencil-cedar, rosewoods,
Chamaecyparis obtusa, Japan, Sitka or Menzies spruce, and
Picea hondoensis (Japan).

Yellowish-red. — Gleditsia (North America), Gym nod ad us
(North America), laburnum, Turkey-oak, fresh mahogany,
Weymouth pine.

Cherry-red. — Sequoia, red sanders.

Bluish-red. — Amaranth-wood (purple-heart, Copaifcra)
from Guiana, black walnut, logwood, Catalpa speciosa (North
America) .

Blood-red (streaked with brown and black). — Andaman
padauk (Pterocarpus dalbergioides) .

Green. — Lauras Chloroxylon, cocus or green ebony j (Bn/a
Ebernis), from Central America and West Indies.
Yellowish green. — Eobinia.
Light olive. — Magnolia, tulipwood.
Dark olive. — Guaiacum, cocus (Brya Ebenus).
The breadth of sapwood varies in genera, species, and
even in individuals ; in youth all species have sapwood only ;
many species are when older characterized by very narrow
sapwood : e.g., catalpa and sweet-chestnut with 1 — 2 zones of
sapwood, larch 1 — 2 c.m. of sapwood, so some oaks, yew, mul-
berry, robinia ; 10 c.m. and over, pines, hickory, elms, ash, etc.
It should also be noted that rapidity of growth is influential
on the ratio of sapwood to heartwood, in favour of the
former.

* [There are many ironwoods from various countries aiul of various colours.
The Indian kinds are chiefly Hn rtlificliiti In nut a- and I'l/iKjiido (.Yt/I/tt dola-
brifonttiti), dark red and dark brown in colour. — Tr.]

f [Mayr states that AX/HI f«f /tux Khciittx is dark olive-colouivd. but this
s]>cr,ics appears to be a synonym of cocus-wood (llriju Khi'iinii). Tr.]

PHYSICAL PROPERTIES. 47

2. Lustre.

All woods can be rendered lustrous by polishing, but natural
lustre renders certain woods, such as satinwood, commercially
valuable. The radial section is the best for exhibiting lustre,
as it shows the widest sections of the medullary rays (silver-
grain), as in oaks, planes, beech, etc. The woods of the sweet-
chestnut, ash and hornbeam, have no silver-grain. Maple-
woods have a silky lustre on the radial section, and coniferous
woods approach them in this respect. There is no lustre in
the wood of any species of Pirns.

3. Scent.

Tannins, fatty oils and ethereal oils act as bearers of scent
in wood ; by boiling woods slowly the scents are isolated, the
more rapid the boiling, the more scent comes off with the
water-vapour, while by heating and drying either in the air
or artificially, the exhalation of scents is favoured. But after
as much of the water as possible has been evaporated, the
scent still continues, until in time the wood becomes scentless.
Even in old pieces of wood, by cutting and exposure of fresh
parts, the typical scent is again emitted.

All species of wood possess a characteristic scent by which
the genera and species may be identified, but a description of
their scents can be attempted only by comparing them to
well-known scents, e.fj., the tannin-like scent of oakwood,
the turpentine scent of conifers ; the varieties of scent
of turpentine characteristic for different species cannot be
described. Excluding conifers, the turpentine and resin of
which is of commercial importance, the woods of Laiu'tn-cdc
(bay-tree) and the camphor trees (Cinnamonium Camphora of
Japan), also Dryobalanops Camphora, a dipterocarp from
Sumatra, are rich in agreeably-scented oil and yield commer-
cial camphor. Camphora glanduliferum from Assam is also
highly scented with camphor. Sandalwood oil is valu-
able. All wood-scents are obtainable by distillation, but
usually in such small quantities as to be of no commercial
importance.

Every wood loses its typical scent when it is attacked by

48 PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

fungi, hence the natural scent of a wood is a proof of its
soundness ; when decay sets in, the odour given off is either
very disagreeable, or the opposite.

The scent of certain woods renders them commercially
valuable, especially as a strong scent keeps off insects and
renders the timber more durable. Pencil-cedarwood (Juni-
perus virgmiana, J. bermudiana and J. chinensis), owing to its
pleasant scent and fine grain, is preferred for pencils. Cedrela-
wood from Cuba and Central America is used for cigar-boxes
on account of its fine scent and lightness. Indian sandalwood
(Santalum album] preserves its strong, agreeable scent for years.
Violet-wood (Acacia homolophylla, from Eastern Australia),
when used for parquet-flooring, as in the castle of Herren-
chiensee, emits a fine violet-scent.

Teak, olivewood, pulley- wood (Guaiacum), Buxus and Sam-
bucus emit a strong odour of caoutchouc. Some woods, such as
freshly cut stinkwood from South Africa (Ocotea bullata), have
a disgusting odour. Mathey adds that of Gustavia tetrapetala
from Guiana.

4. Hardness.

As wood is not homogeneous, it offers a resistance to its
penetration by tools, that differs according to the direction of
the penetrating force. Hence its hardness depends on the
following : —

1. Direction of the force. — The greatest resistance is
offered to forces acting across the wood-fibres ; the least
resistance is along the fibres and also in the planes of the
medullary rays, that is in the radial direction, so that wood
is most easily split radially.

2. Use of implements. — Nails, knives, axes, saws, augers,
planes, etc., act so differently that the same wood exhibits
various degress of hardness to the different implements. It is
however true that hard wood is always more difficult to deal
with than soft wood.

3. The degree of wetness of the wood. — All woods have
greater tenacity and looser texture when they are wet. In
hard woods, this looseness of texture is more important than
the tenacity produced by wetting, so that hard woods are more,

HARDNESS. 49

easily worked wet than when dry. In soft woods, especially
those of broadleaved trees, the wetting ncreases the tenacity
more than the looseness of texture, so that they are easier to
work dry than wet.

4. Specific weight. — This is a measure of the mass of
wood in a given volume, so that wood of high specific weight
is hard. The future discussion of specific weight therefore
applies also to the hardness of wood.

5. Parts of a tree.— Hardness here corresponds with
specific weight. The softest wood is root-wood; then the
western and eastern sides of the bole ; stump-wood ; the
upper side of the branches ; the lower side of the branches,
which last is the hardest wood that a tree produces. Spring-
wood is always softer than summer-wood, especially when
the latter is particularly broad. A more detailed account of
this question will be given hereafter (p. 54).

6. Coherence, owing to the union of the cells and of the
materials that form their walls. — Differences in coherence, in
spite of a similar specific weight in the woods, cause a consider-
able difference in the resistance offered by them to implements.

7. Presence of substances other than water. — If water,
which softens it, has left the cell-wall, and another material,
such as resin or any impregnating substance, has replaced it,
the wood becomes harder. Thus highly resinous wood, such
as the knots of conifers, is extremely hard.

8. Temperature. — Frozen wood is much harder than
unfrozen wood. The slipping aside of wedge and axe in work-
ing frozen wood cannot be explained in accordance with the
prevalent theory, if, when wood is frozen, water is driven from
the cell-wall.

Owing to the connection between hardness and specific
weight, more detailed data will be given under the latter head-
ing. Here the following scale of hardness is suggested :

Very hard, hard as a bone. — Pulley-wood, ebony, iron wood.

Hard. — Box, pitch-pine, hickory, barberry, hornbeam, oak,
robinia, field-maple, mahogany, ash, beech, sweet-chestnut.

Fairly hard. — Walnut, pear- and apple-wood, elm, larch,
yew, cherry-wood, birch.

Rather soft. — Alder, horse-chestnut.

F.U. E

50 PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

Soft. — Pine, spruce, silver-fir, Cedrela, cypress, lime.

Very soft. — AVey mouth pine, willow, poplar, Paidoivnia,
Cunninghamia, Bombax, Leitneiia Florldana (cork-wood from
Florida, used for floats for fishing-nets).

Soft as cork. — Herminiem, from the Upper Nile. [Indian
solah, generally termed pith, but really the wood of Aescliy-
nomene aspera, which grows in marshes ; it is used for hats,
fishing-floats, etc. — Tr.]

5. Specific weight.

A high specific weight in wood is not necessarily a desideratum.
On financial grounds, when light wood offers the same advan-
tages as heavy wood, the lighter wood is preferred. Wood of
a high sp. weight is valuable on account of the other proper-
ties that this more or less involves, chiefly hardness and

(W\
*y] of a piece of wood, of

which V is the volume and W the weight, is very easily and
exactly determined from its absolute weight and volume, for
more than a century the determination of the sp. weight of
woods has offered a favourite field for investigation. Nearly
all investigators, from Duhamel to those of the present time,
have decided that the excellence of wood depends on its
specific weight. Konig, Hartig, and his scholars, Bertog,
Eichhorn, Omeis and Schneider, have considered the term
heavy, when applied to wood, as identical with good, from
every point of view. Nordlinger, Bauschinger, Schwappach,
Fernow, Both and Janka, whose works on the strength of
wood will be discussed further on, refer to excellencies depen-
dent on high sp. weight. Other authors, such as Tetmajer
and H. Mayr, regard sp. weight as only one of the factors in
adjudging the strength of species of wood. If it were possible
to exclude other factors which affect the strength of wood and
often alter it in a way that does not correspond to variations
in sp. weight, the latter might be the best factor in the
question. But this is impossible, so that the prediction of
the strength of a wood from its sp. weight is not more trust-
worthy than weather-forecasts based on atmospheric pressure
only. Agriculture cannot be directed by the rise and

SPECIFIC WEIGHT. 51

fall of the barometric column, neither can silviculture nor
wood industries be based on the sp. weight of wood.

Specific weight is the ratio of the weight of a given volume
of any substance to that of the same volume of water, so that,
if the sp. weight of water be 100, woods with a sp. weight over
100 will sink in water, and those in which it is under 100 will
float in water.

According to Sachs, the cell-walls of wood have a sp.
weight of 156. Hartig * found this to be true for most woods,
especially for oak, beech, birch, and spruce, and showed that
there is no difference in this respect between the cell-walls of
sapwood and heartwood. As in the tissues of wood there are
innumerable air-bearing, closed luniina, it is evident that, in
spite of the high sp. weight of the cell-wall, the sp. weight of
wood is so low, that most woods float in water.

The specific weight of green wood is that of the standing or
recently felled tree, but as the volume of water varies in stand-
ing trees, and water begins to evaporate from felled trees as soon
as they are felled, the weight of green wood is very variable.
As water ascends chiefly in the last-formed layers of sapwood,
that is the wettest part of a tree and usually heavier than
water, with which its lumina are full. Tbe next outer layers
of sapwood are also wetter and heavier than its inner layers.

Heartwood in a green state is always lighter than sapwood,
even when, as in broadleaved trees, it is very wet. The heart-
wood of freshly felled conifers is always much lighter than their
sapwood, for there is 35 per cent, more water in the latter.
Fifty per cent, of the weight of sapwood is that of the con-
tained water, while coniferous heartwood contains only 15 per
cent, of water (by weight). The greater the proportion of
heartwood there is in a tree the lighter its wood, so that the
whole stern decreases in weight as it becomes older. When it
is assumed that there is 45 per cent, of water in green wood,
no account is taken of the above fact, nor of the variation in
the wetness of the sapwood at different seasons in a year.

E. Hartig (<>j>. fit.) has studied the seasonal variations of
water in wood, but the results he has arrived at are not given

* 11. Hiirtig, "Uber die Verteilung der organ ischen Substun/ <ics Wassers u.
Luftraumes in tk-ii I'iiumeii." Berlin, 1882.

E2

52 PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

here, as he did not consider the influence of the weather at
the time of his observations, nor the degree of moisture of
the soil, individual variations, etc. H. Mayr's observations *
show that the degree of wetness of the sap wood depends on
the relative atmospheric humidity, which varies day and night ;
also on the weather, for after rain the stem may become
gorged with water, and drier after a period of drought. Hence
during any month the so-called maximum volume of water
in a tree may be diminished ; it varies also with the nature
of the soil and in individual trees.

When felled stems lie in the forest with or without bark,
their wetness varies according to the relative air-humidity or
the raininess or dryness of the weather. Evaporation, how-
ever, on the whole, preponderates over high relative humidity
or wet weather. After a stem has lain for some time in the
forest, its sp. weight is that of forest-dry wood ; this is
less constant than its green weight or air-dry weight, but is
always intermediate between them. In logs and firewood the
upper parts approach air-dry wood in weight, those parts on
the damp ground, that of green wood. Wood that is felled in
winter and brought out of the forest at the beginning of spring
weighs nearly as much as green wood ; only split firewood
shows any appreciable reduction in weight. The weight of
green and forest-dry wood is of practical importance in wood-
transport.

Wood becomes air-dry, or seasoned, only a long time after
the felling, and the more rapidly the more the wood has been
subdivided. Balks and thick planks must be kept for years
and protected from rain or from resting on the ground before
they become air-dry. Air-dry wood still contains 10 — 15
per cent, of its weight, in water. This is held firmly by
adhesion in the cell-walls, and its mass fluctuates with the
relative atmospheric humidity ; hence in order to expel it
artificial heating . to 100 — 110° C. is required, at which
temperature all the water passes into steam. In this way
the absolutely dry weight of wood is determined. This weight
has a scientific value only, in comparing the weights of woods

* JI. Mayr. " Uber den i'oi'stliclu-ii \\Vri <lcr ia\m'ii\Y:n -ti^ iiblichen Methodi-n
y.ur Beslinnmiiig tier Qualitlit der Hol/cr." IMS'.).

SPECIFIC WEIGHT. 58

from which that - most intrusive factor water has been
eliminated.

If dry or green wood is placed in water, it at once absorbs
more water, till finally all the air-spaces in the wood are full.
Its weight then is that of saturated wood, which has always
a higher sp. weight than water (100), but lower than
that of the cell-walls (156). Saturated wood always sinks,
and wood that has been floated too long approaches in weight
that of saturated wood. As water is a possible factor in
nearly all wood industries, air-dry wood is always in demand,
though it is well known that much unseasoned wood is
used fraudulently. Even wood that has become seasoned
after being kept for years in a dry place is a material contain-
ing a variable amount of water, for wood is hygroscopic, and
its degree of wetness varies with the moisture of the atmo-
sphere.

Air-dry wood when utilized varies in weight —

(1) With the relative atmospheric humidity ;

(2) With the age of the tree.

In 1861 Konig stated that the wood of all trees becomes
lighter as they become older, and his statement has been con-
firmed by more recent investigations. The younger a tree and
the shorter the felling rotation owing to a favourable soil and
a warm locality, the heavier is the wood, but Mayr has
often (<>p. cit.} remarked on the small importance attached in
forestry to the sp. weight of wood.

(3) According to the parts of a tree.

Roots have the lightest wood, and the wood of the upper
parts of roots is lighter than that which lies below, while the
thinner the roots the lighter they are. Then comes the bole,
the western side of it being lighter than its eastern part.
Woodmen term the eastern side of a tree its hard side, for
they know this fact by experience. Wood from the crown is
somewhat heavier than wood from the bole, but heavier and
harder wood is on the eastern side of the stump ; branch-
wood is still heavier and harder, especially on the under-side
of branches.

51 PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

(4) According to the breadth of the annual zones and
the ratio of spring-wood to summer-wood within an
annual zone.

It is well known that summer-wood is heavier than spring-
wood. Foresters, builders, and manufacturers have always
adjudged the hardness and weight of wood in accordance with
the ratio of the amount of summer-wood to that of spring- wood.
They have also considered the question of the width of the
whole annual zone, which E. Hartig has recently shown to
have no influence on the quality of a wood. Practical experi-
ence has decided that in broadleaved woods, the wider the
annual zones, the chief increase is in the harder and heavier
summer-wood, while in coniferous wood, when the zones
become wider, the increase is chiefly in the spring-wood.
Hence, in broadleaved woods wide zones, and in conifers
narrow zones, imply heavy wood.

H. Mayr in 1884, in a pamphlet on the wood of Douglas
fir, was the first to publish an account of exceptions to this
law, which contrasts broadleaved and coniferous woods in such
a remarkable manner. He showed that, in spite of an increase
in the breadth of the annual zones, no decrease in the sp.
weight of the wood followed, but that it even increased.
Hartig, Cieslar, and others, proved this later for Douglas fir
and other coniferous woods. It has also been demonstrated
that in broadleaved woods a breadth of zone of more than
6 mm. results in a decrease in weight and hardness, and that
in coniferous woods there is a similar decrease when the
annual zones are less than 0'5 mm. broad. The observations
also show that woods with the same breadth of annual zones
are sometimes heavier and sometimes lighter. These excep-
tions to the law prove that another natural law exists by which
the effects of the former law may be sometimes enhanced,
sometimes diminished, and sometimes reversed. This natural
law, enunciated by H. Mayr in 1890 ("BieWaldungen von Nord-
america ") owing to his own investigations and to the mass of
indigenous and foreign wood then available, is as follows:

Assuming identity of soil, the specific weight and hardness
of wood decreases with distance from the optimum climate

SPECIFIC WEIGHT. 55

of its production both towards cooler or warmer regions.
It is indifferent whether the annual zones consequently
increase or decrease in breadth, or whether the wood is
broadleaved or coniferous. Within the natural habitat of
any species of tree the centre of its habitat produces the
heaviest and hardest wood.

Every species of tree lives in a certain climatic region,
although the habitat of the tree may show great irregulari-
ties owing to marine currents or topographical features. Such
irregularities in the habitat of a tree, insular expansions on
the one hand or insular exclusions on the other, might induce
one to suppose that not the climate, but the soil, is decisive
for the natural extension of the species.

[There is a close relation between a tree's demands upon
temperature and upon soil. Given the proper temperature, it
will grow where the soil is unfriendly; and given the most
congenial soil, it will grow where the temperature is not ideal.
The colder and wetter the soil, the better will a tree grow with
a relatively high temperature ; the drier and warmer the soil,
the better .it will grow with a relatively low temperature.
Thus on a northern slope the forester will often find it safe to
plant trees which would not thrive on the southern side of the
same mountain, because northern slopes are cooler and moister
than southern ones, and this difference may suffice to effect a
slight reduction in the average temperature of the region.
There is a wide variation among trees as to the range of tem-
perature which they endure. But it should not be inferred
that only geographical lines can be drawn for the distribution
of any species. The right temperature conditions may be
found outside the geographical habitat at higher or lower
altitudes. A southern species, wrhose home is in the moun-
tains, may find a second home in the northern latitudes of a
level country, and a northern lowland species may thrive on
mountains in the south. — Tr.]

Mayr's observations here (cf. p. 60) do not include the soil
as one factor in this natural extension, but regard the range of
temperature and the distribution and amount of annual rainfall
as its most important factors. Hence arises the important fact
for the cultivation of trees that there may be climatic regions

56 PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

and climatic optima for a species even beyond its native
habitat, for the possibility of the natural bridging over of
localities that are unfavourable for a species is much more
difficult than is generally believed. It is false to affirm that,
because a species thrives outside its native habitat, it is not
dependent on a decided climatic region, and that it is useless
to determine climatic regions as a natural basis for the culti-
vation of all indigenous and exotic trees. But we must not
overlook the fact that, in forestry, species can be cultivated
outside their native habitat, if, although they may yield no
fruit and no seed, they still produce valuable wood. In such
cases, however, the species would disappear as soon as the
hand of man is withheld [unless, like the English elm, they
produce suckers. — Tr.].

With regard to the introduction of species of trees beyond
their native habitat, for any species there are five imaginable
climatic regions, three of them natural and two artificial.

Ill c. Artificial region cooler than the natural
habitat.

(II c. Region cooler than the optimum.
I. The optimum.

II w. Region warmer than the optimum.
Ill w. Artificial region warmer than the
optimum.

The law enunciated above may be expressed as follows : The
sp. weight of every species of wood is gradually reduced from
region I towards II c and II w, and towards III c and III w,
whether its annual zones are wider or narrower.

The oak is the first example. Its habitat in Germany is
usually II c. Only the warmest localities in Germany come
under I ; these are districts where there are vineyards. By
experimental plantations oak is often grown in III c, while I
and II w are in the south and south-east of Germany, and
III w in Southern Europe. As in the first half of the rota-
tion of all species of trees, equality of soil and sufficient
moisture being presupposed, the breadth of the annual zones
increases with the climatic temperature, we find a general
increase in the breadth of annual zones of oakwood from

SPECIFIC WEIGHT. 57

III c to II c, I, II w, and III w. What is, however, the
resulting sp. weight of the wood ? In II c, e.g., the
Spessart, the air-dry sp. weight is 50, while as we approach
the warmer climate in I the annual zones become broader
and the sp. weight of the wood increases, until in I an
average sp. weight of 74 for air-dry oakwood is attained.
This follows the old law, the wider the annual zones, the
heavier the wood. If we weigh oakwood grown in II w or in
III w, although actual figures are wanting, we know that the
very broad-zoned wood is soft and spongy and therefore lighter
in weight than wood from I.*

The larch for more than a century has been planted outside
its native habitat, the Alps and Carpathians (its zones

I and II w) ; in warmer localities, III w, and as far as Denmark
and Scotland [In Scotland the climate probably approaches

II w. — Tr.]. Its rapid growth in most of these countries and
the great width of its annual zones, when compared with
mountain larch wood, are well known, as well as the fact that
its sp. weight down to 45 is much lower than in its native
habitat I, where the sp. weight may be as high as 80. If we
proceed upwards from the plains, the old law for conifers holds
good that as the annual zones become narrower the sp.
weight increases, and as they become broader the weight
is reduced. But on considering the uppermost and coolest
station of larch, II c, it appears that the very narrow-
zoned larchwood again becomes lighter than that from I,
while its sp. weight falls to 55. t There is little practical
experience of larchwood from the highest regions, or it would
be found opposed to the old law that conifers become heavier
the narrower their annual zones.

The spruce also conforms to the new law, for its wood in
the long wide regions I and II w possesses an average sp.
weight of 45, whilst the broad-zoned sprucewood grown in

* [In England, the hardest and heaviest oakwood is produced in Kent, Sussex,
and Hampshire, as well as in Herefordshire and its adjoining counties. These
are the hottest counties in the British Isles, and presumably correspond to I
for oak. The best larchwood is produced in Scotland. A study of the
comparative sp. weight and of the width of the annual zones of oakwood
and larchwood in different parts of the British Isles would be very useful. —
Tr.]

f J. Wessely, "Die bsterreichischen Alpenlander u. ihre Forsten." 1853.

5S PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

wanner Germany, region III w, has an average sp. weight
of between 38 and 41. The region II c — the uppermost
spruce region, above which (III c) its cultivation becomes
impossible, as the top of II c is the upper mountain limit of
tree growth — is characterised by the production of narrow-
ringed " resonance " wood (used for violins and other stringed
instruments), which has also a low sp. weight, as low as 40
and averaging 42.

Thus Mayr's law explains the exceptions to the above prac-
tical laws regarding coniferous and broadleaved woods, which
are no exceptions to the greater natural law that is here
enunciated.

This law that the sp. weight of woods is diminished when
they are produced beyond the optimum climatic region of the
species of tree is especially interesting to those who main-
tain that the strength of timber is dependent on the sp.
weight of wood. Schwappach (1897) is one of these, and
states that the transverse strength of timber diminishes as a
tree grows beyond its optimum region, which is only an asser-
tion of this law. Hartig states, that in beechwood neither the
breadth of the annual zones nor the climate exercises any
influence over its sp. weight, which depends solely on the age of
the tree; that in coniferous woods the sp. weight increases as
long as the annual increment is increasing and diminishes
when the latter decreases.

(5) The tending of a crop of trees must influence the sp.
weight of the wood, for cleanings, thinnings, and a free posi-
tion of a tree are merely alterations in the environment of
trees as regards light and heat. In a dense wood dominated
trees suffer from a deprivation of both light and heat. Giving
a tree a free position removes it, as it were, from a cooler to a
warmer climate, while for a suppressed tree these conditions
are reversed. Hence, by thinning, the optimum climate for
oak may be approximated to or receded from in the case of
spruce. Spruce, for instance, grown in II w or III w, when
suppressed has, it is well known, heavier wood, while suppressed
oak grown in II c or III c has lighter wood.

(6) The specific weight varies with genera, species, or indi-
vidual trees. As regards genera, woods that are produced

SPECIFIC WEIGHT. 59

naturally in the warmer climates are, on the whole, heavier
than those from cooler regions, e.g., heavy tropical iron woods
when compared with European oakwood. However, it must
not he ignored that some tropical woods are extremely low in
the scale of sp. weight. The variations in the weight of woods
of the same genus, but of different species and heat require-
ments, are less decided. Europe is so poor in species of the
same genus of trees, as to afford few examples of this. In
North America, the white oak when grown in the more southern
States has an average sp. wreight of 89, the black oak that of
73; the same oaks when grown in northern States have sp.
weights of 77 and 70 respectively.* So far as our experience
goes, however, different species of a genus that have identical
heat requirements, or are cultivated in similar climatic regions,
do not produce wo<>d differing in sp. weight or in other quali-
ties. On the contrary, it appears that nearly related species
of trees, c.rf., Sitka and Norway spruce, Nonlimum's and our
own silver-fir, the \\liite American and our sessile oak, sugar-
maple and sycamore, etc., produce equally heavy wood, if
grown under conditions that produce heavy wood for the
genus in Europe, or e<juali\ light wood when under opposite
conditions.

Attention is here directed to some common errors made in
comparing exotic and indigenous plants. Equally favourable
conditions of soil and climate should be presupposed.

Exotic conifers when introduced into European lowlands
should not be compared as regards the quality of their wood
with our own conifers grown in I, but with them when grown
also in the lowlands. Thus Japanese larch planted in our
lowlands should be compared with lowland and not mountain
European larch.

A.8 an instance of a second error, Weymouth pinewood was
formerly considered the best pinewood of North America,
because it afforded the longest, strongest, and most work-
able pinewood from the earlier settlements in the north-east
of America. In Europe there are many better conifers, so
that the American preference for it counts for nothing with us.
The Americans have misjudged similarly the quality of the

* Census Report oE the United States, 18HO.

60 PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

wood of other pines, which they compared with that of the
Weymouth pine, such as P. resinosa, P. divaricata (Banltsiana),
P. rigida, P. ponderosa ; we should not accept their judg-
ment blindly, as it can be proved from mature Europe-grown
wood only of these species, which can then be compared
commercially with our own pine wood.

A third error arises from comparing the wood of young and
old trees of the same indigenous or exotic species. Young
conifers, e.g., Weymouth pine, necessarily contain poor wood,
for either they have no heartwood or very little in proportion
to their sapwood, while their lower branches have not fallen,
or their knots are covered with a few zones of wood only. The
older the Weymouth pine is, when grown in Germany, the
more favourable are the opinions held about the quality of its
wood. It is this opinion, and not that of Americans, that is
decisive for us.

(7) The soil under similar climatic conditions greatly
affects the width of the annual zones and the weight of wood.
Hartig has, however, stated that soil has no influence on
beechwood,.but that the best soil produces the heaviest spruce-
wood.* It is certain that every species of tree finds £he most
favourable conditions for its growth on the best soil. It
strives to form a large crown and a tall bole, so as to ensure
its fructification. In forestry, however, the vegetative part of
the tree, the bole, is more valuable than the fructification,
and should be as free from knots, as rich in heartwood, and as
cylindrical as possible. These requirements are not secured
always on the absolutely best soil. Such is a well-manured
garden soil, and wood grown on such a soil is branchy, broad -
ringed, and may suffer from red-rot. Also on very poor, dry
soil wood grows slowly, with narrow zones, and is less heavy
than wood produced on moist, loamy sand or sandy loam.
Hence for every species there is a soil optimum that yields
the heaviest wood, climatic conditions being equal, and soils
richer or poorer in nitrogen than the optimum yield wood of
lower sp. weight.

(8) When sapwood passes into coloured heartwood, the

* R. Hartig, "Ban u. Gewicht ties Fichtenholz." Forstlichc Natunv. Zeit-
schrift VII. 1898.

SPECIFIC WEIGHT. 61

deeper the colour, the heavier the wood. It is very difficult to
decide how far the sp. weight is thus affected, as individual
variations and the natural falling off in weight from the inner
zones of the wood outwards complicate the question. Hartig
states that the colouring matter in oakwood raises its dry
weight 6 per cent. Woods, the cell-lumina of which are
filled with colouring matter, such as tropical dye-woods and
artificially injected wood, are considerably heavier than light-
coloured wood.*

(9) Resin increases the weight of conifers. According to
Mayr,t when sap wood passes into heartwood there is a gradual
change from liquid turpentine into solid, heavy rosin. It is
not true that new formations of resin occur in old wood
parts. The absolute quantity of it remains constant ; only its
form alters ; the turpentine becomes oxidised and concentrated
only. The increase in weight is greatest in species that con-
tain the most turpentine, #.//., Weymouth pine, Scots pine,
spruce, and, least of all, silver-fir. The stump is heaviest, not
only because its wood has thick walls, but because it contains
the most resin. When resin formation begins (ride " Defects
in Wood"), and the cell-walls dry, a very remarkable increase
in weight follows uvsin-galls, hard kno!

(10) Abnormal tissues in woods usually increase their
weight, but their strength is thus greatly injured. Occluded
woods, burrs or excresei'iices in wood, and contorted fibres are
usually heavier, but not therefore better than normal wood.
Among these may be reckoned the abnormally hard wood
which all our conifers produce on the lower side of branches,
at bends in the stem, on the rootstock, and on the eastern side
of stems, that woodmen name hard, or red, wood (cf. " Defects
in Wood").

(11) Organic and inorganic salts, that are partly soluble in
water, contribute appreciably in the formation of sapwood.
Such are sugar, albumen, gums, etc. In heartwood they have
no sensible influence on the weight of wood. Floating wood

* [The black wood of ebony weighs 75 — 80 Ibs., ami its sapwood only
49 — 50 Ibs., per cubic foot, the extra weight being due to a coloured substance
that fills the luniina till the structure is scarcely discernible by a micro-
scope.— Tr.]

t H, Mayr, " Das Holz der Nadelholzer." 1894.

02 PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

in rivers involves a partial absorption of these salts from the
sapwood by the water, so that the weight of the wood is
reduced. Wood-merchants say that this loss is slight, but
detailed investigation is wanting. It is evident that injection
with preservative substances must increase the weight of wood.
Still less investigated is the share of ash- constituents in
the weight of wood, but at any rate it is inconsiderable. In
broadleaved and coniferous wood, as soon as the annual zone
is completed, there is no further addition of ash-constituents.*
In palms and bamboos, the wood of which is intermediate to
exogenous wood and bark, there is a change in the mineral
constituents during the whole life of the stem. Thus the
quantity of silica steadily increases, so that the sp. weight
is considerably increased. According to Koide, the sp.
weight of the Hachiku bamboo (Pliyllostachys pnberida) is in
the first year 109, in the fifth year 113, in the eighth 118,
but after the eighth year it steadily diminishes with the age
of the bamboo. This law is true for all bamboos, f

A knowledge of the sp. weights of forest-dry wood is of
ractical importance as regards transport from forests. It is,
however, very variable. Bohmerle and Vultejus have deter-
mined these weights as follows in kilograms per cubic meter,
solid or stacked, and they are also given in pounds avoirdupois
per cubic foot.

OAK, BEECH,1 HORNBEAM,- ASH, SYCAMORE, ELM.

The weights of beech and hornbeam cordwood are given in the
second column in metric and English weights and measures.

Kilo*. Lbs.

(Cubic meter) Logs 720...

(Stacked cubic meter) Split cordwood ... 670 ... 8401
„ „ Hound „ ... 600 ... 8202

„ Stump ,, ... 614 ...
100 faggots 1,200 ...

. 45-3 per cubic foot.

. 42. ..531 „

. 38. ..50-52

. 38-5

. 75-5 per 100.

* [Masses of opaline silica termed tdbanhir are sometimes formed in the
hollows of bamboos, while the vessels of Arm-in (\dcclin ;md of teak may bo
filled with calcium carbonate and calcium phosphate or silica. In A. Catecltn
this property renders the wood better for catch-making. — Tr.]

f [This fact has long been known in India, where bamboos have a consider-
able commercial value. The culms up to a certain age vary in external colour
and increase in weight ; only the heavier ones a re used for building purposes, while
after attaining a maximum density they gradually rnl. Their age is known by
the colour of thnr rind.— Tr.J

SPECIFIC WEIGHT. G.'i

BIRCH, ASPEN, SPRUCE, SCOTS PINE, SILVER-FIR, LARCH,
BLACK PINE.

The weights of silver-fir and black pine cordwood are given
in the second column :

A'/lo*. JJi.-t.

(Cubic meter) Loirs ... ... T>70 ... .. 3(5 per cubic foot.

(Stacked cubic meter) Split cordwood 47n ... »;r>o ... 2H-."j...4l-:»

Hound .. 470 ... 7*0 ... 2lK">...4'.i

,, ,, Stump .. 3.~iO ... ... 22

These weights, according to Bam*,* are as follows for stacked
wood :

SPLIT CoumvooD. Kor.sn < 'oumvoon.

M>x. Kilos. 7, /;x.

per cubic per cubic /><')' cubic /ier cubic

meter. foot. meter, foot.

Spruce 343 21'.") 411 ... 2(5

Scots pine... ... 3*7

Larch

Silver-fir ...

AVey mouth pine

Oak

Beech

Hornbeam

Alder

Aspen

Ash
Sycamore ...

424 ... 27

2C.3 ... Itr

In ... :.73 ... :i(5

3o ... 43.; ... 2S

587 . . 37

28 ... 380 . . 21

27 3Sn . . 21

In Germany, for taxation purposes, one solid cubic meter of
wood is reckoned at 600 kilos, (a cubic meter = 35'1 cubic
feet, and 1 kilo. = 2"2 Ibs.). In German railway-transport a
cubic meter of hardwood is considered to weigh 1,000 kilos,
and of softwood, 750 kilos.

The following list of the air-dry and forest-dry sp. weights
of wood has been prepared from data supplied by Nordlinger,
Chevandier, v. Baur, Biihler, Karrnarch, v. Exner, v. Secken-
dorf, Moller, Hartig, Mohr, Sargent, Fernow, Schw7appach, as
well as by the authors of the present book. It is well known
that good average figures may differ from the actual weights
when the maximum and minimum weights of the same species
also differ considerably ; this is especially the case in forest-
dry wood, where incorrectness depends more on the amount of
napwood and heartwood in the specimen than on the water it

* Fr. v. Baur, " Uber (Jewicht, Yolumen u. Was.ser^ehclt des Holzes."

04

PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

contains. Maximum weights of forest-dry wood imply chiefly
sapwood, while minimum weights occur when the specimen
is chiefly heartwood. Hence the maximum forest-dry weights
of all species of wood vary between 100 and 130, and their
minimum forest-dry weights between 40 and 100. In air-
dry weights, the disturbing factor, water, if not excluded
entirely, is kept so far in the background that sapwood and
heartwood contain equal volumes of water. In air-dry wood,
therefore, the average figures given are very approximately
correct, the highest sp. weights of the same species varying
between 55 and 95, and the lowest between 35 and 80.

The woods are grouped according to their average air-dry
weights, those with sp. weight of 80 and over being classed
as very heavy, from 70 to 80 as heavy, from 55 to 70 as
moderately heavy, from 40 to 55 as light, and those under
40 as very light. Wherever this can be done with any pre-
cision the sp. weight of forest-dry wood is also given. The
weight of a cubic meter of the wood or of a stacked cubic
meter (Raummeter or stere) can be calculated by multiplying
the figures by 10 or 7*7 respectively. [As a cubic foot of
water weighs 1,000 oz. = 62J Ibs., the weight of a solid cubic
foot of wood may be calculated from its sp. weight by
multiplying it by '625, and for a stacked cubic foot by '471.
American board-measure is in square feet of one-inch planking,
and is thus twelve times its volume in cubic feet. — Tr.]

TABLE OF SPECIFIC WEIGHTS OF WOOD.

Air-

Forest-

Air- Furest-

dry.

dry.

dri/. dry.

Cocus and -violet wood ...

140

—

Yew

... 80 103

Guaiacum...

130

—

Zelkowa Keaki ...

... 7G 106

Ebony

120

—

Pedunculate oak...

... 7(5 104

Iron woods, various

115

—

Pitch pine (P. palustr'us) 75 —

Evergreen oaks
Grenadil...

110
100

~

Hickory,German (Hi

. I 75 SaP-
cnrin \ wood

Satinwood

100

—

alba)

... f o« Heart-

Boxwood

95

—

J c" wood

Briarwood (Erica urborcn)

95

—

White oak

.. 75 —

Rosewood (Jacaranda) ...

90

—

Kobinia

.. 75 100

Turkey oak

85

110

Ash, European ...

.. 74

Hickory, American

84

—

Sessile oak

.. 74 101

Whitethorn

82

—

Gleditsia

.. 73

Hornbeam

80

105

Beech

.. 72 100

Teak

80

—

Walnut («/. -regiu)

.. 72

Mahogany

80

—

Kim

.. 70 100

Bamboo (PhyHottaohyf)

80

113

Field-maple

.. 70 90

COHERENCE.

65

TABLE OF SPECIFIC WEIGHTS OF

Ah-- F

;/v,v/-

Air-

dry.

dry.

Pear

... 70

105

Pinus ripda

... 51

Cladrastis...

... r,7

—

Pencil-cedar

. . . 51 1

Apple-tree

... Ci7

101

Do. (Sargent)

... :;:;

Austrian pine

t>7

—

Spruce

... 17

Sycamore...
Fraxinus alba

... <;<;

93

Sitka spruce
Silver-fir (European)

... 17

... 4<;

Sweet chestnut ...

"] C,5

100

Lawson's evpre.->s

... 4<;

Sugar- maple

... (15

—

Willow (S.idl»a)...

... 41;

Red oak ((>. rulrti)

... 64

—

Hemlock spruce ...

... i<;

Cherry

... <>4

93

Swamp eypiess ...

... 15

Corsican pine

... r,2

- —

Aspen

... 15

Ha/el

»'>2

—

White poplar

... 1 1

Kim (/'. /;////«/) ...

... C»2

91

Cembran }>ine

... II

Larch

... 60

si

Pyramidal poplar

... 12

.lunipcr (common )

... Hi)

—

Picea puntrens

... 42

P.lack walnut

... 60

—

Piedwood ( California)

... 12

P.irch

... li<)

96

( Yyptomcria japonica

... 12

Plam-

... 5S

—

( 'atalpa speciosa ...

12

Horse-chestnut ...

• > i

90

(!rey walnut

... 11

Douglas tir (Am.

and

Abies concolor

... 11

(Jcrman)

... 57

—

Chnma'cypai'is (»btusa

... II

Magnolia hypoleiica

... 55

so

Wevmout li pine . . .

... 10

Sallow

... 5!5

85

Kn-clman's spruce

."•S

Piniis divaricata ...

5 ; i

—

Sequoia L,ri'j:antca

ill

Scots |»in<'

52

82

I'aulownia

. . . 25

Acer da^yearpum

... 52

—

Cunninghamia ...

20

Lime

... 52

Cork ((t). Siibi'r') ...

... 15

Alder

5 2

Hcrminicra

15

78

ss

83

75

According to Mayr's observations, Weyinouth pinewood
wci^lis the same in Europe as in America, and P. lloth's
figures quoted in "The; \Yliitc 1'iiu'." l»y \'. ^f
1S!)1I, concur.

6.

Coherence is the force thai keeps the constituents of wood
united ; it is measured by the resistance offered by wood to
shearing strains and to a separation of the cells, tissues,
or annual zones. Tetmajer states that the coherence of
wood may be measured by the amount of deformation
exhibited in testing its strength and by the force applied.
Its influence is here apparently greater than that of specific
weight, to which coherence is not proportional. Whenever
wood is utilized its coherence comes into play, but there are
no exact observations of this quality in woods of different
species.

r.r. F

PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

7. Hygroscopicity.

The hygroscopicity of a wood is its reaction to water and
water-vapour. If absolutely dry wood is placed in contact
with air saturated with water-vapour, as an organised body,
the walls of its tissues gradually absorb so much moisture
that the wood becomes saturated. The weight of the woody
tissue is then about 15 per cent, more than its absolutely dry
weight. If the wood is in air with a relative humidity
of 50, it absorbs gradually only 50 per cent, of the
water that it could absorb in saturated air, viz., about 7 to
8 per cent, of its own weight. The absorption of the walls
of woody tissue is therefore proportional to the relative
humidity of air, allowing a sufficient time for the action of the
;itinospheric moisture. Water can be deposited only in drops
in the cell-lumina, which are completely surrounded by ligneous
walls, if the temperature of the air inside the cells is cooled
down almost to the dew-point owing to the cooling of the
external air; as the temperature rises, water disappears again
from the lamina. The water, which persists in the wood for
some time at least, at all temperatures, is either the remains of
the original water in the growing tree or has entered the
wood after contact with water, so that the air from the cell-
luinina is gradually replaced by water and the wood then
becomes saturated.

In wood-industries, the importance of the saturation of wood
by water is not due to any consequent increase in weight, but
because wet wood is more accessible to fungi; also because
in many other technical qualities, such as transverse or
strength and combustibility, it becomes deteriorated and that
its shape alters as its contained moisture varies. The conse-
quent increase in volume of wet wood is termed swelling,
while a decrease in volume of drying wood is termed shrinking,
bo tli these actions being included in the word warping.
Shrinking is often accompanied by cracks, which cause
further deterioration in the quality of the wood.

As already stated, absolutely dry wood may absorb water
from saturated air till it has increased 15 per cent, in weight,
wh.-n tho coil-walls are saturated, The expansion in volume

HYGBO8COPICITY.

67

is, however, not thus completed. It has been shown by
observations, including those of Mayr, that when wTood
remains lying for a long time in water a still further expan-
sion results, until the wood is completely saturated. If we
term the volume of wood the cell-walls of which are saturated
with water, such as the sap wood and heartwood of a freshly-
felled tree, the volume of green wood, then this increased
volume may be described as the saturated volume.

Wood-tissue for some time in contact with air with a rela-
tive humidity of 50 per cent, swells up to a condition which is
half the swelling resulting from contact with saturated air
(relative humidity 100). However variable the absolute amount

a Section of the cell-walls in wood absolutely dry. formal of niveelhe without
intermediate -paces. 1, The same, in air with relative humidity ;,(), the
intermediate spare* between the myeelhe tilled with water. <• The game
in saturated air. or as ^reeii wood, saturated with water.

of swelling may be in different species of wood, in all woods
the amount of swelling or shrinking is proportional to the
increase or decrease in the relative atmospheric humidity.

The best and most natural way to understand the processes
of swelling and shrinking is to consider the cell-wall as com-
posed of mycella? ; when it is absolutely dry, adjoining
mycellffi, which though invisible must have a prismatic or
cubical shape, have no spaces between them (Fig. 29 a).

If such a piece of cell-wall should come in contact with
moist air or with water, the water forces its way between the
mycellae, forming interstices, until the wall swells so as to
correspond to its saturated volume. Fig. 29 b shows this
saturation up to 50 per cent., 29 c., with saturated air. The

F 2

PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

shrinking of drying wood shows the reverse process, as the
water of inhibition gradually leaves the cell-wall.

If wood were thoroughly homogeneous, as is a wedge of
clay or cement, it would stretch or contract equably on all
sides ; as it is composed of elongated organs, which alter their
shape much less along their longer axis than radially or tangen-
tially, the alteration in the whole piece of wood is unequal in
different directions. It has been proved that in passing from its
green volume to its air-dry volume the length of a wooden rod
shrinks on the average by O'l per cent, of its original length,

whilst in the radial direction,
along the medullary rays, the
shrinking is from 3 to 5 per
cent., and in the tangential
direction, tangential to those of
the annual rings, 6 to 15 per
cent. The greater contraction
along the tangents may be
studied on any freshly cut piece
of wood, as it causes the wood
to crack perpendicularly to the
direction of shrinking, that is
radially. The effect of unequal
shrinking is specially noticeable
in planks ; the more tangen-
tially they are cut the more
they contract in width, but the
nearer the sections are to the
radius of the stem, the less the shrinkage (Fig. 30).

The fact that, in spite of the saturation of cell-walls with
water, if the amount of water in the cell-lumina be reduced
there is a shrinkage in the walls of wood-tissue, is true also
for standing trees. Kaiser and Friedrich, by measuring trees
in daytime at the moment of greatest transpiration and at
night when transpiration is arrested and the tissues are gorged
with water, have shown that their diameters vary in width.
Mayr's observations alsoshowthat the length of a tree fluctuates
with its water-contents.

The amount of shrinkage depends on : 1. The water-con-

Fig.

]> I 'lank from the centre of the
stem with a section nearly
r;i<lial. c — (I Planks with more
or less tangential sections, which
shrink and warp more than a 1>.

HYciKoSCOl'K'iTY. G(.)

tents at the beginning and end of the drying. As regards the
former, sapwood contains more water at daybreak after a period
of rainy weather, than at sunset, after dry weather. This varia-
tion continues throughout the year, and is not confined to any
season; felling in summer or winter, therefore, alters the degree
of wetness of wood and the consequent shrinkage only according
to the weather that prevails at the time of felling. It is there-
fore indifferent as regards the sapwood whether wood is felled
in dry weather during either summer or winter. Only the
fact that a certain season is drier than another could render
it more favourable for felling trees.

The amount of shrinkage in green wood is the greater
the more the wood dries ; it is greater from green wood to
air-dry wood than from air-dry wood to wood that is abso-
lutely dry.

2. A wood that is air-dry does not, therefore, cease to warp,
but its volume still varies with the relative humidity of the
air. This fact is of great technical importance, for wooden
objects made in the moister climatic regions, such as the
British Isles, or Japan, when imported into drier countries
invariably warp and may become completely useless. It is
only when they are prevented from drying, or becoming moist,
under the opposite conditions of import from drier countries,
that they do not warp. If they are lacquered or varnished
they will not warp. Similar results follow for all wooden
objects that have been made in wet weather (window-fittings,
picture-frames, tables, flooring, etc.).

3. As heartwood is always drier than sapwood, it shrinks
less. Heartwood of conifers contains less water than that of
broadleaved trees, so is more serviceable when it is necessary
to use wood that has been recently felled.

4. The heavier a wood, the more it shrinks when dried.*
II. llartig t found that the hardest and heaviest coniferous
wood, at bend^ in the stems of trees that he and Cieslar
termed " redwood," shrinks less than normal wood. The
following law, as stated by Nordlinger, is, however, correct :
Branchwood shrinks jiiore than stemwood, the latter more

* "Xnn[iii)-<>r," issc,. K. I less, 1SS7.

f li. Hiiriig, •• Holzuntersaohangeo, Altes u. Neiies." 11)01.

70 PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

than rootwoocl, uncoloure<J lieartwood more than the outer
layers.

This reaction of sapwood and lieartwood in spruce, silver-
fir, birch, beech and hornbeam, which have no normal colour-
ing matter in their heartwood, is not contrary to 1, where
sapwood is said to shrink more than heartwood. It is truly
a case of the amount of shrinkage, after sapwood and heart-
wood have attained a similar degree of moisture, namely their
air- dry volume.

5. When lieartwood is coloured, as in oak, larch, pines, etc.,
it shrinks more than the sapwood ; in robinia (Hartig) by
8 per cent., in larch by 10 per cent.

6. The contents of a wood in resin affects its shrinkage, for
in coniferous woods resin can penetrate the cell-walls only
after they have parted with their water. Hence only after a
tree has been felled can the reduction of warping, owing to a
deposit of rosin, be noted. The more slowly coniferous wood
is dried (Mayr) the greater the accumulation of hard rosin and
the less the wood will warp. Species of wood that are naturally
very resinous, therefore, shrink less than less resinous woods.
Hence the wood of Weymouth pine (in opposition to the law
of greater shrinkage in heavier woods) shrinks less than Scots
pinewood, the latter less than spruce, and that less than silver-
fir. Pitch-pine shrinks less than Weymouth pine or Scots pine,
and hence the preference given to pitch-pinewood.

7. The washing-out of soluble salts by placing wood in
water, according to Nordlinger, has no influence, and
(D. Bersch) only a slight influence on the shrinkage (in
floating and rafting).

8. The unequal changes in wood due to drying and wetting
result not only in an alteration in its volume, but also in
warping (withdrawal of a piece of wood from its original planes).

Woods.

Oak !

lVnvnfa.L',1' of SlirinkaL.'.1.

Longitudinal.

Radial.

4-3
4-6

;vo
B-ti

. Tangential.

j

0-3
0-5
0-8
0-8

(',-:,

7-2
9*3
10-5

A>li

1 icrrli

Ilonilx-Miii ..

HYGROSCOPICITY.

71

Perc

entage of »,„.,„*

w.

Longitudinal.

Radial.

Tangential.

Teai1
Sycamore

0-3
0*1

3-2

;?-2

9-1

P.ireh

<; r>

Spruce

0-08

n.n

Silver-fir .. .

(i-lii

3-3

c.-i

Scots pine

ii-li)

.»..)

I- 1

Larch

0*16

I vohinia

0-13

:>•'.»

.YS

.Maho"anv

n-l 1

1-1

1-s

rpper side of spruce brandies

0-09

Lower „ ., ,,

1-2S1

The next statement gives the shrinkage in total volume in
passing from green to air-dry wood in pm'ent.agi) of the
volume of the green wood. The figures in brackets ( Wi'isbarh )
refer to the increase in volume of air-dry wood that has
placed in water for the space of a month.

Shrinkage,

Blight.

Moderate

Mahogany
\\e\mniitli pine
Kbtniv

1-1
:!•:> —
:; I

Kohinia

Sycamore

Birch

;V<) —
."»•."• ( 7'!i )

Lime 7-u ( 1 I-:1,)
r.i-.-di 7'!' ( luf,)
( 'hen v 7'i! ( '.(• 1 )

Larch

:; •:;

\sh

:">•? ( 7-.".)

1 lornbe'im 7-"< (1 ''•'' )

Scot •> pine
Spruce
Kim
Silver-tir

:;•:, (48)
!•(. ,,;•:,,
l-i' C..-7,

1C (:.-|)

Tear
Al.l.-r
A 1 1 p 1 e
Oak

:. - i<; :;i
:••'.» i m-'.i)
r.-u ( r, 7 )

Poplar

|-r> i •; •> »

Walnut

6*0

1 lorse-ches! nut

Norway maple.

<;•')

li'Z —

[The percentages in the last tabular statement show how lo
calculate the reduction in volume, ''.//., of railway-sleepers,
from the green volume of the wood to its volume when
utili/al)le in an air-dry condition. This is very useful for
sleepers of somewhat doubtful dimensions, that would shrink
to perhaps a smaller size than that agreed to by a rail-
way company, and might consequently be rejected.' The
figures in brackets arc, useful when timber is lloatod, as it

* Matliey o» cit.

PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

shows that Scots pine, which is more resinous than spruce or
silver-fir, absorbs less water than either, and is therefore less
liable to saturation than they are. Such resinous wood, e.g.,
of pines, larch, or deodar, will float longer and is less liable
to sink than the wood of spruce, or silver-fir.

Boppe's "Technologie Forestiere" and Mathey's "Exploita-
tion Commerciale des Bois " give some practical results about
warping which are not given by Gayer, and form the subject
of the next section.

8. Practical Result* of Warpimj.

Duhamel de Monceau split some scantlings and poles by
two or three cuts in order to show longitudinal shrinkage,
and as seen in Fig. 31, each split piece curves outwards.

This explains why planks
sawn through the centre
of a log (Fig. 3'2) gene-
rally crack, the crack being
the deeper, the thicker
the plank, the more sap-
wood it contains and the
wider the annual zones of
wood.

The outer zones contract
fig. 31. (After Koppe.) more than the cenfcml oneg>

and the central plank (Fig. 33) is curved convexly on both its
larger .surfaces. If planks are cut at distances more and more
removed from the centre of the wood, they tend, owing to
unequal warping, to become more and more concave on their
outer surfaces, as shown in Fig. 34.

The shrinkage in width of such planks has been referred
to already (p. 68). If a floor be made with insufficiently
dried planks, they leave spaces between them on drying, while
if the planks are nailed on the joists of the floor with their
inner sides exposed to the air, they tend to shell-out. In
good flooring, planks are dovetailed into one another to render
the floor airtight.

The centre of any log containing the pith, being frequently
knotty in coniferous wood and in broadleaved wood often

HYGBOSCOPICITY.

deviating from the vertical direction, is usually defective, so
that the best planks and other scantling are obtained by
rejecting the central plank and cutting the log into two or four
balks (Figs. 85 and 36), which can each be sawn up into suit-
able pieces. This obviously requires logs of somewhat large

Fig. :;:i. (After Boppe.)

Fig. 32. (After Hoppe. )

diameter, but yields timber that is much superior in quality to
that produced when smaller logs are merely sawn tli rough in
one direction. Dulianiel showed that by thus cutting a log into
four pieces, danger from cracks and warping is much diminished.
In Fig. 34 it is seen that the shrinkage of the four planks into
which the wood is thus divided
is quite uniform, and chiefly at
their outer ends.

In India, where boxwood is
cut into round pieces for export,
each piece is sawn down to the

:. :?l. (After

centre along a radius, and this

prevents any other cracks, the

large opening widening or narrowing according to the degree

of moisture of the air. This is also the practice in Japan

(Fig. 37).

In younger trees (Fig. 37) the concentric zones are fairly
uniform from the pith to the bark, while in older trees the
larger zones are shown in the middle of the transverse
section (Fig. 38). Hence the former usually crack in one
place, down to the radius, while in older logs there are
several internal cracks.

When, as in railway-sleepers, a fairly thick plank is cut

74 I'KOl'KKTIKS OK WOOD.

out of the centre of a tree, it can be prevented from cracking
by driving in an S-shaped thin steel clamp, which holds the
wood together.

The various methods of seasoning wood, injecting it with

Fig. 35. (After Boppe.) Fig. 36. (After Boppe.)

preservative materials and otherwise improving its quality,
are dealt with in a subsequent chapter (p. 502).

Whilst in most of the industrial uses of wood rapid with-
drawal of water is required, there are some in which wood
should be rendered as watertight as possible. This is specially

Fig. 37. (After Boppe.) l-'ig. 3S. (Aftor Boppe.)

the case with staves for casks to contain liquids, that should
part with as little of their contents as possible. The direction
perpendicular to the medullary rays is that tli rough which
liquids pass least freely. Oak staves are split along the
radius of the stem, and the medullary rays arc parallel to
their longer surfaces, so that they are very impervious to
Liquids contained in thu casks. Beechwood is very permeable,

EFFECTS OF UK AT.

75

and therefore useless for casks, except those containing butter
and other more or less solid substances. In split oak or
chestnut palings, the fibres and vessels are not cut, and
they are therefore much less permeable by water than sawn
palings. — Tr.]

(J. Effect * ut 11 cat on Wood.

(a) Change of NHIJIC.

The coefficient of linear expansion of a rod is the incivase
in its length for 1 C. divided by its original length. Thus, if
a rod one meter long, at 0° C., receives an increased tempera-
ture of 100J and thereby expands 1 mm. in length, its co-
efficient of expansion would bo -,,,,,1,,,,,,, or O'OOOl. It
should be noted that for wood, this expansion longitudinally
is only a fraction of its radial expansion, and that the former
is less than in metals or glass, which being homogeneous,
expand equally in all directions.

••llu-ii'iit <>f Kxp.-tii.MMii.

...,,;„ l;

Ku.liitl. K

•iHliiinl. I,.

''

r»i».\ \vouii

O 00006 H

0'000002o7

IT. ' 1

Silver-lir

n <n Miur.s i

0-00000371

n; : i

Oi.k

(i-iMUKi;, 1 1

0-00000492

11:1

Spruce

n-i n mi i;; 1 1

(i iiniinol 1 |

C, : 1

ll'lMI

0-00002850

lr"" 7 : 1

(Spruce

1 run

(Has- . .

0*00000860

r> : i
Oak

[Where iron girders are used in buildings, in case of the
house being burned, the expansion of the girders tends to knock
down the walls ; this is not the case with wooden beams. — Tr.]

In order to determine exactly the effects of heat on wood,
the wood and the air in which it is placed must be absolutely
dry. If this is not the case, as in the wood of a living tree or
of one recently felled, or in converted wood, heat always
produces contraction. This is because the heating of the
contained water not only counteracts the expansion due to
heat, but produces even a reduction in volume.

Frozen wood, according to Mayr, is affected by heat quite

76 PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

differently from unfrozen wood, and this proves that water
does not exude from the cell- walls of frozen wood. On the
contrary, owing to the retention of water by these walls, a
reduction of temperature acts oppositely on frozen and un-
frozen wood. When the temperature is reduced the latter
absorbs water from the air and expands, while frozen wood
contracts ; if the temperature is reduced considerably below
freezing-point, frozen wood cracks, as does a mass of ice under
similar conditions. Hence, when the air-temperature is very
low, frostcracks occur in living trees, but they must not be ex-
plained by differences of temperature in the internal and exter-
nal zones of wood in the tree, phenomena which Mayr states do
not occur in nature.* Greenwood when heated above 0° C.
follows the laws of evaporation of water, but when cooled
below 0°, it follows the laws for reduced temperature in

solids.

(b) Movements of the Water m Wood.

When wood is heated not only the temperature of the sub-
stance of the wood is raised, but also that of the air and
water it contains. If freshly felled wood or wood saturated
with water from lying in it is suddenly heated, much water
exudes on to the exposed surfaces of the wood ; if then the tem-
perature be reduced the exudation of water ceases, but if the
wood be submerged, it absorbs still more water. The water

* [Internal heat of tree*. — A remarkable series of experiments, with a view to
ascertaining the variations of temperature in trees, has been conducted by Herr
F. Schleichert, of Jena, who publishes the results in the Naturwlt&enschaftliche
Wochenschrift.

Herr Schleichert finds that the general temperature of the interior of trees is
dependent upon the temperature of the surrounding air, but is influenced also
by other causes, such as the ground temperature, the temperature of the water
ascending in the wood, and the temperature of the branches, which are directly
heated by the sun's rays.

The mode of experiment was the following : A hole was bored in the stern of
a tree on the north side at a height of 1£ metres (nearly 5 ft.) from the ground.
In the hole was placed to a depth of 12 centimetres (nearly 5 in.) a thermometer,
and sealed up with wax. A second thermometer similar to the first, was
fastened to a branch of the tree, so that the air circulated freely round it.

The temperatures registered by the two instruments were taken at varying
intervals during the day and compared.

The readings of the thermometers for eight days in June, which are published,
bring to light a curious phenomenon. While the external temperature showed
the usual maxima in the afternoon, the maxima in the interior of the tree
were recorded at midnight and the minima at midday. Tr.]

EFFECTS OF HEAT. 77

exudes owing to the expansion of the sap and air contained in
the wood, the expansion of the wroody substance scarcely
intervenes. The heating and cooling of the included water
and air also proceeds in living trees, where it is an important
factor in the ascent and descent of water, as well as in the
lateral passage of water into the medullary rays.

This movement of water proceeds also in converted wood,
if it is insufficiently dried. The water is then driven out-
wards by the expanding air, along its natural paths towards
the external surfaces of the wood, that therefore become wet.
The practical effects of this is to favour dry-rot (M
, on joists and planks.

(r) Decomposition of Wood.

If wood is heated up to 100° C. it first loses all its water
and becomes absolutely dry ; several observations have
proved that the other properties of wood are thus somewhat
altered. The production of absolutely dry wood is of impor-
tance in many experiments, which can be carried out only
when the disturbing factor, water, is eliminated. If the wood
is heated still further, gases art; produced and ignite when
in contact with a flame, until finally only ashes remain ;
the rest of the wood passes into the air in the form of water-
vapour and carbon-dioxide, with a small amount of ammonia.
If air be excluded or admitted insufficiently during the
heating of wood, the woody tissue is decomposed :

From lf>() to 280° into water-vapour, acetic acid, formic
acid, methyl alcohol, with a brown
residue.

,, 280° to 360° into carbon-dioxide, air monoxyde,
marsh-gas, acetyl, ethyl, and a
brown residue.

,, 360° to 430° into marsh-gas and hydrogen, and a
thick brown liquid of paraffin,
benzol, carbolic acid, with charcoal
as a residue.

,, 430° to 1,500° wood yields the same products as
before (360° to 430°), no new ones
being formed.

78 PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

As regards so-called uninflammable wood, it is injected
with several chemical compounds, chiefly salts of alum, and
becomes difficult to kindle, but is still inflammable after being
subjected to lire for some time.

10. Conductivity of ITood.

(a) Heat.

Wood is one of the worst conductors of heat and is there-
fore largely used for matches, and for handles of tools that
are subjected to various temperatures. Wood conducts heat
better longitudinally than transversely, in the ratio of 18 : 10
for softwoods and 13 : 10 for hardwoods. Heavy hardwoods
conduct heat better than softwoods, and wet wood better than
dry wood, as water is a better conductor of heat than wood.

(#) Electricity.

Wood is also a poor conductor of electricity and serves as
an insulator ; high specific weight and wetness reduce its
resistance to the passage of electric currents. This is the
reason why living trees are struck by lightning more fre-
quently than dry trees ; also isolated trees, on account of the
large amount of water they contain, their high specific weight,
and the spread of their crowns, than trees growing in dense crops.
Also certain species such as oak, in preference, as is generally
asserted, to beech. The latest investigations of Hartig, unfor-
tunately interrupted by his too early death, tend to show that the
immunity to lightning stroke assigned to beech is not war-
ranted. Hartig states that beech is just as often struck as
oak, but the external and internal action of lightning on
beech and oak differ. The fact stated by Janescu, that oily
trees (<'.</., beech, walnut, birch and lime) when compared
with starchy trees (oak, poplars, ash, elm) are worse con-
ductors and less frequently struck than the latter, should be
noted. [Kesinous conifers, such as Scots pine, are rich in
oil during winter, but poor in oil in summer. Oil is a bad
conductor of electricity.— Tr.]

(c) Sounil.

Wood conducts sound well along its fibres, i.e., longi-
tudinally; the slightest noise at one end of a log can be

CHEMICAL PROPERTIES. 79

heard distinctly at the other end. Dry wood conducts sound
hotter than wet wood. The conduction of sound is interrupted
or the sound deadened by decay in the centre of the tree, so
that the healthy or diseased condition of the wood of a felled
tree may he thus tested.

(il) LI <jl it.

Wood only in very thin sections is permeable by light;
then, like calc-spar, it exhibits double refraction. Wood
is very permeable by Roiitgen rays.

C. CHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

The ultimate analysis of woods varies within narrow limits;
ils organic substance when dry is composed of the following
elements: Carbon, SO, hydrogen, (>. oxygen, 1:>'7, nitrogen, O'JJ,
half its volume being carbon.

The chief constituents of wood are cellulose (( ''J I m< V-,)
and lignin ((--,,-,1 I:{0O7o). Cellulose is therefore a carbohydrate
resembling sugar in its composition. Lignin is the most
highly carbonised constituent of the cell-wall. Lignin is also
known as woody substance; as the lignifying substance of
cellulose; with other materials in paper-manufact lire, as
the encrusting substance. Lignin is not a homogeneous
substance, but according to Payen a mixture of four others
with different reactions to alcohol and ether. Pure cellulose is
dissolved entirely by concentrated sulphuric acid and converted
into dextrin and fermentable sugar. Treated with ammoniacal
oxide of copper, cellulose is dissolved completely, but can be
precipitated again by the addition of acids, saline and sugar solu-
tions and gums, as a whites structureless mass.' When cellu-
is treated with 11X():! nitro-cellulose is obtained, a highly
explosive compound (gun-cotton, pyroxylin), very soluble in
alcohol or ether, and when the solvents arc; evaporated the
precipitate is eollodiuiii, colourless and without any structure.

ANALYSIS i:v WKK;HT.

< Y-lliilnsc. l.iiriiin. Mc;m i'or Wood.

C 44-44 ;VJ-<;5 49'2

H C.-17 5-25 6-1

0 1<>-:I<J 42-10 44'7

.1. Borsch, - Die Verwertung dea lM/::s.v ixi»:t.

SO PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

Cieslar* has shown that the amount of lignin in wood
increases when a tree receives increased light and heat, which
therefore affect all the technical properties of wood ; these,
therefore, depend chiefly on the relative volumes of cellulose
and lignin in the wood. Unlignified tissues practically mean
wood-formations that are not completed during late summer
and are killed by early or winter frosts. It is not the absence
of lignin in the cellulose walls that causes the susceptibility
to frost, for neither cellulose nor lignin freeze, but the
presence of plasma that is still constructive and has not
passed over into its resting (winter) condition.

The presence of lignin in wood may be tested in various
ways. Pure cellulose is coloured violet by chloro-iodide of
zinc ; lignified cell-walls are coloured cherry-red on the
application of phloroglucin and hydrochloric acid ; yellow
by sulphate of anilin ; and sky-blue under sunlight by a
solution of phenol in hydrochloric acid.

By boiling wood in a solution of soda or caustic soda, or
in a solution of calcium sulphate, lignin is removed from
the cell-wall and pure cellulose is obtained.

Many fungi that are destructive to wood attack its lignin
and leave the cellulose intact, whilst other fungi dissolve the
cellulose, leaving a brittle, brown ligneous mass that may be
pulverised by the fingers.

A chemical combination of the cell-wall with salts of
alumina, such as was attempted in Haselmann's process for
hardening wood, does not appear to be practicable ; the
alumina is merely attached to the wood and may be removed
by rain, etc.

When wood is burned, its ash-constituents persist as a pale
grey powder containing the mineral constituents of the wood.
They are simple or double salts of potash, soda, magnesia,
manganese, ferric-oxide, calcium-oxide, etc., combined with
silicic, phosphoric, carbonic, acetic, pommic and citric acids.
Although some of these constituents are essential for the life
of plants, their effects on the quality of wood appear to be but
slight; i.ln-.y penetrate it in all directions as an extremely fine
iiiiiionil skeleton. Carbonate of potash is an economic product

* A. ricsbir, " Untersuchung liber den LigningehalteinigerNadelholzer/' isi)7.

CHEMICAL PBOPEBTIES. 81

from wood. The mineral matter in wood varies from '2 to 50
parts in a thousand ; according to species ; age of tree-parts
(younger organs containing proportionally more asli than
older ones); age of tree and nature of the soil in which the
tree grew. Silicic acid is so abundant in bamboos and palms,
especially near their outer rind, as to increase their hardne^ .
[Silica in the form of a hydrate is found in the hollows of
1 KID i boo culms and termed tnbaxhir, which is sold in Indian
ba/aars. — Tr.] Briar- wood (Erica arborca), that is used for
pipes, is very rich in silica. Some tropical woods, such as
ebony, cocus, etc., are very rich in mineral matter.

Water is the basis of the life of trees ; after they are felled
it is a worthless ballast in wood. Its great influence on the
economic value of wood will be described hereafter ; the
section on specific weight may be consulted for an account
of the distribution of water in a tree, and in its heart wood
and sapwood.

Sugar, dextrin, albumen and tannin are decomposed
easily, and form the chief nutriment of the fungi that destroy
wood. The superior durability of winter-felled wood is ex-
plained by the fact, that during winter the above materials
are in a iixed or resting condition, in which they are more
resistant to decomposition. Wood that has remained for some
time in water (floated or rafted) is also supposed to be more
din-able, because the above materials, being soluble in water,
have been partly dissolved, and thus the fungi have lost part
of their nutriment and their aggressiveness is reduced. This
advantage is effective if followed by a subsequent complete
drying of the wood to its air-dry condition, but practically this
seldom happens, while the saturated wood requires prolonged
desiccation. Hence floated wood is more susceptible to fungi
than wood that has been transported by land.

[The materials above referred to serve also as food for
insects, and bamboos that have been floated over long dis-
tances or soaked in tanks for several months are much more
immune from insect-attacks than bamboos transported by land.
The drying of floated wood after it has been landed is much
more rapid also in hot countries than in Europe, so that
floated wood is very durable under such conditions. — Tr.]

J.l. G

I'KOPKIITIKS OF WOO]).

Sugar contained in the sap of certain species of maple, birch

and palms is of economic value. In maples the conversion
of starch into dextrin and sugar occurs only in winter with
temperatures below freezing-point and so rapidly, that from
January onwards, on days when it does not freeze, sap con-
taining sugar exudes from wounds in the trees. The yield of
sugar appears to depend on turgescence and pressure ; sap
does not exude by gravitation but is pressed out of the sap-
wood. As soon as frost returns the sap ceases to exude ;
all maples yield fairly considerable quantities of sweet sap,
which can be tapped without any apparent injury to the tree
or the wood. When the buds open the annual exudation
of sap ceases. Even European maples yield an agreeably
scented syrup ; if this were boiled, sugar could be made easily.
This industry is largely developed in North America, and is
referred to under the heading of the utilization of minor
produce. The sap of maples contains iive per cent, of sugar
and more, that of birch, hornbeam and lime-trees, hardly two
per cent. Fermented birch- sap is a drink.

Grains of sugar appearing on fresh wounds of the sugar-
pine (Pintis Lawbcrtiana) are used in medicine.

Starch is stored in the parenchymatous cells of living trees ;
in their external woody zones it is dissolved annually and
used for new growth ; according to Hartig, in old living wood
(containing plasma) it accumulates until there is a seed-year,
so that the periodicity of seed-years coincides with the maxima
accumulations of starch. This statement is admissible only if
it can he proved that in specially favourable warm years (lS',)i>,
1898, 1894), several successive seed-years can result from the
accumulation of starch in the inner living zones of the same
tree. Mayr believes that bright warm summers produce so
much starch and other formative material as to suilice for the
production of flower-buds, without drawing upon the resources
of preceding years.

Starch increases the nutritive power of wood and together
with mineral salts and albumen is stored chiefly in the liner
branches and twigs, so that these tree-par! s are specially
nutritive for cattle and game. The older tree-parts are poor
in nutriment, but in years of scarcily they may be mixed with

FINENESS OF GRAIN. 83

corn as wood-bread, and thus may partly replace other fodder,
Such an experiment has been made with beechwood.

Tannin appears to play a varied part in wood, its most
important role being that it precedes and includes the colour-
ing-matter that gives its colour and durability to hearlwoud.

Among the ethereal oils in wood, turpentine and camphor
may be mentioned. Turpentine is contained partly in resin-
ducts, partly in pareiichymatous cells. If the resin-ducts are
severed turpentine exudes; it is pressed out by the turgor
of the sapwood. The cell-walls saturated with water are im-
permeable by turpentine. When wood is wounded and exposed,
resin instead of water passes into the cell-walls (resinosis).

Camphor is found chieily in Lauraceaj (Cainplioni) ; the
species yielding it are given on p. 17. It is a highly refrac-
tive substance formed like tannin in enlarged pareiichymatous
cells.

Betulin occurs in the wood and bark of birches, and in-
creases their combustibility.

D. MKC IIANU AI, I'uoi'KirriKs OF WOOD.

This group of those properties uf wood, which are based on
its anatomical and physical conditions, is dealt with under a
separate heading. Long technical experience is here more
decisive than physical and anatomical science, which is not
yet developed sui'liciently to all'ord a clear explanation of
the subject from a consideration of the separate physical
and anatomical factors.

1. L'iuencss oj

The term "line-grained" is not equivalent ta ''narrow-
zoned," nor to " anatomically of simple structure." Wood that
can be worked easily is line-grained, whether or not it appears
so to the eye. Oak wood as well as spruce wood may be line-
grained or coarse-grained. The woods of old Wey mouth pines,
of walnut, box, horse-chestnut and mahogany are specially
line-grained. One condition for fineness of grain is uniformity
in the annual woody zones, both in width and in the ratios of
the widths of spring and summer wood within the annual zones.

This uniformity of the tissues depends chieliy on the age

84 PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

of a tree. At an advanced age the annual zones become
gradually narrower, so that the annual increment may remain
constant for a number of years. Mayr has shown that, as a
tree becomes older and its volume of wood increases, it
becomes less sensitive to variations in daily and even annual
variations of atmospheric temperature and humidity. The
large volume of wood then equalizes extremes of tempera-
ture, so that the cambium being equably nourished produces
a steadier increment and consequently wood that is more finely
grained than in young trees.

The method of growing a tree, and supplying it with light
and heat is also important. Virgin forests yield wood that
may be more knotty than wood from a dense artificial crop,
but on clean boles exhibits the finest grain, the greatest
uniformity of structure (Fig. 39). Excluding very old trees,

Fig, 3!>. — Wood from a virgin forest.

the explanation of this fact is due to the prolonged mainten-
ance of the tree during youth in the diffused shade of the
virgin forest ; for decades the young plant has lived protected
by older trees under uniform conditions of temperature,
humidity and illumination, the forest equalising extremes.
By the successive death of old neighbours, the tree obtains
gradually a full supply of light and heat long after the
passing of its youth, when meteorological extremes would
have caused irregularity in its annual woody zones.

The gradual acquisition of an open position results in an
increased increment, but not in abnormally wide and irregular
annual zones. Wood from a Selection forest approaches
this condition most nearly.

A tree grown under the Shelterwood compartment system,
with a dense reserve of mother-trees (Fig. 40) possesses near
its pith, wood, that has very narrow zones for the first 20 or
40 years ; then, owing to full exposure to light, a number of

FINENESS OF GKATN.

85

wide and irregular zones, but as the tree gets old the annual
zones gradually become narrow and the wood resembles that
from a virgin forest.

If, during the regeneration period, the tree serves as a
mother-tree, wider zones follow, as in Fig. 42.

The Clear-cutting system, with artificial reproduction,
secures from the first full light to the plant, also exposure
to extremes of temperature and humidity. The wood is there-

Fig, lu. — Wood grown under the Shclterwood Compartment system,
just before a thinning.

fore broad-zoned from the first ; zones of narrow summer-
wood vary with others in which the hard summer-wood is
broad, only in old age does the wood become uniform and
narrow-zoned. The clear-cutting system produces the
coarsest grained wood.

If a tree is set free when old (in Fig. 4 '2 is a tree eighty
years old) in the clear-cutting system, under the influence
of the increased exposure to light and heat the annual /ones

Fig. 11. — Wood grown under the clear-rut tin

system,

become wider, but gradually narrow again. Such wood is also
coarse-grained (Fig. 42).

The inferiority of wood produced in the open is readily
explained by the fact that a free position in young trees causes
a larger wood-increment than in trees naturally regenerated.

It is indisputable that in old age it is not density of crop, but
the open crop of a selection or virgin forest that produces the
greatest volume of wood in a given time. Contrary to popular
opinion, selection or virgin forest is not dense but open and

86 PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

therefore produces the most underwood. Unfortunately the
'time required is longer than the usual rotations, and trees
grown in crowded crops must be utilised early owing to low
increment and disease (red-rot).

The influence of soil on the quality of wood is such that
good soils produce woody zones that are broad and irregular,
and consequently coarse-grained wood. The worst soil, or
soil that is deficient in certain qualities, such as sand or peat,
produce slowly grown crops, but wood that is finely grained.

In damp, cool climates, i.e., maritime, northern or
alpine climates, and on northern aspects, trees grow slowly
in girth, and their wood is uniform in texture and finely
grained. Norwegian, Swedish and North Eussian wood is
renowned for its fine grain, while the famous resonant spruce-

io1. 42. — Wood of a tree 'that has stood in a free position both when
young and old.

wood from mountains is the ideal of fineness of grain. Inter-
ference with the fineness of grain in wood, owing to knots,
twisted "fibre, etc., belong to the section on the defects of wood
(p. 124). *

2. Fissibility.

The property of wood owing to which it may be split with
wedges, etc., is termed fissibility, and depends chiefly on the
direction in which the force acts. Fissibility is greatest
when the splitting implement, e.g., an axe, acts longitudinally
and radially on a transverse section of the wood. AVood is
less fissile when the axe strikes the tangential section along
a radius, still less fissile when the wood is to be split along
Uie iumual /ones, and this is easier on the trnnsverse section
than when the axe strikes on the radial section. Wood cannot
be split if the force acts perpendicularly to the direction of its

* [ Types of I lie wood of oak, larch, and spruce of various kinds of 'jmiii a re p von
in the frontispiece, the last taken from I'.oppe's "Technologic Forest iere." — Tr.j

I'TSSIl'.IIJTY. S7

fibres; it is indifferent whether this he radial or tangential.
Penetration by an instrument is then possible only it' the
fibres are severed, while their severance is rendered more
difticult owing to their compression by the instrument.

Fineness of grain is the next important item favouring
iissibility, a straight uninterrupted course of the fibres
renders a wood fissile; everything that favours or diminishes
fineness of grain in woods increases or lessens their iissibility.
Twisted fibre occurs sometimes in entire stems, and normally
in the rootstock or at the junction of ihe stem \\ith a branch ;
this diminishes the lissibility of the wood. Kissibilit •
annulled absolutely when the fibres alter in direction in
consecutive annual rings, as in ( Juiacum-wood.

High medullary rays, or numerous fine rays inert
Iissibility in the radial direction.

Moisture softens the cell-walls, so that contiguous cells are
separated more easily, but they also became lougher. In
hardwoods, the increased divisibility out-balances the tough-
ihat they are split more easily when wet than when
they are dry. In the Spessart freshly-felled oaks are split
longitudinally to test their soundness. The opposite is the
case with softwoods: their toughness when wet out-balances
their divisibility ; therefore they arc more fissile when dry.

With woods that are equally moist, a higher temperature
increases fissibility unless it also dries the wood. If the tem-
perature is below freezing-point and the wet wood free/cs, its
fissibility is at once prejudiced ; frozen wood breaks with
a conchoidal fracture like a block of ice, as it resembles
ice closely in its physical properties. This is another clear
proof that when wood freezes, water is not exuded from the
cell-wall, otherwise the sapwood of softwoods, (specially of
conifers, would become more; fissile than before it was fro/en.
As water \\hen fro/en in the cell-walls reduces the fissibility of

wood, the same result will follow when other substances replace
water in the cell-wall.

All colouring-matters and resin therefore reduce fissibility.
In extreme cases, when the resin hardens into rosin with which
the wood becomes impregnated, lissibility disappears; such
wood resembles frozen wood in this respect.

PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

High specific weight is opposed to fissibility ; it is more
difficult to split heavy, hard woods, than the lighter woods.
This applies also to wood from an individual tree, branch wood
is less fissile than stem wood, even though the former be straight-
grained, but rootwood, though lighter than stem wood, is less
fissile, owing to irregularity in its fibres.

Soundness is a necessary condition for fissibility. Diseased
wood is either soft or brittle, according to the nature of the
disease ; in either case it is less fissile than sound wood.
Owing to the action of the attacking fungi, the wood at length
becomes a homogeneous mass, which can no longer be split.

In judging the fissibility of the wood of standing trees the
following favourable factors should be noted : Freedom from
branches and knots ; fine bark, with straight fissures. It is
stupid and mischievous to cut out a piece of the wood and test
its fissibility.

The following list shows how greatly fissibility depends on
species.

Vi'iy Fissile.

Fissile.

Fairly Fissile.

Difficult to Split.

Very difficult
to Split.

Cannot be
Split.

I'.Hinboos.

Spruce.

Weyniouth

Cherry-wood.

Piobinia.

(inaiacum.

Canes, that

Silvor-tir.

pine.

Elms.

( 'ornns

1 'aim -wood.

can be

Osiers.

Scots pine.

Pear and apple-

Mas.

splil into

Oak.

wood.

Black pine.

threads.

Ash.

Poplars.

Box.

Beech.

Tree-willows.

Ebony.

Alder.

Limes.

Rosewood.

Larch.

Horse-chestnut.

Cembran

Maples.

pine.

Birch.

Yew.

Mahoganv.

Hazel.

Teak.

Sweet

Plane.

chestnut.

3. St

The strength of a piece of wood varies with the direction of
1,1 1< : Force which tends to alter its shape, so that there are
different kinds of strength in wood.

Tenacity is the resistance a wooden rod offers to a force
tending to stretch it. The coefficient of tenacity is the force
\\liidi can tear a rod OIK; meter long and one square centimeter in

STRENGTH. 89

section, while the force that can stretch such a rod to double
its length, if this were possible, within the limits of its elas-
ticity, is termed the modulus of tension. [We may however
say, with a greater regard to possibility, the modulus of
tension is one million times the force, which would stretch
the bar to a million times its length. — Tr.] These and other
strength coefficients are given in kilograms per square centi-
meter, and as the atmospheric pressure on a square centi-
meter is very nearly a kilogram, the force is frequently
represented in atmospheric pressures (at).

In the case of resistance to crushing, the force acts in the
opposite direction to a tensile strain, and the coefficient and
modulus are determined analogously. Resistance to torsion
is that offered by the fibres of a rod, the axis of which is fixed,
to a couple of forces tending to turn it on its axis. Resistance
to sheering is that offered by wood to a force which tends to
make sections of the wood slide on one another.

[None of the above strains (forces) or stresses (effects on
the wood) are of much practical importance. In contrast
with iron, fracture of wood by tension acts suddenly, there
being little extensibility along its fibres. If a piece of wood
be fastened at both its ends and then subject to a load in the
middle, it may bo bent and the fibres on the convex side are
stretched, but the consideration of such a strain practically
comes under the heading of transvt ngth. Crushing

strains come into play, when wood is used for vertical piles, or
posts, mining props, wheel-spokes, etc. Over-weighted wooden
pillars bend and break transversely.

AYheel-spnkes are subject to crushing strains and the best
woods for the purpose are robinia and oak ; the former wood is
now coming into use for the spokes of motor-cars, where the
pressure on the outside; wheels in going rapidly round curves
is very great. In using peeled oak coppice-shoots for pit-
props it is essential that the horizontal cut made at the base
of the shoot in order to strip off the bark should sever none of
the wood-fibres, as any such cut very greatly diminishes the
strength of the prop.

Mathey (op. cit., p. 7) goes into detail on the question of
the strength of pit-props, which were tested in 1891 — 18(J5 by

flO PROPERTIES OE WOOD.

Emile Sardino, and 'the general results obtained by the latter
for props 14 c. in diameter at the small end are as follows :

Breaking-weight

in kilos.

Oak 5,220

Maritime pine .... 4,790

Silver-fir or spruce . . . 4,750

Larch 4,310

Scots or Black pine . . . 3,740

With a diameter of 18 c. the superiority of oak was further
accentuated, but the larch came at the bottom of the list. It
was presumably of bad quality.

The windlass is about the only case in which wood is
required to resist torsion, and the dimensions of wooden
windlasses are usually sufficient. Guaiacum-wood resists sheer-
ing strains best, as in pullies ; beech, apple and pearwood
also resist sheering well, hence the use of these woods in
golf-clubs. Hornbeam-wood resists both crushing and sheer-
ing strains and is used for cogs and skittles. When subject to
a crushing strain, according to Laslett, its fibres, instead of
breaking off short, double up like threads. — Tr.]

The most important strength of wood is the resistance it
offers to a force acting at right angles to its grain, and is
termed transverse strength. As long as the change in the
form of the piece of wood is only temporary and it recovers
its original shape after the strain is withdrawn, the wood is
said to be perfectly elastic. If, however, a change of form
remains after the withdrawal of the strain, the limits of perfect
elasticity have been exceeded. The modulus of elasticity
of a piece of wood corresponds to its change of form until the
limits of elasticity have been reached, while the modulus of
rapture gives the force in kilograms, when breakage results,
after the limits of elasticity have been exceeded.

Investigations regarding the strength of wood date from the
early part of the nineteenth century; it was chiefly Duhamel
dn Monrean who attempted to discover a relation between the
specific, weight of wood, that is so easily determined, and its
strength, tlui determination of which is much more difficult.

STliKNCTII. <,)!

Duhamel considered that specific weight is a measure of the
strength of wood, and he was followed in this way by other
investigators. Hartig* and his pupils went too far in tin's
direction, as they aflirmed the identity of heavy = strong, and
of light = weak, stating that heavy sprucewood is always
stronger than light sprucewood ; they forgot that the most
costly and excellent sprucewood, resonant wood, is the lightest
wood of this species. Omeis followed Hartig in basing
strength on specific weight only, in the case of Scots pine;
Kichhorn for oak; Uertog for silver-iir : Schneider for ash.
The, best works on the subject are given below. \

Tehnajer gives the following data in ions of 1000 kilos per
square centimeter of wooden rods, half a meter long: —

Silver-tir ...

100-2

hi

Oak

l(i2-7

76

Spruce

llo-.i

17

Larch

111-1

BO

Scuts pine ...

lis-s

52

1 leech

168-5

72

Modulus of elasticity (lineal)

Scots pine ...

0-188

52

Larch

O'L'ur,

60

Spruce

«l '2 H>

17

Oak

• 1217

~| *

Silver-lir ...

n-221

16

Beech

0*240

72

It cannot bo affirmed from Tel HIM jer's results that the
moduli of strength and elasticity are correspondent. Most

* It. Hartig, " Untereuchungen Ml KM- die Kiiistelnui.tr und Eigenschaf ten des
Kisenhol/es/' " Verachiedenheiten in der Oualitiit u. im anatomischen I'.au
der Fichtenhol/e-." Foretlich Nat. /eitun-. IS«.»L'. IMC?. 1SJM.

•f N«'ird linger, " Die Kla>( i/.itiit der Hnl/.er." Xeiifrlhl. f. d. «rrs. F«.rst \ve-.«-u.
1SS7 S'.i. I',aushinLrcr. " IClast iciliit u. l-'cst i^kcit. verscliicdener N:i.delliiil/cr."
Munich. ]ss;;, ISS7. Sclnvappacli, •• I'ntcrsiicliiin^-n iiher llaiiin'jcwicli) u.
Druckfcsf i«_fl<( it des IIol/.«-s." ls(.»7. I MIS. I'.iihler. " rntersucliiinLLren iilter di«-
Oualitiit des in lichten u. ^ex-hlnssenen Stand erwachscneii Tannen u. l-'ichten
hol/.es.'' Landdlt. " I'riit'un.ir der Kesti^kcit u. Klasi i/itiil iler I'.auhill/.er."
Schwei/. /eitsehril't, ISSii. Hadeck u. Yanka. " riitersiicliun.tren iiber die
Klasti/itiit u. Kesi iirkeit der iisterreich : I'auhillx.er. I. Fichte Siidtirols," I'.M.n.
'I'etiuajer. '• Priif ung der schweizerischen l»aiiln"»l/er." l.ss;; IMH;. l-'crndw and
Itntli. in several pamphlets on the strength of American \voods. '• Kepitrts
on the si relict li <>!' structural timber.'" \\'. K. Halt. 1'nited States of America
Forest Service. Circular 11."). Oct. 21, 11)07.

92 PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

investigators have not calculated the limits of elasticity, but
have stated that the two moduli correspond.

As regards specific weight, they affirm that for any species,
heavier wood is stronger, so for two species of spruce, the
heavier is stronger and more elastic. Schwappach goes more
into detail on the connection between specific weight and
transverse strength, stating that :

Transverse strength, depends on : —

(a). Tree-parts. The external wood is the strongest, also
usually the heaviest. In the crown of a tree, sometimes the
weight, sometimes the strength is greater. The so-called
hard and heavy side of coniferous trees is weaker than the
so-called soft side. According to Foppel* also, the wood of the
upper side of branches is stronger and more elastic than that
of their lower side, so that lighter wood is stronger than
heavy wood.

(b). Age. Old wood is stronger, though lighter, than young
wood ; in the Scots pine, specific weight diminishes after a
tree is sixty years old, but strength increases.

(c). Locality. The strength diminishes as the tree is grown
away from its optimum climate (cf. p. 56).

(d). Soil. The best soil produces the strongest wood ; it has
been shown already that the best soil does not always produce
the heaviest wood.

(e). Wetness of the wood. Variations of 1 per cent, in wet-
ness give differences up to 8 per cent, in strength.

Schwappach hence decides that specific weight alone is no
determining cause of strength.

Only after eliminating the results of age, locality and method
of production, and after seasoning the wood, is its strength
dependent upon its specific weight alone. Thus in order to
avoid one mistake further investigations involving fresh sources
of error must be undertaken. Tetmajer states that the propor-
tion in which cellulose, lignin, gums, etc., are mixed in the cell-
wall does not affect specific weight, nor does the mode of
union of these materials with one another, nor that of adjacent
chills (cohesion). Tetmajer alleges that the amount of defor-
mation, which in tests of strength, occurs in displacement of

* II. Hartig, " Holzuntereuchungen Altea o. Neues." r.crlin, r.xn.

STRENGTH. 93

the molecules, is a very important factor, but specific weight
gives no indication of this. With these results before him,
Mayr concludes that to foretell the strength of wood by
means of its specific weight is like a forecast of approaching
weather, from no factor except the position of the barometric
column. \Ye must therefore try to produce the cleanest,
straightest and most cylindrical stems in the least possible
time, whether or no such timber is heavy or light.

The strength of a beam depends on the manner in which it
is supported, and the point of action of a straining force ;
a beam supported at one end and laden at the other
possesses only one quarter of the strength of the same beam,
when supported at both ends and weighted in the middle. If
after the weight has been applied and removed there is a
change of form in the beam, the limits of elasticity have been
exceeded. It has been assumed that this limit is half that of
the breaking strain, that a beam which breaks with eight tons
loses its elasticity with four tons. In engineering structures
employing wood the limits of elasticity are never permitted to
be approached, especially as Jlaupt and Thurston have deter-
mined that the limit of elasticity is much lower when the load
is permanent.

Another very important item in the strength is the trans-
verse shape of the beam, and the direction of the annual
zones with respect to the supports. The transverse strength
is greatest when the section is a rectangle with its sides in the
ratio 10:7, the beam resting with its narrower side on the
support. Such a beam exhibits the maximum strength (100)
when the annual zones are approximately perpendicular to
the supporting surface (Fig. 43 a).

If such a beam rests on its broader side, its strength is u'O
(Fig. 43 <•). A beam with a square section but of the same
area as (a) has a strength of 75 if the annual zones are nearly
perpendicular to the supporting surface (Fig. 43 I), 65 when the
annual zones are parallel to the supporting surface. A rect-
angular beam with the pith in its centre and placed on its
narrow side has a strength of 90 (Fig. 43 d) and if: square
of 70 (Fig. 34 <>). (Another test gave b = 84, c = 70.)

The way in which a beam is cut out of a log also affects its

94

PROPERTIES OF Wool).

strength. If a piece of wood is subject to great pressure, as
in wheel-spokes or ladder-rungs, it should be split or cloven
from the log, as, by sawing or hewing, many iibres are cut,
whilst by splitting, all the iibres remain in their natural length.

Evenness of grain in the annual rings and approximately
vertical fibres denote strong wood. Any interruption of the
straightness of grain, caused especially by enclosed branches,
reduces the strength of the beam considerably.

Since the elasticity of a beam is ascribed correctly to the
amount of liguin it contains, exposure to light and heat

400.

75.

70.

Fig. -A3. — Ratios of the strength of different beams of the same section in area,
but of different shapes.

during the life of a tree must be favourable to the strength
of its wood, for Cieslar has shown that the cell-walls become
more lignilied the more light a tree receives. On the other
hand, wood, especially that of suppressed poles, grown in a
dense crop is tough, but less elastic and strong. Practical
experience confirms this statement, for spruce poles grown in
open woods belonging to peasants, called "white stems" on
account of the lichens that cover them, are more durable and
elastic than " red poles " taken from thinnings in a dense
wood. The opinion of timber-merchants that mountain-wood
is more elastic than valley-wood is also partly true.

STKKNGTH. 95

Contents of resin has a slightly reducing influence on

strength, for very resinous wood is hrittle and weak.

The employment of wood in high air-temperatures is
conducive to strength, because the wood becomes dry.
Temperatures below /ero weaken the strength of wood con-
siderably ; when wet wood is frozen it becomes brittle and
approaches ice in its strength.

That humidity weakens wood lias been already slated, and
the experiments of Schwappach and Rudeloff confirm this.

To the season of felling an influence on the strength of wood
has been assigned ; wood felled in Dei-ember is said to be the
strongest. Anyone, however, who has undertaken to test this
and who knows the numerous sources of error that arise in
such investigations, can only warn practical men to beware of
such a statement.

K very disease in wood reduces its strength considerably.

No list of woods ranged in the order of their elasticity can
be drawn up without a suspicion of prejudice, especially with
regard to the method adopted for testing them, and also
because individual trees of the same species vary greatly in
strength, even when taken from the same crop. Soil, climate,
the method of rearing trees, etc., also cause great differences
in strength. Sometimes oakwood, sometimes ashwood, is
chosen as the strongest and most clastic material. Actual
3 have placed conifers above broadleaved trees in strength.
Scots pinewood that is so hrittle when exposed to snow has
been placed first among elastic woods. Tests have shown
that beechwood possesses considerable strength, while in
practice, beech, birch and alder are reckoned as woods with
the least transverse strength, but with considerable resistance
to crushing. There is no doubt that certain foreign woods are
more elastic than our indigenous woods, <'.</., hickory (Himi-ia
allta), teak, sundri (Ileriticra), lancewood (l)u.ynctia) and
bamboos.

4. Toniihncxs <>r Pliability.

A wood is said to be tough or pliable when it can be bent
beyond the limits of perfect elasticity and is then susceptible
of permanent deformation without breaking. The greater the
interval between its limits of elasticity and rupture the

96 PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

tougher is the wood, and toughness has already been taken
into account in the discussion regarding the strength of
wood. In practice an unpliable wood is termed brittle.
Pliability in wood from one species of tree or part of a tree
depends chieliy on specific weight; heavy wood is less
pliable than light wood. The branches are less pliable than
the stem, and the stem than the roots ; the liner rootlets are
used as withes. The rhizomorphs of the honey-fungus
(Armillarea incllca) are more pliable than the finest rootlets
of trees. Soft broadleaved wood is generally more pliable than
hardwoods, but on the other hand the wood of Hicoria alba is
much more pliable than the lighter, brittle wood of II. ainara.

Rapidity of growth favours pliability, and coppice-shoots,
such as osier-willows and shoots of oak, birch, ash, elm and
hazel are very pliable.

As lignin in woody tissues specially determines hardness
and strength, so cellulose confers on wood toughness and
pliability. The less the illumination under which the tree
has been grown, the more pliable it is. The very pliable
coppice-shoots are nourished chietly by reserve material from
the stools and roots and get very little nourishment from
light. The produce of thinnings is tough and pliable, but
not so hard and elastic as well-lignified steins grown under
complete illumination. [Woods grown on northern aspects
are more pliable than the harder and more lignified woods
grown on southern and western slopes, and the same is true
for woods grown on moist soil, as compared with dry calcareous
soil, or peat, which produce brittle wood. — Tr.]

Moisture increases the pliability of all woods. Hence in
freshly felled trees, the sapwood is tougher than the heart-
wood ; hardwoods when wet are tougher than when they are
dry, but the loosening of the walls of their tissues by Lho
water preponderates over the resulting toughness (<;/'. p. 87).

Heat also increases pliability if precautions are taken to pre-
vent evaporation; heat and moisture acting together render wood
extremely pliable, so that steamed rods and planks can be bent
just as if they were formed of homogeneous material,'- as in

* \V. Exiicr, '• Das IJii'^i;,, (j,.s Hol/f.s." /i:ntr:ill)l:ilt, f. tl. jjes. Korst \\vsrn.

is?*;.

DURABILITY. 97

steaming wood for chairs, banisters, curved planks used in
carriages, ships and barges, musical instruments, etc. Frozen
wood is hard and brittle.

When resin (semi-liquid turpentine) replaces water in wood,
pliability is diminished, wood charged with rosin or colophany
(oxidised turpentine) becomes harder, the longer the rosin has
been in its tissues.

The colouring-matter in heartwood diminishes the pliability
of wood.

The following list shows that pliability depends greatly on
species, but in practice there is much difference of opinion on
this subject.

Si'i;cn;.- AKI;AN<;I;I> ACCORDING TO THKIU PLIABILITY.

Pfeil.

Other InvtM

Hickory.
Ash.

Elm.
Hornbeam*

I, arch.

i 'iii'1 ami Spruce.
Oak.

Birch.

Ash.

Will

Poplars.

Cork Kim.

Bickory.

Species "f I'irus.

Cuppi r various broadleaved trees.

Suppressed Spruce.

5. Durability.

Durability is a measure of the time during which wood
remains sound. In using and storing wood it appears that
the durability of any species of wood varies remarkably. For
instance, beechwood, when made into furniture that remains
inside our houses, may last for centuries, but the same wood,
when exposed to moisture from the soil, rots in from three to
five years, while under water it can be kept sound for decades.
As a rule we understand by the term durability a measure
of the duration of wood that is used more or less in contact
with the ground, as for posts or railway-sleepers.

The various forms of decay in wood are, as follows :

Greyness. — Wood that is not exposed to ground-moisture
but to atmospheric influences and precipitations, variations of

F.U. H

98 PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

temperature, insolation, etc., turns grey. The pale tints of
freshly utilised wood, as in fences, become darker when its
tannin is oxidised, and though this may increase its durability
temporarily, the wood becomes gradually grey owing to the slow
decomposition of its external layers. The lignin is dissolved
first, leaving a substance that is richer in cellulose. The
exposed cells are gnawed by various species of wasps in order
to obtain wood-pulp for their nests.

Softwoods turn grey earlier than hardwoods, and spring-
wood is attacked before summer-wood, hard knots and resinous
parts of the wood offering most resistance. Local climate
affects this decomposition greatly, for in maritime and
mountain climates wood (e.g., shingles on roofs and walls of
buildings) becomes grey much sooner than in dry continental
countries. Thus, in North America, Weymouth pine shingles
last for about five years near the Atlantic coast, but for ten
years and more in the Prairies. Planed planks resist greyness
longer than planks that are merely sawn.

Humification, or eremacausis, affects wood when it is
exposed constantly to atmospheric humidity and obtains
insufficient supplies of oxygen. Wood buried in the ground,
or in mines, shafts, ship-cabins, cellars, inside hollow trees,
etc., is exposed chiefly to this form of decay, which, besides
being due to chemical decomposition, is also assisted by
fungi ; the final product is damp, powdery, brown mould. In
such places, according to Mayr, fungi appear whenever the
relative humidity of the air attains 70 per cent. ; when the
air is less moist and fungi are absent the wood decomposes
more slowly.

Rottenness is the decomposition of wood by the agency of
fungi, when the wood being supplied fully with atmospheric
oxygen is exposed also from time to time to humidity. All
wood in contact with the ground is in this condition,
e.g., floors, posts, or railway-sleepers. The eventual product
is a rotton, moist, pale or dark brown substance, with a
fracture partly fibrous and partly crumbling, and is scented
like humus or fungi. Wherever the variations of moisture
are greatest, as just above, at, or just below, the surface of
the ground, rotting is most rapid and continuous. Stakes,

DURABILITY. 99

poles and posts in the ground break eventually at their
point of contact with it.

The surface of wood exposed to flowing water becomes
slimy, owing to the action of bacteria, especially Lcptothrix,
but wood in this condition is very durable.

Mechanical attrition by natural agencies occurs in rapid
watercourses, such as mountain-torrents carrying sand
and gravel, the continual impacts of which on wood wear
away its surface. A. similar action takes place near the sea-
shore, when the wind blows grains of sand against the wood,
as near sand-dunes. Planks and beams that are exposed to
the sand resist it best at their hard knots, which eventually
protrude beyond the rest of the wood in polished conical
projections.

Wood is converted into peat, or becomes carbonised, after
lying for long periods of time in wet peat. It retains its
structure, but is converted gradually into soft peat or
eventually into lignite, but sometimes may be utilised as
bog-oak, etc., hardening considerably after it has been
removed from the bog and lias been dried. Wood from
forests that have been submerged by the sea resembles bog-
wood. In Japan whole forests have been destroyed by
volcanic eruptions and buried in ashes or lava. This wood
is at first of a silver-grey colour (Indai-wood of the Japanese),
but later becomes brown and loses its structure, forming a
homogeneous mass like jet (Umoregi).

It is obvious that in many modes of utilisation of wood a
piece of wood may be exposed to two or even three kinds of
decay. Thus, bridge-posts are subject to grey decay above
water-level and to attrition below it, while a gate-post becomes
grey above ground, rotten near the surface of the ground, and
humified at its lower end.

Usually a wood is held to be more durable the longer it
resists rottenness and humification ; this is natural durability,
as opposed to artificial durability, due to impregnation with
antiseptic substances.

The natural durability of the wood of any species of tree
depends in the first place on its position in the tree ; heart-
wood is always more durable than sap wood, even heartwood

H2

100

PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

without distinct colour, as in spruce, silver-fir, or birch ;
for heartwood contains no easily decomposable albuminous
constituents, and is always drier than sapwood.

The presence of colouring- matter in heartwood, however,
increases durability greatly ; woods with coloured heart-
wood are always more durable than woods with heartwood
and sapwood of a uniform colour. Mayr also states that the
more intense the colour of the heartwood the more durable
it is. The imperfect heartwood, or internal sapwood, of oaks,
that occurs occasionally in annular zones in the midst of
perfect heartwood, characterised by the absence of thylosis
and tannin and the presence of starch and so faintly coloured
that it resembles sapwood, is no more durable than is normal
sapwood (cf. p. 142).

In the following tabular form, woods are grouped according
to the colours of their heartwood : —

COLOURS OP HEARTWOOD.

Black, Brown, Red.

Grey, Light Brown, Bright Red,
Yellow, Yellowish Green.

Light Yellow, Li-ht HMclisli
Grey, Light Brown.

Ebony.

Magnolia.

Beech.

[Mahogany.

[Teak.— Tr.]

I'.irch.

Padauk.

Tulip- tree.

Horse-chestnut.

Jarrah.

llobinia.

Ash.

Karri.

Oak.

Maple.

Cedrela.

[Sweet chestnut. — Tr.]

Lime.

Vow.

Tines, including Weymouth

Spruce.

Many tropical
woods. — Tr. ]

pine.
Chamaecyparis obtusa.

Silver-fir.
Hornbeam.

Rosewood.

„ pisifora.

[Holly, white and fairly

Catalpa.

Giant thuya.

durable. — Tr.]

Mulberry.

Hemlock spruce.

Alder (red heartwood).

Pencil-cedar.

Torreya.

Lawson's cypress.

Swamp-cypress.
Sequoia semper-

[Sallow, red and fairly hard,
and durable. — Tr.]

Cupressus sempervirens.
(All, but holly and the two

virens.

Elm.

last, nut durable ; the

Larch.

(All durable.)

two cypresses are very

Douglas fir.

durable.)

(All very durable.)

The exceptions in this list to Mayr's law about the corre-
spondence of high colour and durability are the two cypresses,
holly and alder. The heartwood of all cypresses contains
ethereal oil and is very durable ; in alder-wood, though
the heartwood is of a high colour, this is due to an oxidised

DURABILITY. 10 1

product from a colourless chromogen. [Deodar-wood is also
pale yellowish-browD but extremely durable. — Tr.]

The colouring-matter in heartwood is derived from tannin ;
as the water disappears from the tissues and oxygen is
admitted, it is formed by oxidation in the border zone
separating sapwood from heartwood. This requires complete
illumination of the tree's foliage ; the colour is deepest in the
heartwood of branches, it is paler in the stem-wood and palest
in the roots. The colour of the heartwood is also deeper in
the wood of trees that, have grown in full sunlight than in
those grown in a crowded crop or under the shade of other
trees; therefore the wood of trees exposed to full light is
more durable than that of trees grown in restricted light.
The influence of thinnings and of setting trees free from
their neighbours and retaining standards over underwood
on the increased colour and durability of their wood is
therefore evident.

The deepest colours and the greatest durability occur in
the heartwood of certain tropical trees ; in cooler climatic
zones the colours are less deep and the woods less durable.
In the coolest climate, indeed, perishable sprucewood and
very durable larchwood are produced, but as a general rule
it may be predicated for broad leaved trees within their native
habitat, that great heat implies durability.

Turpentine becomes oxidised into rosin, which possesses
extraordinary durability: the more gradual is this process,
the greater the quantity of liquid and volatile oil that is con-
verted into rosin; such a transformation is secured by keeping
coniferous wood as long as possible in the form of logs or balks.
The effects of rosin on the durability of wood are not, how-
ever, sufficient for it to replace other factors, <v/., colouring-
matter. \Veymouth pine contains more turpentine than any
Kiiropean conifer except maritime pine, yet its wood is not
nearly so durable as that of larch, which contains little turpen-
tine, but much colouring-matter. The greater durability of
sprucewood than the wood of silver-fir is, however, due to its
being the more resinous of the two.

Wet wood is always less durable than dry wood, for wet
wood in the form of logs or balks requires two or three years

102 PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

to become air-dry, and during this interval there is always
danger of infection by fungi, which do not attack dry wood.
When wood has been floated or rafted, part of its soluble
contents, albumen, sugar, gums, etc., have been removed, but
it is so saturated with water that the danger of infection by
fungi is increased. The nature of the soil in contact with
which the wood is used, e.g., sand, loam, or swampy ground,
affects its durability. Also the locality, e.g., a shaded or
sunny slope, a damp valley, a cool, windswept upland. [In
all these cases it should be noted that in order to cause wood
to decay three factors are necessary, heat, water and oxygen.
The exclusion of one of these factors suffices to preserve
the wood. In very wet soil oxygen is absent and wood lasts
long. The wood of mummy-cases is practically imperishable
in Egypt, where water is the absent factor. At Silchester,
in Berkshire, three silver-fir casks were dug from a Roman
well that had been filled with earth at the time of the Saxon
invasion, presumably about 1,400 years ago ; this wood,
naturally very perishable, is still in excellent condition in the
Reading Museum, as the clay that filled the well had excluded
oxygen. — Tr.]

The question whether, in order to produce durable wood,
fellings should be made in winter or summer is as old as the
hills, and is really insoluble, as it is impossible to exclude all
disturbing factors and experiment with one only. In any
case the difference in durability of the wood cut in summer
or winter is confined to the sapwood. [In the Forest of Dean
the boles of oak-trees are stripped of bark in the spring and
remain with their foliage transpiring moisture, and their
exposed wood evaporating it all the summer and autumn ;
this renders the wood when felled in winter very dry, and
must increase its durability. — Tr.]

All articles made of wood for human use are liable to wear-
and-tear, especially floors and street-paving. Hardness and
high specific weight are the best qualities to ensure durability
in such cases. As atmospheric influences also tend to destroy
street-pavement, hard, deep-coloured heartwood of any tree
is the most suitable material, e.g., oak, larch, pitch-pine, etc.
For this reason Australian hardwoods, such as Karri (K

DURABILITY. 103

rersicolor) and Jarrah (E. marginata), and Indian iron- wood,
Xi/Un dolabriformis (Pjngado), are used in London.

Woods wear away most rapidly when their radial or
tangential sections are above ; as, however, these sections
exhibit the beautiful silver-grain of the wood, they are used
for parquets, while in street-paving only the transverse sections
are laid uppermost.

The animals that reduce the durability of wood in
buildings and furniture are chiefly insects, which construct
passages in wood for laying their eggs and for the development
of their young broods. Their presence may be detected by
the occurrence of little holes in the wood and the exudation
of boring-powder. Among the worst enemies of wood are
little beetles and their larva?, such as Auobium tesselatum
and A. pertinax (the death-watch) ; Tomicus iincatits (also in
living trees) ; Dermextes, chiefly in broadleaved wood; Lime.rt/lon
narale, in oak-wood in dockyards. Species of Tetmpiion and
Sirc.i: bore into larch and other conifers. In the tropics, and
even in Southern Europe, white ants (Termites) are extremely
destructive to wood, sparing only very few spec

Bamboos are very subject to be wormeaten. especially the yearling culms.
which ;ire very soft and sappy. Only :? to .~>-year-old culms, which are
thoroughly lignified, should bo used as rafters, and these only after several
months1 SOakiDg in a tank, or after being lloated long distances in rafts on a
river. The natives of India believe that bamboos felled during bright moon-
light nights become wormeaten much more readily than those felled during
the dark half of the month when the moon does not shine at night. An
experiment was made by the translator at hehra Dun in isxr, to determine
this, and Ion bamboos were cut during the bright moonlight and 100 cut
during the dark part of the month, and the former were much more wormeaten
than the latter. It is probable that certain insects, the larva- of which attack
bamboos, tly only during the bright moonlight nights, when they lay eggs in
the bamboos.

Further investigations on this subject were made in .Madras in IS'.IS and
subsequent years, and these are described by K. 1*. Stebbing in the Indian
Ftn-i'xter, November, liioi;. The insects in question are said to be Dlnoderus
pilifntux and I), iii'miita*. The experiments were not conducted scientifically,
a'nd Stebbing suggests further experiments to decide this question.
E. K. Woakes. in a paper read before the American Institute of Mining
Kngineers and printed in the Tn>j>u-al Agriculturalist for October, IS'.)'.!, states
that in the Republic of Columbia, in South America, '• not only bamboos, but all
timbers, are felled during the waning moon."

Whenever poles containing only sapwood, or bamboos, are used for rafters,
evidently they should be dried thoroughly ; when exposed to smoke, as they
are in the roofs of Indian huts, this prevents further danger from insects.

104-

PROPEETIES OF WOOD.

The wholesale destruction of most woods in hot countries by termites, or
white ants, is well known, and the number of woody species in India which
resist their attacks is very limited. Even deodar wood, in spite of the oil
with which it is saturate 1, is sometimes attacked by them, and the sapwood
of every wood is eaten away very rapidly. The heartwood of sal (fthnrca
i-olmxttt}, teak, tun (_Cedrela Too /M), ebony, sissu (/A///V/V//V/ Sissoo') and some
other hard woods resist their attacks, but in the case of building-timber it is
always best to saturate it with r/y/r/V/^-oil, extracted from Dipterocarpw

Fig. 43A.— The Teredo. (After Boppe).

turlinatus. Engineeis in India should be careful to erect or- ly solid masonry-
walls, and not leave crevices in them up which the white ants may ascend to
the roof of a building ; also they may mix arsenic with their mortar with
advantage.

It has often been suggested that softer woods if injected with creosote,
sulphate of iron or zinc, or corrosive sublimate (bichloride of mercury), would
be found to resist the attacks of white ants, but no serious attempts have as
yet been made in India to utilise injected wood. Termites occur everywhere
in India, up to altitudes of about 4,000 feet above sea-level.

Fig. 44. — Borings of the Teredo. (After Boppe).

In order to preserve museum wood-specimens from insects, it is best to dip
them in a solution of one part of corrosive sublimate to twenty parts of water.

Ethereal oils in woods, especially in those that are strongly scented, protect
them from insect-attacks, though the presence of resin is not always a
protection.

Wood immersed in fresh-water is very durable, even beechwood lasting for
centuries. In the year 1858, twelve oak piles of the lloman bridge near Aargan
came to the surface, and the wood was hard enough to be made into toys.

Wood used in sea-water at shipping ports and stores of wood kept under
water at these places, are subject to the attacks of ceitain animals. Some

DURABILITY. 105

?mall crustaceans, Linintirla tci'elntnx. Leach, and CJiclnrn tei'dn-an*,* Philippi.
bore into and gnaw the surface of all woods in sea-water. The mollusk.
Triwlo nat-tilix^ L. (Figs. 3H and 34). and other species of Teredo, are however
the most destructive pests of s nith European seaports. Teivdos attacked
wnod in the Eocene period (London Clay).

Teredos live only in se,i-water and bore not only the sapwood. but also the
heart wood of all kinds of timber, except the .larrah + (Kiic(tlin>tnx iiKiri/intttd}.
Ships, the bottom of which arc not covered with copper, sutler greatly from
teredos. Wooden piles used in harbours, etc., may be protected by being
»ted, but this is serviceable only when the wood is thoroughly saturated
with creosote ; as coniferous wood in: sote better than oakwood, when

creosoted it is better than oakwood for use in dams and other harbour-works.
Attempts have been made to protect piles in sea-water by studding them with
broad-headed nails, but the little teredos f. .rcc their way into the wood between
the heads of the nails. In the years isi>7 and is.V.t, when the rainfall was very
slight and the Dutch canals near th- me very salt, it was found

that all the piles supporting the dams along the Dutch const were bored by
teredos. A Commission was appointed in Holland, in is.V.i. to enquire into the
ciuses and possible remedies of this damage, and from its report, written by
v. Baumhauer and quoted in Uat/.eburg's Forstinsecfonkunde (by Judeich and
Nitsche, 188U), the above remarks have been taken. It is also stated by
Nanqiiette. $ that when timber is stored in sea-ports for ship-building and
harbour-works, it should be kept either in banks of mud. or in tanks in which
sufficient fresh-water is mixed with sea-water, so as to rrnd'-r it less saline than
is necessary f(,r the life of the 1.-rnl«.s.— Tr.]

Numerous fungi, chiefly of Basidiomycetes, destroy wood.
This is principally because wood that lias been already
attacked by fungi, in the forest, is brought to the market in
a moist condition, or because air-dry wood is used in moist
places. The number of species of destructive fungi that
attack converted wood is much greater than those described
in books. Should one be obliged to live in a humid climate
or in damp houses not only the most destructive of house-
fungi, dry-rot (Mcriilinx Idrrumiits') appears, but also numerous
species of r<>I;i]tontx, Train*'!,'* ;md ('njiriimx appear, which
gradually destroy all the woodwork in a house. Most of these
fungi attack iirst the sapwood of converted timber and then
the heartwood ; some (Tramrt^a) live in the heartwood only.
Some fungi cause white rot, others red rot, the wood in both
becoming eventually a soft, crumbling, structureless
mass. li. Hartig has described the fungi destructive to wood

* Vide Kat'/eburg's lt Forstinsectenkunde," by Judeich and Nitsehe, 18S!»,
p. :',:',- ff.

f Vide "Encyclopedia I'.rit." isss, vol. xxiii. p. 1S4.
I '• Laslett," <>/>. rit. }>. ">.
• Kxploitatioii des Hois."

106

PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

in his classical works referred to below.* Kegarding " dry
rot" Goppert and Hartig have published treatises.!

[The International Association for Testing Materials, Decem-
ber, 1898, formulated two questions regarding dry rot : —

1. Can infection of wood by Mer alias lacrimans be recog-
nised before it is used ?

2. What are the best methods of preserving the wood ?
The former question has not yet been answered. For the

second thorough drying and painting the wood with antiseptics
suffices. Creosote is the best antiseptic, but is inflammable.
Vide Henry, Eev. das E et F, page 65, 1901, and September 1,
1902. In order to test the comparative durability of certain
woods Hartig placed heartwood beams 10 C. in diameter, of
the following species in the ground. The years given in the
statement below denote the period in which the wood was
completely rotten.

5 Years.

10 Years.

14 Years.

Norway maple.

Silver-rir.

Oaks.

Beech.

Spruce.

Elms.

Lime,

Common maple.

Sycamore.

Birch.

Plane.

Poplars.
Horse-chestnut.

Wey mouth pine.
(Larch, robinia, and Scots pine (180 years

Rowan.

old) were then quite intact.)

In the damp, warm air of mines, some experiments made
at Commentry gave the following results for pit-props, the
species being arranged in their order of durability | :—

1. Oaks.

2. Scots pine.

3. Alder.

4. Ash.

5. Maritime pine.

6. Eobinia.

7. Willow.

8. Maples.

9. Elm.
10. Aspen.

11. Cherry.

12. Birch.

13. Hornbeam.

14. Beech.

15. Poplar.

* 11. Hartig, ;i Die Zerset/ungserscheinungen des Holzes der Nadelhol/batime
u. der Eiche." Berlin, 1878. " Lehrbuch der Baumkrankheiten," 3 Autl.
I'.crliii, is;)!). See also, " Schlich's Manual of Forestry," vol. iii. " Forest Pro-
tection," by \V. 11. Fisher, 2nd ed.. IIMMJ.

f Clipper!, "Der Ihtnssc.liwainm." I'.reslau, 188">. 11. Hartig, •' Der Hans-
scluvamm." I'.crliii , iss:,.

J These data are given by Mathey, oj>. cil .

HEATING-POWER. 107

As fungi do not occur below one or two feet from the surface

of the ground, and bacteria that assist greatly in destroying

wood in contact with the soil are found only in its superficial

layers and not in peat, deep immersion in the soil, or in peat,

rves wood, as has been stated already. — Tr.]

0. Huat'uuj-poiccr ami Combustibility <>l'

There are various methods for determining the heating-
power of wood. As burning wood takes oxygen from the air
and gives out carbon-dioxide and water-vapour, the mass
of oxygen requisite to burn a given mass of wood can be
measured : the more oxygen is needed for the combustion of
the wood, the more carbon the wood contains and consequently
the greater is its heating-power. The amount of oxygen may
be determined by burning the wood in a closed retort with a
metallic oxide (red lead). This chemical method does not
give the utilizable heating-power of the wood but only the
percentage of carbon it contains; the variations in the mass
of carbon in wood when measured by weight are small,
though if measured in volume, the results exhibit a steady
relation liet\yeen the heatin^-poNYer and specific weight of
wood. The average volumes of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and
nitrogen in wood and other combustibles are given below :—

H. o. N.

Wood ... 50 C» 413-7 1*3

Peat ... 59 C» 34'5 0'5

Lignite ... 68 5 26'6 0'4

Coal ... 80 5 14'0 I'O

Anthracite... 95 '2T> 2'0 0*5

In physical methods for determining heating-power, the
wood is burned with free admission of unlimited oxygen ;
the mass of ice that is melted, or the quantity of water
that is converted into steam, by burning equal volumes of
different kinds 'of wood, is then ascertained. Also the rise in
temperature of a certain volume of water by the burning of
the wood may be measured.

* Fritz, "Die Heizmaterlalen u. deren Ausiiut/mig." 1X77. Fuchaschmid,

vri>clui<M|ener Hol/arteii."

108

PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

In the last method the amount of heat necessary to raise a
unit of water 1° C. is termed a calorie. The heating-power of
air-dry wood is given as equivalent to 3,620 calories, charcoal
at 8,080 calories. Hence one kilogram of wood or charcoal
will raise the temperature of 3,620 or 8,080 litres of water
by 1° C.

The latest results by Bersch * are as follows :—

Heat-units.

Charcoal 7,000

Half-charred (red) ditto 3,980

Absolutely dry wood 3,600

Wood containing i
Limewood ,,
Maple ,,

Poplar ,,

Beech ,,

Spruce , ,

Ash ,,

Hornbeam ,,
Oak

The heating-effect reckoned in calories, depending on
weight, shows that there is little difference in the heating-
power of the different woods. But as in commerce wood is
dealt with by volume and not by weight, only statements
giving the heating-effect according to the volume of wood
consumed, that is termed the specific-heat effect, are of
practical importance.

The following tabular statement gives the specific-heat effects
of wood as compared with that of pure carbon (100) :—

S I' K( ' 1 FTC- HE A T E I-1 FECTS.

er cent, of

water

... 2,800

) 5

55

... 2,700

55

55

... 3,600

5 5

55

... 3,500

55

55

... 3,500

55

55

... 3,250

55

55

... 3,200

55

55

... 3,100

55

5 5

... 2,700

S]»'<-i<-s <>f Wood.

Specific air-dry Weight.

Specific-heat i-ll'-ct.

Hornbeam ...

80

28

Oak

76

2»;

Ash mid beech

71 and 72

24

.Maple

70

23

Kirch

60

23

Scots pine ...

52

20

Silver-fir and spruce

17 and Hi

19

. " Die Yervverlmi- des 1 lol/.cs auf eliemisrlien WCL;.'' \Vicn. IS'.).1!.

HEATING-POWER.

SPECIFIC-HEAT EFFECTS continued.

109

;<• air-dry Weight.

Sped tic-heat HIVcl.

Lime

52

IS

Poplar

i:>

1 1

Teat

:>:>

Lignite

77

Charcoal

IK;

Carl) m

LOO

The third or economic method for determining ln«til ing-
power resemhles that in which wood is burned in the ordinary
manner.

Equal volumes of different woods are burned in a stove or
furnace, the heat of which is shown by means of a thermo-
meter, or by a steam-engine the steam from which is measured
by a manometer. This method shows that in order to burn
wood in our ordinal1} so much air is required to keep

up the burning, that half the heating-effect is lost by the
draught up the chimney.

The scale given above, shows that specific weight is the
chief factor in heating-power, so that the. heaviest wood in a
tree, or of different species of trees, gives the greatest heat.
Only in the case of woods of nearly the same speciiic weights
do other factors intervene. The measures detailed on page 58
to produce heavy wood also ensure good heating-power, as
specific weight and heating-power correspond.

As lignin is richer in carbon than cellulose, every factor
that increases the lignin in wood also increases its heating-
power (cf. p. 79).

The water contained in wood, as in sapwood, may attain
50 per cent, of the weight of the wood ; then 45 per cent,
of the heating-power is used to drive off the water as steam
and only a small percentage remains for heating the stove.

As regards floated and rafted wood the same considerations
apply that have ueen already described (p. 102). They are
especially liable to be attacked by fungi, chiefly species of
Corticium. A special investigation of the fungi that attack
floated wood is desirable.

Nothing reduces the heating-power of wood more than the

110

PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

growth of fungi, which destroy the cell-contents and the walls
of the woody tissues. Decaying wood has little heating-power,
while rotten wood merely glows without any flame.

Ethereal oils rich in carbon, such as turpentine, increase
the heating-power of wood. In the case of pieces of wood that
have nearly equal specific weights, their possible contents in
resin is decisive as to their greater or less heating-power.
The excellent book by Hempel and Wilhelm * gives the
following heating-powers for conifers, that of beech being
100, and confirms this statement for spruce and silver-fir :—

Contents in Grains of

Species.

Kesin per kilograme of
Wood (Mayr) I

Specific Weight.

Heating-Power.

Austrian pine

67

86

Larch

32

60

82

Scots pine ...

42-38

52

77

Spruce

16-01

47

76

Silver-fir

8-34

46

67

Weymouth pine ...

48-79

40

50

Abnormal contents of resin, as at wounds and in the stump-
wood of pines, increases the heating-power. Such wood is
used for torches. [Stump-wood of the longleaved pine, in
the Himalayas, also used for torches, is sometimes resinous
enough to be translucent. — Tr.]

Betulin increases the heating-power of the wood and bark
of the birch. When birch is cut into small pieces it gives
out heat rapidly, but the heat is not durable. Split birch wood
is much used by bakers.

In utilizing the heat from wood there is much difference
in the various species. Woods which crackle and emit sparks
when burning, and most soft woods, rapidly develop an intense
heat of short duration. Such are larch, spruce, silver-fir,
peeled coppice oak, sweet-chestnut [also young pinewood
and broad leaved softwoods ; these woods are used in bakers'
ovens and for pottery and glass-making. — Tr.] Woods which
burn slowly and quietly with glowing embers produce event u-

* G. Hempel u. It. Wilhdni, "Die r>:iiime u. Straiicher des Waldes." Wien,
1900.

t " Das Harz der Nadclljitev' Jiurlin, IS'.M.

APTITUDE FOR BEING WORKED. Ill

ally the greatest heat, and are favourite woods for heating
houses. Such are the woods of beech and hornbeam, olive-
wood, also that of evergreen oak. Finally, woods rich in
resin, such as torch wood and older pinewood of all species,
burn with long flames, but do not consume their carbon
completely, and give out much smoke and soot. Such wood
is excellent for steam-engines.

Silver-fir twigs and needles are so rich in turpentine that
they will burn when freshly cut. Larchwood is a bad
combustible. Julius CaBsar calls it "Ufinum i<ini impcuctrabile."

7. Aptitude of Wood* for liein<i Worked.
a. II ij

The reaction of wood to cutting implements, such as the
chisel, axe and plane, depend on the direction in which the
force is used, and cutting is most difficult perpendicular to
its fibres, while cutting becomes easier the nearer the direction
of the force is to their direction, because their splitting assists
cutting. Hence with the axe it is easiest to cut obliquely.
In the case of softwood the fibres bend before the axe, and
heavy axes are required, which have more momentum and
penetration than light axes. For hardwoods lighter axes are
usual, as the fibres do not bend before the axe.

The knife hardly deserves mention as a forest tool, but,
when used with the hand, its action unites that of the axe
and saw more than that of any other tool ; it affords, there-
fore, a suitable test for classifying the degrees of hardness of
woods approximately.

Nordlinger, from average results obtained with different
tools, gives the following classification of woods according to
their hardness : —

Hard as bone: Barberry, box, privet, lilac.

Very hard : Common dogwood (Conius unifi/iiiiea, L), yellow
dogwood (C. Mas, L.), whitehorn, blackthorn.

Hard: Eobinia, field -maple, sycamore, hornbeam, wild
cherry, service-tree, buckthorn, elder, yew, pedunculate oak,
mahogany.

Fairly hard; Ash, holly, mulberry, mountain - pine,

112 PKOPERTIES OF WOOD.

plane, quince, Turkey-oak, elm, beech, sessile oak, sweet
chestnut.

Soft : Spruce, silver-fir, horse-chestnut, black alder, white
alder, birch, hazel, juniper, larch, black pine, Scots pine, bird-
cherry, sallow.

Very soft : Paulownia, Weymouth-pine, poplars, aspen,
most willows, lime.

[Great attention is paid in France to the cultivation of oak,
and Ma they 's remarks on the different qualities of oakwood
as grown as standards over coppice or in high forest are very
appropriate here. The French distinguish bois-maigre from
bois-gras. The former contains a large percentage of summer-
wood in the annual zones, and is hard and horny, the wood,
chiefly of pedunculate oak grown as standards, is dense, hard,
and elastic, though subject to warp and crack. Such wood
is particularly suitable for constructing buildings, ships or
barges. Sawn oakwood of this quality when once seasoned
is unrivalled for durability and beauty.

The softer bois-gras has less summer-wood, so that the
percentage of porous spring-wood is often equal or superior
to that of the harder summer-wood. Such wood splits and
breaks easily. Sessile oaks grown on rocky ground in dense
high forest yield soft wood. Such wood is not strong, but is
easy to work and yields excellent wood when split or sawn,
especially when the silver-grain is exposed, it is suitable
chiefly for indoor usage.

Mathey remarks that calcareous soils, which produce soft
oak timber, usually yield the best beech, in which whiteness
and fineness of grain are the chief factors of good quality.
Ash yields its best and most elastic timber on moist quaternary
alluvium, and its most brittle timber on dry oolitic soils.
That produced at the junction between the oolitic and lias
clay, where there are numerous springs, is of intermediate
quality. The best ashwood is produced in Britain.

In France, in the case of coniferous wood, altitudes below
1,600 feet yield soft, rapidly grown wood, with annual zones
of 15 — 20 mm. Above this altitude the annual zones gradually
diminish to 3 — 6 mm., and the wood is hard, elastic and well
lignified, with a large percentage of summer-wood, Near the

APTITUDE FOR BEING WORKED. 113

limits of arborescent vegetation the wood has annual zones
less than 3 mm. ; it is light and soft, but extremely regular
in growth, and yields timber that is best for carving or for
musical instruments. — Tr.]

It stands to reason that hardness is an obstacle to cutting,
and as hardness has already been shown to depend on specific
weight, the scale of specific weights (p. 64) affords a scale
of hardness.

Moisture in wood facilitates the work of cutting hardwoods,
but in softwoods it renders it more difficult (cf. p. 48).

Toughness heightens the labour, but softness assists it.
The soft, unelastic wood of Weymouth-pine is easy and smooth
to work; in this it surpasses all the other Abietuu-ac. Only
species of Chamaecyparis have similar soft and unelastic wood,
and therefore are esteemed highly by joiners and cabinet-
makers abroad.

Regularity in the structure of the annual zones, straight-
ness of bole and vertical direction of the fibres are favour-
able conditions for the easy working of wood by cutting
implements. All knots, wavy or twisted fibres, or burrs
increase the labour of cutting and planing, often more than
does the extent of surface of the wood, for the chisel cuts
irregularly into such wood, and the piano has constantly to
be turned round while planing unevenly grained wood.

The resistance wood offers to a saw differs considerably
from that offered to cutting implements. The edges of the
teeth are set in two parallel lines, each tooth with one or two
cutting edges according to the nature of the saw. The teeth first
scratch the fibres slightly, the second stroke penetrating more
deeply and tearing from its basis the wood left between the
two scratches made by the first stroke. Sawing is easiest
across the fibres of the wood, when the saw is applied first to
a radial section ; it is more difficult when a tangential section
is attacked, but most difficult of all in the direction of the
fibres, as when planks are sawn out of a log. The teeth must
then cut, more or less, through the whole length of each fibre
that it meets, instead of merely across the fibres (as with a
cross-cut saw), and must also tear adjacent fibres apart. For
such work, large teeth with a wide set are necessary.

F.U. i

114 PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

In broadleaved wood the softer and longer the fibres and
the looser the texture of the wood, the greater the difficulty
of sawing ; the section then becomes rough and much saw-
dust is produced, indicating difficulty in the work. Sa\\7ing
is easier for dense short-fibred wood, and smooth cuts with
little sawdust result. It is therefore easier to saw hard
broadleaved wood than soft broadleaved wood. Coniferous
wood is the most easily sawn, on account of its simple
anatomical structure and fine medullary rays.

Moisture diminishes the hardness of wood, but increases
the pliability of its fibres. In the case of hardwoods this
increase of pliability is not great, and for most conifers does
not appear to counterbalance the advantage of the softness
of the moist fibres. Hence, pine, larch and spruce woods
are more easily sawn green than dry ; but in the case of
certain soft-fibred, loosely textured woods, the pliability of
the fibres counterbalances the advantage of moisture, as for
instance in poplar, aspen, birch, willow, etc., the timber of
which is generally easier to saw dry than green.

If we take the resistance to the saw across the fibres offered
by beechwood as 1, Gayer's own experiments in the case of
freshly felled wood give the following results :—

Resistance to saw.

Scots pine, silver-fir, spruce . . . = 0*50 — 0*60

Maple, larch, alder = 0'75— 0'90

Beech = TOO

Oak = 1*03

Sallow, aspen and birch . = 1*30 — 1*40

Lime, willow and poplar . = 1*80

With augurs and other tools used for boring wood, which
both split and cut, the work is easiest when commenced on a
tangential section of the wood and therefore the boring is
radial. Boring from a tangential section is more difficult, and
from a transverse section most difficult. Screws act like augurs.

Nails are driven into wood most easily from the transverse
section, but then hold badly. It is difficult to drive nails into
wood that is coarse-grained, but as they then hold well and
the wood has no tendency to split, such wood, e.g., elm-wood,
is often preferred for packing-cases or boxes for tin-plates, etc.

APTITUDE FOE BEING WORKED. 115

l>. Ap/i/ittle of Wood for bei/it/ Ground i/ifo Pulp.

When wood is to be ground into pulp for paper-making, etc.,
if its transverse section is placed against the rotating stone,
the resulting triturated wood is like meal ; if the longitudinal
surface be turned to the stone, the ground material is too
coarse for paper-making. A suitable length of fibres for
paper is produced when the pith of the wood is at an angle of
45 to 50 degrees to the rotating stone. Softwoods are easier
to grind than hardwoods, they yield more pliable fibres that
are more easily felted than the fibres of hardwoods. The
wood of poplars, lime-trees, spruce and silver-fir are specially
suitable for wood-pulp. Resinous, brittle pinewood is less
suitable. Heavy hardwoods are useless for this purpose.
Any want of uniformity in the direction of the fibres, or
in hardness or colour, reduces the value of the wood. Wet
wood yields long fibres ; unsound wood is useless.

<>f \Vnuil for bt-iiii/ 7V/.S-/W.

Moderately heavy and moderately hard woods are the best
for polishing ; it is more difficult to make a smooth surface
on very hard and soft woods. The radial and tangential
sections are the easiest to polish. Woods with large medullary
rays are polished less easily than those with line rays. Large
vessels evenly distributed that absorb much polish imply
wood that can be well polished, especially when the wood
has a natural lustre. Mahogany, rosewood, satinwood, and
the woods of ash, walnut, olive, pear, box, almond, pistachio
and maple, polish well ; oak, mulberry and cherry and most
other broadleaved woods are less suitable, while conifers (except
yew and rootstock of Callitris quadrivalvis *) that have no
vessels, can be polished only with difficulty and unsatisfactorily.

(I. Wood-bleaching

In wood-bleaching f the tannin, resin, etc. are removed from
wood by boiling it in a solution of potash or soda, and it is then

* Mathey, who states that this X. African wood is very beautiful.
f -Mellniaini, " Lehrbuoh <lcs liei/ens, Bleichens, Polizierens u. Lackierens dcr
Hol/.cr." I'.erlin. ISM.

i2

116 PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

bleached by calcium-chloride or by hydrogen-peroxide. Species
of wood that are poor in tannin and resin, such as soft broad-
leaved woods, are best for the purpose. It is more difficult to
bleach the wood of conifers and oaks. Holly, hornbeam, and
horse-chestnut are naturally the whitest of European woods.

e. Wood- staining.

All softwoods are more easily stained than are heartwoods,
as the dye penetrates more deeply into their tissues. Woods
with numerous small vessels are more suitable for staining
than those with a few large vessels, while coniferous woods
having no vessels are not so suitable. Woods with fine
medullary rays are much preferred to those with large
rays. Lime, pear, birch and maple are most suitable; then
ash, oak, hornbeam and beech ; worst of all, conifers.

/. Pyroyra-ithy.

Pyrography, or poker-work, is the art of burning designs
into wood with a red-hot platinum stylus, the design having
been previously drawn with a lead-pencil on the wood and its
lines then followed with the stylus. Evengrained wood of
Cembran pine, beech, lime, maple, and pale oakwood are used.

(/. Suitability of Wood for Charcoal-making.

Soft broadleaved and coniferous woods are charred more
easily than hard and heavy woods. Branches are more
difficult to char than stem-wood and the latter than root-
wood; water in wood is an obstacle to charring. Unsound
wood and wood cut into small pieces is charred easily. The
loss of volume in charring heavy woods is about 45 per cent,
and for light woods about 30 per cent. ; in all woods there is a
loss of weight, in conversion to charcoal, of 75-80 per cent., only
20 to 25 per cent, of the weight of the wood remaining as char-
coal. Charcoal from hard, heavy woods has always a greater
heating-power than that of soft woods, so that a scale of the
best woods for charcoal-making is prepared easily.

k. Aptitude of Wood for l>ni>rcijnatiun.

Wood is impregnated in order to increase its durability.
Woods resist {superficial impregnation by liquids, as they do

DIMENSIONS OF TREES.

117

stains, when only boiling under ordinary atmospheric pressure
is employed. If the liquid is pressed into the wood by pneu-
matic or hydrostatic pressure the sapwood of all woods absorb
it easily and thoroughly, especially when the antiseptic liquid
is pressed in through the transverse section or a hole bored in
the wood, and follows the course of the fibres (Hydrostatic
method.) The presence of vessels facilitates the absorption of
the liquid. The heartwood, on account of its dryness, and in
hardwoods because the vessels are often filled with thyloses, is
less absorptive ; if also the heartwood is naturally coloured it
will not absorb antiseptic liquids (oak, larch, and Scots pine
partly). The abnormal reddish colour in beech heartwood
also prevents impregnation. The more freshly cut the wood,
the more absorptive it is, but dry wood, especially of conifers,
takes a longer time for the liquid to pass through the walls
of the tracheids. [It is, however, the practice in Ireland to
season Scots pine railway-sleepers for twelve months before
creosoting them ; the sleepers then last for eighteen to nine-
teen years, instead of for only nine years if they are creosoted
immediately on arrival at the workshop. If unseasoned wood
be creosoted, the external layers enclose wet heartwood. Even
after being eighteen or nineteen years on the permanent way,
the sleepers creosoted after seasoning are removed solely
because, owing to abrasion, they become too thin (3J inches) ;
they are still serviceable for many years as fencing-posts. — Tr.]

8. Dimensions of Trees.
MAXIMUM

I.

11/i tO I.",!) '

If.

100 to i:iO f.-et.

in.

05 to 80 foot.
(Rarely to 100 feet.)

IV.
r- to 60 feet.

(Chiefly Shrubs.)

Seqn

ch.

Horse-chestnut.

Mountain pine

1 >ini^las lir.

<)aks.

Hornbeam.

(var. uncin;it:i j

dar.

Poplars.

Birch.

:.5 feet.

Spruces.

Elms.

Aspen.

( 'mnnion maple- .

Silver-firs.

Limes.

Sp. of Pirns and Primus.

Holly.

Weymouth pine.

Ash.

Tree-Willows.

Box.

Giant thuya.

Sweet-chestnut.

Robinia.

Laburnum.

Lawson's

Sycamore.

Cembran pine.

Whitethorn.

cypi
Corsican pine.

Norway-maple.
Walnut.

Cupressus macrocarpa.
Cryptomeria japonica.

Common juniper.
Euonymus.

118

PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

HEIGHT -GROWTH — continued.

jj

III.

IV.

115 to 150 foot.

100 to 130 feet.

65 to 80 feet.
(Rarely to 100 feet.)

15 to 50 feet.
(Chiefly Shrubs.)

Libocedrus

Tulip-tree.

'Yew.

Hazel.

decurrens.

Austrian pine.

Pencil-cedar.

Viburnum.

Tsuga

Taxodium

Hickory.

< 'urn us.

Mertensiana.

disticliuni.

Catalpa.

Sambucus.

(Some of these

Finns rigid;!.

Syringa.

mav exceed

,, divaricata.

Blackthorn.

150 feet in

( I'.anksiana.)

Mountain pine

length.)

(Pumilio).

[This list differs from that given by Mayr, so as to include
the economic trees and shrubs that are grown in the British
Isles. Under favourable conditions certain trees may pass into
a higher height-class. — Tr.]

The development of a tree in height depends on several
factors ; for instance, soil, climate and exposure to wind,
method of production as well as species. The current height-
increment attains its maximum in the pole-stage, then sinks
again till maturity is reached, becoming nil in trees with
eventually flat or round crowns, such as Scots pine, silver-fir,
or cedar, or in trees such as ash and horse-chestnut, where
the terminal shoot blossoms. Generally the height-growth is
maintained longest when trees are in their optimum climate,
on the most suitable soil, and grown in dense but not in the
densest crops. It has often been asserted that density
of growth favours height in trees, and certainly this is true in
the younger stages of growth, just as removal of side-branches
in fruit-tree culture favours the leading shoot of a tree. In a
group of trees of the same age, the border trees are shortest,
and those in the centre tallest.

Diameter-growth at first falls behind height-growth,
especially in dense crops, attains its maximum somewhat
later and ends with the deatli of a tree, for every tree
forms an annual ring as long as it is alive. Only in very
suppressed individual trees, a cessation of diameter-growth is
alleged for the lower part of the stem ; this has not yet been
proved. Diameter-growth is favoured by the admission of heat
and light and the consequently increased nutriment available.

SHAPE OF TREES.

119

9. Shape of Trees.

Every tree has three parts, the bole, roots, and crown. In
youth, the roots and crown preponderate over the bole, the
formation of which begins at the 15th or 20th year. By
silvicultural means a forester can regulate the proportion
between the bole, crown and roots of a tree. Open growth
favours crown and roots at the expense of the bole ; density
of growth increases the bole at the expense of the crown and
roots.

On good soil, the bole and crown become relatively large,
the former in a less degree than the latter. Other 'conditions
being equal, crops of trees produce more volume per acre on
good soils, which favour stem-timber, though more numerous
but smaller trees grow on an acre of poor soil. Usually in
close, mature woods, only 10 to 20 per cent, of the volume is
lop-and-top (under three inches in diameter). Individual species
vary in the proportion of bole and crown in accordance with
the following statement.

Spro

Lan-hcs.
Douglas lii'.

Si Ivor-fir.

in runs up to the
topmost Idid of the
tree and height, growth,
except in silver-Mr, con-
tinues us long as the
tree lives. The branches
are small.

I'll

.:as.
Cyj/i

; of Stem depends

on climate ami locality.
In open growth or in
old age, the stem divides
into .several large
boughs.

I! road leaved trees resem-
ble pines in their growth,
but stem preponderates
in the following :

niiereus palustris.

Poplars.

Tulip-tree.

Alder.

Birch,

Ash,

-sile oak.

Aspen.

Also in beech and other
broadleaved trees,
when grown in dense
crops.

The following statement is compiled from results given by
Pfeil and M. Hartig, with which those given by Pressler and
Burckhart have been compared. In the case of dense crops
grown in high forest to an advanced age in good localities,

120

PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

the percentages of bole, branch- wood and root-wood of different
species are as follows : —

Percentages.

Remarks).

Bole.

Branches.

Roots.

Larch ...
Wey mouth pine
Spruce...
Scots pine
Silver-fir

77-82
67—86
65—77
66—77

60— 77

i; x

5—23

S -10

8—15
8—10

12—15
9 2(1
1 5— 25
15—20
15— HO

[The figures given by
Mayr for branches
and roots are assumed
to be correct, but
those for the boles

Aspen .
Birch , ...

Alder

80—90
78—90
75—80

5—10
5—10
8—10

5—10
5—12
12—15

have been altered to
correspond with them,
which they do not. in

Maples
Lime
Beech

65—75
60—68
55—70

10—15
20—25
10—20

15—20
12—15
20—25

Mayr's statement. —

Tr.l

Ash

55 — 70

15—20

15—25

Hornbeam

60—65

10—20

15—20

Oak

50—65

10—20

15—20

Standards over coppice show different percentages of bole,
as they are much more branchy than high forest trees,
especially when old. Lauprecht gives the following :—

Percentage in Boles of Different Ages.

50—60 Years.

60—100 Years.

Over 100 Years.

Oak

58

42

18—25

Beech

59—60

51

28—40

Aspen

40

40

25—29

Birch

35—40

85—44

34—40

As regards cylindricity of stem, the cleaner the stem is
from branches the more cylindrical it is. Density of crop
produces cylindrical boles ; open growth, conical boles. It
has been asserted that the upper part of the stem is nourished
better than its lower part. Metzger and Schwarz consider the
better nourishment of the top of the bole as the necessary
consequence of the gradual construction of the tree according
to the laws of equilibrium.

A measure of cylindricity is the form-factor, or the ratio

SHAPE OF TREES.

121

of the volume of the bole to that of a cylinder of equal height
and diameter (at chest-height). Neumeister* gives the
following form-factors, that of the ideal cylinder being
100:—

SJM '

Height in M

Form-factor.

Spruce v

20

53

,,
Silver-fir

- [tine ..

30

In
20
30
to
20
30

50
18

:>i
50
41
17
18

iinmih pine ...
Beech

bran pine
Larch

20
30
20
30

t6

l!»
411
4'.»
IS

Straightness of Bole. — This occurs when the axis of the
tree runs in a straight line. If the axis of a tree is bent in a
single plane, or a branch and part of a stem have their
axes in one plane, valuable curved timber, or knees, may be
formed, as in oak timber for ship- or barge-building. If the
tree bends so that its axis is in two or more planes, it is of
little value. Conifers are usually straight ; spruce, silver-fir
and Douglas fir the straightest, then larch and pines. Among
broadleaved trees, the cherry, poplars, alder and sessile oak
are straightest, but beech grows straight in a dense wood,
and a mixture of beech with oak, sycamore, ash, etc., will
straighten the boles of these species in a remarkable
manner.

Percentage of Heartwood. — In all trees, heartwood is
formed after a certain age only, [two or three years for
sweet-chestnut, so that mere coppice-shoots of this species
have a large percentage of hoartwood, and are very durablo
when used for fencing. Mulberry, robinia, laburnum and
larch also produce heartwood in 3 — 10 years. Mathey states
that in oak, when grown as standards over coppice, the

* •• Forst u. Jagcl. Kalerider." l'JD2.

122

PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

transformation of sapwood into heartwood is somewhat as
follows : —

Number of Zones.

Age in Years.

Thickness of
Sapwood.

Sapwood.

Heartwood.

mm. inches.

11

14

0

— —

17

11

6

20

11

it

—

27

10

17

22 0-8

50

10

40

23 0-9

65

12

63

32 1-2

80

13

67

31 1-2

95

H

81

31 1-2

130

14

116

21 0-8

Older.

—

—

21 0-8

Thus the conversion of sapwood into heartwood proceeds
irregularly, and not according to the annual zones. At first
the percentage of sapwood is enormous ; later on the difference
between the volume of new sapwood formed and that of the
old sapwood transformed into heartwood steadily diminishes,
until between 90 to 100 years equal volumes of heartwood
and sapwood are formed annually.

Oaks with rapid growth and with smooth bark have com-
paratively more sapwood than slower growing trees with
rough bark, and those grown on north and east slopes have
more sapwood than those grown on south and west slopes.
Pedunculate oaks usually have more sapwood (2 — 8 C.) than
sessile oaks (1 — 5 C.).

In the case of oaks grown in high forest the conversion
of sapwood into heartwood begins later, and is the earlier
and the more active, the more light is given to the
poles. Suppressed oaks often have no heartwood when
25 years old, while old high forest trees have more zones
of s;i|)\von(l (18 — 25) than old standards over coppice.
Oaks coming from the last thinnings have little sap-
wood.

Stunted oaks grown on impermeable London clay at
Oxshott, in Surrey, have little sapwood and produce very
hard wood, suitable for gate-posts. — Tr.]

SHAPE OF TREES, ETC.

Mayr gives the following data :—

Breadth of Sapwood in

Centimeters.

Up t.) 15

:? :,

5—10
Over lo

Yew, larch. oak.

Scuts [lino. Weyutoiith pine, spruce, silver-tir,
.Maples, dins, ash, walnut.
Other broadleaved ' :

As already stated, sweet-chestnut, laburnum, robinia and
mulberry may be added to the first class of trees with narrow
sapwood.

Freedom from branches, or cleanness of bole, is one of
the most important properties of economic timber. All
superincumbent boughs and foliage shade the lower and
earlier formed branches and causes their death sooner or
later, according to their greater or less susceptibility to shade.
This natural clearance of the lower branches and foliage is
effective in trees in an open position only partially and up
to a certain height. Whenever not only the crown of the
individual tree, but also the branches of neighbouring trees
unite in giving shade, as is the case in a dense crop, the lower
1 tranches of shaded stems must die rapidly, so that, by a proper
density of crop, a forester can readily obtain boles that are
clean up to a desirable height. Whenever, by a thinning, a dense
crop receives more light the death of lateral branches ceases.

It is therefore evident that the early crowding of a crop is
desirable, and all factors that retard this, such as wide
planting, are prejudicial to the quality of the produce.
Attempts to remedy this by pruning are in the first place
costly and the resulting produce is saleable only near large
towns, whilst it is dangerous to the health of the trees.
Pruning is useful as long as only dead branches are removed,
but when living branches, especially over 2 — 3 inches in
diameter, are pruned away, either callus growth covers the
wound and at't'ects [lie, quality of the wood injuriously, or
fungi and insects attack the wounds, while desiccation by the
sun and moisture from the air increase the damage greatly.
In broadleaved woods epicormic shoots that require fresh
pruning may spring from the edges of the wounds.

124

PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

10. Yield of the Chief Species.

Regarding the yield per acre in solid cubic feet of the
principal species of North European trees, the following
statement has been compiled from data given by v. Baur,
v. Lovey, Kunzi, Schuberg, Schwappach and Weise.
Quarter-girth volumes are y^ths of those given, or approxi-
mately one quarter less*:—

Species.

80 Years.

100 Years.

120 Years.

Qualities.

I.

n.

,n.

IV.

I.

II.

III.

IV.

'•

II.

III.

IV.

Spruce...
Silver-fir
Beech ...

11,760
10,150
7,280

9,030
7,490
5,600

6,720
5,740
4,200

4,760
4,060
3,290

14,000
14,000
8,260

11,200
11,200
5,300

8,680
8,680
4,830

5,300
5,300

15,680
16,660
8,890

12,880
13,720
6,790

9,940
10,710
5,150

7,280
7,700

pine ...

6,860

5,600

4,480

5,080

8,540

7,140

5,810

4,270

10,080

8,540

6,860

—

These figures are for pure crops ; for mixed crops measure-
ments are not available, and averages taken from the above
figures will not give true results, as a soil that is of one
quality for any species may be of different quality for another
species, owing to their different requirements in soil, climate,
number of trees, etc. As regards the produce of thinnings,
figures are available for pure crops, but they are rapidly
losing their value, as new methods of thinning are coming
into vogue.

E. DEFECTS IN WOOD.

1. Defective Structure,
(a) Abnormal Tissi/cs.

Abnormal parenchyma (callus) covering wounds, with
intermediate tissues eventually passing into ordinary wood,
may be termed occluding tissue. Whenever the bark of a
tree is crushed or removed by any injury — such as beating it
to shake down fruit (chestnuts, etc.) ; cutting in it names or
figures ; abrasure by cart-wheels, falling trees, climbing-irons

* For ;i derailed account of the yield of the different species of European
trees, cf. Schlioh's '• Manual of Forestry," vol. iii., " Forest Management,11
:ird ed.,

ABNORMAL TISSUES. 125

(Fig. 45) (to obtain cones, birds-nests, or to prune the tree) ;
or by exposure to the sun (sun-blister), hail, lightning, etc. —
the injured cambium and wood is killed, while from the
surrounding healthy cambium and the parenchyma of the
wood and cortex, an occluding callus is formed, the abnormal
fibre-direction of which causes the wood to deteriorate.

Pith-flecks are small occluding tissues that have closed old
wounds in wood. Such pith-flecks are common in the wood of
birch, alder and species of Pramis and I'irus : as they have a

15. Injuri - i pinewood caused by climbing-irons,

pathological origin, and may be absent, they should not be
used in the identification of these woods. [Stone, op. cit.,
states that they are clue to short peripheral galleries made by
larvae, which are afterwards filled by parenchyma. — Tr.]

Resin-galls (Fig. 46) are flattish hollows within an annual
zone of coniferous wood filled with rosin and vary from an
insignificant size to the length of one's hand. When large and
numerous they have a prejudicial effect on wood and may be so
numerous as to render the wood unsuitable for planks, laths, etc.

Tbe cause of resin-galls is explained by Mayr* as an

* H. Mayr, "Das Harx der Nadelholzer." 18U4.

126

PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

outpouring of resin into the cambium zone in early spring
after only a few spring cells of wood had been formed, the
mass of resin was isolated by occluding tissue. Tschirch
suggested that this is due to a wound, but if so, why, always
at a definite season of the year and near the crown of the tree

as well as low down the stem ?
The wound may, however, be
caused by an insect. The pre-
valent opinion that resin-galls
are due to a conversion of the
cell-walls into resin has been
proved by Mayr to be wrong.
Kesin-galls occur in coniferous
woods that have resin-ducts,
spruces, pines, larches and
Douglas-fir ; as they are patho-
logical, nothing can be decided
about the identity of woods by
their absence, but if present
they distinctly prove that the
wood is not that of silver-firs,
tsugas or cypresses. The wood
of the latter trees, however,
sometimes has rudimentary
resin-ducts, especially on wood
occluding wounds caused by
hail or frost. In wood with
resin-ducts there may be
abnormal numbers of them in certain decades and in others
only a few.

Gall-parenchyma, especially in broadleaved trees is pro-
duced by the stimulation of insects and their larvae Species
of Lachnus, a kind of aphis, form a gall on forest plants in
which all stages of occluding tissue, from parenchyma to
wood-tissue, occur.

Abnormal cell-formations resembling occluding tissue are
caused by late frost in both broadleaved and coniferous wood.
Damage done by late frost to the cambium is often
accompanied, in lengthening shoots, by a bending of the shoot

Fig. 46. — Longitudinal section
through a resin-gall in spruce-
wood. Occluding tissue in little
semi-circular groups of cells pro-
truding into the hollow filled
with resin. The external zones
are convex.

ABNORMAL TISSUES. 127

either spiral or like a bow, and this is visible externally.
Damage to shoots in their second or third year is not externally
visible. If a frost conies in June, the injured brown wood is
joined to the same year's spring-zone of wood by a callus and
is followed by subsequent frost-cankers. To an observer
without a magnifying glass this might appear to be a double
annual ring*. Mayr has noticed such frost-rings since 1890
and in Fig. 12 a, b and Fig. 22, drawn from nature, pur-
posely has represented some apparent double rings, but their
origin has not been yet explained.

A true double ring occurs only when there are two spring-
zones and two summer-zones in an annual zone, in the order,
early-wood, late-wood, early-wood, late-wood. This is very
rare in forests, but is frequent in towns, where the hot
weather and an insufficient water-supply to the roots often
cause defoliation at the beginning of August and the growth ter-
minates with late-wood. Then leaves reappear and sometimes
flowers ; spring-wood is formed and passes into summer-wood
at the end of September or in October, at the second leaf-fall

Hence the formation of spring-wood without a second
summer-wood is no double ring, but a reduplication of
spring-wood only, when shortly after early spring the tree
loses its foliage by frosts, insects, fire, etc., and produces fresh
leaves.

If there is no loss of foliage, but a second crop of leaves
appear, especially in oaks when lammas-shoots are produced,
or late shoots in September in vigorous young plants, or 2 — 4
series of shoots owing to lopping hedges and shrubs, no
irregularity is visible in the wrood.

If the anatomical structure of stem-wood is considered
n<tnn?d, the wood on the lower side of boughs with very thick
cell-walls is abnormal, and so is the root-wood with its very
thin-walled cells. The wood of suppressed stems with narrow
annual zones is also abnormal and so is the wood of trees
with very large zones grown in rich garden-soil. Wood with
very thick, folded cell-walls, as on the lower side of boughs,
on the eastern side of the root-stock, or on the lower side of

* 11. Hartijr, " Dnppelringe als Folge von Spiitfrost." Forst Nat, Zeitung,

128 PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

obliquely inclined stems was in 1896 termed red-wood by
Mer. Schwarz earlier than this had termed extremely hard
wood " Druckholz," tension-wood. The name "red-wood"
is unsatisfactory, as this abnormity is not due to colouring
matter but to the great accumulation of lignin. Abnormally
thick cell-walls are red for the same reason that ice is
blue.

[H. J. Elwes in a paper read before the Surveyors' Institu-
tion in 1904,* drew attention to a form of oakwood known as
"Brown Oak," which is extremely valuable and is used for the
internal decoration of houses and for heavy furniture. The
sapwood of these oaks is normal in colour, but the dark
heartwood occurs throughout the stem, and branches when-
ever the latter are sufficiently thick to contain heartwood. A
group of young oaks were felled in Essex, not more than
12 to 18 inches in diameter, all perfectly sound and the
heartwood of a rich brown colour. Woodmen in Essex con-
sider that trees, which retain their leaves longest in winter,
have " red wood," the local name for brown oak. Some of
the most valuable brown oaks grew in Eockingham Park, in
Northamptonshire, and the junction of oolitic rock bearing
iron-stone bands, with lias clay, appears to be favourable for
this variety. Often brown oak is due to internal decay in the
bole of a tree, but sometimes it is quite sound. Owing
to the great beauty and value of brown oak, it is advisable
that experiments should be made to determine, whether this
quality is hereditary, and what conditions of soil and locality
favour it. Apparently it is not known on the Continent.

The stump-wood of Erica arborea, called briar-wood from
the French bruyere, forms large masses of wood that is heavy
and with contorted fibres but even-grained, of a rich reddish
brown colour and easily turned and carved. It is the best of
wood for pipes. — Tr.]

(b) Abnormal Direction of Fibres.

Every wound disturbs the course of the fibres round the
occluding tissues ; they are curved until several years after

CJ\ Chapter on oak in the "Trees of Great Britain and Ireland," by
Klwes and Henry, 19U7.

ABNORMAL TISSUES.

the occurrence of the wound and then resume their former
direction.

Stems are very rare in which the fibres run in the same
plane as the pith, so that their course is straight. A spiral
torsion of the fibres, that is more or less pronounced, is the
rule. Twisted wood, or rather torse wood, for twisting
implies an external force acting on the wood, may be left-
inclined, or right-inclined, i.e., its direction may follow the
apparent diurnal motion of the sun, or the reverse. This is
without economic interest, for wood the fibres of which encircle
the stem within thirty feet is useless for sawing or cleaving
whether the fibres bend to the right or left; it may, how-
ever, still be used for posts, and Mathey says, for railway -
sleepers.

As some wood is perfectly vertical, the theory set up by
Braun and Goppert, that torsion is the result of the length-
ening of the fibres as the tree becomes older, must be
abandoned. The fact, that, in torse wood the transverse
division of the mother cambium cells is usually in one
direction only, <v/. to the right, whilst when straight-grained
wood is formed, these divisions arc alternately to the right
and left (Hartig), is the effect only of an unknown cause.

Pines are more subject to torsion than spruces or silver-firs,
Scots pine fibres always turning to the right in such cases
(Mathey). Neumeister states that all horse-chestnuts (but no
birches) have torse fibre. Torsion is common also in sweet-
chestnut wood. There are certain localities, e.g. stony soil
and sunny aspects, where torse wood is very common and
there the price of timber is remarkably low.* Straight-
grained wood is recognisable on standing trees by the vertical
lines of the bark- cracks and as felled and peeled trees become
dry the direction of the fibres is shown by the fine longitudinal
cracks in the wood (Fig. 57, a and b).

Wavy texture forms what is known economically as curl-
wood. It diminishes the utility of wood less than torsion.

* [Such a locality is cited by Fernandez, op. cit., at Kanikhet, in the Hima-
layas, where he says that all the Pimis longifulia trees have torse fibre. Mathey
cites Marchiennes and St. Ainand, as forests where it is hereditary with oaks.
Mates that there is a Scots pine wood near Trier, where .si per cent, of
the trees are torse. — Tr.J

F.U. K

130

PROPERTIES OF WOOD,

A slight waviness of fibre is very common and affects the
quality of the wood but slightly. The shorter and more
curved the bends of the fibres, the more the utility of the
wood for cleaving is impaired. Its value for planks is
increased by the beauty of its structure, which may form
highly ornamental wood, as when sawn into planks alternate
layers of fibres run in different directions and reflect light

differently. The
ripples may be in
the tangential sec-
tion of the wood, as
in Fig. 47, or in the
radial section, when
the wood is termed
commercially
"hazel," as "hazel-
spruce " or hazel-
oak. On the upper
side of a junction of
a branch with the
stem, or near the
roots, the wood is
always wavy, this
being more marked
in broadleaved
trees. [The ripples
of fibres are normal
in satin-wood
(Kanthoxylum from
the West Indies and
Cldoroxylon Sicic-
tcnia from Ceylon),

Fig. 47. — Ash-wood with wavy fibres. Curl-wood.

so that the wood on longitudinal sections has always alternate
bands of brighter or duller lustre, according to the direction
in which the fibres are cut. The medullary rays also undu-
late. This beautiful wood is extensively used for the backs of
brushes. — Tr.]

Mottled wood results from the shoots from dormant buds,
which remain alive for years at the level of the outer bark ;

ABNORMAL TISSUES. 151

in trees placed in a free position after being in a dense crop, or
affected by wounds, disease, or pollarding, they may develop
into (epicormic) branches. In such mottled wood the main stem
need not exhibit any bushy external growth from the dormant
buds, and its condition may be recognisable only by reason of
the irregularity of the bark cracks, or by the scales of bark being
small. Such wood is very inferior for plank? and cloven ware,
but its beautiful structure renders its sale-price very high.
Mottled wood may occur in all species of trees, even

Fig. is. Tr;i: 'ion of birch niottlc'l wood with numerous

dormant shouts. This is commercially termed Swedish '• lily-wood."

conifers (Figs. 48 and 49) ; it may be due to alternations of
colour (p. 14(5).

Bird's-eye maple is one of the most valuable forms of
mottled wood ; it occurs in all species of maple, and is
specially beautiful and common in that of the sugar-maple
(Acer saccharinuni) (Fig. 49). Bird's-eye oak-wood from
pollard trees is often extremely beautiful and valuable.

If the dormant shoots bifurcate and grow individually in
thickness in concentric layers, large knotty swellings are
formed, often of considerable size ; they are termed Burrs.
In small pieces such mottled wood, e.g., in walnut, birch and
alder, is valuable and in common use for small articles,

K 2

132 PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

brackets, etc. Large burrs are generally unsound internally,

and are then less valuable than the smaller ones ; they often

bear epicormic twigs.

[Mathey states that burrs from Corylus colurna, the tree-

hazel of the Levant and Himalayas, are much used by

cabinet-makers, and so were excrescences on the rootstock

of Callitris quadrivalvis, in

[^7 ~>% Algiers. These latter burrs

are produced by grazing and
fires, and were highly prized
for their beauty by cabinet-
makers, but as they have
become extremely rare and it
is desired to preserve the tree,
they are no longer obtainable ;
probably the origin of the
Levant hazel burrs is due to
similar bad usage. Some-
times, as in beech, the dor-
mant buds are separated from
£jV'\ the pith by the woody growth,

but grow in the living cortex,
and form little round excre-
scences, projecting from the
bark, being termed sphaero-
blasts. They are quite use-

•^MBLL^_-.J-^.:--__i: ______ iiil less.

Fig. 49.-Bircl's-eye maple. From the . The reason for the f°rma-
sugar-maple. The bird's eyes are shown tion of buiTS Oil trees is Said

as transverse sections of the dormant by Mayr to be unlmown.

shoots. The lower part of the plate is , ,, .

a radial section, shown lengthwise. dently m man.Y cages they are

due to injuries when the trees

were young, so that dormant buds low down the stem grew at
the expense of the latter, and not being able to develop into
ordinary branches owing to repeated injuries, or to their
position deprived of sufficient light low down on the stem, they
produced masses of contorted tissue.

A fungus (Dothiora sphacroides) growing on ash saplings,
both seedlings and coppice-shoots, sometimes attacks their

ABNORMAL TISSUES.

133

buds and destroys their leading shoots and branches, but
lives on at the points of attack, forming globular swellings
in the wood that are quite sound, until the sporaphores of
the fungus break out and convert the swelling into a
canker. These knobbed saplings form valuable walking-
sticks and umbrella-handles. Similar knobs appear on oak
and sweet-chestnut saplings and are very common in oak
coppices on the Bagshot sands
in Surrey. — Tr.]

Damage by fungi, as in
witches' broom, cause abnor-
mal swellings in wood, which
usually are unsound and
detract greatly from its value.
Mistleto also (Fig. 50) causes
an abnormal swelling, and
eventually wood full of boles
on the trees which it attacks,
preferably apple-trees, pop-
lars, lime, silver-fir and white-
thorn. These cankers, etc.,
are described fully in Vol. IV.
of this Manual on Forest
Protection.

Swellings are produced
artificially by pruning sapl i 1 1 ^s
of dogwood, whitethorn, nsli
and oak, etc., in order to form
walking-sticks and umbrella-
handles ; mottled wood also by lopping ash-trees. More
experience is required as to the possibility of producing
healthy burrs artificially.

Knottiness of Wood. — The branching of a tree begins by
the budding of the pith of its leading shoot. Every subaerial
or subterranean branch (exeept adventitious shoots) is con-
nected by its pith with that of the leading shoot. In conifers
the branches are more or less in verticils, so that the distance
between two adjacent verticils gives the year's height-growth,
a) id the number of verticils gives the age of the tree down

^Iver-tir wood injured \>\

mistleto. The li;iustori;i of the hitler

;it»!e im'diillary rays, in the

tangential and radial sections of the

wood.

134 PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

to a certain distance near the ground ; the age of the base
of the tree, where the verticils are obliterated by the bark,
can easily be estimated. The true base of the year's shoot,
where the pith divides, is in young stems higher and in old
stems lower (on account of the obliquely ascending branches)
than the apparent external position of the verticils : cf. Fig. 51,
where M is the pith ; after the wood has thickened up
to 4, the external position of the verticil is above the true
base of the leading shoot. In most broadleaved trees, except

M

Fig. 51. — Longitudinal section through a coniferous stem and branch. M, pith.
The darker the branch-wood the more rotten it is.

in cherry, the branches of which are sub-verticillate like those
of a silver-fir, the ramification is irregular and usually the
age can be determined only by counting the annual rings.

The annual zones of wood that thicken the stem and
branch are firmly connected until the branch dies, as those
at the base of the branch bend and unite at one end with the
vertical zones of the stem, and at the other end with the
obliquely ascending or horizontal zones of the branch
(Figs. 51 — 53). The thicker the branch becomes, the more
the stem-fibres are curved and the greater the disturbance

ABNORMAL TISSUES.

135

in the normal course of the stem-fibres at the junction of
the branch with the stem. The properties of wood that
depend on straightness of fibres are thus impaired.

When the branch dies its base is still nourished for several
years and a callus is formed around it, as is the case with
any foreign body in the stem, such as a nail. The longer

the interval before i

the dead branch falls
from the tree, the
longer is the base of
the dead branch sur-
rounded by occlud-
ing tissue. The swel- I
ling of the wood
(between 3 and 4,
Fig. 51), causes a cir-
cular depression of
the bark round the
dead branch, which
remains moist for a
long time and li-
ens its decomposi-
tion. At length tin;
1) ranch breaks off

I

L

Fig.

rial section through a verticil
of a conifer. The knots, a a, firmly connected
with the wood, showing the beauty of sue^woocl ;
ft, a small intermediate knot that will fall out when

the plank is dry.

and falls, owing to
its weight acting as
by a lever on its
rotten base. If this
lever is shortened,
<?.</., by men break-
ing off dead branches,
for firewood,, a stump, or snag remains, all of which becomes
occluded gradually, to the deterioration of the timber. The
earlier this breakage of branches begins in a crop of trees,
the more knotty and inferior is the timber it produces.

If a plank be taken from the region 1 — 3 (Fig. 51) of the stem
it includes the hard enclosed wood of the branch, which, being
specifically heavier than that of the stem, is liable to warp and
crack (Fig. 52 a). If the saw cuts between 8 and 4 (Fig. 51),

136

PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

Fig. 53. — Dead branch enclosed in coniferous
wood, causing a loose knot.

the planks contains the dead knot, which has no fibrous
connection with the stem- wood ; the heavier, well-nourished
stem-wood then contracts, and the knot becomes loose and

falls from the plank
(Figs. 52 I and 53). It
is obvious that such con-
ditions reduce greatly the
value of the planks.

Knots that are firmly
connected with the wood,
dark red in colour and
translucent in sunlight,
render the wood valuable
for certain purposes
(wainscotting), especially
in larch, Cembran and
Scots pine.

If the branches are re-
moved when young, only
the central part of the
mature stem is knotty ;
the resulting knottiness
is so much less, the denser
the crop when young and
the smaller the knots.

This is the reason why
the outer even-fibred wood
of old trees is excellent
for sawing and cleaving
(Fig. 54). The evil of too
early thinnings, owing to
the consequent mainten-
ance of branches which
form large knots in the
wood is also obvious.
Double or multiple heartwood — This occurs when a tree
has two or more leading shoots, which grow up together and
eventually form one stem (Fig. 5(5), or when by multiple-
pl;mting,or excess of natural regeneration, two or more

Fig. 54. — Transverse section of a stem, Hie
branches of which have been pruned early.
The (external wood is faultless.

ABNORMAL TISKI

137

coalesce eventually into a single stem (Fig. 55). Asa rule one
of the stems grows slowly and eventually dies. One of the double
leaders should be removed in cleaning the young plantation,
but if previously it has been overlooked it should be removed in

the thinnings. If not removed before
it is about four inches in diameter,
then, in the case of conifers, owing
to slow occlusion decay will certainly
affect the wood and will infect the
remaining sterns also. If no leaders
are removed, their united bole be-
comes a breeding-place for insects.
Kven if one of the leaders is removed
the remaining stem will, when
mature, be swollen at the base and
probably unsound. It is therefore
best to remove the plant entirely, in
the case of conifers.

Fii_r. :").— Lower part
of an old stem. Its
swollen b;i<e denotes
either double heart-
wood or red-rot.

Fi-. .'<;. Union of three leaders
into one stem, while two other
branches have also coalesced
with the main stem.

In young plants, double leaders often result from
injuries to their original leading shoots by game, and less
frequently from those by insects or fungi; also to the
destruction of the terminal bud by birds, hail, wind or late
frost. As plants are specially liable to these dangers in

138

PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

clear-cuttings with subsequent planting or sowing, merchants
prefer wood from naturally regenerated crops.

(c) Defects in Sound Wood.

Heart-shake occurs when radial cracks extend from the pith
outwards ; they are visible on the transverse section soon after
the tree is felled. In conifers the heartwood of which contains
only sufficient water to saturate the cell-walls, heart-shake is

seen as soon as the tree is felled,
for the heat caused by friction of
the saw dries the wood so as to
cause a fine crack through the
pith, which exposure to the air soon
opens more widely. (Fig. 57 a).
Where there are several such
cracks, the defect is termed star-
shake, and simple heart-shake,
when there is only one ; in the
latter case, by sawing parallel to
the crack, excellent planks may
be produced.

Air-cracks are due also to
shrinkage ; they appear parallel
to the course of the fibres on the
surface of stems that have been
stripped of their bark (Fig. 57, a
and b) ; if the wood is rapidly
dried, these cracks may penetrate
deeply into the stem and reduce
the value of the wood for planks, etc. The methods of
combating this defect are discussed in Part V., B.

Wind-shake occurs usually in trees that have been given an
open position late in life, such as mother trees destined for natural
regeneration. When trees suddenly isolated are blown about
by the wind, which the harder tissues of trees that have always
stood in the open can resist better, and the fibres of the wood
separate along an annual ring forming arc-like shakes
(Fig. 57 b), it is chiefly the base of the stem, up to a height
of 3 to 6 feet, that is exposed to those cracks, owing to the

a 1,

Fig. 57. — (a) Straight-fibred stem
with air-cracks on its surface
and heart-shake on its trans-
verse section. (b~) Torse-fibred
stem, ditto, also with wind-
shake on its transverse section.

DEFECTS IN SOUND WOOD.

139

lever of the bole between it and the crown of the tree. They
occur chiefly on the eastern side of the stem, are less frequent
on its western side, but hardly ever appear on its northern
or southern sides, as storms rarely come from these directions.
In very exposed localities, besides the tangential cracks, there
may be a radial crack running through the pith (Fig. 57 b).

Wind-shakes are more frequent when the centre of an
affected stem has very narrow-grained wood. Trees in
selection forests, which have stood long in the shade as poles
with very narrow zones of wood, begin
abruptly to produce broad zones when
the shade is removed, so that at the
margin of the narrow and broad zones
the circumferential cohesion of the fibres
is weak, and the resistance to bending
strains differs in the two kinds of wood.

Cup-shakes in the heartwood of trees
resemble wind-shakes in appearance, but
originate in a different way, bring due
to injuries received when the tree was
young. A portion of the bark of the stem
or root-stock of a sapling or pole may
be abraded by deer or s juirrcls (larch)
by resin-tapping, contact with wheels or
with falling trees, etc., or owing to the
death of part of the cambium and bark
by forest fire; this produces an occlusion,
which, if the injury is slight, gives rise
merely to abnormal direction of the fibres,
but if a larger part of the wood is exposed, to decay of the
subjacent wood. The decayed wood is not then connected
with the overlying occluding tissue (Fig. 58).

Even ants starting a nest at the base of a tree affected by
root-rot may, by gnawing the soft spring-wood of conifers,
produce cup-shake, as in silver-fir attacked by Fomes tinnosn*
(cf. Vol. IV.).

Neither wind-shake nor cup-shake extend further than
over a certain part of the circumference of an annual
zone ; if the damage should extend all round the zone,

Fiir. ">8. (" n ) Sui face
]Mvlrd by deer. (1) i)
Wood occluding the
woundand subsequent

layers.

140

PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

it is termed ring-shake, and will be described in the next
section.

Frost-crack is a radial crack occurring on a standing tree
at very low temperatures. This form of damage is commoner
on sweet-chestnut, oaks, walnut, ash, lime, poplars, elms and
maples than on conifers. Of the latter, the silver-fir suffers
most and Scots pine and spruce less. It is very rare with
beech and aspen.

[Turkey-oak suffers more from frost-crack than does
sessile oak and the latter more than
pedunculate oak, while Mathey states
that Quercns tardissima suffers less than
ordinary pedunculate oak. Fuller details
about frost-crack are given in Vol. IV.
-Tr.]

K. Hartig explains the cause of frost-
cracks, as follows : during frost, water
leaves the cell-walls the more abun-
dantly the lower is the temperature,
until owing to the consequent drying
of the wood, the latter cracks. Accord-
ing to Mayr, this explanation is wrong.
All physical and mechanical phenomena
in frozen wood, as well as Mayr's own
experiments, show that water remains
in the tissue walls of frozen wood.
The cracking of the stem at very low
temperatures (about- 25° C. or -13° F.)

is due to contraction by loss of heat and this results
naturally in a radial crack, for the outer layers become coldest
and contract the most. When the weather becomes warmer,
the crack closes, in the next growing-season the wound is
occluded, but the crack opens again the next cold winter
and the repetition of this cracking and occluding produces the
projecting frost-rib (Fig. 59). Generally such stems are
useless except for cleaving.

[Frost-cracks are quite common in Windsor Forest, both in
oaks and sweet-chestnut trees, though the lowest temperature
recorded in 1,1 K-. open at Cooper's Hill, close to the forest and

Fig. 59. — Frost-crack and
frost-rib. The other
cracks on the trans-
verse section are due
to desiccation.

DISEASED WOOD-FIBRES. 141

at about the same altitude, is 10'1° F. in February, 1895.
Hess gives — 18° C., or 0° F., as a sufficiently low tempera-
ture for frost-crack, and it is evident that frost-crack occurs
in the British Isles at temperatures considerably above — 13° F.
-Tr.]

Damage by lightning is fully discussed in Vol. IV., and
here only some points brought forward by Mayr will be given.
E. Hartig has proved that lightning strikes trees more fre-
quently than is usually believed often causing numerous
little wounds in the cambium, that are eventually occluded
but become externally visible as the tree gets thicker.
Conifers usually die when struck ; broadleaved trees may
occlude the wounds. Usually oaks, spruce, poplars, larch
and pines are considered as most in danger, while beech is
said to be immune. Hartig, however, has shown that young
beeches are struck by lightning but that their wounds are
occluded.

Usually wood struck by lightning is so completely shaky
although only one external crack may be visible, yet so
many small cracks have branched from the principal one
through the wood, that when it is sawn into planks or
scantling they eventually fall to pier

The holes made in trees by woodpeckers may be noted
here (cf. Vol. IV.).

(//) /Jiwrwil Wood-Jil'

Internal disease in wood, e.g., rottenness in stem, roots
or branches, is discernible externally by scientific observa-
tion only. Stem-rot is merely a continuation of disease that
originated in the roots or branches, or is caused by wounds,
or by diseases that are visible externally, such as cankers.
The earliest visible signs of disease are discolourations. As
long as abnormally coloured wood is still hard it is quite
utilisable, provided that by rapidly drying and using it only
in dry places (interior of houses, etc.) the growth of the
mycelia of the fungi and consequently the spread of decay
are arrested.

* llartig, "Lehrbuch der Buumkrunkheiten," Berlin, 1901, 3rd ed.

142 PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

2. Defects in the Physical Properties of Wood,
(a) Discolouration.

Any abnormal discolouration of the sapwood or heartwood
usually denotes disease and the commencement of decay in
wood. Many fungi may be determined specifically by the
nature of these coloured stripes or specks in wood. Some
abnormal colours, however, do not denote any fungoidal
attack, as when pale zones resembling sapwood appear in
the heartwood of oaks, in the pale heartwood of suppressed
stems, in cold climates or in the rootstock of several species
of trees.

[In oaks the pale heartwood forming a zone 1 to 1J inches
wide in the midst of the normal heartwood and termed
mondring, or lunure, on the Continent, may here be called
internal sapwood to distinguish it from wind- shake and cup-
shake, when the defect is confined to a part only of an annual
zone. It is termed ring-shake, when the central heartwood
is loose. Internal sapwood forms the subject of an important
paper by Emile Mer,* from which most of the following
paragraphs are taken.

Severe winter-frost may kill the cambium of a tree, in
which case the tree dies. In other instances, it is found that,
the sapwood just inside the cambium is killed, but that the
cambium is not killed, and continues to produce wood
externally. In such specimens the central zones of wood
have no connection with the external zones, a dark ring
usually separating the dead and living wood. There is no
external evidence of this frost ring-shake, but when the tree
is felled the internal core of the wood separates at once from
the external wood. Specimens of frozen wood are in the
Oxford Forestry Museum and in that of the Forest of Dean,
where not only the main stem of an oak, but also its branches,
are in this condition, the internal wood being quite loose from
the external wood in which it rests like a metallic casting
in its mould. In this case no decay is discernible in either
the external or internal layers of the wood.

It may, however, happen, as in the cases described by Mer,

* Boppc et Mer, " La lunure." Kev. lies Eiiux et Forets. l!S(J7.

DISCOLOURATION.

143

that the sapwood immediately inside the cambium is not
killed by the frost, but its vitality is so impaired that it
cannot form thyloses, nor is its contained starch converted
fully into tannin, as in ordinary oak heartwood. Such wood
is therefore internal sapwood, differentiated from normal
heartwood by its light colour and by the presence in it of
starch ; its vessels also are without thyloses, so that it absorbs
antiseptics which normal oak heartwood will not absorb.
Hence if a solution of sulphate of copper be poured on the
transverse section of the wood and the wood dried, the
internal sapwood has a bluish tint, while the normal heart-
wood retains its natural colour. Henry, Professor of Natural
History at Nancy, showed
that both external and inter-
nal sapwood contains only
up to 2 per cent, of tannin,
while heartwood contains
6 to 7 per cent., the quantity
diminishing as true sapwood
is approached.

Mer examined numerous
specimens of oakwood at
Nancy and found that the
most recent ring- shake in
them dated from 1879, a
severe frost-year, after which
for several years narrow annual zones of normal heartwood
were produced, followed by zones of heartwood of ordinary
width. The zones for several years anterior to 1879 were of
ordinary width, but were not converted into heartwood, and
formed the belt of internal sapwood. Mer found many cases
of internal sapwood dating from frost-years earlier than 1879,
such as the severe winters of 1829, 1794 and 1789 ; those of
1879 were quite sound, but those of 1829 were red, showing a
commencement of decay, and those of 1794 and 1789 were
browrn and decayed, emitting a fetid odour not found in wood
suffering from red-rot and said by Mathey to be caused by a
decomposing ferment produced by Amylobacter. Fig. 60 shows
internal sapwood, (a) sound and (b) unsound, though it is not

Fi;_r. (it), hitcniiil
a Pale, h K.-.I. (After Boppe.)

144

PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

usual to find both sound and unsound internal sapwood in the
same zones.

Nanquette states that it is difficult to detect by mere inspec-
tions sound internal sapwood in oaken staves, as when the
wood is long exposed to the sun and air its tint becomes
indistinguishable from that of normal heartwood ; it may,
however, be detected readily by pouring water on the wood.
Internal sapwood is as perishable as ordinary sapwood and
soon decays in beams, and in planks gets wormeaten. Mathey
says that much parquet flooring near Lyons containing
internal sapwood has been attacked by Lyctus canicidattis.

Wood containing
internal sapwood
when used for
staves renders
them brittle, so
that casks thus
made are not
strong and give
a mouldy taste
to wine.

This defect
occurs in all
kinds of oak-
wood, according
to Mathey; it is

Fig. 61. — Beechwood injured by fire. (After Boppe.)

commonest in the wood of sessile oak, being rarer in that of
pedunculate oak, while Quercus tardissima (chene dc Jain],
which may be named the June oak, appears to be exempt
from internal sapwood.

Burned "Wood. — The cambium of standing trees may be
killed by fire or by the sun, the latter causing sun-blister, or
bark-scorching, which is described in Vol. IV. Fig. 61 shows
a section of beechwood injured by fire. Beech and ash are
specially liable to this form of injury owing to fires made by
wood-cutters, but also frequently Scots-pine trees are rendered
unsound at their bases by ordinary forest fires. Such wood
is useless except as firewood. — Tr.]

Wood with red or brown streaks is not uncommon in spruce

DISCOLOURATION. 145

or silver-fir, but somewhat rarer in the Scots pine. These
streaks occur in two forms. Bed streaks appearing simul-
taneously from the external surface towards the pith, through
the whole length of a log, are caused if a barked log with
superficial air-cracks is floated or rafted, or placed in a wet
place. It is especially the air-cracks from which the red
streaks start, that induce the growth of fungi the nature of
which has not yet been determined. The longer the influence
of the unfavourable environment continues, the deeper goes
the mischief, which first affects the sapwood. Such wood is
more or less unserviceable as timber, according to the extent
of the decay to which it is subject : Hartig and Sepp have
written on the red streaks in the wood of spruce and silver-fir
from the Bavarian Forest, but the above remarks are founded
chiefly on Mayr's observations.

A second form of red streakiness starts from a centre
of decay, either in the stump or roots, or from the occluded
snags of dead branches. It extends both up and down the
stem.

Blue-streaks appear in the sapwood of logs of the Scots
pine when they have been exposed for some time to damp, and
a fungus, CerdtoHtonia }>il>t'<'ra, has gained admission to the
wood owing to injuries to the bark. The commencement of
this disease affects only the colour but not the hardness of the
wood, though Schwappach and Eudeloff have shown that its
elasticity is thus impaired.

Black-streaks in the sapwood of spruce and silver-fir, so
that even the whole of a cross-section of the sapwood may
become completely black, occur in logs which have remained
lying for some time unbarked. When spruce logs are felled
and stripped of bark in summer, drops of turpentine exude
from numerous horizontal resin-ducts, and, between these
drops, the wood in a few days becomes grey and gradually
blackens, so that it appears to be spotted. The fungus that
causes this penetrates the borings of Tomicas lineatus, from
which also black streaks enter in the wood.

Dark-blue streaks are the first symptoms of the destruction
of wood by two most dangerous fungi, Forties annosus and
honey-fungus (Armillarea mdlea), both of which cause

F.U. L

146 PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

root-rot in conifers. Usually they are found only at the
lower end of logs.

Violet-coloured streaks and bands penetrate the heart-
wood of many species of walnut, e.g., Juglans regia and
J. Sieloldii, instead of its being of the usually uniform brown
colour. These are not signs of decay but raise the value of
the wood, for the mottling of the wood may be due to alterna-
tions of colour as well as to ripples in its structure. The
woods of deciduous species of Diospyros, that grow in warm
temperate countries, have alternately dark and light grey
bands of wood. [Similarly, alternations of black, brown or
grey colour occur in the heartwood of numerous species of
Indian ebony-trees, the most striking of which are D. Kurzii
and D. quaesita,ihe latter yielding Calamander wood. — Tr.]

A bluish-green tint is assumed by the wood of all broad-
leaved and coniferous trees that are attacked by the fungus,
Peziza aeruginosa, this is chiefly the case with logs and
branches lying on the ground in moss or dead leaves.

White streaks occur in the woods of oaks and other species
when attacked byStereum hirsutum&ud other fungi, and they are
then said to be white-piped.

The white spots on a brown ground known as partridge-
wood, though Mayr says that the German word for this is
Rehbunt (fawn-coloured) and not Rebhuhn (partridge), is due to
Thelephora Perdix, the true name of which is said by Massie
to be Stereum frustulosum. Wood attacked by Trametes
Pini is spotted with white, and if by Fames annosus (Trametes
radiciperda), with black spots on a white ground.

The red or greyish-brown coloured heartwood of beech,
termed also false heartwood of beech, has been investigated
by Mayr. He states that there are two kinds of this
abnormally coloured heartwood :

Colouring-matter round the pith, which has possibly
a similar origin to the colouring-matter in the heart-
wood of other species and has similar properties, namely,
that of increasing its durability. When it appears in
irregular patches on a cross-section of the wood it is
prejudicial, as these patches can neither be stained nor
impregnated.

DISCOLOURATION. 147

[E.Hermann* states that the red heartwood of beech is
caused by the obstruction of the cells of the medullary rays
and part of the fibres of ordinary heartwood by thyloses
and gum, which completely fill the vessels. Crystals of
oxalate of lime also occur. The gum is formed from starch
by metastasis. Eed beechwood is harder and heavier than
normal beechwood. It is quite impermeable by water and
antiseptics. When occurring in patches it is not a commence-
ment of decay but a defensive coating cutting off injured parts
from sound wood. Mycelia from rotting wood cannot infect it.
Certainly it may be used for railway-sleepers, being more
durable than beechwood injected with zinc-chloride. Although
creosote will not inject red beech heartwood, the latter is of
itself highly durable and when the softer wood around it is
injected it is perfectly safe from fungoidal attacks. Mathey
states that its price in France, owing to the prejudice against
it, is about 2d. a cubic foot less than ordinary beechwood.

This red heartwood must not, however, be confounded with
unsound beech heartwood and it is probably owing to the
possibility of confusion arising between them that timber-
merchants object to purchase it. — Tr.]

2. True decay in beechwood is caused by a brown or
greyish-brown colouring-matter. According to common
opinion, decay in heartwood originates when decomposing
matter from broken boughs, snags or holes in the upper part
of a tree descends the stem. But irrespective of the facts : — that
decaying heartwood surrounds the pith ; that in the central
zones of heartwood there is scarcely any movement of water,
which in trees does not follow gravitation, and that the injured
vessels of branches become filled with thyloses, which are so
many obstacles to the passage of colouring-matter that does
not proceed from, cell to cell ; — no reliable proofs are forth-
coming to connect decay from broken boughs with decaying
heartwood.

Mayr states that injuries by mice or voles to young
saplings cause decay in the heartwood. If the gnawed
sapling is not girdled by such an injury, the exposed wood

* Kernbildung dei1 Rotbuche, " Zeitschrift f. Forst u. Zagdwesen." October,
1902. Mayr says that railway-sleepers should not be made of red beechwood.

1,2

148 PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

becomes occluded, but only after incipient decay of its
surface ; this decay proceeds slowly round the wound in all
directions, so that when the tree is ripe for felling, from 5 to
20 per cent, of the cross-section at its base and about 10 feet
of its length are affected. This unsound heartwood is liable to
further decay and cannot be impregnated by antiseptics.

It is usually difficult to diagnose the health of a standing tree.
The presence on its stem of bracket-like sporophores of Polypori
and other fungi is a certain proof of unsoundness ; all other
symptoms are deceptive, such as : projecting occluded lumps in
the stem ; swellings in the stem especially near its base (Fig.
55) ; partly occluded snags with central depressions ; presence
of ants or mice among the roots. There is no difficulty in ascer-
taining whether or not a felled tree is sound; the axe can be used
to cut into projections on the stem, while an inspection of the
sawn surface of its base is usually sufficient ; specially valuable
boles may be split in two, as is done in the Spessart.

I. Abnormal Scents.

Any abnormal scent in wood, that may, however, be detected
for only a few species, e.g., oakwood, denotes decay. When
decay has gone very far the wood has a mouldy scent like that
of fungi.

c. Diminished Hardness and Sp. Weight.

If stem-wood is considered normal as regards sp. weight
and hardness, branch-wood, especially the horny heavy
branches of conifers is abnormally hard and heavy ; root-wood
is abnormally light ; narrow-zoned coniferous wood is heavy,
and narrow-zoned broadleaved wood, especially of oak, is
light.

d. Defects in the Economic Properties of Wood.

In order to avoid repetition, it is sufficient here to refer to
defective shape only. Besides a bent or conical shape in
stems, that have been discussed already, excentric growth
deserves mention. The woody layers are excentric when the
pith on a cross-section is not the centre of the more or less
circular annual zones of wood around it. All plant-part

DEFECTS IN THE ECONOMIC PROPERTIES OF WOOD. 149

deviating from a vertical direction are excentric, e.g., all
branches and roots ; the pith is above the largest layers of
wood in coniferous branches (hyponasty) and below it in most
broadleaved branches (de Bary) * and in roots (epinasty).
Similarly all stems that, owing to wind or snow, are oblique
have excentric growth, i.e., the pith is nearer their upper
surface. Von Sachs and Hartig refer excentricity to pressure
or gravitation ; westerly winds exert pressure on a stem, and
this causes the formation of wide zones of wood on its eastern
side. The thicker bark on the upper surface of oblique stems
and on the southern and western sides of border trees influences
the formation of the wood, for the thicker the bark the less
wood is formed.

Wood is fluted when its annual rings are crenate, that is
wavy, as in the wood of hornbeam, Fig. 18, and of yew.
Fluting may occur also in other species, and especially in
beech, underneath a large bough where the thickening of the
stem is less, while it is very vigorous on the two parallel sides
of the depression that is thus formed.

There are two principal and several intermediate kinds of
crooked stems. A stem may be spiral or curved (sabre-
shaped) : the former defect occurs chiefly in the common, or
Scots, pine,t the latter in larch.

Spiral stems are the less valuable the shorter the distance
between the windings of the spiral ; many entire stems are a
part only of a spiral. This defect in the common pine is said
by Mayr to be due to several causes, of which insufficient atmo-
spheric moisture is the chief. The tree is worstrshapen in
the driest part of its habitat, the south-west of Germany ; in
the moister and optimum climate of the species, West and
East Prussia, Poland, Courland and Livonia, it has a perfectly
straight stem ; so also outside its optimum climate, in its
most northerly habitat, in the moist climates of Norway,
Sweden, Finland and Russia. Even in less favourable parts
of Germany it is found that straightness of stem improves as

* [Mayr says that all branch-wood resembles that of conifers in excentricity.
-Tr.]

t [As Pinux xylrfixtri* grows all over Europe at different altitudes, and is
indigenous in England and Ireland as well as in Scotland, the term Scots pine
for it is a misnomer and its best name is "Common pine." — Tr.]

150 PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

the temperature becomes less and the air moister, as in the
Fichtel Mountains, between Saxony and Bohemia. Other
causes of crookedness, but which are less important than dry
air, are : injuries to saplings by game ; loss of terminal bud
or leading shoot by snow, wind, insects, etc. ; rank growth
on formerly manured agricultural land ; shallow soil (rocky,
or with a pan, etc.).

[Very straight lofty Irish pines grow in the moist climate
of Doneraile, County Cork ; also near Lake Thirlmere, the
wettest place in Britain, with a thirty years' average rainfall of
84 inches. In fact the common pine grows well everywhere
in the moist climate of the British Isles, provided the soil is
a deep sandy loam, or even deep sand with sufficient moisture
below, as at Woburn. Compact clay or calcareous soils, or
sand or gravel that is too shallow for its roots, will not
produce fine pines ; the best and straightest stems occur in
mixture with beech, or on suitable soils in the cool moist
climate of Scotland, where the frequent curvature of young
Scots pines is due chiefly to shallow notching of badly rooted
nursery transplants. — Tr.]

Curved stems are due chiefly to prevalent south-west
winds, especially on sandy soils, by which a larch stem is
blown from its youth out of the vertical direction, while its
strong upward growth contending with the wind-pressure
gives the tree a curved, sabre-like shape from its base to its
crown. This curved shape may be due also to injuries or to
a bending towards the light, if it be slightly overshaded by
another tree. In the larch a bend in one direction is not
counterbalanced, as in most other trees, by a subsequent bend
in the opposite direction, but continues in one direction only,
to the great deterioration of its timber. In Germany, unless
a thinning is made before or immediately after a crop of larch
has closed in, not more than 20 per cent, of the trees will
grow up straight. Isolated larches are nearly always curved
in Germany.

[Larch in Britain appears to grow straighter with its
roots among boulders or in fissured rocks, even near the sea,
as at Weston- Super-Mare, on mountain limestone. It is
also straight and its heartwood_red and sound on the oolitic

DEFECTS IN THE ECONOMIC PKOPEBTIES OF WOOD. 151

rock of the Cotswold Hills ; on shallow soils in situations
that are exposed to the south-west wind it is curved, as in
Germany. — Tr.]

Curvature of stem occurs also in young broadleaved trees,

l-'iir. ill'. ' );ik compass-timber. A 15 is termed the tin/itta or
( Laslett.)

and these should be removed in the early thinnings, even
though, as is often the case, they are the most vigorous com-
ponents of the crop. Poplars and willows in windswept plains
all bend towards the north-east, but are straight and not curved.

On steep slopes all
species of trees have a
curved base, the convex
side of which is turned
towards the valley ; this
may be due to the sliding
downwards of the snow
in winter and its con-
sequent pressure on
saplings and poles. The
upper part of the stem is usually straight, and is vertical in
conifers, but frequently oblique in broadleaved trees, oak,
birch, etc., that grow out towards the light. The curved base
of such trees may be useful for special purposes, but otherwise
reduces the value of the timber.

[There was before the construction of iron ships a great
demand for suitably curved or compass oak timber for the

152 PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

Navy, and Fig. 62 shows the usual dimensions of such pieces,
which were specially valuable. Even now curved pieces are
used largely in the construction of barges, and in the Forest
of Mormal near Le Quesnoy, in the north-west of France,
these curved pieces of oak are still sawn up by pit-saws in
the forest and not in sawmills. Knee pieces, used in barge-
making, are formed where a bough, or root, parts from its
parent stem ; they may be of oak, pine, or spruce (Fig. 63). — Tr.]

Forking of the stem is normal in isolated broadleaved
trees at a short distance from the ground. In trees grown
in dense crops it is abnormal when the fork is lower down
the stem than about 30 feet, as valuable long logs should
be over that length. Irrespective of bad silvicultural treatment,
soil and climate, in a word, the locality, may cause a tree
to fork. It is certain that trees fork most on good soil, though
the reason for this is unknown. If we consider individual
species, it is found that, in oak and beech, forking is repeated
at regular intervals along a tree. Every crop of broadleaved
trees affords examples of this, and ash is also specially liable
to fork, owing to loss of its terminal bud.

Beech trees usually swell at a fork, in the angle of which
water collects, and this causes incipient decomposition of the
wood below it, that is termed Wassertopfe in German (water-
cup).

Silviculture teaches us to remove forked trees in thinnings,
but the necessary preservation of the density of the crop often
prevents this from being done too radically. [It is not, therefore,
always advisable, owing to danger of windfall or of admitting
sunlight to the soil, to cut out all forked trees in thinnings. This
is especially the case in crops of silver-fir, where there may be
many cankered trees that require prior attention. Mr. Ingold,
inspector of forests at Ge"rardmer, remarks on the difference
between V and U-forked trees. When double leaders are
united in a V, there is much bark between the two stems, for
their union is being constantly raised as they grow in thick-
ness, while in U-shaped stems the two leaders are independent.
The V trees are, therefore, very liable to be split by the wind
or snow, while the U trees are much more resistant. The
former only are, therefore, removed in thinnings.

DEFECTS IN THE ECONOMIC PROPERTIES OF WOOD. 153

In the case of broadleaved trees united at their base to form
two or more stems, except in early thinnings, it is best to leave all
the stems rather than to cut one, as each stem has a lop-sided

. *'>!. Four oaks each ten feet in girth. Forest of S. Gobain near Laon.

crown and when isolated is very liable to windfall, while
together they have a united crown and frequently form a
splendid clump of trees, as in Fig. 64. — Tr.]
As regards branches of broadleaved trees, that in young poles

154 PROPERTIES OF WOOD.

rub against the main stem and against one another when the
wind blows and eventually become naturally grafted together or
to the main stem, so that the poles would grow into worthless
trees, they should be carefully pruned or removed in early
thinnings.

On broadleaved stems in high forest, epicormic branches
(water-sprouts) are produced, when the stems are set free
from a dense crop ; this cannot be prevented entirely
by careful thinnings. As this premature development of
epicormic branches is usually due to the want of vigour in
their crowns, such stems should also be cut in thinnings in
preference to those clean-barked poles, which eventually
produce the finest trees. In standards over coppice, the
production of epicormic branches is normal after each
cutting of the underwood and then they should be pruned
carefully.

Sapling-shake (Heisterknick) is a defective bend in the
stem of oaks at a height of about 6 feet from the
ground. It is so named, because it depends on the
planting of saplings of 6 feet, their usual height, in oak
woodlands.

e. Defects in the Chemical Properties of Wood.

The investigation of chemical defects in wood has been so
meagre, that only a few remarks on this subject can be
offered. Cieslar proved that the relative mass of lignin, as
compared with that of cellulose, in wood, depends on the
amount of heat and light to which the tree has been exposed.
Suppressed poles are, therefore, defectively constructed, for
they contain too great a percentage of cellulose ; it is reason-
able to assume that thus those economic properties which
depend on the sp. weight of wood will be prejudiced. By
lignification, science means the storing of lignin on the
cellulose walls of woody tissues, but in practice, the word
denotes the resting-phase of vegetation at the end of a growing-
season, the hardening of yearling shoots and of the last
annual woody zone, that are then said to be lignined. Sus-
ceptibility to early frost of insufficiently ligiiiiied tissues does

DEFECTS IN THE CHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF WOOD. 155

not depend on a scarcity of lignin on the cell-walls, but on the
presence in their interior of plasma, that has not been con-
verted in the cambium and other parenchyma into frost-
hardy resting-plasma. The further a plant-part is from the
latter condition, the more danger it incurs from autumnal and
winter frosts. [The tissues of delicate green-house or hot-
house plants, Eucalypti, Pinns palustris, etc., in which growth
continues in their native habitat till interrupted by excessive
draught, have no resting-plasma ready for the approach of our
winters ; they are, therefore, killed by the first moderate frost.
— Tr.] Hence hardiness against winter-frost, in plants that
withstand it normally, depends chiefly on the preceding
weather and treatment they have experienced. The prevalent
opinion, that after the cells have parted with their contents,
and even in dry heartwood, lignification of the cell-wall may
still proceed, is in itself highly improbable, owing to the
absence of plasma, and has never been proved to be true.

Abnormal formation of gum, gummosis, occurs in the wood
and bark of species of Prunus, as well as in those of certain
tropical trees belonging to various natural orders (Acacnt
Scm-ifdl said by Gamble to yield true gum-arabic, nankin id
rrtnaa, etc.). It is due to metastasis, or chemical transforma-
tion into gum of parts of the tissues.

Resinosis, or conversion of the cell-walls into resin in
coniferous wood, has been disproved byMayr* (c./. resin-galls,
p. 125). He has also shown that pathological conditions in a
tree may cause resin to form. The outflow of resin in logs is
not due to metastasis, but is a mechanical process, the resin
being pressed out of the resin-ducts by the drying and
shrinking wood. In wounded living trees, the flow of resin is
a physiological process caused by turgor of the tissues.

All abnormal tints in wood, whether they result from
ferments caused by fungi, or without their action, are due
essentially to metastasis, but little is known regarding their
origin.

* H. Mayr, " Das Harz tier Nadelbaiime." 18(J4.

156

CHAPTEK II.

FELLING AND CONVERSION OP TIMBER.

THE second chapter of this book deals with the methods of
felling trees and converting them into logs and scantling,
which are then handed over to the consumer.

The foremost rule in conversion of timber is also common to
all industrial undertakings, and is as follows : — Consider care-
fully the uses which may be made of the raw material, and
then act as far as possible without diminishing the pro-
ductivity of the forest, and in accordance with the current
demands of the market.

Since the produce of every forest comes under the influence
of a special market, the wares required by which are multi-
farious, while local requirements, customs, and usages are also
influential, there must be many modes of conversion suitable
for different localities. In the following sections, therefore,
the results of experience are considered, their utility gauged,
and a decision formed as to the basis of a rational system of
Forest Utilization.

SECTION I. — MANUAL LABOUR.
1. General Remarks.

The productiveness of every industry depends on the number
of available labourers, and on their skill and mode of organi-
zation. Hence, the conditions essential for profitable forest
utilization are plenty of good woodcutters, and good arrange-
ments for furthering their labour.

The worth of a woodcutter does not depend only on the value of
the material which he can convert in a given time, but also on
his following the rules of Silviculture and Forest Protection.

In all forest management based on the highest possible
pecuniary return, which may be termed Economic Forestry, it

MANUAL LABOUK. 157

is in Germany a general rule to entrust the fellings to wood-
cutters under the pay and control of the forest-owner, and only
exceptionally to employees of wood-merchants. The latter
method was formerly more frequent, and is still followed largely
in France and Britain, and occasionally in Germany.

Speaking quite generally, whenever the sale of the
wood will barely cover the cost of its conversion, timber-
exploitation may be left to the purchaser of standing trees,
either by the sale in block of all standing trees on a certain area,
or by single marked trees. In high mountain-districts there
are localities difficult of access, where frequently the conversion
and transport of timber would cost more than its value, if
done by other agency than that of the timber-merchant, such
as State agency, or that of a private forest-owner. In such
cases it is better to sell trees to a merchant. Where timber
has to be given away to right-holders, in cases where only
inferior material is in question and there is no fear of the
right-holders defrauding the forest-owner by taking too much
produce, it is also better to allow them to fell and convert the
trees. In forests belonging to poor communes, or villages, it
may be more economical for the villagers to work-out the
timber for themselves.

In all these cases restrictions for the benefit of the forest
must be imposed on the woodcutters, just as if they were
directly under the control of the forest-owner.

It is evident that only by the employment of woodcutters
engaged and paid by himself can the forest-owner maintain a
satisfactory and permanent labour-force, and this he should
always endeavour to secure. Such an object, however, is
not always attainable, and though to secure this is occasion-
ally easy, it is sometimes very difficult. This depends on
local circumstances, and especially on the superfluity or want
of labourers, the duration of work in the forests, and the
conditions of employment offered to the labourers by the
forest-owner.

The supply of forest labour fluctuates with the season of
the year. Owing to increased production of wealth, to modern
laws regulating industry and to the rapidly improving means
of transport, the conditions of labour have altered considerably

J58 FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER.

during the last thirty years, and forestry has not remained
unaffected. The woodman, who formerly remained attached
to his hamlet, has freed himself from his fetters : he leaves
field and forest, and proceeds to the centres of industry and
manufacture where he hopes to get a better price for his
labour, to lead a pleasanter life than in his lonely forest village,
and to acquire property more rapidly. A few years ago,
owing to this migration of the villagers, the scarcity of labour
in certain forest districts had become calamitous. The crisis,
however, did not last long, and at present, many woodmen have
returned to their former pursuits.

The duration of work in the forest depends on the local
extent of the forest area and the degree of intensity of forest
management. Whenever in an extensive forest district there
is always full employment throughout the year, the inhabi-
tants are closely attached to the forest. In such districts
there is hardly any other industry but forestry ; and, even if
other employment could be found for the men, outside or
within the district, yet, provided they can earn the usual wages
prevailing in the locality, forest work is preferred to any other
industry by the greater part of the population, who have, as
it were, grown-up in mind and spirit with the forest. Where,
on the contrary, in districts chiefly industrial or agricultural
the work in the few existing forests can be done in a few
weeks' time, forest work is only an auxiliary to the usual
modes of occupation, the labourers have for it little taste or
skill and can be induced to work only in a perfunctory manner.

The Remuneration and other Conditions which the wood-
men receive from the forest-owner should under all circum-
stances be a fair equivalent for the amount of labour required,
and suffice for the support of a labourer and his family. It is,
therefore, clear that the more a forest-owner can identify his
own interests with those of his woodmen, the more remuner-
ative will be the management of his forest.

2. Demands on the Woodcutter.

People are apt to think that the demands made on a wood-
cutter may be satisfied by any labourer who can use the axe and
saw. This is indeed true in certain cases, but usually a certain

MANUAL LABOUK. 159

amount of skill, foresight, power of reflection and experience is
required, attainable only after prolonged labour in the forests,
which all workmen are not equally capable of acquiring, and
is not found in an equal degree in all forest countries or
districts. All industrial operations are more or less dependent
on the skill of the workmen employed, and the demands
which forestry make on labour form no exception to the rule.

It is necessary to distinguish woodcutters of different
grades of utility, and to distribute the work among them
according to their capability. Whilst for work in high forest,
clear-cuttings, coppices or thinnings, the ordinary labour
force may suffice, natural regeneration-fellings and cutting of
uneven-aged crops and mixed woods demand much more
skilful hands. There is a great difference between working
forests for fuel, and working them for valuable timber or where a
careful and detailed mode of converting the timber is required.

Besides the demands made on skilled labour by special
conditions of forest management, which vary with the locality,
there are others of a general nature that must be made on
every woodcutter, or gang of woodcutters, as regards order,
capacity for labour, and control. A consideration of these
points leads to a statement of the conditions of agreement
between the labourer and the forest-owner, which should be
explained thoroughly to every woodcutter before he engages
to work in a forest. Although these conditions vary for
different forests, or localities, in order to provide for important
local requirements, there are others which prevail throughout'
a whole province or country. Such general conditions are,
therefore, decided usually for extensive forest tracts, leaving
the specially local conditions to be added where necessary,
penalties for breach of agreement being included.

The following are the usual clauses in an agreement with a
woodcutter : —

I. GENERAL CONDITIONS.

A. OBLIGATIONS OF THE WOODCUTTER.

(a) Regarding his conduct during the engagement.

(b) Regarding felling.

(c) Regarding conversion of timber.

(d) Regarding removal of timber.

160 FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER.

B. OBLIGATIONS OF THE WOOD- STACKER, AND OF THE FOREMAN.

C. OBLIGATIONS OF MEN EMPLOYED IN CARRYING AND FLOATING

TIMBER.

D. OBLIGATIONS OF THE CONTRACTOR.

II. SPECIAL CONDITIONS.
III. PENALTIES.

A. OBLIGATIONS OF THE WOODCUTTER.

(a) Conduct of Woodcutter. — As regards the conduct of
the woodcutter, the following are the chief points :—

i. No one is allowed to do other than the special work
allotted to him.

ii. Every woodcutter must be at work punctually at the
appointed hour, and should work steadily and without
intermission until the work is completed, except during
the off- time agreed upon.

iii. Any woodcutter absent without permission from work
will be warned on the first occasion, and on the second
will be considered to have vacated his work of his own
accord.

iv. No work is to be done before sunrise or after sunset.
v. Every woodcutter is to provide his own tools in good
condition and he should also have a two-foot rule.
Wood for mending tools and for constructing huts for
the workmen is provided by the forest-guards. When
the work is completed, all wood used for huts, timber,
sledge-roads, etc., should, as far as possible, be
converted into firewood.

vi. Every woodcutter should be as careful as possible in
carrying out silvicultural rules, and obey the special
instructions of the manager and guards in this respect.
He is also held responsible to report any infractions,
which have come to his knowledge, of such rules by
any other workmen.

MANUAL LABOUR, 161

vii. The woodcutter is not allowed, either by himself or his
family, to remove any wood from the felling-area. At
the completion of the felling and conversion of the
produce, all broken pieces, chips, and other wastage,
will be divided among the workmen.

viii. Each foreman is responsible for the security of the wood

worked by his own gang,
ix. Fires should not be made by 1
whenever a larger number it
area. Great care must be la.
should be extinguished, or c*
evening.

Rules under headings (b) to (d) as regards felling, conver-
sion, and removal of the timber will be given in the sections
dealing with these subjects, and also with B. and C. Special
conditions, II., depend on local circumstances.

III. PENALTIES.

The third part of the conditions of agreement gives the
penalties for infraction of any of the above stipulations.

Such penalties may be pecuniary, such as deductions from
wages, temporary suspension from work, or dismissal, and,
whenever the woodcutter obtains certain privileges from the
forest-owner, such as land for cultivation, wood, litter, etc.,
temporary or permanent deprivation of such privileges.

Certain offences by woodcutters and other forest labourers
are punishable under the forest law.

The penalties should be those usual in the district, and
within the means of the working population.

Deductions from wages and deprivation of privileges are
the most suitable penalties for the poorer workmen. Wher-
ever experience shows that penalties are unavailing, it is
better not to include them in the conditions of agreement,
for in such a case it is better to have no law than one
that cannot be carried out. There are at present many districts
where this is the case, and where penalties cannot be enforced
owing either to the poverty cf the people or to the scarcity
of labour.

F.U. M

162 FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER.

3. Wages.

(a) General Remarks. — The remuneration to the woodcutter
for his labour consists chiefly in a regularly contracted pay-
ment, hut partly in undertaking to contribute to his support
or that of his family in cases of accident, sickness, undeserved
want, etc., and occasionally in special rewards paid to skilled
labom-ev for difficult and unusual work.

One of the best means for retaining the services of the
better part of the labourers for forest work is to allow them
certain forest privileges gratis, or at reduced rates, such as
small areas of land for cultivation during good behaviour.
Friendly societies for saving money for old-age pensions or
allowances during sickness, or for injuries, to which the forest
owner contributes in proportion to the regular contributions
by the labourer, may be mentioned here.

Among all these items the wages are naturally the most
important ; these may be either contract-wages by the piece,
and proportional to the amount of work done, or merely daily
wages.

Woodmen are employed usually on piece-work, which is
the cheapest and fairest method; daily wages are exceptional,
and are given only when the trouble taken by the workman is
out of all proportion to the reasonable amount of work done,
or, as in forest plantations, where if the work be paid by the
number of plants, the latter will be planted carelessly, without
proper attention to their roots

A piece of work done, or work-unit, may be measured in
various ways, either by its weight, volume, or roughly-stacked
volume ; or by the chief determining measure of the work, as
for instance, the length and mid-diameter of a log, the yard of
ditching, the hundred planting-holes of definite size, the
single railway-sleeper, etc. Weight is not much used in
forestry as a unit of work, but the common unit for timber is
the cubic foot, or load of 40 cubic feet for hardwood and of
50 cubic feet for softwood, both corresponding roughly to a
ton. Stacked firewood is measured by the cord (6 feet X
6 feet X 6 feet) of 216 stacked cubic feet, and faggots by the
hundred.

MANUAL LABOUR. 163

Timber may be measured by its dimensions, and the
diameter of different pieces may be used as a unit. Such a
measurement of his work is more easily appreciated and
calculated by the woodcutter than when the cubic foot is the
unit for measurement, and it is also a fairer measure of the
work done than the latter. It has not yet been decided whether
it is more profitable, or not, for the forest-owner to measure
the work for payment by the diameter of the piece, or by the
cubic foot, but experiments made in Saxony are in favour of
the former system, which is much the commoner of the two.
Wherever logs are sold by their length and the diameter of
the smaller end, these latter should also be taken as the units
of work.

Whatever unit of work may be chosen, the pay-unit must
now be calculated, and naturally this varies more or less with
the time and locality, and depends chiefly on : — the supply of
labour ; the extent and variability of the demands for labour
in a district for manufactures, agriculture, public works,
traffic, etc. ; the actual cost of the necessaries of life ; the
value of money measured in commodities ; the economic
condition of the people ; the inclination of workmen for forest
work, etc. Different measures may be taken to rectify the
greater or less variability of the circumstances which affect
wages. Either a permanent table of average wages is
compiled, the wages being increased or diminished when
necessary, or new tables of wages may be prepared annu-
ally, according to the price of labour. In the latter case a
written agreement to hold good for a year between the
forest-owner and the workman must be made, and signed
by both parties.

Besides the fact that it really furthers economy to secure
fair wages to the workman, it is also clearly in the interest of
the forest-owner, as contented workmen will avoid waste in
felling and converting timber, and damage to young growth.
Care for the welfare of the forest depends more or less directly
on the woodcutter's work, and the latter will always turn the
rate of pay to his own advantage. The amount of care he
takes of the forest will be always the less, the lower his wages
are driven by the competition of other workmen. In forest

M 2

164 FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER.

management, as in all great productive industries, the deter-
mination at any time of fair rates of wages is of the greatest
importance, and the question then arises, how should this be
done ?

(b) Determination of Rates of Wages. — It is clear that
the woodman must obtain as high wages in the forest as he
could get by a similar expenditure of labour in any other
rough industry. The forest-owner has to compete for his labour-
supply with other industrial enterprises ; he may usually
compete with them successfully when he remembers that the
industrious woodcutter should receive wages for the hard and
frequently dangerous forest work in ordinary fellings, some-
what above those actually in force for other works in the
district. This addition to the ordinary local wage depends on the
favourable or unfavourable aspect of the circumstances affect-
ing wages that have been already described ; it may be
sometimes 10 per cent., 20 per cent., or even 30 per cent,
above the usual daily wages of labourers. The amount of the
daily wage once settled, the next step will be to fix the pay for
each unit of work in accordance with it.

It is easy to ascertain from the results of the previous year's
felling, what amount of work an industrious workman can do
in a day, i.e., how many cubic feet of converted timber he can
prepare in summer in ten hours, and in six or seven hours in
winter, and in this way, given the rate of daily wage, the rate
per unit of work can be fixed.

There are, however, several classes of wood produced in
each forest, and a distinction must be made between conver-
sion of firewood and that of timber of different varieties. As
regards firewood, it should be noted that split billets are
frequently the predominating class. As regards classified
timber, it cannot be predicted which class will predominate ;
that depends on the mode of conversion and the size of the
trees, etc. Thus, in some districts, middle-sized butts for
saw-mills — in others, averaged-sized logs — will be the material
on which the woodcutter bestows most of his labour, and for
which the rate should be fixed. Firewood and timber are
produced by all forests, so that there are two standards of
rates of pay, of which one is for a cord of split firewood, and

MANUAL LABOUR. 165

the other for a unit of that class of converted timber which
the forest yields most abundantly.

(c) Scale of Wages. — The standard rates, therefore, consist
in those paid for cordwood and for one kind of converted
timber : but on every felling-area there are several — often
many — classes of timber and lire wood, the preparation of
which does not exact the same amount of labour, or the sale-
values of which are highly dissimilar ; there must therefore
be several grades in the rates of pay for piece-work. These
different piece-work prices are always multiples, or parts, of
the two standard rates of pay, and in their case the amount
paid, besides being, as far as possible, proportional to the
work done, should also be proportional to the sale-value of the
converted material.

As regards the former of these factors (the expenditure of
labour on any work) round billets are prepared more easily
than split-wood, and should be paid for at a lower rate ; whilst
the preparation of 100 bean-sticks should cost less than that
of 100 hop-poles.

The amount of labour involved in the work is, however,
made subsidiary to the sale-value of the outturn, and the
maxim of making the labour-charge for preparation of more
valuable material higher than for what is less valuable is of
the highest importance. Thus, the preparation of the better
classes of logs or scantlings is remunerated more highly than
that of the lower classes, even when the amount of labour
expended is the same in botb this is especially true for

long pieces of valuable timber, provided the diameter at the
small end is up to standard; a higher payment would he
made for the entire piece than if it had been cut in two,
although in the latter case more labour would have been
expended.

There are forest districts where, in the interest of the forest
owner, the wages of woodcutters are allowed to rise and fall
with the sale-prices of the outturn ; as in parts of the Schwarz-
wald, and especially in the forests of the Prince of Fiirstenberg.
The best plan is, therefore, to pay relatively the highest rates
for those pieces, the sale of which is most profitable to the
owner, and to pay the wages corresponding to the labour

]66 FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER,

involved only for less saleable pieces, the number of which the
owner wishes to keep as low as possible. Thus, payment for
wood from the stump and roots of the trees is kept very low,
to prevent material fit for straight, split, or round cordwood
being thus used, and especially to keep down as much as
possible the amount of root- and stump-wood.

(d) Area where the Same Wages Prevail. — Once the scale
for labour-payments has been decided, it may be applicable to
a forest district, range, or working-circle, but sometimes only
to a particular felling-area. Thus, where the locality is un-
favourable, as, for instance, on steep, lofty slopes ; in fellings
where special care has to be taken of the material, or of the
regeneration or tending of the forest ; in very remote felling-
areas, where the woodmen have far to go to reach their work ;
where the trees to be felled are far apart, so that there are
difficulties in collecting and sorting the outturn ; and in
several other cases, — greater demands are made on the
labourers than where opposite conditions prevail.

The preparation of forest accounts is much simplified when
the same rates of payment are made in all the felling-areas of
the same forest range. In level, uniformly-stocked forests,
and especially where only one species of tree is grown, such
simplicity is often admissible ; but in the case of irregular
woods and unlike conditions, the forest-owner will find it to
his profit to have different rates of payment for different
localities.

Thus, we have various rates of payment for piece-work that
rise and fall with the local daily wage. In allotting these rates
according to the different kinds of produce, too much detail
should not be attempted, so that the accounts may not become
too complicated. An exception to this maxim arises only in
the case of forests yielding highly valuable timber.

(e) Wages for Barking Trees, Stacking Firewood, etc.—
When the rates of payment for felling and converting the
timber have been settled, it is usual to enter in the agreement
the rates for barking the trees, also for collecting the timber
and stacking the firewood. The latter work usually involves
only one rate, but in the case of collecting the timber in
temporary forest depots, the greatest differences of rates,

MANUAL LABOUR. 167

compared with the average rates for pieces of the same size,
may prevail.

In level land, it is necessary to convey the converted wood
only to the nearest road, or timber-depot, and the amount
of labour involved is practically the same in all cases for
pieces of similar dimensions ; but in mountain-districts there
are, as a rule, great differences in this labour, and it is
usual to fix different rates for each felling-area at different
altitudes. [In Britain it is a common practice to pay for
felling and barking oak trees by the ton of bark that results —
120 cub. ft. of timber usually yielding a ton of bark. — Tr.]

(f) Daily Wages. — There are cases where either the work
done cannot be measured, or special demands are made on
the ability, experience and care of the workmen that must
be considered in fixing wages, for in these cases it is quite
exceptional that the work is at all proportional to the
energy expended on it. If a special agreement cannot be
made, daily pay should be given. Thus in cleanings or
early thinnings, in pruning trees, the work done cannot be
measured. For constructing the various means of water-
transport; making or repairing roads, slides, bridges; build-
ing substantial huts for workmen; setting-up fences, and so
on, the skill of a carpenter or engineer is required, although
it is frequently only a woodcutter who docs the work, and then
he should be paid in proportion to his skill. Only ex-
perience can guide the forest-manager in settling a fair wage
for such work.

All the above conditions regarding wages form the terms of
a written agreement between the woodcutters and the forest
managers as a rule ; an agreement should be for an indefinite
time, with a stipulated period for notice by either party of its
termination. It is wrong to make the agreement only for a
year, as there may be difficulties about renewing it. It is
also wrong to delay a fresh agreement until the workmen
give notice of dissatisfaction with the current rates of pay ;
this may dissolve the friendly ties between the workmen and
their employer.

The woodcutters' agreement, therefore, provides for its
renewal and for notice of terminating it, also for the rates of

168 FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER.

pay, and manner of payment. It should be signed by all the
workmen and by the forest-manager.

4. Organisation of the Labour-Gang.

(a) General Account. — It is evident that the efficiency, as
regards quality and quantity of outturn, of the whole force
of labourers employed in a forest, leaving out of consideration
their special aptitude for the work, depends greatly on the
supervision the foresters and forest-guards can exercise over
them. The influence and the possibility of its leading also to
useful results depends on the relations of the woodcutters to
one another, and on their attachment to the forest and its
interests. All this varies considerably from place to place,
and in certain cases it is hardly possible for the forest-manager
to exert the desired influence, whilst in others he can do so
quite easily. In order, however, to do what is possible in this
respect and supervise the hundreds of woodcutters who may
be employed in any forest-range, as well as to distribute them
suitably among the different felling-areas and pay them pro-
portionally to their labour, a certain organisation of the whole
force of labour must be instituted, subdividing them into
gangs and parties, and appointing from amongst themselves
certain influential persons as foremen and heads of parties.
Usually the gangs are composed of all men coming from the
same village (or district), and their leader is termed a foreman.
A party consists of the number of men, not less than two
or three, required for complete felling and conversion of a
certain lot of trees. The party chooses its own leader, works
together and divides the payment for the work done into equal
parts among its members.

Considerable importance should be attached to the choice of
the foreman, as he is the intermediary between the workmen
and the forest officials and is more or less responsible during
the absence of the latter for the conduct of the woodcutters.
On account of the indispensable nature of his services it is
advisable to attach him as much as possible to the forest and
to keep him constantly employed ; he should also have special
privileges. He usually settles the accounts with the men,

MANUAL LABOUR. 169

and obtains a small percentage of the total payment for
doing so.

The connection of the woodcutters with one another varies
in different places, depending partly on the possibility of
carrying out the organisation already described, and partly on
local laws regarding workman and employer. It is often very
difficult to enforce penalties against the woodcutter for non-
fulfilment of the contract, or agreement, made between him
and the forest-owner, although it may be advisable if possible
to secure such an agreement. Whether an agreement is made
with all woodcutters or with some of them only, or with the
foreman on behalf of the other men, depends on the particular
class of labourers to be dealt with. Woodcutters may be
classified as follows :—

(b) Non-Associated Woodcutters. — Where forest blocks
are found scattered amongst agricultural lands, forestry is
only an accessory means of employment for the people, and
no regular gang of woodcutters exists. The men engaged for
forest- work are a motley crew following all callings and with-
out any connection with one another. The attachment binding
the woodcutter to the forest is in such cases generally of the
slightest kind, and even if a legal act of agreement be made
between him and the forest-owner, it will be only of a tem-
porary nature, depending on his own interest and liking for
the work. In this class there is no association between the
different woodcutters, each man works independently of the
others, or they may work in pairs in the case of sawyers.
Very often such a gang of woodcutters is composed of quite
different individuals at the close of a felling to those who
commenced work on the same area. In such cases, if the
forest-manager wishes to secure attention to the most neces-
sary protective rules, he must make a separate agreement
with every labourer.

(c) Associated Labour. — In extensive forest districts in
plains and mountains the conditions of labour differ greatly
from the above. The chief means of livelihood of the inhabi-
tants are then obtained from the forest and the work it affords ;
the people consider it an honour for a man to be employed in
the forest, and forest work is preferred to all others which

170 FELLING AND CONVERSION OE TIMBER.

may offer. A few of the people possess all the best qualities
of these woodcutters, and are most attached to the forest and
most trustworthy in working, and have much influence over
the other men. In such cases it is sufficient for the forest
owner to make agreements with the more influential wood-
cutters when they are sufficiently numerous to form a regular
enrolled gang constantly employed in the forest, and have a
common insurance fund to which the forest-owner contributes.
Such a labour-gang is strengthened from time to time, as
necessity arises, by engaging other men temporarily.

(d) Contractors' Men. — Sometimes the legal act of agree-
ment is made by the forest-owner with a contractor, who
undertakes to supply all the men required for any definite
piece of work in the forest. Contractors are frequently active,
influential and fairly wealthy men who have considerable tact
in managing woodcutters. This assistance simplifies matters
for the forest-owner, as the contractor has all the worry and
trouble of managing and supplying the labour-gang, and of
paying them in detail for the work done. In extensive forest
districts, insufficiently supplied with experienced foresters or
forest-guards, or where the woodcutters are very experienced
and trustworthy and the work can be largely left to them
without much supervision on the part of the forest staff, it is
often better to entrust the conversion of the timber to an
experienced contractor who thoroughly knows the capacity of
individual workers, and can give full security to the forest-
owner for good work. This system has, however, its shady
side, as contractors sometimes defraud their men.

The contractor is often obliged to bring his men from a
distance (as in the case of Italians employed in Germany);
he then requires pecuniary advances and concessions,
which are not necessary under ordinary circumstances.
Timber-work is largely done by contractors in the Black
Forest, Alps, Hungary, Galicia, and in many extensive forest
districts of the North German Plain. In the Alps the con-
tractors are frequently mayors of villages. Although, strictly
speaking, the contractor is responsible for the conduct of his
men, the forest-manager does not abstain from direct super-
vision over them, and it is evident that the contractor must

MANUAL LABOUR. 171

be bound legally by conditions covering all the interests of the
forest owner.

In the case of extensive damage to forests by wind, insects,
snow, etc., when there is an extraordinary amount of material
to be converted, it is generally necessary to entrust the work
to contractors. Often in such cases the workmen are brought
from a distance, as Italians in South Germany, etc., and it is
necessary to make arrangements which the ordinary course of
forest-work does not require.

In the years 1891 — 93, damage by the nun-moth in
S. Bavaria rendered recourse to contractors necessary. About
10,000,000 tons (9,968,000 c.m.) of dead wood had to be
felled and converted as speedily as possible. A band of
about 8,000 men had to be imported and organised. Twenty-
five barracks with heating-apparatus and beds had to be
built, each for 50 — 60 workmen, and provision made for
feeding them, with medical attendance, hospitals, and a
police force. Telephones were installed, and the number of
forest-guards increased considerably. It was necessary to set
up a temporary office, with clerks and accountants. All this
was done with such skill and financial success as to bring
great credit on the Bavarian Forest Ihipurtment. After this
work had been completed, forest management returned to its
ordinary channels.

(e) Work done by Forest Settlers. — Hitherto it has been
presupposed that for ordinary fellings the necessary labour-
gang could be secured within easy distance of the forest, but
there are forest districts where the population is so scattered
and scanty that the needful force of labour cannot be obtained
in the neighbourhood ; the manager is then obliged to engage
labourers from a distance and settle them in a regular colony
within his forest. It is evident that only in the last extremity
of scarcity of local labour would a forest-manager resort to
such an expensive measure as the above.

Such colonies of forest- labourers are found at Herrenwies
in the Black Forest, and in other parts of Germany, also in
certain districts in Hungary. The settlers must be supplied
with houses, food, medical attendance, schools and churches,
plots of land to be cultivated and meadow- land for each

172 FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER.

head of a family, also litter and firewood ; even their widows
and orphans must be maintained.

[Imported labourers from Chota Nagpur are largely em-
ployed in the Assam tea-gardens under conditions similar to
the above, but the Indian Forest Department has hitherto
been able to dispense with the necessity for resorting to such
a class of labour. — Tr.]

5. The Forest Labour -question.

As already stated, the position of labourers has altered
greatly in the last forty years, and instead of the former con-
tented, industrious woodcutter, forest management has to deal
with a fluctuating proletariat. The forester is called upon to
improve this state of things, not only on the grounds of
national economy, but also from a special forest economic
point of view ; although he cannot control all the factors in
the question, he can to some extent assist in organising a
physically and morally strong force of woodcutters. Some
notes showing how he should proceed to gain this object are
given below.

Wages should be high enough to remunerate fairly the
hard forest work and the increasing dearness of living. The
supposed gain to the forest-owner by low wages is often con-
verted into a loss, ten times as great, by bad workmanship,
while moreover damage is done to the forest. The maxim of
the lowest possible wage is much more objectionable in forest
work than in any other industry.

It has long been admitted by experienced foresters that it
is highly advantageous to fix remuneration for work done,
at rates proportional to the sale-value of the outturn. Let
UK: roughest kinds of work be well paid, but fix rates ut
least double the ordinary ones for valuable produce. The
amount the woodcutter thus gains will secure from him an
intelligent and profitable conversion of the felled trees, will
(ixcite his attention and care, increase his utility and enable
hi in at the same time to increase his own earnings. Small
i-o wards also should be offered to woodcutters for new tools,
and other improvements.

THE FOREST LABOUK-QUESTION. 173

The system of giving the work to contractors should be
abandoned, whenever it is known or suspected that the con-
tractor is making more money that is absolutely necessary out
of the workmen ; in such cases direct dealing with the latter
should be substituted, or other means taken to protect the men
from imposition.

In order to induce good woodcutters to become attached to
the forest, as far as possible, permanent work should be pro-
vided for them ; certain works should be kept in abeyance, so
that as soon as the harvest or other agricultural business is
over work may be found for the strong young woodcutters.
Naturally, in such cases, the best and most trustworthy men
will be most favoured. Attempts also should be made to
lighten the men's work, by constructing woodcutters' huts
in remote felling-areas and introducing labour-saving
appliances.

Another effective incentive is to offer the men forest privi-
leges at low rates. Such privileges are highly valued by
country people, and they think nothing of the labour involved
to themselves in taking advantage of them.

^"itliin the limits allowed by Forest Protection many a
privilege of little value may In- bellowed, which is paid for ten-
fold by the services of good woodcutter.-. Such are : — assign-
ing small allotments of forest lands for cultivation at a low
rent, during the good behaviour of the woodcutter ; or of
building-timber, at cheap rates, for the construction of new
woodcutters' houses, or repairs of old ones.

Appointments, when vacancies arise, of useful woodcutters
who have served long in the forest, as forest-guards, fire-
watchers, road-guards, foremen, etc., can be given but rarely,
but may be mentioned with the other means of attracting
good men to the forest. The frequently indifferent pay of
forest-guards, and in Germany, the preference given to old
soldiers for these posts, often render this impracticable.

In many forest districts friendly societies are established to
which every woodcutter is obliged to contribute a certain per-
centage of his wages, and the forest-owner also contributes
proportionally. From these deposits allowances are made in
cases of sickness or accident, and usually also to old wood-

174 FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER.

cutters' widows and orphans. If these societies are to be real
incentives to a steady labour-force, they must dispose of
sufficient capital and offer real and sufficient help in times of
need. Several of these funds are very substantial concerns ;
as at Clausthal in Hanover, in the Sihlwald belonging to the
town of Zurich and other localities. There is now a general
Imperial Fund for the whole of Germany to provide insurance
against accident, and pensions in old age for workmen of all
classes ; from this fund the best results may be expected.
In Bavaria, by a State decree of the 26th December, 1898,
this now includes allowances to forest workmen in cases of
sickness.

SECTION II. — WOODCUTTERS' IMPLEMENTS.

Although custom, experience, and skill may to a certain
extent supply the want of good implements, it cannot be
denied that, in every industry, not only more but better work
can be done with good tools than with bad ones. This must
necessarily be the case in forestry, and the more so, the less
skilful and experienced are the woodcutters who are employed.
The supply of good implements is, therefore, an important
object for the forest-manager which he must always keep in
view.

Woodcutters' implements are classified according as they are
used for hewing, sawing, splitting or grubbing-up the wood.

1. Hewing Implements.

Hewing implements include felling-axes, trimming-axes
and the billhook. The two former are heavier than the last,
and are used with both hands on large timber, whilst the
billhook is used with one hand only, for cutting saplings and
brushwood. The two kinds of axes differ, in that the former
is sharpened symmetrically on both sides of its edge, and is
used for converting wood in the rough ; the trimming-axe
is used for shaping the wood, it has an unsymmetrical edge,
nat on one side and sloping on the other.

Axe- heads of both kinds are made out of oblong pieces of iron
which are beaten thin at the ends, and then bent to form an eye

WOODCUTTERS' IMPLEMENTS. 175

for the handle. In order to give the axe a sharp edge, a wedge-
shaped piece of steel is placed between the thin iron ends, and
they are then welded together, or in the trimming-axe a steel
plate is welded to the side which remains flat.

The felling-axe is the handiest of all woodcutters' tools,
and in cases of necessity, however improperly, it may be used
as a substitute for almost any other tool. It consists of the
axe-head and handle, the latter made of a tough split piece of
ash, hornbeam, beech, robinia, hickory or whitebeam; the hole
in the axe-head into which the handle fits is termed the eye,
and usually widens-out on the side opposite that where the
handle is inserted, to allow of a wedge being driven in to hold
the handle firmly in its place. The part of the axe away
from its edge, including the eye, is termed the back, and may
be curved or flat, and in the latter case is of steel. The cut-
ting part is termed the blade, which may also be either straight
or curved.

The characteristics of a good axe are : that the edge shall
be sharp and the steel of which it is composed possess the
proper degree of tempering, so that when used, on the one
hand, it may retain its cutting-edge without the latter becom-
ing bent, and on the other, the edge may not be too hard, and
break. As regards shape, the axe should form a tapering
wedge with smooth sides. In order to reduce friction as
much as possible, the sides of the axe should be slightly
convex, or there should be a slight projection in the middle of
the blade. The weight of an axe, its size and relative dimen-
sions depend on whether it is to be used for hard and heavy,
or soft, light wood. In the former case the action is chiefly
cutting ; a finer edge is then required and the axe should be
lighter and thinner than one used for softwoods, which in
all parts, and especially in the back, is thicker and broader
than the hardwood axe, acting more like a wedge.

In no case, however, should the axe be too large or heavy,
as it then fatigues the woodcutter and does not work so
economically as a lighter implement.

The axe-handle is sometimes straight and sometimes curved,
sometimes parallel to the edge and sometimes bending from
or towards it. It is difficult to decide which shape is most

176

FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER.

advantageous ; it is often made so as to taper away from the
end, and thus afford a better hold.

Fig. 65 shows the shape of the Kenebeck American axe, the
edge of which is made of compressed steel and lasts almost
indefinitely. It is said to tire the woodcutter less than any
other axe, and can be used to cut horizontally. It is made in two
sizes, weighing respectively 5J and 7 Ibs.,
including the handle, and costs from 15 to
20 shillings a dozen. The handles are
usually 2J feet long, a longer one being
inconvenient, though they are sometimes
used up to 3J feet in the Spessart and
eastern parts of the Black Forest. The use
of these axes is spreading widely throughout
Germany.

Two kinds of axes may be distinguished,
viz. : the felling-axe, and the axe for cleav-
ing or splitting wood.

(a) Felling -Axes. — The felling -axe is
used for felling trees, chiefly large ones
which offer considerable resistance to
felling.

Only exceptionally do woodcutters use two
axes, the felling-axe and the lopping-axe,
and the latter is not required in broad-
leaved forests.

The Saxon axe (Fig. 66) is quite straight-
bladed from back to edge, and forms a com-
plete wedge ; the faces are slightly curved
outwards, the handle is straight, and 0*75
meter (29 inches) long. The Harz axe
(Fig. 67) is shorter, broader, and the faces hardly curved at
all. The Bohemian axe (Fig. 68), also used in Moravia and
Silesia, resembles the Saxon axe, but is bent downwards.
The Carpathian axe (Fig. 69) is broader than those already
described and is used also for splitting wood. The axe used
in the Bavarian Alps (Fig. 70) is a light axe with a rounded
buck ; the Black Forest axe (Fig. 71) resembles it, but is
shorter, broader, and heavier, and owing to the largo

Fig. 65. — American
axe.

AXES.

177

common in the Black Forest, the handle is generally one
meter (89 inches) long.

Fig. 6(5. — Saxon axe. Fig. (57. — Harx. axe. !• i.Lr. i'>s. — Imli'-iniuu axe.

Fig. (ill. — Carpathian
axe.

Fig. 70. — N. Alpine axe.

ijr. 71.— Black
Forest axe.

The lopping-axe used in the Bavarian Alps (Fig. 72) is similar
to the felling-axe but is stouter, and heavier, and flat in the
back.

F.U.

178

FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER.

In the same region the double-axe (Fig. 73) is used, which
has a smaller head for small wood ; it weighs only 1*40 kilo-
grams (3 pounds). The Thuringian axe (Fig. 74) somewhat

Fig. 72. — N. Alpine lopping axe.

Fig. 73. — N. Alpine double axe.

Fig. 74. — Thuringian axe. Fig. 75. — Norwegian axe.

resembles the Saxon axe. The characteristic shape of the
Norwegian axe may be seen from Fig. 75 ; it is considered a
very workmanlike instrument.

Figs. 76, 77, and 78 show French axes* with very light

* From Boppe, " Technologic Koivstiere.''

AXES.

179

handles, they lighten the labour but render precision in cutting
difficult. The Finnish axe (Fig. 79) is the lightest of all, and
only 6 inches long so that half its weight is sheathed on
the handle.

The main difference between the American axe and the

rxf

Fig. 76. — French axe.

Fiir. 77. — Breton axe.

'8. — Lorraine axe.

various European axes consists in the devices for preventing
its jamming and sticking in the cut. The faces of an axe are
either provided along their middle line with a prominent ridge,
or as in the Pennsylvania!! axe (Fig. 65), are strongly curved
outwards. The blade of the latter is
made of compressed steel, hardly wears
at all, and works well. By general con-
sent this axe is considered to save labour
and tire the men less than many German
axes, owing to its convenient handle and
freedom from sticking ; it is used chiefly
for softwoods. [The American axe is not,
however, adapted for hard, tropical wood,
for which the use of a narrower and
lighter axe is advisable. — Tr.]

(b) Trimming- Axes. — The trimming-axe
is used by woodcutters for trimming-off
side-pieces of balks, and by the carpenter in preparing timber
for building and other purposes. In Germany it is usually
of the shape given in Fig. 80, having only one edge, the
blade being curved inwards to allow sufficient play for the
hand of the operator. The handle is short, usually 1J to
If feet, and the workman uses it sideways from the side of the

N 2

Fig. 71). — Finnish axe.

180

FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER.

log he is trimming. Another shape (Fig. 78) is in use in
the Black Forest, being more convenient on rocky and difficult
ground than the former.

[Trimming-axes in India generally are shaped symmetrically ,
but much larger and heavier than ordinary axes, weighing up
to 8 pounds and more. The workman stands on the top of
the log and trims-off side-pieces by swinging the axe vertically
and merely allowing its own weight to act. The handles for

Fig. 80.

Trimming-axes.

Fig. 81.

these trimming-axes are 3j to 4J feet long so as to give
sufficient momentum. — Tr.]

(c) The Billhook. — Billhooks may be of various shapes ;
they are used chiefly for cutting coppice or fascines, and in
lopping branches from trees. Fig. 82 shows the common
German billhook, the backward turn of the blade at its top
being useful in pulling out the ends of withes while tying
faggots. The English fascine-knife (Fig. 83) is 21 inches long
and very serviceable in cutting fascines. Fig. 84 represents
a- very serviceable billhook ; it is half an inch thick at the
back, and has a cutting edge at a for cutting through branches
placed on a piece of wood, as well as its ordinary cutting edge b.

SAWS.

181

Courval has invented a pruning billhook (Fig. 84) which is

16 inches long and weighs about 3J pounds;

it is made thickest along its axis in order to

add weight to its cuts. According to Courval

all kinds of pruning, even of large boughs,

may be effected with this instrument.

Fig. 82. Fig. 83. Fig. 84. Fig. 85. Fig. 86.

Forms of billhook. Courval's tree-pruner. American thorn-hook.

The American thorn-hook (Fig. 86) is used for lopping ; its
head weighs 2f to 3 pounds.*

2. Saws.

(a) General Account. — Saws are used by woodcutters for
felling trees, and for reducing the length of logs and branches
at right angles to their axis. A saw may be used for such
a purpose much more economically than an axe, which wastes
much of the wood. Under certain circumstances and on
difficult ground, the work may be done moi?e expeditiously
with an axe. The amount of time spent in sawing may vary
from 20 per cent, to 40 and 70 per cent, of the whole time
of the woodcutters on the felling-area.

May be obtained from J. D. Dominicus & Sons, Remscheid-VieringhauBen.

182 FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER.

Formerly forest saws were rolled out of wrought iron, and
the rolled blade was then hammered cold to make it hard
and elastic. At present, saws are made of cast steel, and work
more easily than the older implements. Owing to the superior
toughness of the steel they retain their edge and set better,
and, owing to their smooth sides, they cause much less friction
in use than the iron saws.

Saws have to overcome not only the resistance of the wood,
but also the friction of their sides against the rough surface of
the wood which is being sawn and the sawdust that collects
between the teeth. Their teeth act chiefly by tearing the
wood-fibres asunder*, and so much the more, the more porous
the wood and the longer and tougher the wood-fibres ; this is
therefore especially the case with soft, broadleaved and coni-
ferous woods. In the case of hard broadleaved woods, this
tearing action is superseded partly by a cutting action. The
more a saw tears the fibres apart the greater the amount
of sawdust, which is therefore most abundant in the case of
softwoods.

(b) Mode of Construction of Saws. — Saws are constructed
differently according to the uses for which they are intended ;
they vary in shape, length, weight, and shape of teeth.

They may be used either for large or small timber. In the
former case they cut both ways, are worked by two men
and termed two-handed saws. In the latter case they cut only
one way and are one-handed : such saws rarely exceed 1 J to
2J feet in length, whilst the two-handed saws may be 3J to 6J
feet long, their length being determined by the diameter of
the piece to be sawn, and the distance through which the
arm moves. The weight of a saw depends also on its
length.

The construction of the teeth of saws varies considerably.
Kach tooth may be cither symmetrical or unsymmetrical, and
tlio tooth vary- in depth, thickness and distance from one
smother, each of which points affects the working of the saw.

As regards the shape of the teeth, a distinction must be
made between those cutting one or both ways. In the former
case they are shaped usually as in Fig. 87, that of a right

* I "nle p. 115.

SAWS.

183

angled triangle, the shorter side of the triangle or face of the
tooth being at right angles, or nearly so, to the line of their
insertion on the saw. In English saws the hypotenuse, or
back of the teeth, is cut-out in a curve (Fig. 88). Such teeth

Fig. 87. — Oblique triangular teeth.

Fig. 88.— Oblique socket teeth.

are used only in the case of one-handed saws, or in pit-saws
used by woodcutters for sawing timber longitudinally.

Forest saws which cut both ways require teeth of a different
shape. They are always symmetrical, and usually bounded by

Fig. Xl».— Erect dog teeth.

straight lines : dog teeth, as in Fig. 89 ; curved teeth, as in Fig. 90,
the Harz saw7 ; or are so-called M teeth, Figs. 91 and 92,
which cut both ways. American saws have teeth as shown in
Figs. 93 and 94, in the latter, dog and M teeth are combined.

Fig. 91.

Simple M teeth.

Fig. 92.

M IWl

Fi'_r. '.I!'.. — IJcvellctl American teeth.

Space must be allowed between the teeth for the escape of
the sawdust, which requires four to six times the space of the
wood from which it is taken. This is provided by giving the
teeth a much greater depth at a b (Fig. 95) than their cutting

184

FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER.

edge a c, and by leaving a larger space between the teeth than
their own area. In old-fashioned saws this was provided for by
breaking-off the tops of some of the teeth at regular intervals,

Fig 94. — American combined dog'and M teeth.

as in Fig. 96, but such imperfect teeth are not found in modern
saws. The dog teeth between the combined M teeth of
American saws may be considered as planing- teeth for remov-

Fig. 95. — Saw with deep intervals
between the teeth.

Fig. 9f>. — Saw with imperfect teeth,

ing splinters of wood, as they are not set like the other teeth.
They may also serve as cutting teeth and then are sharpened,
(c) Shape of Saws. — Various kinds of saws have come into
use in different countries, of which the following are the most
serviceable : —

i. Two-handed Saws.

The two-handed forest saws comprise the straight, bow,
and curved cross-cut saws.

The straight cross-cut saw is 4J by 5 feet long, with a

Kig. 97. — American saw.

breadth of blade of 4j to 5f inches. The handles are placed
at right angles to the cutting edge of the saw, which consists
of dog teeth with some shortened ones, and the bladi; is

SAWS.

185

slightly convex. They are used by Tyrolese and Italians to
saw up railway-sleepers. Such saws are also used in broad-
leaved forests, where there is much large timber, as in the
Spessart and the Rhine Valley.

American straight saws, termed Nonpareil saws (Figs. 97

!>S. — American saw.

and 98), from Disston & Sons, Philadelphia, are used now
largely in Germany ; experience show's that their outturn in
broadleaved forests is 35 to 40 per cent, more than that of

'.'it. — Hai/, bow-saw.

the ordinary straight German saws. In coniferous forests
on the other hand, they have not proved superior to the
Tyrolese curved saw (Fig. 101). The Nonpareil saw is made of

Ki<r. loo. Mnhcniian bow-saw.

the best steel, and has an ingenious contrivance for fastening
and removing the handles.

The bow-saw (Fig. 99), which partakes of the character of a
straight cross-cut saw, has a straight thin blade, which is kept
rigid by means of a bow. More exertion is required to work
it than the other cross-cut saws, and it is serviceable only

186 FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER.

when short. The width of the blade varies considerably.
Fig. 100 represents the broad blade of the Bohemian bow-saw.
The bow is made of a sapling of spruce, rowan or hazel, also
of elm and ash ; recently it has been made of metal, with
tension screws. It is much used in North Germany, also in

Fig. 101. — Tyrolese curved saw.

Bohemia, Moravia and Kussia, but is not known in South
Germany.

The Tyrolese curved cross-cut saw is constructed as shown
in Fig. 101, and the dog teeth are often made longer in the
middle than at the two ends, where they are less in use.

Fig. 102. — Thuringian curved saw.

These curved saws vary in length and curvature, and are
either straight or slightly curved inwards at the back ; they
are extensively used.

The Thuringian, or Saxon saw (Fig. 102) may be taken as
the type of a saw in which not only the edge, but also the back
of the blade, is curved. It is a very light and short saw, but
is strong ;md turns out good work. It is not suitable for very
broad cuts, as when made long it is not stiff enough. In
spite of this defect, it has, however, recently been introduced
into several districts in the Black Forest.

K. Gayer and East* have tested the work done by cross-cut

* Gayer u. K:ist. " I'.ritrsi^ xur Knnil tiling dcr Leistungsfahigkeit ih'r
,'' in I'.aurs I'urst wi.^rnsrii. /entralbl., 1 S%, pp. 11 7— 17S.

SAWS.

187

saws and according to their advice Dominicus & Sons have
constructed an ideal saw, in their " Non plus ultra." This
combines the advantages of the Tyrolese curved saw, with that

o a o o

Fi«,r. 108. — "Xon plus ultra'' saw of Dominicus.

of perforation of the blade (p. 191). Such saws vary in
length from 4 ft. 2 in. to 5 ft. 10 in., and weigh 3 Ibs. 3 ozs. to
51bs. 12 ozs. and are sold at 8s. 6<7. to 13s. each (Fig. 103).

An important adjunct to all
saws are the handles and the
arrangements for fixing them to
the blade. In the older saws,
the blade terminates at each end
with spikes, which are driven
into the wooden handles.
American saws have, however,
a better device, the blade not
being provided with spikes, but
the handles fixed to it by means
of screws and nuts, the former
passing through holes in the blade, as shown in Fig. 104.
This allows the handles to be removed readily, and the blade
withdrawn from the cut ; the blade can even turn on the
handle, Fig. 105.

ii. One-handed Saws.

One-handed saws are used chiefly for removing branches and
for pruning : priming-saws have been described in Manual
of Forestry, Vol. II., 3rd ed. p. 287. In one-handed saws the
blade may be kept stiff either by a bow or by being made
sufficiently thick. In bow-saws the teeth are oblique and
their points are inclined forwards if the work is done with an
upward stroke, or backwards for a downward stroke. Ahler's
bow-saw (Fig. 106), has a removable blade arranged so as

104. Fiji. 1".-).

Removable saw-handles.

188

FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER.

to cut either way, with a bow that can be adjusted by means
of a screw. [A frame-saw used in the North
West Himalayas is shown in Fig. 107 ; the blade
is of thin rolled steel and the teeth slightly
set; it is kept stiff by catgut, which is twisted
tight by the small piece of wood a. — Tr.]

One-handed saws without a bow are
stiffened by increasing the thickness of the
blade, that diminishes from the teeth edges
towards the back of the saw ; they are used
for cutting poles or branches, and are called
" Fox-tail saws."

Fig. 108 represents an American fox-tail

Fig. 106.— Ahler's
bow-saw.

^^*»'vv^A/^/^A/^A/vvw^''v\A.V^

Fig. 107. — Himalayan saw. (After Fernandez.)

saw made by Disston & Sons, Philadelphia, for forest work.
It is used for cutting logs of moderate thickness into lengths,
and is very serviceable. It is constructed in lengths of 3f , 4,
4J, 5, 5J, and 6 feet long, and costs Ss. to 10s.

,a,^>^

los.

In using saws for cutting-up poles from thinnings or coppice
the woodcutter improvises a sowing-block, on which he cuts up
the poles into billets. This mode of sawing firewood is
greatly preferable to cutting poles into lengths with the axe,

MODE OF USING SAWS. 189

as it is more economical of the wood, and, after a little
experience, is more labour-saving than the latter method.

iii. Machine -sates.

Attempts have often been made to fell trees by machine-
saws, driven by steam or hand-power. Eansome's steam-saw,
manufactured by A. Koppel, Berlin, as shown in Fig. 109,
is the best known in Germany. Hitherto the use of these

saws has not proved effective in European forests. In
North America, where trees are either felled in the open, or
wholesale in forests, without any care for the undergrowth,
they may be serviceable : but chiefly the axe is used in the
extensive Pacific Coast and mountain forests.

(d) Mode of Using Forest Saws.

This depends on the material of which the saw is composed,
its shape, dimensions, curvature, weight, shape of teeth,
amount of set or extent to which the teeth are bent to either
side of the plane of the blade, their degree of sharpness, and,
finally, on the kind of wood to be cut and the use to be made
of the wood. The strength of the workman and his degree of
skill in using saws are also important factors in the question,
although it is difficult to estimate them.

The material of which the saw is made is so far important, as
it determines its temper and how long it will remain sufficiently
sharp and retain its set. Saws rolled out of cast steel are best
in these respects.

As regards shape, curved saws are preferable to straight
ones, especially for coniferous wood, and a radius of 6 feet

190 FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER.

gives the most suitable curvature for general work. The
Nonpareil saw is the best of the straight saws.

For practised sawyers, working with a curved saw is less
fatiguing and the motion corresponds better with the move-
ment of the arms than in using straight saws ; the sawyer can
also work in a more upright and less cramped position in the
former case.

With a curved saw there is also more room for the sawdust,
and the latter is less hindering to the work owing to the
curvature of the saw (Fig. 110). It must, however, be admitted
that the use of curved saws requires more skilled and expe-
rienced sawyers than that of the straight saw, for the curved
saw is more liable to stick when the blade is not always working

in the same plane, a difficult
thing to secure at first. The
chief rule is to guide the saw
n lightly, and use no unneces-
sary force. In the case,
therefore, of unskilled saw-
yers, such as men only
occasionally employed in

sawing, it is better to re-
Fig. HO.-Cutting line of a curved saw. stricfc them t() the ^ Qf

straight saws. For skilful sawyers, in coniferous forests, the
curved saw only should be used.

As regards the length of saws, there is more risk of the
blade bending and buckling (or sticking in the wood), if the
saw be too long, while very short saws tire out the sawyers,
and cannot be used with large timber. Lengths from 4J to
5 feet, with a breadth of 8J inches without the teeth, are the
most effective dimensions for a cross-cut saw.

As regards the thickness of the blade, all saws should
become gradually thicker away from the back, but the thick-
ness should be only sufficient to prevent too great liability to
bend.

As regards weight, saws should not be too light, or their use
becomes very fatiguing, and 5J pounds is the best weight.

The construction of the teeth is of importance and dog
teeth are most effective ; M teeth, however, give good results

MODE OF USING SAWS.

191

as shown by the " Nonpareil " saw. Triangular or dog-teeth
should be f inch high and J inch wide. The spacing between
the teeth should be double their width, and this suffices
for coniferous as well as broadleaved wood. Wider spacing
than this, by reducing the number of teeth, impairs the
efficiency of the saw. The slit made in a piece of wood
by a saw is termed the kerf.

The teeth are sharpened with a triangular file (better with

111.— Sharpening of the teeth.

a two-faced one), and this should be done until the sides of the

teeth that meet the wood are as sharp as knives. Saws which

work both ways must have their teeth sharpened on both sides,

but one-handed saws on one side

only. As all forest saws are set,

the stroke of the file must be

always, as in Fig. Ill, on the

inner side of the teeth. When a

saw has been properly sharpened,

the tops of the teeth must not

project above a general line, or

the projecting ones will be broken.

A good saw in constant use will *>mted s:iw-bladc'

require sharpening only every five or six days.

It is highly important that the teeth should retain their
proper shape, while constant use of the saw and frequent and

Fig. 1 1 3. — Perforated saw.

unskilful sharpening gradually alter it. Messrs. Dominicus &
Son, of Eemscheid, have introduced perforated saw-blades by
which this defect maybe remedied. Fig. 112 shows how this is
done, and how the teeth drawn successively on the blade below
the original set can be filed down gradually by the workmen,

192 FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER.

as the original teeth become worn-out. Fig. 112 shows how
the perforations are made in a straight cross-cut saw.

Saws are set in order that the hlade may be drawn easily
backwards and forwards in the wood without buckling ; this is
effected by forcing over the successive teeth alternately to 'the
right and left of the axis of the blade. In order that setting-
may be effected properly, the metal must be sufficiently soft
for the teeth to bend without breaking, but the blade must
not be too soft, or the teeth will retain neither their edge nor
their set.

By use, the teeth lose their sharpness and come back into

Fig. 114. — Key. Fig. 115. — Earth's setting-iron.

their original position. The chief excellence of cast-steel saws
consists in the fact that they retain their edge and set, much
better than old-fashioned saws. If any of the teeth are too
hard they can be softened by holding them for a few seconds
between a pair of red-hot pincers. For setting the teeth of
saws, a key, usually of the shape shown in Fig. 114, is used,
the teeth being held in one of the grooves, and then bent over.
Fig. 115 is a mechanical apparatus for setting the teeth of
saws in a very regular manner. The blade m n (shown in
section) rests on the adjustable screw dp, which may be raised
or lowered, and on the anvil o o, so that the teeth pass succes-
sively between a a, and are bent by the hammer k. The
apparatus is fixed firmly to a solid basis by the spike <•.

HAWS,

Fig. 116 represents a mechanical saw-set by Blasberg of
Kemscheid, and Fig. 117 an American one by Morill ; in both
of them a is a bar which drives the teeth into position.

Fig. 116.— Blasberg' a Betting-iron. Fig. 117.— Mm-ill's setting-iron.

A wider set is usual with softwoods than with hardwoods,
and long saws also require a wider set than short ones. The

Fig. lls. — I'it-s;i\v. (After Feniande/.)

set should never be more than double the width of the blade
at the base of the teeth.

Kecently in America saws have been much used with per-

Fig. 119. — Frame-saw. (After Fernando/.)

manently set teeth, their thickness being greater than the
blade of the saw.

The action of sawing is furthermore affected by the resistance
of the different woods : this is greater in large pieces than in

F.U. o

194 FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER.

smaller ones and for trees with knots than for even-grained
wood ; the degrees of resistance offered by woods of different
species of trees to sawing have been already given (p. 114).

The measure of the work done by a saw is the surface sawn
per minute, measured in square feet ; a good cast-steel saw
frequently will do three times the work of inferior saws, and
thus will save labour considerably. In transporting saws, the
teeth should be covered by a wooden sheath, both to protect
them, and the transport employees.

[Pit-saws (Fig. 118) for longitudinal sawing are not so much
used in forests as was formerly the case, owing, to the fact
that, generally, logs are removed in the round from forests and
converted into planks, etc., in sawmills. Pit-saws are, how-
ever, used still in the Foret Mormal, in France, for sawing
curved oakwood for barges. Such saws also are used largely
in Indian forests ; also frame-saws (Fig. 119) which have very
thin blades and are easily transportable, the frames being
made in the forest. *In Indian saws also the teeth are filed
so that the cutting edge is towards the operator, and much
thinner blades can be used than when the saws cut in thrust
as in Europe. — Tr.]

3. Tools for Splitting Wood.

For splitting wood and also for felling trees iron or wooden
wedges and the cleaving-axe are required.

(a) Wedges. — Iron wedges have usually a wooden head,
which is surrounded by an iron ring to prevent it from split-
ting (Fig. 120). Wedges may be made also entirely of iron,
but they are then driven into the wood by a beetle or wooden
mallet, whilst the wooden-topped wedges may be driven in
with the flat steel back of a splitting axe.

Wooden wedges (Fig. 121) are prepared by the woodcutter
out of tough middle-aged beech or hornbeam wood, and
frequently are surrounded at the head by an iron ring.

Iron wedges are considered more serviceable for splitting
tough wood; when wooden wedges are used, a cleft must
be made previously in the wood with a cleaving axe. There
is, however, a risk that iron wedges may spring out of the

* Fernanda, " Utilization of Forests," p. SO.

TOOLS FOR SPLITTING WOOD.

105

wood, the friction against their smooth sides being less than
with wooden wedges ; this happens not unfrequently with
cracked or frozen wood. Sand or dry earth is placed in the

120. KL'. 121. Fig. 122.

iron wedges with wooden lops. Wooden wedg<-. lUessing's screw wedge.

cleft to prevent this, and a proper shape of the wedge renders
it less likely to happen. Thus, if the sides of the wedge be
Hat instead of curved, or grooves ^ inch broad and /.- inch deep

t. i

. !2.'i. — Schniicke's toothed wedge. Nos. are centimeters.

are cut in them, during use the wood is pressed into these
grooves and the wedge thus firmly held.

Quite recently a screw wedge (Fig. 122) has been invented
by Blessing for use while trees are being felled ; this is
held fast by the wood, but is not to be recommended.

o 2

196

FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER:

Fig. 123 represents a toothed wedge, invented by Schniicke,
which is used for forcing over a felled tree, or splitting tough
roots, the wedge is driven in up to (a), the bolt (a) then removed
and (c) forced outwards by the screw (I).

Small wredges are placed in the cut behind the blade of a
cross-cut saw, to facilitate sawing.

(b) Cleaving - axes. — The cleaving-axe differs from the
felling-axe by its superior weight, size and greater resem-
blance to a wedge. It weighs generally 4J to 5 J pounds, or even
up to 8 pounds in special cases, but resembles a felling-axe in

Fig. 124.
Harz cleaving-axe.

Fig. 125.
Tyrolese cleaving-axe.

Fig. 126.
Thuringian cleaving-axe.

shape, except that its back is flat, and made of steel, to render
it more suitable for driving wedges into wood.

Fig 124 represents the cleaving-axe used in the Harz, it is
two inches (5'5 centimeters) broad at the back, and weighs
about 5 \ pounds. Fig. 125 is ai? axe used in Upper Bavaria and
weighs about 5 pounds, its flat back is used for breaking off dead
stumps from felled stems as well as for driving in wedges.
Fig. 12G is the Thuringian cleaving-axe, and is very heavy.
The Bohemian cleaving-axe (Fig. 127) has the stoutest shape
of all these axes, and may be used for splitting firewood into
the smallest pieces used for stoves. The Vienna cleaving-axe
(Fig. 128) weighs up to 9 pounds. Fig. 129 represents
an axe used in certain districts in Silesia, and is a good
implement.

IMPLEMENTS FOR EXTRACTING STUMPS.

197

The divider (Fig. 337, p. 595) will be described as a tool used
for splitting staves. Other tools and machines used for split-
ting firewood into small pieces in towns are not woodcutters'
implements.

A method of felling trees by using a platinum wire heated

Tlui

Fig. 127.

cleaving-axe.

The Vienna clravin'_r-.'ixc.

The

to a white heat by electricity is described in L<' Jnrdin for
December, 1895. By its means tho tret) is severed more easily
and rapidly than by the saw; no sawdust is made, and the
slight charring produced by the burning wire preserves the
wood. This method is said to be eight times as speedy as
when a saw7 is used.

4.

for K.ctrnct'nuj ami ,S'/>///////// Stump* and
Roots.

Implements of a very simple nature are used in converting
the parts of a tree which are above ground; those used for
extracting and converting the stumps and roots are much
more complicated.

(a) Simple Grubbing Implements. — The simplest tools used
for grubbing-out roots are tbe mattock, tbe pick, the pick-axe
and the grubbing-axe. Also short saws wedges, crowbars are

198

FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER.

used for severing, removing or splitting the stumps and roots
of a tree.

The mattock (Fig. 130) is about one foot long and 2 to 2J
inches broad, it is made of good steel and strongly fixed to its

Fig. 130.— Mattock.

Fig. 132.— Pick.

handle and is used for digging into the ground and severing
small roots. The pick (Fig. 182), which is sharply pointed, is
used as well as the mattock for this purpose on stony ground,
and both tools may be combined in
the form of the common pick-axe
(Fig. 131).

The grubbing-axe serves for severing
the exposed larger side-roots, and is
merely a small-edged felling-axe (Fig.
133); as, however, it wears out rapidly
owing to the stones, etc., with which it
comes in contact, usually a worn axe no
longer serviceable for felling trees is
used for the purpose.
In order to separate large spreading side-roots from the
stump of a tree, generally a saw is used instead of an axe,
and the ordinary carpenters' frame-saw is preferred.

Tough wooden levers, the size of a cart-pole, and 0 to 10
feet long, which arc cut into wedges at one end, are used for

Fig. 133.— Ilolieminn
grubbing-axe.

IMPLEMENTS FOTl EXTRACTING STUMPS.

199

breaking up the side-roots after they have been separated
from the stump. Besides these levers, wooden wedges of
different sizes are used and their use will be explained further
on with the operation of uprooting stumps.

A long iron wedge fitting over a wooden handle, the end of
which is surrounded by an iron ring, is used also in separating
deeply situated roots.

Fig. 134 represents a hook which fits over a tall thin coni-
ferous pole; a rope is fastened to it by means of which,
nf'te-r the hook has been attached to a branch, a tree may be
pulled over by the roots.

Sometimes the hook is fastened merely to a rope and may
be attached to a branch by a man climbing the tree. This plan
can be employed only in the case of tall slender stems, as
climbing trees to attach the hook wastes too much time.

(b) Machines for removing Stumps. — In order to save
much of the labour involved in using the tools just described
for grubbing-out roots, various machines
have been invented for the purpose.
Of numerous modern inventions only
the Hawkeye machine, the forest-devil,
the kant-iron and lever, Wohmann's
machine and the screw-jack will be
described.

The Hawkeye machine (Fig. 185) con-
sists of an iron vertical axle fixed on a
firm support, moving in sockets placed
above and below it, and surrounded by
a drum c. This drum can be firmly
attached to the axle, or loosened from it
by means of the lever b. The axle with
the drum attached is set in motion by
a horse moving the shaft a, and thus a
flexible steel rope 160 feet long which
is attached at one end to the drum

may be wound round the latter. The rope passes round the
pulley ?i, which is attached to a powerful hook fixed to the
stump 11 to be extracted, the other end of the rope is also
attached by another hook to a support C. The distances, A R,

Fie. 134. Tree-hook.

FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER.

R C, as shown
in the figure,
should be in-
creased rela-
tively from 6 to
10 fold.

The Hawkey e
machine is ex-
tremely power-
ful, and not only
pulls out the
stump, but also
the long lateral
roots attached to
it. It is speci-
ally useful in
clearing wood-
land for agricul-
ture, and may
be used also for
uprooting trees.
In one day, with
a horse and two
men, 20 to 25
large stumps
may be extracted
at a cost of about
15 shillings.
The machine
may be pur-
chased for i'3G
from Brandt at
Munich, agent
to the firm of
James Milne &
Son, Manticello,
Iowa, U.S.

Another root-
extractor is

IMPLEMENTS FOR EXTRACTING STUMPS.

201

termed the forest-devil, and has been in use from time
immemorial in Switzerland and also for forty years in
Germany. It consists, as shown in Fig. 136, of two strong
iron chains between which a wooden lever works. One end of

. 136.— The forest-devil.

the chain .1 is fastened to a neighbouring strong root,
stump, or tree, and the other is attached to the lever, at
its fulcrum o. The second chain ]\ is placed round the tree
or stumps to be extracted, which must naturally offer less

Fig. 137. — Lever and hook.

resistance than that to which A is fastened ; it is connected
with the lever alternately by means of two short chains each
terminating in a hook. By then moving the lever backwards
and forwards and hooking first one and then the other of these
chains into links of B, the tree or stump may be extracted. A

202

FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER.

strong rope may be used instead of most of the length of B, as long
as there are sufficient links in the chain for working the lever.
Another method for extracting stumps is shown in

Fig. 138. — Lever and hook.

Figs. 137, 138, by means of a lever with a sliding ring and
kant-iron or hook.

Wohmann's machine for pushing down trees is shown in

Fig. 13!). — Wohmann's machine.

Fig. 139. It consists of a long coniferous pole with an iron
spike at one end, and at the other end it is bored, as shown in
Fig. 140, to admit a short iron bolt.

IMPLEMENTS FOR EXTRACTING STUMPS.

203

This pole is fixed into the tree and then the other end is
placed on a grooved board and lifted from groove to groove by
two iron levers. In this way the tree is gradually pushed over,

. 1 lo.— Wohnmnn's machine.

the action being most effective when the pole is at an angle of
about i.>> with the board.

The gn>!il weight, about 5 cwt., of this machine has pre-

I-'J.LT. 141. — Screw-jack.

vented its coming into general use, but Draudt has constructed
one of only half that weight, and Laubenheimer has substi-
tuted for the grooved plank an endless iron screw, on which a

204 FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER.

car supporting the pole is moved forward by means of a winch,
and he states that this gives 8 to 10 times the pressure of the
original arrangement.

Ordinary screw-jacks (Fig. 141), are used also with advan-
tage, as in the Schwarzwald, for uprooting trees and stumps.
Eecently, in Wiirttemberg, a portable windlass has been used
with good results both for uprooting trees and stumps, and for
dragging loads of timber up steep inclines. Provided that
the cost of working it is not too great, its use is to be recom-
mended on account of its great power and adaptability.

[The Deracineuse Lobo used for extracting trees by the
roots in Belgium is a gear of three legs on slides, by which it
can be moved from tree to tree ; also a system of pulleys and
chains with toothed apparatus to be driven into the base of
each tree. It is worked by six men and not only saves about
,£7 per acre in wood, and labour, including ploughing up the
ground at <£2 per acre, but enables the land to be planted up
at once without any fear of the pine-weevil.* — Tr.]

SECTION III. — SEASON FOR FELLING.

The proper season for felling depends on several circum-
stances, of which the most important are, — the climatic con-
ditions, available labour force, mode of felling, technical
quality of the outturn, and species of tree, besides some other
special points depending on particular cases.

1. Climatic Conditions.

These are in many regions the most important of all the cir-
cumstances which determine the season for felling ; for where
the winter is severe and the fall of snow heavy and lasting, so
that outdoor work has to stop, as in most high mountain dis-
tricts and in many localities only moderately elevated, forest
work during winter may be impossible. In case fellings
cannot be carried on during winter, transport by means of
sledges, which is facilitated by the snow, may be effected. In
high mountain regions, therefore, transport of timber an<l
firewood is the chief occupation during winter. In plains and

* Cf. Report of proceedings of 11. K. Alb. Society for 1110(5.

SEASON FOR FELLING. 205

low hills the severity of winter rarely interferes with the work
of felling, which is generally continued uninterruptedly during
this season.

'2. Available Labour-Fora'.

In most districts labour is more abundant in winter than in
summer, when agriculture offers constant employment. In
case, therefore, other stronger reasons to the contrary do not
exist, forest management is interested in utilising the other-
wise unemployed winter labour-force.

This is the more urgent, the more agriculture is the chief
employment of the local population, which is not the case in
extensive forests tracts, where the men work nearly the whole
year in the forest, and do not care for other work, whilst the
women and children cultivate the small agricultural area. If
there are plenty of transport animals in such a country, cart-
ing is done chiefly during the open season, or whenever the
roads are most passable (which in clay soils with unmetalled
roads may be during frost) ; the timber may also be floated
during the open season. In industrial countries, where factories
abound, there is generally a scarcity of forest labour through-
out the year, and especially in summer.

3. Mode of Fclliny.

On silvicultural grounds, as regards those modes of felling
which are not concerned with reproduction, such as clear-
cutting, the season is only of slight importance ; it is more
important when care for the woods is in question, as well as
removal of some of the trees.

Clear-cuttings may be effected at any season of the year,
unless they are to be followed immediately by sowing or
planting.

Natural regeneration fellings, especially in broadleaved
woods, must be effected when the fall and transport of the
trees will do the least amount of harm to the shelter-wood and
young growth, and that is in winter, whenever the ground is
covered vvith snow.

Regeneration fellings among broadleaved trees, and especi-
ally secondary fellings on steep slopes, are effected best over a

206 FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER.

(loop layer of snow, in order to protect the young growth from
damage during the removal of the timher. During summer,
when vegetation is in full activity and tender shoots are
injured so easily, hroadleaved forests should be left alone ; and
the same rule should be applied also to coniferous woods with
natural regeneration, unless the winter is too severe for
fellings ; but, even then, the period between the sprouting
of the young shoots and their full development should be one
of repose.

Thinnings in young woods are done best whilst the trees
are in full foliage, and the best season for them is autumn.
When, however, quickly grown, slender poles in a densely-
grown wood are thinned late in the autumn, in exposed
localities subject to breakage by snow or rime, they are
very liable to be bent or broken ; whilst, if the thinning be
executed in spring or summer, they have time to become
stronger and often to escape the danger. Whenever injured
trees, broken by the wind or snow, or killed by insects, have
to be felled, this is usually done in summer for broadleaved
woods ; but in coniferous woods the injured trees should be
felled as soon after the damage as possible, unless some of the
trees are used as trap-trees for beetles.

For pruning the branches of broadleaved trees, provided the
wounds are tarred, autumn and early winter are the best seasons,
but in the case of resinous conifers, pruning may be done at
any season.

[Where tarring is not effected, February is the best month
for pruning. — Tr.]

For coppice, late winter is the best felling season, for if the
wood is felled early in the winter, it happens frequently that
the stools are killed by the severe cold. Whenever, for certain
reasons, -autumn or winter foliage are necessary, the stools
should be cut as deeply as possible in the ground. Cutting
coppice during the period of vegetation gives rise to weakly
coppice-shoots. [Standards over coppice cannot be felled till
the underwood is cut and removed, and as oak trees are
usually barked, this felling cannot then be done till May,
when the bark peels easily. — Tr.]

Wherever stumps are to be extracted, this is done generally

SEASON Foil FELLING. 20?

during summer, and cannot bo done at all when the ground is
frozen.

4. Quality of Outturn.

As regards the influence of the season of felling on the
quality of the outturn, the question has been discussed already
(p. 102) : it has been decided that the season has hardly
any influence, provided the wood be thoroughly dried, but that
the qualities of timber are affected greatly by the subsequent
treatment of the felled material ; when felled in winter, the
material dries well in the subsequent spring and summer,
winter-felling is therefore best, as there are usually six months
before heavy rain. As a rule, broadleaved trees should be
felled only in winter, and the same rule is desirable for
coniferous wood, unless it can be removed from the felling-area
and sawn up immediately after it has been felled ; winter-felling
is also best in the case of old and imperfectly sound trees.

Whenever climate is against winter-felling, the most valuable
trees should be felled late in the autumn ; this is the more
essential, the greater delay there is likely to occur between the
felling and the sawing up of the timber, or the removal of it
to sheltered, airy timber-yards.

5. Specie* of 7 ,

Conifers, and especially the spruce, are most liable to be
worm-eaten ; to protect them, the bark should, as soon as
possible, be peeled from off the felled trees. Thorough barking
is possible only in summer, whilst in autumn or winter the bark
can be only partially removed ; this, however, is quite sufficient
to protect the wood from insects, and to allow of its thoroughly
drying. If the trees are felled in autumn and partially peeled,
the fact that the bark is left as a thin coating prevents the
wood from cracking. [With ash, felling in sap, causes dis-
colouration and consequent loss in market value, and clean,
straight grained ash, i.e., of the finest quality, is liable to
split in all directions. Beech and sycamore also must be felled
in mid- winter, as otherwise the wood splits and becomes dis-
coloured, with dirty brown streaks. This is more important

208 FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER.

with sycamore, as manufactured goods should appear in
natural and unblemished whiteness. Both beech and syca-
more are perishable timbers and any vestige of live sap
contributes to rapid decay. Elm, when felled in sap, produces
living branches with foliage, and such wood is nearly unsale-
able for naves. — Tr.]

6. Special Application of the Material from Felling- Areas.

Exceptions are made when the material from the fellings is
required for special purposes.

Thus, for bent-wood furniture, and for certain impregnation
processes, and in the case of cloven wood, the trees should be
felled in summer. If bark is to be used for tanning, the
trees must be felled in the spring. Sometimes wood used for
wells and water-pipes is felled during spring.

7. Modes of Transport.

As regards transport, it is found that wood felled in summer
is lighter to carry and floats better than winter-felled wood ;
hence less firewood sinks, and the timber-rafts are less heavily
laden, owing to the wood being dried much more thoroughly
than when felled in winter.

8. Demands of Timber- Market.

The possibility of getting a good price for timber depends
often on the time fixed for the timber-sales, and the latter
on the time when the trees are felled. Where other considera-
tions are not predominant, the felling period should be so
arranged that the material may come to market at the season
when the best prices are offered.

Thus, hop-poles and bean-sticks are felled best in the early
winter, so that they may be sold before the spring. Timber
merchants under contract to supply certain goods, such as rail-
way-sleepers, etc., are bound to do so before a certain fixed date,
and this circumstance will guide the forest-manager in fixing the
time for his fellings.

Finally, it is easy to see that certain local circumstances,

SEASON FOR FELLING. 209

such as accessibility of the ground, etc., may affect the felling
period. Sometimes in alder-woods on swampy ground, the
timber can be removed only when the ground is frozen.
Where regular inundations occur during spring, it may be
necessary to fell in summer.

[In the lowlands of N. India, during the monsoon (July-
September), all fellings are stopped ; the month of October is
so malarious in some sub-Himalayan forests, that woodmen
could frequent them at that period only at the risk of their
lives.— Tr.]

9. Summary.

To summarise the above : it may be laid down that in localities
with a inild climate, winter sir mid be considered the normal
season for felling; in high mountain-regions wTith heavy snow-
fall and extensive coniferous forests, fellings should be made
in summer, or better still in autumn.

Winter-felling occurs from the end of October till the end of
March ; it is the most natural period for the work, as the forest
is at rest from vegetation, whilst the outturn is likely to be
more durable and of better quality than summer-felled wood.
Fellings cannot, however, be continued uninterruptedly during
winter in the lowlands ; deep snow may prevent the men from
foiling the trees sufficiently low down, and hard frost may
render it difficult to split the wood and may injure the coppice
stools, whilst much firewood is burned during the long, cold
evenings by the wood-cutters.

As regards the distribution of different fellings during the
winter months, usually seeding and secondary fellings in broad-
leaved woods are commenced immediately after the leaves
have fallen : the felling-area should be cleared before the
seeds germinate, or the buds of the young growth sprout ; in
March this is often the case with beech. Wherever the logs
are to be slipped down steep inclines and the workmen are not
particularly trustworthy as regards protection of undergrowth,
the fellings may be delayed till there has been a heavy fall of
snow, or they should be effected in open weather, not during
frosts.

Clear-cuttings in coniferous forests are not undertaken until

F.U. p

210 FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER.

all the more urgent natural regeneration-fellings have been
made, or are nearly concluded. Then also, thinnings or prepara-
tory fellings in old woods may be carried out. Thinnings in
young woods and cleanings end the series, and often are made
during the autumn.

It is better to begin winter-fellings with the large trees
and on felling-areas where these are numerous, then to
proceed with the conversion of firewood. Supervision is thus
facilitated, and the heavy pieces are soonest removed from
the forest.

In very large forest-ranges richly stocked with old wood the
manager may be satisfied if the more important fellings are done
during winter, and in summer all wood worked-out that is
broken by snow or wind or dead from other causes. Wherever
summer-felling prevails, all the labour-force is engaged in
transport during the winter.

Summer-fellings begin, according to the locality, in April or
May, as soon as snow and frost permit and the labour-force
which has been occupied in transport during winter is
available. Where the men are engaged during summer in
charcoal -making or other employments, or where, with a view
to the quality of the wood, it is desirable not to fell the trees
in full sap (July — August), these fellings should be suspended
till September, and continued so long as the weather is
favourable. Then the work is arranged so that reproduction-
fellings and fellings of valuable timber- trees are effected as
early as possible and may be finished before the buds
shoot. The underwood is then highly elastic and suffers least
from abrasion, whilst the logs can be barked and preserve their
esteemed white colour.

Later-on, after the season of vegetation has commenced, fire-
wood trees and other inferior sorts are felled, and the felling of
whatever valuable trees were not felled before their sprouting
will then be deferred till September.

In high mountain-regions where felling, conversion and
transport cannot be completed during one summer, it is usual
during the first summer and autumn to fell the trees, bark
{ill the logs, prepare them for transport and remove them
to the depots, after Hijo>y has fallen. The firewood is then

METHODS OF FELLING. 211

prepared in the second summer, carried down on sledges to the
depots during winter and floated away in the spring. It is
rare that more than two years are allowed for clearing a felling-
area ; in such cases the logs which have been lying so long in
the forest rarely arrive at their destination in a perfectly sound
condition, and they yield only inferior material.

Whenever great damage has been done by storms or snow,
the first measure is to clear the fallen wood from the roads
and ridges ; after this has been done all trees which have fallen
over young growth or poles are removed. When these cases
have been attended to, woods where extensive breakage has
occurred are cleared ; then places where single trees have
fallen or have been rendered insecure, all injured trees which
may serve as breeding- places for insects being felled.

SECTION IV. — METHODS OF FELLIXC.

1. General Account.

As a rule, work is begun in as many felling-areas as there
are gangs of woodcutters available, and care is taken to sub-
divide equally all immediately impending work in so far as the
natural silvicultural sequence of the different modes of telling
does not interfere with such a plan. This latter consideration
is specially important in secondary and selection fellings, and
in thinnings of mixed woods, which require great care on the
part of the woodcutters and the constant supervision of the
forest staff. Not unfrequently one gang may be distributed
over several felling-areas, but when it is important to expedite
the work owing to impending hard weather or heavy snow,
several gangs may be employed in one felling-area.

In order to divide the work fairly among the men, the felling-
areas, which have been previously marked-out on the ground,
may be divided into as many equal subdivisions as there are
parties in a gang ; or in the case of secondary or selection
fellings, or extraction of large trees over underwood, a certain
number of trees may be allotted to each party of woodcutters.

Each subdivision of the work is numbered and termed a lot,
and the parties draw numbers to decide in which lot they will
work. In forming the lota great care should he taken that the

v 2

212 FELLING AND CONVERSION OE TIMBER.

distance over which the material has to he moved is nearly
the same in each case, so that all the parties may have about
the same amount of work to do. The lots should neither
be too small nor too narrow, or the men would be subject
to constant interruption by those of an adjoining lot. On
mountain slopes they are therefore placed side by side, run-
ning downhill. In such places it is often advisable to leave lots
between two parties unallotted on account of the danger of
accidents from falling trees, etc., work on these intermediate
lots being undertaken subsequently.

Some lots may be reserved to be given afterwards to the
most industrious men, whom the manager wishes to keep
employed in the forest constantly. It is advisable to allow the
woodcutters themselves to distribute the lots amongst the
parties, so as to avoid all charges of partiality against the forest
manager. The allotment in clear-cuttings in high forest or
coppice is by area, lots being fixed by specially marking
border and corner trees. Standards over coppice are marked
with the forest-hammer or by rings of red or white paint, so
must mother-trees in natural regeneration areas. In France
each reserved standard is numbered, the numbers being cut
into the bark by a special blazing implement. In thinnings
each stem to be removed is marked by means of a tree-
scratcher, or timber-scribe, or a forest-hammer may be used
in the older crops.

As regards the actual felling, it is clear that silvicultural
rules and those for giving the best outturn must be followed
by the men, so that the felling may be conducted with a care
for the trees and young plants which are allowed to remain on
the area, that the felled material is not wasted, and labour
is economised as much as possible.

Here will be considered the different methods of felling
trees, their relative advantages and disadvantages, and the
general rules to be observed in the conduct of fellings.

2. The different Modes of Fclliuy.

The different modes of felling depend on the implements
used: they may be further distinguished as ;— utilisation of
the stem, or of the roots and stump of a tree.

METHODS OF FELLING.

(a) Utilisation of the Stem.

i. Fell in;/ if ilk tin1 Axe.

The stem to be felled should be cut with the felling-axe in
two places on opposite sides of its base (Fig. 142), as near
the ground as possible. The wedge-shaped notches thus cut
in the tree become larger and approach nearer the axis of the
tree until the latter falls. These notches should be kept as
small as is consistent with the easy admission of the axe, and
should have smooth sides. As a
rule, the height of the opening
measured on the bark of the tree
should not exceed its depth.

In order to throw the stem in any
desired direction, the two notches
should lie opposite to one another
in that direction ; the former one
(<t), (Fig. 142) on the side where
the tree is to fall, should penetrate
beyond the axis of the tree as deeply
and horizontally as possible. The
other notch (It) should be begun from
four to six inches higher than (a),
according to the thickness of the
stem ; it should be cut so that its
point extends above that of (a), or would do so if produced hori-
zontally. If the stem is symmetrical it should be pushed lightly
in the direction in which it is to fall. If its weight should
preponderate slightly in that direction, that will naturally
expedite the work ; if, however, the weight preponderates on
the other side, or towards cither direction at right angles to
that of the intended fall, a billet of easily-split firewood may
be put in the notch (/>), and several wedges then driven into it
transversely, or between it and the edge of the notch, so as to
press the stem over to the side on which it should fall.

In the case of valuable timber-trees, it is often advisable to
cut them below the surface of the ground so as to save a portion
of the stump as timber. In that case the notches are cut down

i.i.'. 112.— Felling with axe.
The tree falls towanls </.

214

FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER.

as deeply"as possible, and often the earth is dug away all round
the stump of the tree. It is then often insufficient in the case
of large trees to cut only two notches, but cuts are also required
at the other sides, though they should never be as deep as the
principal notches in the direction of the fall. Small trees
may be felled by one man, trees from 10 to 12 inches in
diameter by two men working together, very large trees by
four men.

ii. Felling tvith ihe Saw alone.

In the case of small trees, the saw-cut is commenced on the
side opposite to that of the proposed fall, and continued until
the tree can be pushed- over ; in the case of large trees, owing
to friction the sawing cannot, without some help, be continued
beyond the axis of the tree ; as soon as possible, therefore,
two wedges are driven-in behind the saw, and as the sawing
proceeds they are driven further and further until the tree
falls.

iii. Felling l>y means of Axe and Saw.

The sawing (Fig. 143) is commenced at the side (b) on which
the tree is to fall, and continued to about a J or -£th of its

diameter, and a notch in direction (a)
is made with the axe to meet this
saw -cut.

The saw is then taken to the
opposite side of the tree, and as soon
as the cut (c) is deep enough wedges
are inserted behind the saw, and from
time to time driven further until the
tree falls.

iv. Fell/ ay willt the Hillhook.

This is restricted to small poles,
saplings and coppice-shoots, forming
a dense growth in which there is no

143.— Felling with axe room to use the axe. Saplings are
a », with suvv c. felled with Q1]e bbw of the billhookj

but if a stem is too thick for this, it should be felled with two
blows on opposite sides, without making a regular notch.

METHODS OF FELLING.

215

v. Fdlinif Inj Means of an Electric Current.

A thin platinum wire brought to a white heat by an electric
current may be used as a saw for felling trees, the wire being
stretched in a frame the handles of which are insulated.
Experiments* have thus been made on a large scale, the
stems being cut so deeply with the electrified wire that they
can be thrown by means of wedges. It is said that this
method takes one-eighth of the time required for sawing
down the tree. No sawdust is produced and the slight
charring preserves the wood.

vi. Advantages and Disadvantages of the Different Methods.

The characteristics of a good method of felling are, above
all, that it is not dangerous to the workmen ; that the tree is

Fig. 144. — Throwing a stem with levers.

thrown accurately in the desired direction, the most impor-
tant silvicultural point in the felling ; then, that it wastes as
little wood as possible, and finally, that it involves the least
possible amount of labour.

Experience has shown that felling by means of saw and

* I'atent and technical bureau of Richard Bayer, Berlin.

216 FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER.

axe combined, with the help of wedges, is the best of all
methods, for in no other way can the tree be thrown in any
desired direction so accurately, or is it less liable to splinter
in falling.

Where the saw alone is used, several wedges may indeed be
introduced, but the tree rests on one point of the circumference
of the cut, and during the fall it frequently turns on its stump
in a way which cannot be prevented by the use of wedges. If,
however, a small notch is cut on the side of the fall, and the
saw- cut opposite to this is opened-out by wedges, the stem
when ready to fall rests, as shown in Fig. 143, not on a point,
but 011 a straight line perpendicular to the direction of the fall,
and any turning of the stem on its stump is an extremely rare
event. A very simple and safe method has been long in prac-
tice in the Schwarzwald, as shown in Fig. 144 ; the pole ab,
fitting into a notch in the stem at a, is lifted by two men by
the horizontal lever mb, and is thus forced into the required
direction. This is a simple form of Wohmann's apparatus.

The greatest waste of wood is involved when the axe alone
is used for felling, and this not only because a considerable
portion of the base of the tree is hewn into chips, which in
mature trees may be 4 to 7 per cent., and in poles 2 to 2j
per cent., of the volume of the bole ; but also because the end
of the log remains pointed, and it cannot be used in its full
length. Where the saw alone is used, there is least waste
(about J per cent.), but even where both saw and axe are
used the waste is small (1 to 1J per cent.). There are, how-
ever, localities where working with the saw involves a greater
loss than when the axe alone is used, and that is in steep
rocky places where one is obliged to leave a high stump in
order to work the saw at all.

The loss of bark in conversion is 4 per cent, of the prepared
bole, for the beech and other smooth-barked trees ; 7 per cent,
for oaks and coarse-barked broadleaved species; 8 — 11 per cent,
for the Scotch pine, spruce, and silver-fir ; 15 — 18 per cent, for
the larch and black pine.

As regards facility in working, this depends on the practice
and skill of the woodcutters. We should compare only the
labour of men equally skilled with saw and axe, and in

UTILISATION OF ROOTS AND STUMPS. 217

such cases there is very little advantage in using the axe
alone.

Felling trees by means of axe and saw combined is, there-
fore, under ordinary circumstances the best method ; it
should be introduced everywhere, wherever custom still clings
to the use of the axe only. It is impracticable only on steep
rocky ground, and unsuitable in the case of very large valu-
able timber trees which should be cut out by the roots, also
in thinnings in densely grown poles, where there is no room
for sawing.

The disadvantages of the use of the saw and accompanying
wedges must not, however, IK; overlooked. This frequently
increases heartshake, a circumstance which deserves full con-
sideration in the case <»i' valuable timber trees: besides this
defect, very tall thin stems, when half cut through, may split
in two if the wedges are carelessly used ; such a split often
proceeds high up the stem. This disadvantage in the use of
the saw depends, however, less on the method than on the
carelessness of the workmen.

(b) Utilisation of Roots and Stumps.

This can be effected either by extracting the stumps of
trees, or uprooting the trees.

i. lu'inoral of

Stumps are utilised by means of grubbing-axes, saws,
wedges, crowbars, etc., or with the help of machines. The
principal part of the work is that of grubbing-out the stump ;
this takes 70 to 90 per cent, of the labour involved in the
whole operation. The work is commenced by digging all
round the stump, and exposing all the side- roots as far as they
are worth extracting. All these roots are then severed close
to the stump and removed, the longer ones being severed at
the thinner end as well. The workmen then continue to dig
round the side roots, or the taproot, until their upper
parts are exposed and can be severed, or extracted with the
stump. Another way, after the roots have been exposed by
digging, is to split the stump into pieces, and extract these

218 FELLING AND CONVEESION OF TIMBER.

separately ; for this purpose iron crowbars are used, or the
stump may be blown up with gunpowder, as will be described
further on.

It is evident that uprooting stumps is a most laborious
process and attempts have naturally been made to lighten the
work by using machines. These are all characterised by the
attempt to tear the stump from the strong descending roots
after the earth has been dug away, as previously explained. It
is only in cases of small stumps and superficial rooting that
digging can be dispensed with. Also where machines are used,
they either tear the whole stump from the roots, or remove it
piecemeal.

Wherever machines such as the forest-devil are used for
uprooting stumps, all the side-roots should be cut off close

to the stump, except one
large side-root which is
left longer than the
others, and serves as a
lever for the attachment
of the implement, as
shown in Fig. 145.

Fi«[. 145. — Removal of stumps by the -^ „ ,

forest-devil. Preference should

always be given to the

simplest of the implements which have been already described ;
although they only partially replace manual labour, yet
they afford a simple application of considerable power.
Experience has shown that the forest-devil is the best of
the heavier implements. The Hawkeye machine is more
powerful, and would be used in preference were its cost not
so high.

Objection has been made to the use of the forest-devil, that
it requires too many hands to work it, that it is difficult to fix
the rope, and that the long lever requires much space to work
in. These difficulties are not, however, so great as they would
jippcjir to 1)0, if a chain is used instead of a rope and the roots
are thoroughly exposed before working with the machine is
attempted. Once this has been done, only three or four men
are required to extract the stump ; in Silesia the forest-devil
been found to save 33 per cent, of manual labour. 0

UTILISATION OF ROOTS AND STUMPS.

219

ii. Uprooting Trees.

When trees are uprooted (Fig. 14G) much of the stump is
obtained with the stem, in the same operation. The roots
are exposed by digging, and then the stem is thrown in
various ways, but in all of them a thorough exposure of the
roots is essential. If all the horizontal roots are severed,
the stem is attached to the ground by the taproot or main
roots only. If, as with spruce on shallow soil, there are only

1 l<». — Uproot in.Lr :i tnr. (After I'.oppr.)

horizontal roots, merely severing these sui'lices to fell the
tree ; but wherever there are strong deep roots which it would
be a most laborious operation to sever, the work is effected as
follows : — A rope is fixed, as high up as possible, on one of the
main branches of the tree, and on that side of it towards
which the, tree is intended to fall; a number of men then tug
at this rope, and by alternately pulling and yielding, they
make the stem oscillate backwards and forwards. One man
is left at the base of the tree to cut through any roots which
may still resist, and to place poles under the base of the tree
as it rocks, and prevent its return to the vertical position. In

220 FALLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER.

this way, without any great amount of trouble, the tree can
be made to fall, tearing out at the same time all the stronger
roots.

The forest-devil, Wohmann's thrust-pole and the common
screw-jack, may be used also to overturn trees by the roots.
The mode of using these machines has been explained already,
but in the case of the forest-devil, a stem or stump stronger
than the tree which is to be overturned must be at hand to be
fastened to the implement.

All roots on the side where the tree is to fall must be cut
close to the stem in order to lighten the work, and it is a good
plan to place a round piece of wood under the falling stem, so
that by its own fall the latter may the more readily tear its
roots from the ground. [Coniferous trees 40 — 60 years old
can readily be uprooted by the Lobo up-rooter (p. 204). — Tr.]

iii. Advantages and Disadvantages of Uprooting.

The advantage of utilising the stumps consists chiefly in the
reduced waste of wood this involves ; for, on the average, one-
fifth of the stem and branch-wood is contained in the stump.
Stump-wood affords very good fuel, especially where a pro-
tracted steady heat is required ; the demand for firewood is,
however, frequently so small that stump- wood has lost much
of its importance in this respect. In highly populous districts,
it may be the object of a forest servitude, or roots may be
extracted for cultivation of the ground. In other cases, stump-
wood is used for the horns of sledges, as knee-timber for ships
and boats, for ploughs, etc. Extracting stumps is also useful,
as by afterwards levelling the holes, the ground becomes
thoroughly cultivated and suitable for sowing ; for not only
is germination facilitated, but in dry soils the young seedling-
plants thrive best on the deeply worked soil of these holes,
provided caro is taken to protect them from weeds. [Oak-
standanls over coppice in Franco are always uprooted, us the
wood is thus loss liable to crack and a valuable piece at the
base of the log is saved. — Tr.] Stumps arc frequently brood-
ing places for destructive insects, especially of the Pine-
weevil ; they also shelter mice, so that their removal is

UTILISATION OF ROOTS AND STUMPS. 221

beneficial. That most destructive fungus, Armillaria mellea,
also spreads from stumps into new plantations.

There are, however, certain disadvantages involved in the
removal of stumps ; in the first place, decayed stumps
increase the humus and mineral matter in the soil. This may
not be of importance where the humus is carefully preserved by
maintaining the leaf-canopy and preventing all removal of
litter, especially on damp soils. Where, however, these condi-
tions do not hold good, as for instance on poor sandy soil
where the litter is removed, if the stumps are also extracted
and the soil deprived of its last resource in organic
matter, it may thus be rendered absolutely unproductive.
Secondly, on steep slopes, wherever it is essential to hold the
soil together as much as possible, in order to prevent denuda-
tion, extraction of stumps should be prevented.

Extraction of stumps is, therefore, permissible wherever it
can be done remuneratively, provided that no serious damage
is done to the standing-crop, as for instance by extracting
stumps of large reserved trees among poles or saplings, or of
mother-trees among thoroughly stocked natural regeneration.
It is advantageous : — wherever there are blanks and gaps in
natural regeneration, even in coppices, provided the loosening
of the soil which accompanies the extraction of the stumps
causes no local damage by floods, or on steep slopes by land-
slips or aval .inches; wherever there is no fear of exhausting
the productiveness of the soil, and wherever it is wished to
prevent damage by delinquents extracting the stumps, or by
insects, fungi or mice.

The question now arises whether it is better to extract the
stumps or to fell the trees by their roots. There has been much
discussion regarding this, but there can be no doubt that up-
rooting trees is preferable. By this method, much wood which
would otherwise be wasted, or become merely firewood, is kept
on the stem, and the roots are extracted not only more easily,
but also more thoroughly. Stems uprooted also fall more
lightly on the ground than felled trees ; so that there is less
breakage and damage done to young growth, and the roots
attached to the stem are converted more easily into smaller
material than in the case of a stump.

222 FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER.

As regards the gain in timber, it is evident that a considerable
and often highly valuable addition is thus made to the largest
log in the tree. This may amount to 8 to 10 per cent, of the
timber in the stem. All windfalls are in this condition, and
generally fetch good prices.

Also it can be shown easily that uprooting trees is a less
laborious way of utilising root-wood than the method of ex-
tracting the stumps ; for it is clear that in both methods the
earth must be dug away from the roots, whilst the only
advantage of the machines is to save a certain percentage of the
manual labour, which must be employed in extracting the
stump. When, therefore, nature offers a lever in the tall
stem of the tree firmly fixed to the stump to be extracted, its
effect can be replaced by no combination of machines, so that
it is mere folly to expect better results from the latter.
The stem itself tears from the ground a number of small
roots which could have been dug up only at a cost quite dis-
proportionate to their value. It is also always easier to
separate the stump from the stem, after the tree has been
felled, than while it is standing. According to experiments
carried out by E. Hess, there is a gain in time and labour of
20 per cent, in uprooting trees instead of felling them and
then extracting their stumps.

The advantages thus described of uprooting the trees are
sufficient to counterbalance entirely the alleged disadvantages
of the method. It is stated, for instance, that the tree cannot
thus be thrown with certainty in any desired direction, but
by using a thrust-pole, or a rope, and severing carefully any
resisting roots while the tree is falling, it can be thrown quite
accurately. Another objection is made, that frequently the
falling stem tears-up a large mass of earth with the roots, a
statement often made erroneously and in any case not
sufficiently objectionable for the uprooting of trees to be
abandoned. A larger hole is often made by grubbing-out the
stump than by uprooting the tree. It is alleged also that
uprooting trees seriously delays the felling operations. The
sub-aerial part of a tree is clearly utilised more quickly by the
use of M,X(J and saw than by uprooting the tree, but if the sub-
terranean part is required as well, there can be no advantage

FELLING RULES. 223

in setting to work on the felling- area a year after the trees
have been felled in order to extract the stumps.

Whilst, however, in general it is preferable to uproot the
trees, cases occur where grubbing-out the stumps is necessary
or permissible ; as for instance where felling is urgent but
the ground is frozen, and in forest clearances, when there is
no urgency for extracting the stumps. It is always pre-supposed
that extracting stumps is done by the aid of implements, for
when this is done by mere manual labour, it is the most
tiresome and dilatory mode of utilising the roots of trees.

[Wherever a clearance is to be effected for a forest-road, or
ride, or for the site of a nursery or forest-house, etc., it is
always better once for all to uproot the trees standing on the
area. This is especially the case in India where buried stumps
are attacked by termites and a dangerous place to traffic
results.— Tr.]

3. Ft'U'unj Hull'*.

Partly as regards care for the forest growth, partly to
increase the quantity and value of the yield, and partly to
economise labour, [lie following rules should he observed by
woodcutters,

i. The "woodcutter must always endeavour to throw every
stem, so that by its fall it will do the least amount of
damage to the forest growth and felled timber around
it.

The attention of the woodcutter in this respect is parti-
cularly necessary in the case of the final stage in shelter-woods,
selection-fellings and in all reproduction-areas, and wherever
large trees standing over poles or saplings are to be felled.

In order as fully as possible to carry-out the rule, the direc-
tions of the forest officials should be followed closely, so that
the young growth may be injured as little as possible. To
secure this object, it may be necessary to lop all the branches
from large trees before felling them.

The skill and attention of the woodcutters are nowhere put
to such a test, an in the removal of large trees from over poles

224

FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER.

and saplings in the natural regeneration-fellings under the

group system. The more susceptible to damage the young

crop, the most careful should the woodcutter be, and the more

important it is to effect such fellings
gradually, that is to distribute them
over several years, and to choose a
season for the felling when the young
growth is least brittle and least liable
to damage by the unavoidable acci-
dents contingent to fellings : in any
case such fellings must never be
undertaken during frost.

Secondary fellings over young seed-
lings are also highly dangerous to the
young growth, and should be effected
only when sufficient snow is on the
ground to protect the plants.

The lopping of branches from
standing trees may secure several
objects. It sometimes assists the fall
of a tree in a certain direction to lop
the branches from the opposite side
of the tree, but the chief reason for

lopping the branches is that the tree in its fall may do as

little injury as possible to the young growth.

Whether this lopping is necessary or not depends on several
circumstances. In the first place,
it must be remembered that it is
not the stem, but the crown of
the tree which may do serious
injury to the young plants. If,
therefore, it can be arranged to
throw a tree with its crown on a
blank unstoukud with young growth,
there is no need for lopping its
branches. In such cases several

trees may be thrown with their crowns on the same blank.
Lopping the branches of a tree is dangerous, and men

capable of doing it are not always available, so that the forester

Fig. 147. — Removing top of
tree. (T. H. Monteath.)

Fig. 148. — Climbing-irons,
(After

FELLING RULES. 225

will if possible avoid the practice. In certain regions, as in
France, the Black Forest and many Alpine forests, ex-
perienced climbers who mount the trees with climbing-irons
(Fig. 148), may be found ready to do the work, on account of
the high rate of remuneration. Wherever a coniferous tree
standing over a group of young conifers is to be felled, first
its stem should be cleared completely of branches, and the
narrow alley it makes in the young wood will soon become
closed. This is especially desirable in coniferous forests, for
injured advance-growth is very liable to insect attacks.

Lopping the heavy boughs of broadleaved trees standing
in the midst of young growth may injure the latter, whilst
the entire crown might fall beyond it, and in any case not
injure the plants so much as do the separate boughs.

[The branches and top of very tall oaks and beeches are,
however, lopped in France, in order to prevent their long
valuable stems, which are much lighter without their lofty
crowns (Fig. 147), from cracking in their fall. — Tr.]

Valuable little stems in pole-woods may often be bent back,
or tied back by withes to allow for the passage of the falling
stem. It is, however, an error to be too anxious to prevent
(bmiMgt! to young growth in a felling, for everyday experience
shows that what appears to be serious devastation is no
longer noticeable after a few years. Even where a valuable
standard tree standing over large poles has become mature,
no hesitation should be shown in felling it.

ii. Each stem should be thrown in such a direction that it
does itself the least amount of harm.

As regards the direction for felling on slopes, the danger of
breakage is much lessened by throwing the tree uphill, as then
its summit describes the smallest arc and attains the least
velocity on reaching the ground. Therefore, in felling valuable
tall timber trees, it is better to fell uphill. On very steep
slopes it may be advantageous in the case of firewood trees to
throw them with the crown downhill, so as to prevent the tree
from sliding any further.

[in the Himalayas, however, the plan of felling uphill was
abandoned in steep places owing to the danger this caused to

F.U. Q

220 FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER.

the woodcutters, the base of the tree often shooting out back-
wards or sideways from the stump. This danger may be
avoided by felling sideways, on to a contour line, if the men
stand above the tree at the moment of its fall. — Tr.]

In order to prevent the stem from breaking, the configura-
tion of the ground on which it will fall should be inspected
carefully, as felling across gullies, on to rocks or other stems
may break the tree. In the case of valuable timber, where
there is an object in securing as long and straight pieces as
possible, or where valuable curved wood is being felled, great
care must be taken not to throw the tree on to stones or frozen
ground ; therefore felling valuable trees should be stopped
during a hard frost.

In such cases a soft bed of branches or faggots may be
placed under the trees, on to which they should be felled ; or
they may be felled against a neighbouring standing tree, pro-
vided that it is also to be felled. A tree may be felled, so
as to fall slowly, by forcing it over by means of wedges before
it is completely severed from the stump. Where a tree is
not too tall, it may preserve the lower part of the stem from
breakage to fell the tree without previously lopping any of
its branches.

iii. In felling timber-trees, attention should be paid to easy
removal of the logs.

Trees should not, therefore, be felled across or into ravines,
but, provided rules i. and ii. are observed, into such a position
that their removal may be effected easily.

Long stems are most easily removed downhill, when they
lie along the slope of the hill with their thicker ends downwards,
and this position is secured by throwing them uphill.

iv. During a strong gale, felling operations must be
suspended.

This should be attended to, at any rate, wherever the direc-
tion in which the trees will fall is of importance, for then the
woodcutters are no longer able to guide the trees.

The wind is the woodcutter's worst enemy, and it is usually

FELLING RULES. 227

during a gale, which prevents the men from hearing what is
going on around them, that most felling accidents happen. In
felling a tree, the woodcutter is safest near the stump and at
right angles to the direction in which the tree will fall ; the
most dangerous place in felling uphill is behind the stump, as
already explained, especially in the case of crooked trees.

v. Great care must be taken that no trees intended to form
a shelter- wood, or to be left standing for any reason,
are injured by the fall of the trees marked for felling.

If such an accident should happen, a few marked trees should
be left unfelled from which the forest-manager may choose
substitutes for those injured. This should be done also in case
windfall or theft has removed any of the selected shelter-trees.
Poles or saplings bent by the felling should, if possible, be set
straight, or if too much injured for that, should be cut-back
level with the ground, with a sharp instrument.

When a tree falls out of the proper direction, it frequently
happens that it rests or remains hanging on another tree.
Such a tree usually may be brought to the ground by cutting
it away from its stump, to which it is often still attached
in such cases; or one or two short logs may be cut away
from its base ; or use may be made of the screw-jack to
release it. If, however, no other means of releasing it are
available, a man must climb the trees on which it is resting
and lop off the branches which impede its fall.

[In tropical countries, where large lianes abound in forests,
these should be severed near the ground, two years before
felling, so that the steins of the lianes which frequently
enlace several trees may become rotten before the felling takes
place ; otherwise a whole group of trees may have to be felled
at once, if it is desired to fell any of them. — Tr.]

vi. Trees exceeding 6 inches in diameter, chest-high, should
be felled always with the saw and axe ; smaller trees
and very large trees may be felled with the axe alone.

In all cases the cut should be as near the soil as possible,
and, as a rule, the height of the stump should not exceed the

Q 2

228 FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER,

third of its diameter, or say one foot for large trees and six
inches for small ones. Exceptions, however, occur to this
rule : thus in the Harz, stumps three feet high are left, as they
make the best charcoal for blast-furnaces ; in other places
forest-rights compel the managers to leave high stumps.
[Mahogany and other tropical trees which have large but-
tresses rising from the roots are felled by erecting platforms
above these buttresses. — Tr.] Wherever the trees are uprooted,
care must be taken that this is done thoroughly, so as to save
all rootwood over 1J inches in diameter, and the holes made
in the ground must be filled again carefully.

vii. Wherever coppicing is effected, only the axe or billhook
and not the saw should be used, in order that smooth
surfaces not liable to decay may be left to the stools.

The cut surface should be quite smooth, and the stools must
not be split, nor the bark torn from them ; poles and saplings
therefore must not be bent over by the woodcutters whilst they
are being cut, and every woodcutter must use sharp tools.

In the case of all trees which reproduce by suckers (elm,
white alder, lime, aspen, common maple, hazel and most
willows) and of those which shoot out from collum-buds, pro-
vided the stools are not very old, the cut should be as deep
into the ground as possible. In this way the shoots will come
out close to, or even below the surface of the ground, and will
produce new roots for themselves, and thus new stools will be
formed. The beech, on the contrary, shoots high up on the
stool ; for beech, therefore, for alders in ground liable to
inundations, and for birch on poor soil, each successive felling
must be made slightly higher than the previous one.

The yield of a coppice is maintained only by preserving the
strong old stools ; young seedling plants do not compensate for
the death of these. Old stools may be kept productive for long
periods, if they are cut somewhat higher at each felling. If
stools get covered with moss and knobbed, they may be left
up to six inches high in the case of beech and other species
which do not produce suckers. Oaks and hornbeam, as a rule,
are least sensitive to bad coppicing. In the case of pollards,
the cut is raised slightly at each felling.

ROUGH CONVERSION. 229

viii. Woodcutters, as a rule, should not fell more trees than
they can convert and remove in the next three or
four days.

This tends to facilitate order and supervision, and also to
economise labour, for otherwise not only would they have
insufficient space in which to work, hut also encroach on the
space of neighbouring parties, whilst the removal of the wood
would be delayed till all the felling was over. Only in the case
of thinnings or clearances should all the trees first be felled
and then converted into marketable sizes. [Also in selection-
fellings and where the trees to be felled are far apart, as in
Deodar forest in India, when all the trees may be felled and
afterwards converted. — Tr.]

ix. Whenever there is fear of damage by insects cr fire, the
woodcutter is bound to clear away all wastage of broken
branches and twigs from the felling-area.

Wherever the brushwood cannot be otherwise utilised, as
in remote mountain-forests, it should be collected in heaps,
leaving room between these for the removal of the timber.
After the felling is over, the brushwood is of tun spread over
the area to protect the young growth from frost, heat, and
cattle, or it is burned.

x. Wherever breakage has occurred, owing to wind or snow,
the work of felling should commence on the side of the
prevailing wind and proceed in its direction.

Clearing extensive areas covered by windfalls is often a most
dangerous occupation for the woodcutter. Trees crossing one
another and wedged together can be separated only with the
greatest difficulty, whilst when a stem has been cut from its
roots and the attached ball of earth, the latter may suddenly
turn over, and accidents can be avoided only by great care and
attention on the part of the woodcutter.

SECTION V. — ROUGH CONVERSION OF WOOD.

By rough conversion of wood is meant the woodcutter's
work of dividing felled trees into pieces of dimensions suitable

230 FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER.

for transport. Any further preparation of the wood into
marketable pieces is usually the work of the timber-merchant,
or middle-man.

No part of the work on the felling-area is more important
than rough conversion, or requires greater supervision and
care on the part of the forest-manager, for it has a very great
influence on the forest revenue. In order that a forest may
be managed so as to satisfy the demands of its owner, as well
as of the neighbouring population, it is necessary in forestry,
as in all other branches of industry, that every endeavour
should be made to utilise the raw material completely and in
all possible ways, and thus meet the actual requirements of
the public. The trees therefore must be converted into timber
from an entirely mercantile point of view.

As a last resort, all timber can be used as firewood ; when-
ever then it is fit for fuel only, the business of conversion is
reduced to the simple operation of preparing the usual sorts
of firewood.

Since, however, in most districts the value of firewood has
of late years been greatly reduced, and a revenue can be
obtained from many forests only by sale of the timber which
they produce, the most important point here is the conversion
of the latter. The chief rule is, therefore, to produce as much
timber of good quality as possible, and in order to attain this
object thoroughly, a forester must have a certain knowledge of
the requirements of the different industries where wood is used.

The Wurtemburg rules for the conversion of wood are excel-
lent, (i.) The outturn of timber as compared with firewood
should be as large as possible, (ii.) All the material from a
felling should be converted so as to produce the highest possible
pecuniary return, (iii.) All logs should be as long as possible,
(iv.) Sound timber should be separated from all that is
of doubtful quality, (v.) Defects should not be concealed,
(vi.) The converted wood should have a good external shape.

The subject will be dealt with as follows : — first, the cir-
cumstances which decide on the mode of conversion to be
applied ; then the usual assortments of timber and firewood
and the work of conversion by the woodcutter ; and, finally,
the general principles of rough conversion.

ROUGH CONVERSION. 231

1. Mode of Conversion to l>c Applied.

The mode of conversion suitable to any particular felling-
area depends on the adaptability of the wood and the demand
for it.

(a) The Adaptability of the Wood.

This varies with the species, form, dimensions and quality
of the wood.

j. ,S),yr/V'.v tif \YnoiL

The uses of the different kinds of wood will be discussed in
Chapter YI. ; it will be shown that conifers are used chiefly
,-is timber and that, of broadleaved species, it is the light-
demanding trees, and, above all, the oak, which yield the
most valuable timber.

The following remarks refer to the usual forms of woods
met with. Pure beech high forest is frequently a fuel forest,
and only a small portion of the yield is then treated as timber.
Sometimes, owing to a favourable market, as, for instance, in
the chair-making districts of Buckinghamshire and Oxford-
shire, or in Belgium, this is not the case ; but frequently the
timber yield of a pure beechwood is not more than 10 to 20
per cent, of its total yield.

AYherever aspen, birch, willows, limes, etc., are mixed with
beech, there is a rise in the timber yield, but this can be con-
siderable only when oak, ash, sycamore, or elms are mixed with
the beech. Such mixtures are the most valuable forms of
broadleaved high forests, as in them the light-demanders
thrive best and attain their best shape. The timber yield
of such forests may be 20 to 30 per cent, of their total yield,
and even more. A mixture of conifers in beech forest is
very valuable, as the former then attain their best dimensions
and quality.

In the Kottenbuch forest range, which is the range richest
in fine oak trees of the whole Spessart, the yield of oak-
timber between 1860 and 1880 was 26 per cent, of the total
yield.

The yield of oak-timber does not depend so much on the
quantity of oak-trees in a mixed wood as on their age and

232 FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER.

soundness, and throughout the renowned oak-forests of the
Spessart usually only 40 per cent., or at most 50 per cent., of
the felled oak-trees can he used as timber, the remainder
usually yielding only inferior firewood. [In the French State
forests of Berc6 and Belleme the percentage of oak to beech
and hornbeam is 50 and the yield in oak timber at least as
high as in the Spessart. — Tr.]

Pure alder-woods yield chiefly timber, but are, unfortunately,
decreasing in area, though greatly esteemed for the manufac-
ture of cigar-boxes. [In Britain they yield gunpowder char-
coal and clog-wood. — Tr.]

It is rare to obtain more timber than firewood from broad-
leaved forests ; the contrary prevails in coniferous woods, and
wherever conifers are grown, mixed with broadleaved trees,
they form splendid trees, and the yield of such forests in
valuable timber is very high. Woods of spruce, silver-fir,
and Scots pine [also larch in Britain. — Tr.] or mixed forms
of these with beech as a subsidiary species are the chief kinds
of coniferous forests in Europe. In the case of spruce and
silver-fir woods, the timber yield may, under favourable
circumstances, go up to 75 to 80 per cent., and exceptionally
be even higher ; in forests of common pine, up to 55 to 70 per
cent., whilst in the north of Europe their yield in timber may
equal that of spruce and silver-fir.

Coppice-with-standards, on good soil and well stocked, yields
fine timber; it is the only system capable of yielding the
hardest and most durable wood of oak and ash.

Coppice yields chiefly firewood, and also small wood required
in agriculture, such as hop-poles, vine-props, hurdle-wood,
laundry-props, orchard and garden tree-props, crate-wood,
bean and pea-sticks, fascines and osiers. Also much pit-
wood for mines.

ii. Shape of Trees.

As a rule, large dimensions in length and diameter, and
straight and cylindrical stems, are required for the best
timber. A large diameter is generally more important than
great length, and it is trees of large diameter which are most
saleable at present. As this implies long rotations, the yield

ROUGH CONVERSION. 2MS

in timber in even- aged woods increases naturally with their
rotation, up to a certain point.

In uneven-aged woods, where there is a stage of inferior trees
below the more valuable ones, the latter may attain their
largest dimensions in diameter, and cylindrical shape.
Although, as stated, the yield of timber from a wood increases
with its age, it must not be supposed that the poles which are
the produce of thinnings are not utilisable as timber (for
paper-pulp, pit-props, etc.). As a rule, the best timber should
be as straight as possible : the demand for crooked and curved
timber required for ships, boats, wheelwrights, saddlers, etc.,
is produced only by standards over coppice or by hedge-row
trees ; but since timber is bent artificially, the demand for
naturally curved trees has been reduced.

iii. Quality of I h<' Wooi I.

The first enquiry should be to ascertain whether or not the
wood is perfectly sound, absolute soundness being the first
condition of the admissibility of wood as timber; this should
be investigated most carefully in the case of trees from old
woods, whether broadleaved or coniferous, which are destined
for long water-transport and may not be carefully treated in
the timber depots. The grain of the timber should be con-
sidered next, whether it be coarse or fine-grained, knotty or
free from knots. The mode of disposal of timber from
pines, larch and oak, is affected by the quantity of heartwood
the trees contain, also by the fact that its fibre is straight or
twisted, splits easily or with difficulty, its stem more or less
cracked, containing cup-shakes, etc. These defects have been
described in Chapter I.

From what will be said in Chapter VI. it will be evident
that the quality of a timber should govern its future mode of
utilisation.

Local defects in a stem may render only a part of it use-
less for timber, and this is especially the case with oakwood
and other valuable goods. In converting such wood, there-
fore, great care must be taken to utilise fully all the good
pieces.

The present market-prices for sound, straight-fibred wood

234 FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER,

are at least 30 per cent, higher than for wood of ordinary
quality, with which the market is glutted. For certain
industries the structure of the annual zones of wood and its
grain are of the highest importance, as in wood for musical
instruments and mast-wood, also in the grain of fancy woods
for furniture. The degree of fissibility is also highly im-
portant, especially in extensive coniferous forests, where a
very large amount of the annual yield of wood is split into
various wares ; also in the case of oakwood, suitable for staves.
In some forests, as in Bavaria, the trees are examined as to
their fissibility before being felled, by trimming off a patch of
their sapwood. Not every kind of heart-shake will render
a tree unsuitable for timber, and even a heart- shaken tree
may be sawn into planks provided the shake is in a line right
through the core of the tree; heart-shakes also are often
confined to the base of the tree, and may be disposed of
by sawing one or two short logs from it.

Cup-shake and twisted fibre may however render a tree
unfit for timber.

(b) Demands of the Market.

The mode of conversion to be undertaken depends also
on the demands of the market. For wherever there is no
demand for any sort of converted timber, nor for any timber
at all, it is evident that firewood only will be prepared. The
demand is measured by the price, and wherever any assort-
ment of timber fetches a higher pi'ice than firewood, conversion
into timber should result. The rule should therefore be to
produce as much good timber as can be utilised profitably,
without including the smaller sized material resulting from
thinnings with which the market is soon glutted. The
demands however for timber now-a-days are subject to great
variations, and there is a considerable demand for poles for
paper-making and pit-timber.

Wherever there are forest-rights to firewood, the outturn in
timber is limited by their demands, and frequently, if such
rights cannot be compensated in money, wood of the best
quality has to be sacrificed to meet these demands.

On the average in the different German countries, the

TIMBER-ASSORTMENTS.

235

production of timber is really large only in Saxony, and was
as follows in 1899 : —

Percentage

of whole

y

Id.

Country.

Timber.

Firt'-vont.l.

Alsace-Lorraine

42

58

Bad on

49

51

P.avaria

51

4! >

WiirtlL'inl)erLr

56

14

1'russia

56

11

Saxony

79

24

All these figures are not prepared on the same basis,
as in Saxony 60 per cent, of the wood is used for paper-
pulp and mine-props, while the comparative richness or
poverty of a country in coal affects greatly the demand for
firewood. In the Bavarian Alps nearly all top-and-lop is
left in the forests, so that the percentage of wood brought
out is 90 per cent, in timber. Such figures therefore are
of relative value only.

2.

It is evident that generally the woodcutter cannot undertake
to prepare timber for the market in the ultimate form it
assumes when taken over by the different industries. This
would require much too extensive a knowledge of the latter-
As a rule, therefore, it suffices to divide the trees into trans-
portable pieces which by their dimensions and qualities are
suitable as the raw material of an industry, or of a whole group
of industries. The further detailed conversion may be left to
the special industries, or to the wood-merchant. In small
private forests, however, matters may go further in this
respect.

[The best example in Europe of detailed conversion as well
as of labour-saving means of transport may be seen in the
Sihlwald, belonging to the town of Zurich, where the wood
is converted on the spot into all kinds of commodities, down
to wood-wool for packing. — Tr.]

The various pieces into which a tree may be converted by

236 FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER.

the woodcutter are termed rough assortments of timber, and
are distinguished as follows : —

Timber.

Firewood.

Split billets.
Round billets.
Root and stump billets.
Faggot- wood.

Butts

Poles

Stacked timl
Brushwood -

ber

! Material (beansticks, etc.) from the
crowns of trees, from young thinnings
and coppice fellings, other than fag-
got-wood.

(a) Timber.

Timber is usually in logs or poles, sawn or cloven pieces.
It is also popularly distinguished according to its destination
for building purposes, implements, manufactures or agriculture.

Building-Timber is used in superstructures, bridges, embank-
ments, mines, roads, railways, or in ship and boat -building.

Timber for Implements is used for water-mills, windmills,
stamping-mills, oil-mills, etc.; also in many countries for cart-
wrights' work, etc.

Manufacturers' Timber is used in all ordinary wood-working
industries, such as cabinet-making, carriage- or carfc-building,
turnery, wood-carving, coopers' work, etc.

Agricultural Timber is used for gates and fences, hop-poles,
hurdles, stakes, pea and bean sticks, etc. (vide Chapter VI.).

From a careful consideration of the distinction between the
different kinds of timber available, a forest-manager will
readily perceive how his trees should be converted in order to
meet these various requirements.

Wood from stems is usually classed as logs or butts. The
distinction between stems and poles and between logs and
butts varies in different forests, but the following classes
usually occur in the timber-trade.

Logs are the boles of full-grown trees, or the greater part of
them, after they have been topped and freed from branches.
Logs should measure at least 23 feet (7 meters) in length ;

TIMBER-ASSORTMENTS. 237

their mid-diameter should be at least 6 inches (15 centimeters)
without bark, including the bark, 7 inches (18 centimeters).

In most cases the longer and straighter the logs and the
greater their diameter at the smaller end, the greater is their
value. Logs are used chiefly in the different building-indus-
tries, but also to a small extent for implements, sails of
windmills, stamping-hammers, etc. ; as cloven-wood, for
which only straight-fibred timber is admissible, they are
rarely required in full length ; as sawn material they are
used chiefly in building ships, barges and boats, also for
bridges and in mines.

Butts are round pieces of stems or of exceptionally large
boughs, usually cut from the shorter and thicker part of either.
A butt should be less than 23 feet (7 meters) in length, but at
least 7 inches (18 centimeters) in mid-diameter measured
without the bark. Whilst therefore in length a butt is
surpassed by logs, its chief value lies in its larger diameter.

Butts are chiefly coniferous, as broadleaved timber is now-
exported mostly in logs. They arc used for piles, mining
purposes, railway-sleepers ; shorter pieces (partly curved) in
shipbuilding ; also in the construction of bridges and roads.
In machinery they are in demand only slightly for rests, or
sockets, anvil-stocks, pounding- troughs, etc. They are largely
used as cloven-wood by the stave-maker, cooper, wheelwright,
turner, shingle-maker, etc., also for wood used for musical
instruments, gunstocks, etc. Butts are, however, used chiefly
for sawn timber, and the bases of coniferous stems to form butts
for sawmills in lengths of 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20 and 22 feet,
those from 12 to 16 feet long (3J to 5 meters) being preferred.

Wood also of oak, beech, poplar, alder for cigar-boxes, and
other kinds, is cut into butts of similar dimensions for
sawing.

iii. Poles.

Poles are young stems, generally the produce of thinnings
or coppice-fellings, and usually measure less than 7 inches
(18 centimeters) and down to 2J inches (6 centimeters) in mid-
diameter, being always measured unbarked. They are usually

238 FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER.

sold unbarked at their full length for pit-props, shafts,
ladders, hop-poles, tree-props, walking-sticks, umbrella-
handles, bean-sticks, etc. They may also be split into crate-
or hurdle-wood, but are sawn into scantling very rarely.

v.

This is in the form of round or split pieces, which are piled
like cordwood and sub-divided into two classes —

Pieces over 6 inches (15 centimeters) in rnid-diameter.
Pieces 2J (6 centimeters) to 6 inches in mid-diameter.
Stacked timber is used by the clog or sabot maker, cooper,
brush-maker, sieve-maker, wheelwright, turner, stave-maker,
and in many places worked into vine-props. Bound pieces
are used now chiefly for making paper-pulp.

v. Brushwood.

Wood less than 3 inches (7 centimeters) in diameter at the
thicker end is termed brushwood, and is generally piled
between stakes. It is partly branchwood, but chiefly the
produce of coppice, and is used for fascines, pea-sticks,
brooms, fencing material, etc. In the case of osiers it is used
for basket-work.

(b) Firewood.

After all the wood which can be used as timber has been
prepared, what is left is firewood.

Firewood is stacked for measurement, and termed cordwood.
In Germany, Austria-Hungary and Switzerland, the usual
length of pieces of cordwood is 1 meter, or 39 inches, but
this measure is not compulsory, provided the volume is com-
puted in stacked cubic meters or feet. [In Britain the length
of billets is usually 3 feet. — Tr.]

Firewood is distinguished as follows according to the shape
and size of the pieces :—

Split firewood comes from stems and branches measuring
across the smaller ends at least 5J inches (14 centimeters),
in Switzerland, 4^ inches (12 centimeters).

TIMBER-ASSORTMENTS. 239

A billet of split firewood should measure from 5J — 8 inches
(14 to 20 centimeters) along the chord of its smaller end, and
exceptionally up to 11 inches (28 centimeters); it should
always be split from the core of the tree.

ii. /ft at /id Millets.

Round firewood billets are unsplit round pieces of wood 2J—
5J inches (7 — 14 centimeters) in diameter at the thin end.
In many districts, wood of this class is split in half. Round
pieces of larger dimensions are used sometimes in charcoal-
making.

It is advisable always to split the round pieces of firewood in
order to ensure drying, reduce carriage and increase the heat-
ing power of the wood. Experiments have shown that round
firewood when split loses 27 — 28 per cent, more weight in the
five winter months than unsplit wood, and Schuberg has proved
experimentally that its loss in weight in four weeks' time is
double that of unsplit firewood.

iii. Maw/)- and /fvof-tcwid.

Pieces of stumps and roots of all sizes, provided they are not
longer than the other pieces of cordwood and may thus be
conveniently stacked, form this class of firewood.

Faggot-wood includes all refuse crown, branch, and coppice-
wood under 2 J inches (6 centimeters) in diameter at the larger
end.

This is either piled in heaps about equal in size, or tied
into bundles termed faggots, or bavins, which are of about
the same length and circumference as split cordwood
billets. The remaining refuse of the felling is collected in
heaps, and may be given away to the workmen, or auctioned.

3. The Work of Conversion.

The work of conversion comprises the woodcutter's work of
preparing the different assortments just described from the

240 FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER.

felled trees, and demands the greatest care and supervision on
the part of the forest manager.

(a) Conversion of Timber.

i. Removal of Branches.

First the felled tree is freed from branches from its base
upwards, the axe, or lopping-axe with a thick back, being
generally used for the purpose.

The branches must be severed smoothly close to the stem,
and all projections on the stem and stumps of branches
removed. If the branches are large enough to make cord-
wood they may be sawn into suitable lengths whilst still
attached to the stem. In other cases, and where it is prefer-
able to use the axe, the branches may be cut from the stem
and placed aside while the woodcutter is occupied with the
stem. Whilst one man of a party removes the branches the
others shorten the stem. In most cases the branches are fit for
firewood only, but wherever some of the boughs in the large
crowns of certain trees can be used as timber they should be
set aside carefully, as thus pieces of valuable curved and kneed
wood may be secured.

In the case of oak trees the portion of the stem above the
insertion of a large bough is so reduced in diameter that
the stem should be severed at this point. The top is so
much the more valuable if it forms a knee with an upper
bough.

Knee-pieces also may be obtained from a portion of the
base of a tree and of a strong root, if the tree has been
uprooted.

ii. Measurin I he

Once the stem has been freed from branches it is measured
with a yard or meter measure, and the different yards or meters
marked on it by slight cuts in the bark. If the stem is fit for
fuel only, it is then sawn through at these points (or into other
short lengths) ; if intended for timber, it is cut into suitable
lengths according to circumstances.

ROUGH CONVERSION. 24-1

iii. Determining the Assortment.

Once the tree has been freed from branches and measured,
it must be decided from a consideration of its species, dimen-
sions, form and quality, and the demands of the market, into
what assortments it will be converted. This decision is of the
greatest importance ; it usually should be made only by one of
the forest staff. The usual rule is to allow the stems fit for
timber to retain their full length as much as possible. There
are many exceptions, however, to this rule, which is more
applicable to coniferous than to broadleaved wood.

(a) Quality. — Only perfectly sound wood should be con-
verted into timber. This rule is specially applicable in the
case of oakwood, which is often full of defects. Large old
beech, spruce and silver-fir trees are also often heartshaken,
cracked, infected with red-rot, or brittle at the base of the
stem. Whenever pieces of timber of doubtful soundness, or
from which the defective parts have not been carefully removed,
are offered for sale, future sales of timber are greatly prejudiced.
When, therefore, there are any doubts as to the soundness of
the wood, it is better to cut it into shorter pieces than to
send suspicious looking goods to the market. The timber
purchaser, now-a-days, has had too much experience of such
pieces.

(b) Shape of Stem. — Wherever long pieces are in demand,
it is unusual to include in them the small end of the stem.
The next point is, therefore, to decide where the top should be
cut : as a rule, this should be wherever there is a marked
falling-off in size, or a change of shape, in the stem ;
wherever, in fact, the top of the stem may be utilised dif-
ferently from its lower portion. By leaving a piece of wood
at the end of a log, which does not accord well with it, the
value of the latter is not increased, for the purchaser always
excludes this piece from his estimate. If, however, the forest
owner cuts off such a piece, it will be utilisable at any rate as
firewood, and in the case of oak may be used as a railway-
sleeper or gate-post, the value of which would not be considered
by a purchaser of the bole.

Straight, long pieces which are chiefly coniferous, need not
F.U. R

FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER.

after removal of their end-pieces, be further shortened, and
this is also the case with sound oakwood, even if not quite
straight. In such cases, the longer the log the more valuable
it will be. But as regards coniferous wood further considera-
tion is necessary. Logs in the Schwartz wald and elsewhere
are sold by the length and the diameter of their smaller
ends ; this should .be the universal rule with coniferous
timber. In such cases, the best place for removing the end of
a log is where the small-end diameter approaches as nearly as
possible to the minimum admissible. This is rarely less than
6 inches for logs, and it may be laid down as a general rule,
that the small-end diameter of a log should be one-third of
that at its base.

Formerly coniferous logs were sold usually by their cubic
contents calculated from their length and mid-girth, but
recently this measure is being abandoned for that of their
length and small-end diameter. In such cases the measuring
of the mid-diameter serves only to calculate the cubic
contents.

(c) Demands of the Market. — There are districts where long
logs are not in demand, but butts for sawmills are preferred,
and the finest spruce-logs are cut into suitable lengths for the
neighbouring sawmills ; where fine, straight oak stems must be
cut into short lengths for staves, and so on. In other dis-
tricts long logs are required for floating. In such cases, the
custom of the trade must be followed in converting the timber.
It should also be considered whether, or not, the customs of
the market are stable, the former being frequently the case in
districts richly supplied with sawmills, and more so with coni-
ferous than with broadleaved wood. In other cases, and especi-
ally with oak-timber, the demands of the market are very
variable, depending on a good vintage, on large imports of
foreign timber, etc. It is then prudent to cut the logs as long-
as possible, provided they are sound.

In other districts, where timber is used chiefly for local pur-
poses and both short and long logs are wanted, it is better to
cut one or two butts for sawmills from the base of the stems
and retain the remainder as long as possible for building pur-
poses. A prevalent demand for long logs will occasionally

ROUGH CONVERSION. 243

modify this rule and decide on the number of sawmill butts
which will be sawn from the stem. It is not, as a rule,
financially advisable to prepare butts for sawmills of less mid-
diameter than 12 to 13J inches (30 to 35 centimeters) ; small
butts may, however, be split or sawn into laths.

(d) Facilities for Transport. — In converting large standards
over a dense growth of saplings or poles, it is often considered
best, out of respect to the young wood, to cut them into short
lengths. Exceptionally this may be justifiable, but usually
should be avoided, for the standard was retained expressly to
yield large timber.

All shortening of stems should be done with the saw, and
only long logs which are to be dragged along the ground,
slid down-hill with ropes, or floated in rafts, should have their
larger ends rounded with the axe.

There are many localities, in more or less accessible moun-
tain districts, where the method of conversion depends on the
possibility of transport, and where the preparation of long
logs cannot be contemplated, because they cannot be
removed.

(if

All wood, and especially pieces of valuable broadleaved
timber, should bo exposed by cutting through all swellings, or
overgrown knots, so as to show its inner quality and increase
the confidence of the purchaser.

In the Spessart, and for the Baltic trade, oak-logs are split
down the centre into half-balks, so as to expose completely the
interior of the wood. This wood is used by the cabinet-
maker.

v. rii'i>arnlion of llu1 inoxl Vahiubli' J

Whenever stems may be converted in several ways, that way
should be adopted which is expected to yield the best price.

vi. Conversion of Poles.

Poles, suitable for pit-props, hop-poles, cart-poles, telegraph-
posts, ladders, shafts, hurdles, bean-sticks, etc., which come
partly from the principal fellings, but chiefly from thinnings,

E 2

244 FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER.

present the least difficulty in conversion. The species, and
the greatest possible degree of straightness, are the chief points
to attend to.

In some cases it is necessary to leave the poles quite un-
shortened, as for hop-poles, where the branches are not lopped
off close to the stem, but snags of branches are left to assist
the climbing of the hops. Sometimes the tops are left, as a

Peeling-irons.

Fig. 149.— Common. Fig. 150. — Black Forest. Fig. ir>l.- -Upper Bavaria.

proof that the poles were not dead when felled. Clothes-props
also, and props for trees, are left forked at the top. The top
is removed from cart-poles.

The dimensions of the different assortments vary locally.

Thus, hop-poles may be between 16 and 30 feet (5 and 10
meters) in length. Telegraph-posts should be 7 to 10 inches
(18 to 25 centimeters) in diameter, at 1 yard from the butt-
end ; hop-poles 2J to 5 inches (6 to 12 centimeters). Hop-poles
generally are felled deep into the ground with the axe, whilst

ROUGH CONVERSION. 245

ladder-wood and wheelwright's wood should he sawn straight
at the hutt.

vii. Removal of I'xtrk.

All stems felled during summer in coniferous forests are
usually harked to prevent insect-attacks, facilitate transport
and preserve the white colour of the wood. The wood may be
harked completely, whenever this can he done, as in spring
and early summer. During autumn and winter the bark can
be removed only partially.

Although complete harking gives the wood a better appear-
ance, yet the rapid drying which ensues frequently causes
numerous cracks into which spores of fungi are conveyed by
the rain, and then the timber is liable to decay unless rapidly
transported to its destination.

In this respect partial barking is superior. The tools used
for barking are shown in Figs. 141), 150. and 151, and com-
pared with the axe they save 50 per cent, of labour. Usually
large stems with rough bark, especially during winter, are
barked with the axe or adze.

It has recently become usual to bark round stacked pieces,
especially pulp-wood ; also the larger poles and especially
hop-poles, but then only partial harking is necessary.

(b) Preparation of Firewood.

Firewood, especially split and round firewood, is prepared
from the remains of the stem and branches after conversion
of the timber ; or whole firewood trees, as in beech forests, are
freed from branches, marked-off into lengths, and then sawn
into short butts.

In cutting-up butts for firewood, chiefly the curved saw is
used, and the work is assisted by wedges, which are inserted
as soon as the saw-cut is deep enough. Woodcutters must be
careful not to cut obliquely, as they may easily do by mistake
on sloping ground. The cut must be at right angles to the
axis of the tree, if the cords of firewood are to have a good
uniform appearance. As a rule, the larger branches are also
cut into lengths with the saw, which should be used in convert-
ing wood whenever it is possible. Only on very steep, rocky

246 FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER.

ground, where the workman cannot find room to use the saw,
or when stems are lying one over the other, etc., may the axe
be used for this purpose. The wood should then be cut so as
to have one cut vertical and the other oblique, as in Fig. 152.
By the use of the axe from 6 to 8 per cent, of the wood is
wasted, being 7 per cent, when the pieces are 1 meter long.

The round pieces over 5J inches in diameter at the smaller
end are then split by means of the wedge and cleaving-axe
into split cord wood, and whenever the trade prefers that round
cordwood should be split, this should also be done.

The wedge is generally placed on the top of the round piece,

and driven in by a blow of the axe-
head. Whenever the wood is difficult
to split this forms the chief part of
the woodcutter's work in the pre-
Fip. i:>2,-Method of cutting paration of firewood. He requires

fiie wood. _ , ,.,,. .

several wedges of different sizes,

and even uses the cleaving-axe as a wedge, driving it in with
the beetle. It is only in the case of easily split wood that the
wedge may be placed on the side of the round pieces. Pieces
5 J to 8 inches (14 to 20 centimeters) across, are usually merely
split in half, whilst pieces 8 to 12 inches (20 to 30 centi-
meters) across are split into six or eight pieces. Except in the
case of very large trees, the pieces always are split to the
core. It would, however, be better, both to facilitate transport
and improve the quality of the wood, that no pieces exceed
5J to 8 inches (14 to 20 centimeters) measured along the
chord.

(c) Refuse.

Pieces too knotty or of too twisted fibre to be split remain
entire and go with the refuse, after the conversion is over.

(d) Cloven-timber.

In the conversion of firewood, billets which may be other-
wise utilised should be put aside carefully. This is specially
necessary with oakwood ; and from the broken pieces of trees
which cannot be converted into logs, or butts, many billets
may be utilised as cloven-timber, and they should be carefully

ROUGH CONVERSION. 247

freed from all defective portions and from sapwood. They
need have no fixed dimensions, hut should be as large as
possible and of whatever length is desirable.

(e) Conversion of Stumps and Root-wood.

The most laborious of all works in conversion of wood
is that of the stumps and roots. If the tree has been
uprooted, the roots are separated from the stem by means
of the saw, and they are then freed from the soil which
may be attached to them and reduced in size by means
of the wedge and axe, or by blasting them with powder or
dynamite.

In separating the roots from uprooted trees, it some-
times happens, in easily cloven wood, that when the saw
has gone about half through the base of the stem, the
stump splits the stem owing to its weight and falls back
into its original hole. To prevent this disaster, a chain
may be wound round the stem below the saw-cut and.
tightened by driving in wedges, and the sturnp supported
by pieces of wood.

i. ('ntirrrxiitn of SI inn fix Inj nit'cui* of Ordinary Tool*.

Small stumps up to 3 inches across are not split. Those
from 3 — C) inches are split lengthwise by means of the axe and
wedges, the wedges being usually placed on the sawn section,
and if it is also necessary to begin splitting from below as
well, always from the projection of a side-root, where the
stump is most easily cloven. If possible, the wood should be
split to the core, but this cannot be done in the case of thick
stumps of coarse fibre, from which pieces are split-off gradu-
ally from the circumference. This method of splitting is
effected more easily while the stump is still in the ground,
than after it has been extracted. Wooden wedges, holding
better than iron ones, are more serviceable in splitting stumps.
In order to tear apart the pieces more thoroughly, iron crow-
bars are used, and the ordinary screw-jack is very serviceable.
It has been stated already that machines may be used for
extracting stumps.

248

FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER.

ii. J Has/in f/

by Gunpowder.

The stump which is to be blasted by a charge of gunpowder
is bored best from its flat surface by means of a large auger
(Fig. 153), so that the bore-hole may go down to the junction

of the roots. In case the tree
is rotten at the heart, the boring
must be made from one of the
sides. The charge should con-
sist of 1J, 3 or 4J ozs. of blast-
ing-powder, and a fuse should
be introduced, or some other
arrangement made for firing
the blast. Frivolin and Kyssel
used ordinary percussion caps
for the purpose. Fig. 154 shows
a simple detonator, the ring (a)
being for the insertion of a
handle for screwing it into the
bore-hole, whilst (5) is a simple
trigger for striking the cap.
Urich improved matters further
by using an apparatus with a
needle for firing the cap, which
was placed on the top of the powder, as shown in Figs. 155,
156, the former giving its external form, and the latter a
section through its axis. The apparatus has a bore sufficient

Fig. 15B. — Augers for boring wood.

Fig. 151.— Frivolin's detonator.

for the working of the needle (m o). It is closed by a
screw-lid (/>) in which the cap (n) is placed. In order
to prepare the apparatus for firing, the needle is raised
by means of the ring (m), and a steel pin is placed in the
aperture (d). The lid (/>) is then removed, and screwed

ROUGH CONVERSION.

249

on again after a cap has been inserted. The charge is
fired on the removal of the pin by means of a long cord,
the needle being driven down on to the cap by a strong
spiral spring placed above the ledge (m). The advantage
of this apparatus consists in the fact that it is not necessary
to fill it with powder, but a cap only is required, and the
firing of the charge follows immediately on the release of
the needle, which can be done from a distance with perfect
safety, whilst no tamping is required for the blast, the strong
apparatus screwed into the bore-hole serving instead; the

a

Kiir. l.V>. I'rieh's detonator.

T. 1 .1«;.— Section of same.

results are excellent, the largest stumps being split into two
or more pieces.

Whenever only a fuse is used, after less than half the
powder has been poured into the bore-hole, the fuse, made of
tarred yarn surrounding a thin column of powder is inserted,
and then the rest of the powder. Then the remainder of the
bore-hole is filled with earth or clay as a tamping, and firmly
rammed-down.

The portion of the fuse 4 — 6 inches long, which protrudes
beyond the hole, is lighted with a match and in 1 — 2 minutes
the explosion follows.

250

FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER.

iii. Blasting Stumps by Dynamite.

Dynamite is a more powerful explosive than gunpowder, and
is obtainable in cartridges resembling brown stearine candles
encased in thick paper. It becomes hard at temperatures of
45° to 50° Fah. and cannot be heated above 108° Fah. without
danger. It will not explode unless it be at least as soft as
wax, and must therefore be warmed slightly during winter.

According to the size of the stump
1-7—2 grams (1— 1-12 drams) of
If dynamite are required for every centi-

meter in the diameter of the stump,
so that cartridges of 70 to 100 grams
suffice for stumps of 0'50 to 0*70
meters in diameter [i.e., 2| to 3J
ounces for diameters of 1 foot 8 inches
to 2 feet 3 inches. — Tr.] , provided the
wood is not too difficult to split.

The dynamite-cartridge (p) in Fig.
157, is then placed in the bore-hole,
which should be of suitable bore to
admit it, and rammed home with a
wooden ram-rod. A smaller cart-
ridge (z) is used in connection with
a fuse for firing the charge, the end
of the fuse being placed on the soft
mass of dynamite of this cartridge,
and tied firmly above it in the paper
covering of the latter. This firing-
cartridge and fuse is then let down on to the blasting-cartridge
in the bore-hole. The vacant space in the bore-hole is then
tamped with earth and the fuse lighted.

Whilst blasting with powder frequently only cracks the stump,
by the use of dynamite it may be torn into several pieces.

As regards the cost and saving of labour by blasting the
stump, various estimates representing from 30 to 50 per cent,
labour saved have been made ; for oak-stumps the cost is
estimated at 6d. per stacked cubic meter cheaper than manual
labour, and for Scots pine at 3d. more.

Fig. 157.— Blasting with
dynamite, c Fuse.

HOUGH CONVERSION.

251

Dynamite can be used with advantage only on completely
uprooted stumps, for it has scarcely any effect on those still
in the ground. Owing to its highly explosive nature, dynamite
will not be much used for blasting stumps in forests at any
rate during winter ; also on account of its high price and
because it is a strong poison.

The use of blasting powder can, however, be strongly
recommended for this purpose wherever the price of labour is
high, and stumps have to be split.

(f) Preparation of Faggots.

Wherever twigs and branches are in demand for fuel, they
are cut into lengths with the bill-hook and bound into faggots,
or bavins, by means of one or two withes or binders.

Fiir. l.",s. — Faggot- binder's j>i<

[Fernandez* gives a simple frame for faggot-binding as
shown in Fig. 158. The lever (I), the lower end of which rests
against the bar (//), is drawn towards the operator and hitched
into the hook (/<), thus tightening the chain over the bundle of
sticks. The withes can now be tied and the pressure on the
faggot released by unhitching the lever ; the length of the
chain, which can be varied, regulates the size of the faggot.—
Tr.]

In other cases, small branch wood may be carried to the
nearest roadside and stacked in heaps between stakes.

Faggots should be made in whatever dimensions the public

* '• rtilixation of Forests," p. los.

252 FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER.

prefer. In country districts usually long thick faggots are in
demand : near towns they are preferred when not exceeding
80 pounds in weight ; they may be 1 J feet long and 2£ feet
in girth, five smaller ones being bound-together to make a
faggot.

The best withes are slender oak coppice-shoots, but hazel,
sallow and birch, etc., will serve the purpose. These withes are
freed from all side-shoots, and when freshly cut, or steeped in
water, are placed on a fire to make them pliable ; they are then
twisted like ropes into a loop at the thin end, through which the
thick end is drawn when they are fastened round the faggot.

4. Removal of Wood previous to Conversion.

It has been presupposed hitherto that the conversion of the
felled wood takes place on the felling-area near the stumps of
the felled trees, and this is generally the case.

There are, however, circumstances in which it is necessary to
remove the wood from the felling-area, or at any rate away from
the stumps of the felled trees, before it is converted ; — as in a
young crop, during the final stage of natural regeneration ; under
a shelter wood, in selection-fellings, cleanings and thinnings.
Splitting firewood and conversion of the easily transportable
poles and saplings may then be effected on neighbouring blanks,
roadsides, etc.

Wherever the firewood before being stacked has to undergo
a further transport by water, sledge-roads or slides, it is advis-
able to convert it into short butts, and to split these up only
after they have been transported to a depot.

5. Occasional Non-conversion of Firewood.

Owing to the present greatly reduced price of firewood,
foresters often are obliged to give up converting it in the
regular way just described. Wood yielding only round billets
and faggots, especially from extensive thinnings, may then be
simply carried unshortened, including the crowns, to the nearest
roadside, and stacked between stakes.

There are districts where there is absolutely no demand for
small poles, saplings, and branch-wood, as in many Alpine

ROUGH CONVERSION. 253

forests, or in districts containing many private and communal
forests.

6. General Itule* regarding Conversion.

Forest-managers should bear in mind the following rules
regarding conversion of timber and firewood :—

(a) The most urgent local demands of right-holders and
contractors must be satisfied first, and the conversion of the
remaining material effected from a strictly financial point of
view, that is, with a thorough knowledge of the actual demands
of the market.

(b) After carefully considering the demand, the wood should
be converted so as to yield the highest possible net-value on
deducting the cost of conversion. Hence, the mode of conver-
sion is a purely local affair, and will vary greatly according to
circumstances in different forest ranges.

(c) The conversion into any assortment should be regulated in
quantity, so as not to glut the market, and to allow of the demands
for other assortments being fully met. Forest-managers should,
therefore, be conversant with the state of the supply of different
classes of material from other forests which compete with their
own.

(d) The rarer and more valuable any assortments, the greater
care must be bestowed on their conversion. This is especially
the case with oak and large coniferous timber.

(e) Conversion of timber often is effected better when different
classes of workmen are employed for the different works. Thus,
in broadleaved forests the work commences with the felling and
conversion of the large timber trees ; after all the best timber
is ready, what is left is converted into firewood and other inferior
assortments. In coniferous forests it is often customary and
advisable first to prepare the various cloven wares, such as
shingles, staves, etc., then the butts for sawmills and the logs,
and finally the firewood.

(f) The forest-manager should ascertain always the wishes of
timber-merchants, manufacturers and craftsmen of the neigh-
bourhood, and they may be encouraged to visit the felling-area
for this purpose, but he should be on his guard lest by following
the advice of any of them competition for the produce may be
reduced.

254 FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER.

(g) Although it is justifiable, when the prices of wood are low
and wages high, to attempt only a very rough conversion of
firewood, or abandon converting it altogether, yet this should
never be done with valuable material. Any carelessness in its
preparation will do more injury to the forest revenue than
paying high wages for good work.

(h) It is usually advantageous in forests where petty delin-
quencies are frequent, for the manager to compete with the
thieves by selling better and .cheaper material than they do,
such as hop-poles, bean- and pea-sticks, Christmas-trees, etc.

SECTION VI. — SORTING AND STACKING CONVERTED MATERIAL.

1. General Account.

The rough conversion of the felled trees must produce many
pieces of the same class, but of different qualities, shapes and
dimensions, especially among the timber where scarcely two
pieces are identically alike. As every producer keeps his wares
of different kinds and qualities apart, so each kind of converted
forest material should be separately arranged. In this way only
can it be possible to estimate the probable value of the results
of the felling, and to expose the lots for the inspection of the
different classes of purchasers. The real object of separating
assortments of woods used by various industries and consumers,
is to obtain the highest possible price for each assortment. The
arrangement of the .assortments into classes should, therefore,
be made on the following principles :—

i. All pieces which are of different value, and fetch different
prices, must be put in separate classes.

ii. The classes must correspond always to the demands of
the locality.

iii. The separation into classes should depend on differences
of species, size, shape, quality, and demands of the market,
and these will be discussed in detail further orr.

iv. This separation must not be too minute, or go too much
into detail, so that there can be any doubt about the proper
classification of any piece, or too much difficulty in calculating
and registering the results of the felling. There is a consider-
able difference in this respect between valuable pieces of timber

SORTING AND STACKING. 255

and common sorts of firewood. In the former case, the manager
can hardly go too far in subdividing the classes, and a difference
of price exceeding \d. per cubic foot should cause a different
class of timber to be established.

A difference of value is, therefore, the chief reason for a
difference^ in class of material.

-I. Ih'tdilwl Account.

(a) Species.

The species of tree has a great influence on the use to which
the wood can be put. Timbers of different species should, there-
fore, be separated into classes, or at least species of equal value
should be classed together. The same procedure should be
adopted in the case of firewood, or where there are few of
them all inferior kinds should be separated from those more
valuable.

Of great importance in sorting felled material is the com-
parative abundance or rarity of any species. Thus, where
valuable oak wood is abundant, the chief point to attend to will
be to classify the oak timber; in coniferous forests, to classify
the spruce or pine timber, and in beech woods the beech- timber
and the better classes of firewood.

(b) Dimensions.

Logs, butts, and poles will be classified according to their
dimensions. As the value of a log or butt is not always
directly proportional to its cubic contents, but to its length,
or thickness, and in the case of coniferous wood to the
thickness of its smaller end, the pieces will be classified
accordingly.

Such classes are formed according to differences of about
t) feet in length, and 2 — 4 inches in thickness. In the case
of valuable timber, the classification according to thickness
may go down to one centimeter. [Thus, in France, oak-
timber increases in value at about one franc per cubic meter,
for every additional centimeter in diameter over fifty centi-
meters. — Tr.] The less valuable the pieces, the rougher the
classification,

256 FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER.

Large billets always increase the solid contents of a pile of
stacked firewood, so that firewood also should be classified
according to dimensions.

(c) Shape.

Curved timber should be classed according to the degree of
curvature for a certain length, or in kneed-timber for the angle
at which the branch leaves the main piece.

In classifying other timbers, the chief points to which
attention should be paid are : — whether they are straight,
bent in one plane, quite crooked, or contain burrs ; also,
whether they are clean-grained, or merely have been trimmed
free from many branches and are knotty.

In the case of firewood, also, straight billets of split or round
stem-wood should be piled separately from crooked and knotty
branch-wood.

(d) Quality.

Independently of its soundness, which is always presup-
posed in the case of timber, there is a great difference in
quality depending on its grain. Thus, we have coarse-
grained and fine-grained timber, timber with broad or narrow
annual zones, with straight, twisted, or wavy fibre. Some
stems are naturally smooth on the surface, others lumpy
owing to occluded knots. All these circumstances affect
the value of the pieces and should be considered in sorting
them.

In the case of firewood any unsound and broken pieces-
should be piled apart from the better wood, and as the age of
the tree often influences the heating-power of the wood,
young or very old wood may be separated from middle-aged
wood.

It cannot be repeated too often that only sound wood should
be classified as timber. Wood, in its present struggle against
iron and other substitutes for it, can win the day only
when it is sound and durable. This is especially the case
where the wood has to be transported long distances, and
is subject to indifferent treatment before it reaches the
consumer.

SORTING AND STACKING. 257

(e) Local Demand.

In classifying the produce attention always must be paid to the
local demand. Thus, in certain localities, custom may render
it necessary to classify wood in a way that is quite uncalled
for in other localities. Whilst, however, sufficiently conform--
ing to custom in this respect, the manager always should
attend to the chance of changes being introduced gradually in
conformity with the demands of more distant markets than
his own immediate surroundings.

8. List of Wood-assortments.

The following list gives all the common sub-divisions of the
different classes of produce from the fellings.

A. LARGE TIMBER.

(u) LUIJ*.

i. Oakwood (Spessart), 10 — 30 feet long and of normal

quality.

Class L, logs over 26 inches in mid-diameter.

„ II.,
„ III.,

„ IV.,

„ v.,

„ VI.,
„ VII.,
„ VIIL,

> j
j >

5)
J>
11

»

24—25
22—23
19—21
16—18
13—15
10—12
5—9

Defective timber is put back one or two classes and very
defective timber two or three classes lower than their dimensions
would otherwise warrant. Logs of good quality longer than
30 feet are put forward one class, or even two classes, if the
timber is very superior.

ii. Coniferous Timber.

After rejecting wood from diseased trees and setting apart
the finest ringed and straightest grained wood, the outer shape

I'.i . S

258 FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER.

and the dimensions of the timber form the chief guide for
classifying coniferous wood. As regards dimensions, the logs
may be classified according to the raid-diameter, or to the
small-end diameter. In no other case has the latter so impor-
tant a bearing on the value of the timber, as in coniferous
logs, and accordingly in many districts of South Germany the
classification is so arranged. The mere volume of the logs is
a bad index of their comparative value.

In accordance with the Heilbron classification, which is
almost everywhere preferred by the German timber-trade,
coniferous logs are classed as follows :

Class. Length. Diameter at small end.

M. Ft. CM. Ins.

I. 18 = 58, and over, 30 12

II. 16—18 = 52—58 22 9

III. 14—16 = 45—52 17 7

IV. 10—14 = 32—45 14 5
V. up to 10 32 12 4|

All the timber must be sound and free from branches ;
rough but sound timber goes down a class. The diameters
are measured under bark.

Classes lower than V. comprise ordinary or inferior building-
timber, rafters, fencing rails, pulp-wood and pit-props. In
Bavaria, a sixth class, with at least 6 cm. (2J inches) diameter
at small end, is added.

If the wood is classified by mid-diameter the classes are as
follows :

Class. Mid-diameter.

I. and II. 35 cm. and more, 14 inches.

III. 25—35 „ 10—14 „

IV. 20—25 „ 8—10 „
V. under 20 „ 8 „

iii. Remaining Species.

Broadleaved trees, other than oak, do not yield much
marketable timber ; the exceptions to this rule are, elm, ash,
alder and aspen. [Willow, sweet-chestnut and sycamore are
valuable in Britain. — Tr.] In many cases each of these

SORTING AND STACKING. 259

woods may be classified separately, and the others classed
together. Wherever any of these timbers are of special value,
they should be classed separately.

i. Oak (Spessart).

Length. Mi<Uluimetrr.

M. Ft CM. Ins.

I. not less than 3 — 10, not less than 75 30

II. „ 3—10 „ GO— 74 26—29
HI. „ 3—10 „ 61—65 24—25
IV. „ 3—10 „ 55—60 22—23

V. „ 3—10 „ 48—54 19—21

Inferior wood goes down a class, and very superior wood
goes up a class.

The above timber is for sawing, staves, cabinet-making
window-wood, etc. Curved wood, knees, and railway-sleeper
'wood come in here, also inferior wood for split wood,
wheelwrights, and wood for sawing.

ii. Coniferous Wood.

Class I, butts of best quality for musical instruments,
shingles, and other split ware.

Class II., butts of 14 inches mid-diameter and over ;
straight-grained.

Class III., butts of 10 — 14 inches mid-diameter.

Class IV., butts of less than 10 inches mid-diameter.

Class V., butts of inferior quality and of various sizes.

The wood in these classes is chiefly intended for sawmills to
be converted into planks, boards and scantling. The wood
must be classed according to species, and occasionally more
classes than those given above will be required.

As regards length, it is generally constant for the same
locality, according to the custom of the sawmills or floating
trade. The timber-trade prefers lengths of 10, 11, 12, 14, and
18 feet. The smallest class is usually for water-pipes.

s 2

260 FELLING AND CONVEKSION OF TIMBER.

iii. Remaining Species.

Here according to the quantity of timber available, and the
demand, a separation into classes is advisable. Three classes
for each kind will suffice. Among broadleaved trees, after
oak, ash, elm, sycamore, alder and beech are most important
and require separate classification.

B. POLES.

In this group poles used for building or other industrial
purposes come first, then those used in agriculture. There
is great variety in different districts as regards their dimen-
sions : the following list gives only the more important
classes, most of which, and especially the larger sizes, may
be sub-divided into two, three, or even four sub-classes.

1. Building- and scaffolding-poles, rafters, always coniferous,

30 — 50 feet long and more, 100 pieces containing 200 —
300 cubic feet (6 — 8 cubic meters).

2. Telegraph-posts, 25 — 30 feet long, 6 inches across at top.

3. May-poles.

4. Ladder-wood, 20 — 40 feet long, 100 pieces containing

175—200 cubic feet.

5. Cart and agricultural implement poles, of both broad-

leaved and coniferous wood, 100 pieces containing
100—175 cubic feet.

6. Hop-poles, coniferous [except sweet-chestnut. — Tr.] , 15—

30 feet long, 2J — 5 inches in diameter at 4 feet from the
base, generally sub-divided into four or five classes. One
hundred pieces contain 125, 80, 60, 35, 20 cubic feet.

7. Poles for fastening logs into rafts, 10 — 16 feet long.

8. Tree-props of different species.

9. Tree-stakes of different species.

10. Poles used for making hooping for casks.

11. Crate- wood and hurdle-stakes.

12. Fascine-stakes and hurdle-rails.

13. Bean-sticks, 10 — 15 feet long.

14. Fencing-stakes, 10 — 15 feet long.

15. Hedge-stakes [also walking-sticks and handles for um-

brellas.—Tr.].

SORTING AND STACKING. 261

C. STACKED WOOD FOR SPLITTING.

As regards species ; oak, sweet-chestnut, alder and ash should
be placed separately, also conifers.

Further separation into two or three classes, according to
dimensions and fissibility, is also necessary. This group must
always consist of sound wood. Stacked oak wood in the
Palatinate is divided into two groups, stave-wood and wood for
vine-props, the former into four, and the latter into two
classes ; wood of other species and coniferous wood are each
divided into three classes.

The round pieces of stacked timber are divided according to
species into two classes of different dimensions. They are
used for vine-props, pit-props, and in lengths of 5 — 0 feet for
the manufacture of paper-pulp.

D. BRUSHWOOD.

1. Withes.

2. Osiers for basket-making.

3. Wood for brooms and pen-sticks.

4. Wood for fascines.
.">. Thatching material.
6. Christ in as- trees.

K. F I UK WOOD.

1. Split billets, thoroughly sound wood, sub-divided into two

classes according to size.

2. Crooked billets, sound but knotty.

3. Broken wood. Unsound split billets sub-divided into two

classes according to the degree of unsoundness.

4. Bound billets from stems.

5. Bound billets from branches.

6. Peeled round billets from oak-coppice grown for tan.

7. Boot-wood. This may be divided into two classes, when

it sells well.

8. Large unsplit pieces.

1). Small split billets fastened with withes (Fr. cotre.ts).
10. Faggots without twigs of larger wood from thinnings,
under 2^ inches in diameter.

262 FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER.

11. Branch-faggots.

12. Faggots of thorns, etc., from cleanings.

13. Heaped-up faggot wood.

14. Bark for fuel. The bark of silver-fir and spruce, when

it is not required for tanning, is often stacked and sold
for fuel. The bark rolls-up when thoroughly dried, and
becomes less bulky.

The price-lists depend on the classification of the produce
from a felling-area, so that there is a local price for every unit
of produce. Such prices usually include the cost of conver-
sion.

SECTION VII. — CLEAKING THE FELLING-AREA.

1. Explanation of the Term.

The felled and converted material of different kinds, which
during the process of conversion lies scattered over the felling-
area, must be sorted and collected in a temporary forest
depot. This is situated within the felling-area, in a valley or
on a road leading from one, at the top of a timber-slide or
sledge-road, or on the banks of a stream down which it is pro-
posed to float the material. In no case, however, should the
forest depot be so far removed from the felling- area that the
material cannot be transported there by the regular wood-
cutters with the help of horses, or other simple means of
transport.

Clearing the felling-area, therefore, means removing the
material by dragging, carrying, sliding, or sledging to a con-
venient forest depot either within the felling-area or not too
remote from it.

Whenever the material is to be removed to a permanent
depot near the place of consumption or a railway-station, by
means of more or less permanent means of communication,
such as roads, slides, forest-tramways, streams, etc., all the
measures required to effect its removal come under the head
of wood-transport. Clearing a felling-area and transport
cannot however be distinctly separated, and sometimes they
are both carried on simultaneously by means of the same gang
of woodcutters.

CLEARING THE FELLING-AREA. 263

2. Purpose of the Clearance.

The wood is removed generally from the felling-area before
selling it, for different reasons : first, to facilitate the estima-
tion of the yield of the felling in quantity and quality ; then,
for silvicultural reasons, and finally, to improve the forest
revenue.

The first of these objects is obvious, and wherever the
estimation of the yield depends on the clearance, that is clearly
a part of the classification of the timber which has been already
described (p. 254). The wood must be stacked in assortments
in the forest depot, and the woodcutter who assists in removing
it from the felling-area must understand the local classification
of the material.

It is evident also that the removal of the material must act
beneficially on the growing-stock, and that the preservation of
the latter is much better secured when the forest-manager
controls the clearance of the felling-area, than when the
indifferent or careless wood-merchant deals with it, and is,
therefore, admitted into all parts of the forest. Besides,
in many conditions of the standing-crop it is essential that the
converted material, which must remain in the forest until it is
removed by the purchaser, should without delay be withdrawn
from the felling-area, so that the latter may be left free and
undisturbed for silvicultural operations. This is above all
necessary in the case of coppice and coppice- with -standards,
and also in natural regeneration-fellings in high forest.

The collection of the produce of a felling in depots accessible
to ordinary carts, and which offer no difficulty of access to
timber-merchants, must act beneficially on the prices and
increase the forest revenue. Experience proves clearly that
money carefully spent in this way will repay itself amply ;
even if there were no other objection to the clearance being
effected by the purchaser, it is evident that the forest-manager
can do the work cheaper than the individual purchasers of
different lots.

3. Choice of a Forest-Depot.

In order to secure the above objects as thoroughly as possible,
the proper choice of an area to serve as a forest-depot is highly

264 FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBEE.

important. Every forest-depot should be so situated as to be
within easy reach of the timber-purchasers' carts, or other
modes of transport, and so that the neighbouring woods may
be liable to the least possible amount of injury in both the
clearance and transport of the material ; it must also be in an
open, airy or at least dry position, and should offer sufficient
room for the different classes of material to be arranged con-
veniently for inspection by intending purchasers and by the
forest staff. Wherever the logs have been barked, the depot
should also be shady, so that cracking may be avoided.

Usually in plains, or moderately low mountain-ranges, the
material is brought to the nearest road, or where this is not
broad enough, into the forest bordering the road, including
the ditches. Blanks on the felling-area, or in the clear-
cutting system the felling-area itself, may be used as a depot,
if there is no immediate necessity for restocking them. In
higher mountain-ranges all the material from a felling-area
must be brought down into the valleys, to the top of a slide, or
to the banks of a stream. Usually this is done whilst the
timber-work is proceeding.

Wherever great numbers of trees are felled yearly, it is in
the interest of the forest-owner to set-aside permanent timber
depots for the reception of the material from felling-areas, and
to place the logs on supports keeping them from contact with
the damp ground.

4. Material to be Removed.

In general, all wood should be removed from the felling-area,
the sale of which would at least cover the cost of removal, when
only the simple means at the disposal of the woodcutters are
used.

All firewood and the smaller kinds of agricultural wood
should be removed always before a sale ; whether, or not, this
should be the case with the larger logs and butts depends chiefly
on the nature of the ground. If the felling-area is nearly
level, it is easy for the purchasers' carts to come up to the
stumps of the felled trees to load and convey the heavy pieces
of timber directly to their destination. If, however, the felling-
is on a slope, skilful woodcutters will find no difficulty in

CAEEFUL METHODS OF CLEARING. 265

removing the heaviest logs down to the valley below ; in such
places it is indeed necessary for them to do so, for carts
cannot then leave the roads, and the purchaser of the timber
must not be allowed to slide the logs downhill to his carts. On
sloping ground, therefore, all large timber is removed by the
woodcutters from the felling-area. Where there is only a
gentle slope, the removal of the timber from the felling-area
will depend on the amount of protection necessary for the
forest crop. In many such cases, it is sufficient to remove
the timber to the nearest cart-track passing through the
felling-area.

The mode of re-stocking the area to be adopted will also
influence the matter. If the area of a clear-felling is to be
re-stocked immediately, all the wood on it must be removed.
In the case of natural regeneration, there are usually blanks
in the felling-area on which the heaviest timber may be
placed.

Wherever the purchaser undertakes to fashion the wood in
the forest, as in the making of sabois, spokes, staves and
other cloven ware. the worksheds should, if possible, be kept
outside the felling-area; the granting of the permit to pre-
pare the wood should depend also on the acceptance by the
purchaser of certain suitable sites for his work, provided such
sites are available.

5. Motifs of

The felling-area may be cleared in various ways, which are
more or less consonant with forest protection ; such as carry-
ing, sliding, dragging, sledging, letting-down by ropes, using
timber-chutes and rolling downhill.

(a) Careful Methods of Clearing a Felling-area.

i. Carrt/inf/.

Carrying is done chiefly by men, seldom by beasts, and is
confined to the smaller classes of material, such as firewood,
poles, branchwood and cloven-ware.

As carrying by men is very laborious and expensive, it is
done for short distances only, especially when wood lias to be

266 FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER.

removed from young growth with the least possible amount of
damage to the latter, or has to be taken a short distance uphill
to a road : also on very rocky ground, where no other means
of transport is practicable. The woodcutter either carries the
wood on his shoulder or piled on a frame on his back, or it is
carried on a litter supported by two people. Logs and poles
may be carried on the shoulders of several people [or suspended
from rods resting on their shoulders as they walk in pairs.—
Tr.]. In natural reproduction-areas, especially during the final
stage in spruce or silver-fir woods, all branchwood should be
carried and not dragged from the felling-area, as the latter
plan does much damage to the young growth and predisposes
it to attacks of weevils.

ii. Removiiif) Wood on Wheeled Conveyances.

This is always a careful method of clearing a felling-area,
but can be employed only where the ground is fairly level.
The ordinary wheel-barrow may be used, to which a rope
may be attached to economise strength in pulling. Horses or
bullocks also may be used on fairly level ground, with the
front or back pair of wheels of a timber cart. In this case
the log is hung under the axle of the wheels, and this is the
best method available for removing timber from young growth
without injuring it. The use of portable railways (p. 336)
is also a method as good, if not better, than the above. [A
French method of raising logs on to carts is shown on p. 481.
-Tr.]

In order to further the transport, sufficiently wide cart-
tracks or paths may be cleared, which is specially advisable
if young growth is to be traversed. In any case this method
is far preferable to dragging the timber carelessly along the
ground.

iii. Dragging or ftlidimj along //H> (j round.

In this method either men or beasts may be employed.
Various implements are used by the workmen to expedite
matters, such as the krempe (Fig. 161), or the implement
shown in Fig. 160, resembling a boat-hook, and also used in
floating timber, or the strong hook-lever with hook and ring

CAREFUL METHODS OF CLEARING.

267

(Fig. 162), or ordinary levers. In the case of beasts dragging
the logs, chains are used, which may be fastened to the logs by
grappling-irons (Fig. 163), or by means of the slip (Fig. 164
for two horses or Fig. 165 for one). The short sledge (Fig. 172)
may be used.

Before a log can be dragged or slid, generally it must be
turned over, or rolled into the drawing-track ; for this the
hook-lever may be used as shown in Fig. 159. To bring a log
parallel to the dragging-track, it suffices generally to place a

. l.V.i. - -

roller under its centre of gravity, when it can easily be turned
in any required direction.

If a log is to be slid down by men, which evidently can be
done only if the ground is sufficiently steep, it is brought into
the sliding-track with its butt-end downwards, and then guided
by the krempe at its butt, as it is forced to slide downhill by
levers. The workmen who accompany it downhill release the
log should it stick against any obstacle, and bring it down to
the nearest export-road, or to level ground.

When beasts are used to drag the logs, such as horses, bullocks
[in India, buffaloes and elephants. — Tr.], the ground must be
level or only slightly inclined. The log is then held firmly, as
in the Alps, by the grappling-iron, or a hole is cut in the butt
of the log to which the dragging-chain is fastened. If the

268 FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER.

Fig. 162.— Hook-lever.

Fig. 161.— Krempe.

Fig. 163. — Grappling-irons.

Fig. 160.—
F]f>ating-hook.

I'M. 16.~>. Draggiog-slip.

CAREFUL METHODS OF CLEARING.

269

ground is covered with snow, the logs are simply dragged along
over it, or are fastened to the front wheels of a timber-cart, or
to a sledge. In any case much labour is saved by slightly
raising the butt-end of the log from the ground on a slip.

In the Bavarian Alps a simple arrangement, the dragging-
shoe (Fig. 166), has proved useful. It hinders soil erosion
and the up -rooting of plants. The shoe is placed under the
front of the log, which sticks on the iron points, if it gets
loose during transport, the other pointed iron is driven into
the log.

In most forests, sliding or dragging are the usual methods
employed for clearing the felling-area ; on slopes by men, and

Fig. It',*;. r>;iv;iri;m -hoe.

on fairly level ground by animals. In the case of reproduc-
tion-areas, and especially those in coniferous forests, dragging
should be done only with great care, the log not being
allowed to roll ; there should also be sufficient snow on the
ground. Dragging injures young plants more than any other
method and greatly exposes young conifers to attacks of
weevils. It must, however, often be employed even when
the ground is free from snow, but in such cases it is not
sufficient to slide or drag the logs along cleared tracks ; a pair
of high wheels also should be used if the ground is not too
steep. Logs should also be rounded at their butts when dragged
or slid, as then they do less damage.

the ground is not stocked with young growth, there

270

FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER.

-pig, 167. — Murgtal Black Forest sledge.

Fig. 168.— Middle Khine- Valley sledge.

Fig. 169.— Alpine sledge for butts 10-15 feet long.

Fig. 170.— Southern I'.lack Forest sledge.*

* Gayer recommends the sledge shown in Fig. 170 on account of its lightness
and simplicity, and because by pressing on itfl runners in front, it can be easily
checked in speed.

CAREFUL METHODS OF CLEARING.

271

can be no objections to sliding or dragging timber from the

felling-area.

v.

Sledges may be used for clearing the felling-area, and then
on frozen ground or temporary sledge- roads, as distinguished

. 171. .Moravian sloi

from permanent sledge-roads, which will be described under
"Wood-transport."

(a) Construction of Sledges. — The mode of construction
of ordinary wood-sledges may
be seen from the annexed
figures, different forms being
used in various European
countries and districts, but
it has not yet been decided
which is the best form to
adopt under various circum-
stances.

[Two forms of sledge are in
use in the N.W. Himalayas
for transport of railway-sleepers
and firewood, and have proved
very useful. As the oak run-
ners of these sledges become Fig> 172--Moravian short sledge-t
worn, soles also of oak are applied to them.— Tr.]

* in this sledge, the load rests distinctly on the runners, and its construction

: y simple.

f In this short sledge firewood is placed between the vertical arms and the
shaft (a).

272

FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER.

The requisites for a good sledge are lightness, strength, and
dimensions allowing for a load which one man can transport.

(b) Sledging-tracks.— Wherever sledges are used for the
removal of wood, a serviceable track must be made, which
differs according as the sledging is done in summer or winter.

For winter-sledging on fairly level frozen ground slightly
covered with snow, a path is soon got ready after removing a
few obstacles. On slopes, the case is similar, provided there
are no holes, ravines or slight eminences in the way. Eavines
and holes may be filled with branches or faggots, or billets of
firewood may be piled up in them till they are filled.

The track is then covered with snow, over which the sledge

Fig. 173. — Barrow-sledge.*

passes ; this may be necessary when the wind has blown
away the snow, whilst in other cases, it may have drifted too
deeply, and part of it requires removal. In many districts
woodcutters show considerable ingenuity in constructing
temporary sledge-roads. Once the rest of the wood has
been removed, the billets on the road are lifted and brought
down on sledges.

Whenever the snow is deep, the track must be beaten or
trodden down. Where the snow on the felling-area is over
two feet deep, the removal of the wood must be suspended,
for it costs too much time and trouble to hunt for the pieces,
and many of them would be overlooked. A winter with little

* The barrow-sledge is much used in the r|>l"'r Scli\v:ir/\vul(l, cither on
Min\v, oi- ;ilun<_! cart-roads. It is, however, used chicilv on specially prepared
paths,

CAREFUL METHODS OF CLEARING.

273

snow is, however, worse than deep snow, for then much time
is spent in placing snow on the bare parts of the track, or

Fiir. 171. Vosges. Summer-sledging.

in preparing an ice-path. Until some snow has fallen, the
work of clearing the felling-area must be often suspended.

During summer, sledging can be done only on sloping
ground, and even then is not always practicable; for on

F.I . T

274 FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER.

slopes which are otherwise suitable, a sledge-track can often
be made only with excessive trouble. This is often the case
on rocky ground, or where the soil is deep. On slopes, how-
ever, which- are covered with dead needles, or moss and
herbage, sledges may run freely, especially over silver-fir
and Scotch-pine branches, spruce being not so suitable. If
then any hollows in the track are filled with billets covered
with branches and litter, or a kind of tramway made with
round billets over the more difficult ground, sledging may be
effected with great saving of labour, and is consistent with the
protection of the young growth. It is, however, practicable
for short distances only (Fig. 174).

(c) The operation of sledging. — In all sledging operations,
the workman stands in front between the horns of the sledge,
which he holds in both hands, so as to draw the sledge or stop
its too rapid progress.

Wherever the ground is even, or only slightly inclined, the
sledge must be dragged, and the greater the angle of inclina-
tion, the less this is necessary ; if then the track be smooth,
with a gradient of 1 in 20 (5 per cent.), usually the work-
man has only to guide the sledge. As the gradient increases,
he has to hold the sledge back ; with gradients from 1 in 16
to 1 in 12 (6 to 8 per cent.), a man can do this without much
difficulty, but with steeper gradients brakes must be used.
Thus on steep inclines, the workmen have iron spikes attached
to their boots to give them a good hold on the ground. [In
the Himalayas, softwood sleepers are used down steep inclines
for the sledges to run on, and hardwood for low gradients the
pieces being closer together in the latter case, this with the
use of sand is found better than any brakes. — Tr.]

Brakes may consist of bundles of faggots in which stones
are placed which are dragged after the sledge by an iron chain.
Several such faggots are often linked together, attached by
short chains close behind the sledge. Bound or split billets
of wood may serve the purpose, instead of faggots. Hoops
made of twisted withes may be hung over the horns of the
sledge, and let down under the sledge-runners on steep slopes,
thus causing a great increase of friction. The iron hook
and lever (Fig. 175) is used also in many Alpine sledges

CAREFUL METHODS OF CLEARING. 275

as a brake. In Moravia, the very small sledges (Fig. 172)
support only a small part of the load taken down at once ; the
rest is fastened in bundles and dragged behind the sledge, so
as to act as a brake. As the track varies in steepness, occa-
sionally parts of the load have to be left behind : the man
takes what he can to the nearest steep part of the track and
then returns for the rest, he then goes on with the whole load
till he comes to another place where the gradient is insuf-
ficient, and some again has to be left behind. Such a mode

Fi- 17.->. SlnL'e-brake.

of sledging is most suitable with gradients from 1 in 4, to
1 in 3, (25—30 per cent.).

It is evident that besides using somo form of brake, the
workman must use his own strength and press his spiked
boots into the trade at stt-.t-p places.

(d) Sledging without a regular track. — Generally, sledging
except on sledge-tracks, is confined to the transport of fuel or
charcoal-wood. This is either split and piled transversely
between the sledge-uprights, or if brought down in round
pieces often of double the length of the billets, these are
placed lengthways along the sledge in a pyramidal pile and
fastened to the sledge by short ropes or thin chains.

v. Sliding Logs />// means of Ropes.

Thick ropes, 30 — 60 feet long and 1J — 2 inches thick, are
used for sliding logs down sufficiently steep inclines.

The method of attaching rope to the log is shown in Fig. 176,
or a hook may be attached to the rope and inserted into a hole
cut in the butt-end of the log. According to the position of
the log on the ground, it may be let down with its butt-end

T 2

276 FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER.

or smaller end first. After the rope has been attached to the
log, it is wound once or several times, according to the weight
of the log and the gradient of the ground, round the stem of
a neighbouring tree or stump, and let down by gradually
loosening the rope. It is accompanied by 1 to 3 men, who
guide it past obstacles, or stop it with the krempe (Fig. 163)

or lever (Fig. 164) freed
from thekanting-hook, and
direct its course among
the young growth. Once
the length of the rope is
run-out, the log is held
firmly by the men by
means of krempes, until
the rope has been wound
round another tree, and
the process is repeated
Fig. 176.— Sliding with a rope. until the log has reached

its destination.

This method is employed extensively in different parts of
the Black Forest, where up to Wd. a cubic meter (35 cubic-feet)
is paid for the removal of the logs ; this expenditure is amply
covered by the higher price thus secured for the timber.

[Care must be taken that the rope is not wound round valu-
able standard trees intended to remain for several years on the
felling-area, as their bark is then damaged and unsoundness
may ensue. — Tr.]

(b) Injurious methods of clearing a Felling-area.

In the following methods of clearing a felling-area, the wood
is no longer under the control of the workman, but is left to
itself while it moves.

i. llolllinj /rood from the Felling-area.

This is a method of removal only permissible over unstocked
areas, as in the clear-cutting system with artificial reproduc-
tion. In such a case it is an expeditious method if the gradients
are not too givai. When the gradient is considerable, it becomes

INJUKIOUS METHODS OF CLEARING.

277

dangerous to human life. In spite of this danger, however,
workmen prefer it to any other method.

[Rolling is largely employed in Assam in removing short
Sal (tiltorea robasta) and other butts from the forest to the

278 FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER.

river-side. A rolling-road used in New Zealand for Dacryd'uun
cupressinum is shewn in Fig. 177. — Tr.]

ii. Throwing wood from the Felling-area.

Another method employed for short round butts intended
subsequently to be split into cordwood, is to throw them down
hill topsy-turvey from terrace to terrace. A firm surface to
the ground is necessary, such as snow with a hard frozen
surface, on which the wood may slide or roll as well as turn
over. It may also be done in wet weather, but deep snow
greatly impedes the descent of the logs.

The krempe is usefully employed in setting the butts in
motion. The practice can be employed only over unstocked
areas. It is rendered more practicable when branch-wood
from the felling-area is piled on both sides of the line selected
for the descent of the butts, thus keeping them well together.

iii. Sliding timber.

This is the method of allowing logs and butts to slide down-
hill by their own weight. Their butt-ends are rounded and
turned down-hill. Any depressions in the hill-side are speedily
filled with butts and logs, and the workmen try to keep these
lying parallel to one another in the direction of the greatest
slope, so as to assist the other logs in sliding over them.

This method is employed largely in the Austrian Alps, and
in Franconia. Wherever on the hill-side the gradient of the
slope is insufficient for any further chuting of the logs to be
done, they are turned at right-angles to their previous direc-
tion and rolled by means of the krempe to the next steep slope,
where sliding can be recommenced. This method is illustrated
in Figs. 178, 179, the fall in the latter case being from the top
of the diagram.

iv. ///•// lintbn'-i'lnilt'x.

These are narrow ravines among mountains, with steep
sides, and are barred by means of a horizontal log, behind
which a number of short, round logs are collected and let loose
down the ravine by cutting away one end of the bar. This
method of removal is employed in the Alps, for short distances,

INJURIOUS METHODS OF CLEARING.

279

Fi;_r. 17S. Sliding timber from A to B.

where there are ravines suitable for the purpose, and other
methods of removal are too difficult. It may be termed a dry
timber-chute.

280 FELLING AND CONVEKSION OF TIMBER.

In some cases the bed of the ravine contains a mountain*
torrent, which may be dammed temporarily until there is a
sufficient head of water to carry the logs down, when the dam
is opened. This is termed a wet timber- chute.

Evidently, wherever timber is left to fall downhill by its own
weight, and without being under the control of the workmen,
much breakage and loss of bulk by friction must ensue ; so
that these methods will be adopted only where more careful
methods are impracticable or too expensive.

6. Season for Clearing the Felling-area.

The season for clearing a felling-area depends on that of
the felling, and on the mode of removal employed, as well as
on the subsequent transport of the timber, and the available
labour-force.

It is a general rule to clear a felling-area as soon as possible
after the conversion of the felled material, and bring the latter
into suitable places for its preservation and seasoning. This
is especially urgent in coniferous forests, where there is much
danger from beetles. Eapid removal of the material is also
necessary on natural regeneration-areas, and other areas stocked
with young growth. The mode of removal employed should
be considered also, 'depending as it does chiefly on the con-
figuration of the ground. In plains and low mountainous
districts, there is no reason why the removal should not follow
immediately on the conversion of the wood. In high moun-
tain-districts, it is frequently necessary to await a fall of snow
before clearing the felling-area, and all that can be done in
summer is to convey the wood to the nearest valley, or road,
and proceed further with it during winter.

It is evident that the clearance of regenerated areas demands
the greatest care, especially when long logs are to be removed.
The spring, just before the buds shoot, is then the best season,
the young plants being less brittle than in winter, even with
a moderate snow-covering. If, however, the snow is deep and
firm, and it is possible to do the work, the clearance should be
effected in winter.

The season of removal depends also on the subsequent trans-
port of the timber. In plains, the duration of frost in winter

INJURIOUS METHODS OF CLEARING.

281

Fig. 17!». Sliding and rolling logs in Franconia.

282 FELLING AND CONVEESION OF TIMBER.

greatly affects the transport. If the wood has to be floated or
rafted to any distance, it is often necessary first to allow it to
become thoroughly dry, especially where the a streams are
shallow ; thus 1 J years may elapse between the felling and
the arrival of the wood at the saw-mills, which clearly involves
great risk to the quality of the timber. In such cases the
best logs should be removed speedily from the forest to airy
forest-depots.

7. General Rules.

The following general rules apply to clearance of the felling-
area :—

(a) All wood should be removed, the sale of which will
repay the cost of removal ; this may be expected always
unless prices have gone down most abnormally.

(b) All wood lying in places inaccessible by carts, such as
ravines, rocky ground, swamps and steep slopes, should be
removed. In the case of dead wood, clear-cuttings, thinnings,
etc., in flat or slightly hilly ground, the material is frequently
left in situ, to be removed by carts, but even in such cases the
collection of the wood by the proprietor often increases the
forest revenue.

(c) Wherever there is a crop of young growth, as in all
secondary and selection fellings, extraction of standards from
younger wood and where trap-trees for beetles are felled, the
wood should be removed at once from the felling-area. If, in
such cases, the heavier logs are not removed at once, as on
fairly level ground, all the rest of the material and especially
the firewood should be removed as soon as possible by work-
men under the control of the forest-manager.

The logs left on the felling-area should be raised above the
ground on pieces of wood and removed as soon as possible by
purchasers.

(d) The forest-depot and the paths leading to it must be
selected by the forest-manager before commencing the felling,
and all wood from the felling-area brought to the depot with-
out delay. In mountainous districts, where there is scarcity
of room, vacant sites for stacking timber are provided by
widening the roads leading downhill at suitable places.

GENERAL RULES FOR CLEARING. 283

(e) The method of removal of the wood to be adopted must
be prescribed beforehand and adhered to as much as possible.
All unsilvicultural methods should be avoided, and employed
only in high mountain-districts, where the timber cannot
otherwise be removed.

(f) The greatest care must be taken of the young growth
when the wood is being removed, and tracks, along which this
is permitted, should be selected beforehand by the manager.
Great care must be taken not to injure the bark of standing
trees during the removal of the wood, as this frequently causes
unsoundness and greatly depreciates the future value of these
trees.

On fairly level ground, if there is no snow, the heavier
material should be removed by means of horses and a pair
of wheels, especially through young coniferous growth. On
slopes, the groups of young growth should be surrounded by
heaps of branches to protect them. Timber may be removed
across natural regeneration-areas without any serious damage,
but this is undesirable in the ease of artificial plantations.

(g) The wood should be removed in assortments, and then
stacked at the forest-depot. Care should be taken to economise
space in the latter, and Unit the piles of malt-rial on hillsides
are stable. [In some eases terraces must bo carefully made
for locating the stacks. — Tr.] All small timber should be
piled in hundreds or fifties, and butts and logs in lots of five,
ten or more. Heavier pieces which would otherwise remain
some time on damp ground should, as soon as possible, be
raised on supports above the ground.

(h) Each party of woodcutters must remove and pile its own
wood separately from that of other parties, in order to facilitate
payment for the work.

(i.) Removal from the felling-area and transport to the sale-
depot are frequently done simultaneously ; in such cases the
work may be entrusted to a contractor under strict rules to
prevent damage.

It often happens in the plains, in the case of clear-fellings,
that great numbers of logs have to be removed, and sometimes
this may be done best by means of contractors' horses,
mules, or bullocks. In high mountain-regions, removal and

284 FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER.

transport are done generally by contract [as in Indian fuel-
forests — Tr.] .

SECTION VIII. — SORTING THE CONVERTED MATERIAL AND
FIXING THE SALE-LOTS.

The first rough sorting of the material from the felling-area
is done when the workmen bring the pieces to the forest-
depot, and this classification will hold for all the heavier
pieces, logs, butts, etc., which cannot be moved about in the
depot. The men therefore must take the greatest care to
arrange these pieces properly, once for all. Pieces, however,
which can be moved easily by the men, may be arranged some-
what more carefully at the depot itself ; this refers chiefly
to firewood and small timber. Every kind of material is
arranged in small lots, which can be measured easily and their
value estimated. This arrangement should be commenced as
soon as sufficient stuff has come down from the felling-area,
and continued pari passu with the conversion and clearance
of the latter, so that it may terminate immediately after the
felling-area has been cleared.

The sale-lots may be either in separate pieces, by numbers
of pieces, or in stacked volumes.

1. Single Pieces forming a Lot.

All large pieces, such as logs and butts, are measured
separately, and even if several such pieces are sold together,
the rule is to estimate the value of each piece separately.

In the case of broadleaved timber, hardly any two logs or
butts are alike, and each piece should be sold separately. Coni-
ferous pieces, on the contrary, are far more regular in quality,
form and dimensions, especially the butts intended for saw-
mills ; a moderate number of similar pieces may therefore be
arranged in a lot. Places in which they are to be arranged
should therefore be shown to the woodcutters before any wood
has come down to the depot.

In forests subject to inundations, logs should be secured with
cords or wire to posts driven into the ground.

SORTING CONVERTED MATERIAL.

285

2. A Number of Pieces forming a Lot.

All inferior timber, such as poles, etc., which resemble one
another sufficiently, should be placed in lots of 25, 50 or 100.
A lot of hop-poles or bean-sticks of first or second quality is
arranged easily, an average piece of each kind being selected
to guide the workman. Assortments of small timber should
be arranged therefore in the depot, in classes and sub-classes.
This work will be done the more easily if the woodcutters sort
them carefully during the clearance of the felling-area. It is
everywhere customary to place small poles and saplings in
hundreds, and the larger kinds, and those for which there is
only a moderate
demand, such as
scaffolding -poles,
ladder- wood, cart-
poles, etc., may be
placed in fifties or
quarter hundreds.

They should be
placed with their
thick ends to-
wards the road
between stake-
driven into the ground. The smaller kinds — bean-sticks,
hurdle-wood, etc. — may be fastened together in lots of 25.
Poles may be arranged conveniently by tens, a small rod
being placed under the thick ends of each ten poles, in order
to facilitate removal (Fig. 180).

Fii_r. I**'.

:irr;uiLr<-(l in tens.

3. Stacked Wood.
*

All firewood, and as a rule all branch-wood, cloven-wood, or
fascines, should be measured by stacked volume, and therefore
piled in regular stacks ; a much more difficult matter than
the simple one of piling poles, and it must be described in
detail.

(a) Shape and Size of the Stacks.— The stacks of firewood,
billets, etc., are usually rectangular parallelepipeds, of different

286 FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER.

dimensions in different countries ; in Germany, Switzerland,
Austria, France and Italy the unit is generally a stacked cubic
meter (Raummeter in German, or stere in French*).

It is, however, usual, even when the wood is measured in
stacked cubic meters, to place three or four steres of wood in a
stack approaching in volume to the old customary measures ;
the usual number is then 3 steres, but 1 and 2 steres are
sometimes employed. The normal length of the billets
in a stack is 1 meter, but especially in the case of cloven
timber this may be varied. The length of the pieces is
considered as the width of the stack, and its other dimensions
are termed length and height. Thus, for 1 meter of width, we
have for

Meters. Meters.

4 steves

1 2 ,, 2

q f 3 ,, 1

I 2 „ 1-50

"

2

T25

•*- » »» »

[In the fuel supplied to the British army atChakrata in North-
ern India, the stacks are 21 feet long X 5^ feet high and 2 feet
wide ; this is supposed to contain 200 cubic feet, 1 foot in
length and £ foot in height being allowed for shrinkage. — Tr.]

The stacks should not be too high, especially on sloping
ground and with coarse split roots or heavy wood, and usually
the height should not exceed 5 feet; high stacks only increase
labour and are liable to fall.

The usual size of brushwood-faggots is, with the exception
of fascines, of the same girth and length as an ordinary split
billet.

(b) Site for Stacks. — In selecting the site of a stack, damp
places must be avoided ; a ridge is preferable, if available.

As a rule, two sufficiently long stakes are driven vertically

* [In France, (he ordinary cord 9 ft. x 3& ft. X 2$ ft. = 3 steres. (The
French foot = 1 ft. P in., Kn^lish measure). In Knuhind, llic cord is either
216 c. feet = 12' x <V x 'A' and is then called a fathom and nearly = 6 sti-n-s,
or 108 c. feet = 3 gferes, or 72 c. feet = 2 st«-n-s, as in America, — Tr.]

SORTING CONVERTED MATERIAL.

287

into the ground at the same distance apart as the length of the
stack. In order to hold the pile of wood firmly it is better to
have at each end of the stack two stakes, which must be strong
and driven by mallets deeply enough into holes made in the
ground by crowbars. Opposite stakes may be tied by withes
or strings, passing through the piled wood to prevent it from
forcing them apart, or side-supports may be applied to the
stakes.

On an incline, the distance between the stakes must be
measured horizontally, and the top of the stack should be
parallel to the incline. It is better not to substitute a standing
tree for one pair of the stakes, as the roots will prevent there

Fiir. IS!.

Stacking firewood.

Fi.ir. ISL>.

being a level base for the stack, and irregularities in the
height of the latter may follow.

(c) Stacking the Wood. — The workman should pack the
wood as closely as possible. The base of the stack (Fig. 182) is
made by laying several pieces lengthwise on the ground on
which the rest of the wrood is piled transversely ; this precau-
tion should be adopted whenever the wood has to remain for
a long time on wet ground, otherwise the lowest billets may be
forced into the ground and rot. On dry, firm soil, this arrange-
ment may be dispensed with ; the largest billets are then placed
transversely, with their curved sides downwards, directly on
the ground (Fig. 181), and the stack is completed with wood of
the same quality, the larger pieces being always piled first to

288 FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER.

ensure stability : at the same time, the men should pile the
wood in such a way as to keep the top of the stack continually
horizontal.

In order to pile the stacks closely, and also to protect the
W7ood as much as possible from rain, it is better to place the
curved sides of the billets above and their points downwards
(Figs. 181 and 182), except in the lowest row. The front
surface of the stack also should be quite level and vertical, and
as the billets are of different thickness at the two ends, they
should be placed alternately with their thick and thin ends at
either face of the stack. The first cord binding the stakes
should be placed at a height of Ij feet (half a meter), and the
second at 3 to 4 feet (1 to 1J meters).

Stacking stump-wood is most difficult, as the shape of the
pieces is so variable. Split pieces of small stumps are placed in
the ordinary direction, but the larger pieces have to be arranged
according to the skill of the operator, so as to fit in with the
others. Spaces that cannot be otherwise stacked should be filled
in with broken pieces and small roots, but round pieces should
not be used for this purpose ; a stack of stump-wood should
contain nothing but pieces of stumps and roots.

When the workman has raised the stack to nearly its proper
height, he should measure it carefully so that the proper
height may be attained, but not exceeded. To ensure this,
it is often necessary to finish the top of a stack of split billets
with a layer of round ones.

Stacks should, if possible, be placed alongside one another
in long connected rows. This economises space and secures
the stacks from being overturned. In case the firewood has
to remain over winter in the forest, the long stacks are, if
possible, placed in parallel rows, with intervals between them
narrower than the length of the billets, and the topmost
pieces are arranged to form a complete roof over all the
stacks.

(c) Shrinkage. — As green stacked wood shrinks while dry-
ing, and if not removed for some time will lose its bark, in
many countries, such as Bavaria, Switzerland, etc., it has
become customary to increase the height of the stacks, so as
to allow for shrinkage. In Prussia and other German

SORTING ANJ) STACKING.

countries, this is done only when there is a long interval
between the stacking and the sale of the firewood, but in
\\ urteniberg and Hesse no excess height is allowed.
This excess height is as follows in different countries : —

Prussia ^th of the regular height.
Bavaria ^th „ ,,

Switzerland ^0-th ,, ,,

Considering that the shrinkage of the billets does not
depreciate the heating-power of the wood and that its total
amount varies greatly according to circumstances, such as the
interval between stacking and sale, the species of wood, the
position of the stack, the degree of splitting, etc., and that no
excess is allowed for shrinkage in the case of timber, it is
advisable not to allow for it in firewood except where legal
rights to that effect have arisen, it has also been proved by
Bohnierle* that there is scarcely any change after a year in
the height of a stack of firewood, as warping counteracts the
shrinkage, so that according to his experiments, its height
decreases only by about an inch in a year.

(d) Stacks of Cloven Timber. — In stacking cloven timber,
great care must be taken to separate the better kinds from
inferior timber, and not to suffer any unsound or knotty wood
in a stack. In the case of oak wood, all sound split pieces
must be included in stacks of cloven timber, and oak-iirewood
stacks should not contain a single sound piece which can be
classed as timber.

.Deviations from this rule are justifiable only where there is
no demand for inferior classes of cloven wood. In the
Bavarian Forest, the detailed assorting of coniferous cloven
timber is done partly during the floating, the floating work-
men selecting from out of the water the good pieces, that are
used for sieve-frames, match-wood, etc. The employees, who
are sworn to deal fairly, stack this wood on the bank and value
it as timber.

(e) Stacking Faggots. — Faggots are collected into piles
each containing 25, or a multiple of 25 faggots. They are
put sometimes horizontally, but keep much better standing,

' •• I »;is wuldtrocknc JIol/..'' Vienna. 1 *?'.».
I.I. tl

a(,H) FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER.

three faggots being laid in a pyramid and all the others placed

leaning against them.

AVhun faggots are not prepared, the branchwood is generally

piled in heaps,
and may be cut
into equal lengths
for this purpose.
Sometimes it is
piled, as shown
in Fig. 183, and
tied roughly in
bundles to facili-
tate transport.

Fii?. 183.— Piled branchwood.

(t) Special men

employed. — Ordinary woodcutters are not allowed to stack
firewood, as in their own interest they would make as much
of it as possible. Special men are therefore employed, who
are well known to the forest-manager and are sworn in to be
faithful. They should pile the .wood prepared by each party
of woodcutters separately, so that their earnings may be
calculated.

3. Protecting the Forest-Depot.

The supervision and guard over the material at the depot is
facilitated greatly if it be arranged according to an easily recog-
nised plan. It must be placed so that the purchaser's carts can
approach each lot as nearly as possible. This is more easily
attained when the conversion and sale of the timber precede that
of the firewood, and then the billets may be stacked in long
rows along the roads or rides, with the faggots behind them.

As a rule, the mode of arrangement of the depot depends chiefly
on the area available, but the forest-manager should always
endeavour, like a trader, to secure a good display of his wares.

When the last firewood stack is ready, and the felling is
thus completed, all chips, broken pieces and other waste
material may be collected and distributed among the wood-
cutters. In certain localities, the twigs and branchwood may
be spread over the area, either as in the Alps to protect the
young growth against cattle, or as in jlmmcs, to facilitate the
burning of the surface before sowing an agricultural crop.

291

SECTION IX. — ESTIMATING THK VIKLD.

1. XunthcriiHj the Lots.

As .soon as the felling operations are over, the amount of
material produced must he calculated and its value estimated.
If the clearance of the area and the transport are carried
on simultaneously, and the wood is removed a considerable
distance from the felling-area to valleys or rafting stations and
collected there, the estimation is ell'ected at these places, and
in the case of summer fellings often not till the following
spring.

Kacli log or bull, each pile of 100, 50 or '25 poles, etc.,
each stack of firewood, and every "25 faggots, form the several

ier's numbering tutiutner.

lots. Current numbers are, therefore, affixed to each separate
lot, to distinguish them from one another.

in order to render the control of timber-export effective, it is
better that one series of numbers should serve for a whole
forest-range, or for a group of fellings the produce of which
passes in a certain direction. In order, however, to obviate
the inconvenience of using very high numbers, each class and
sub-class of produce is numbered separately, so that there are
several series of numbers each beginning with No. 1, for
the logs, butts, hundreds of poles, stacked wood or faggots. In
Prussia and some other countries, each species of wood, such
as beech-logs, oak-logs, etc., receive different series of numbers.

The numbering may be done by hand, or by means of a piece
of softwood charcoal, a red pencil or by Faber's numbering
chalk, the marks of which last for two years. A paint brush and
black oil-paint also may be used with or without stencil-plates.
Certain steel dies have been invented, of which Gohler's

u 2

292

FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER.

revolving die-hammer (Fig. 184) is most effective and is
now extensively used. According to B. Hess, it is less
laborious to number the lots by hand, but the figures im-
pressed by the apparatus are more durable and legible, and
with Gohler's revolving hammer, used with both hands and
marking the figures horizontally, 2,000 to 3,000 logs may be
numbered in a day. Another revolving hammer by Sedelmayr,
somewhat heavier than that by Gohler, is shown in Fig 185.
This marks the figures vertically on the log.

Logs and blocks are numbered usually at their ends ; in the
case of split wood, one large billet is pulled forward from the
stack to receive the number ; stacks of poles and smaller

Fig. 185. — Sedelmayr's numbering hammer.

produce and faggots are numbered on a stake driven into the
ground in front of the stack. The numbers should be always
plainly visible from a road and so arranged consecutively,
that any numbered lot may be readily found. The number-
ing must be done as soon as work on the felling-area is over.

After completing the numbering, the estimation of material
is made, the forest-manager entering each numbered lot with
notes as to its quality in his range timber receipt-book.

It is usual to have separate books for timber and firewood.
The range timber receipt-book should contain the following
columns for each assortment of produce : —

NO. ,,r
lot

Species.

Drsrription.

Length.

DiumHiT.

Cubic
Contents.

Class.

Krmal kS.

ESTIMATING THE YIELD.

203

In the remarks column, entries may be made as to where
the lot is situated, for instance, on the upper, middle or lower
road, through the depot, or felling-area.

The numbering book for firewood should run as follows : —

No. nflot.

Class.

Quality.

Quantity.

2.

The quantity of produce from a felling-area may be
estimated in different ways, according to the cubic contents,
or dimensions of the lots.

(a) Each Lot a Separate Piece. — When each lot is formed
by a separate piece, the volume of the pieces must be
estimated separately, either by calculating their cubic contents,
or their dimensions.

i. f'i//>fr f'finfc/ifx.

In Germany, France, and some other countries, the cubic
contents of timber nre always measured by the cubic meter,
but in England, India and North America by the cubic foot.
Without complicating the procedure by considering logs as
truncated paraboloids, the simple method is adopted always
of multiplying the sectional area at the middle of the log by
its length. The cubic contents alone, however, are no exact
indication of the value of a log, its length and thickness and
the diameter of its smaller end must be also given.

It is customary on the continent of Europe to measure the
length of logs in meters, and even decimeters (m. 02, 0'4, O'G,
etc.) ; the diameter in centimeters, and the cubic contents in
cubic meters to two decimal places.

[In Knglish measure, the length of logs is given in feet ; the
diameter, or quarter-girth, in inches, and the volume in cubic

204 FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER.

feet without fractions. Squared balks of valuable wood like
mahogany are, however, sold by the superficial foot.— Tr.J

Whether timber should be measured with or without bark
depends on local custom. In the case of winter-fellings, the
bark is included, and wherever summer-felled or other peeled
wood is measured, 12 to 15 per cent, is added to the cubic con-
tents to allow for the absent bark. This is done because the
yield of the forests in the working-plan is estimated with the
bark on the trees, but the German timber-trade is most
anxious that bark should not be included, and this method
Gayer strongly recommends for adoption everywhere in the
interests of uniformity.

A universal system of measuring timber without bark pre-
supposes that the bark of logs is removed at the measuring
point, and that no addition is made for peeled wood. In the
case of coniferous logs, the difference in diameter between
barked and unbarked trees is f inch on the average, some-
what more in the case of pines, and for logs under 10 inches
in diameter, less than J inch.

In the case of roughly barked broadleaved trees, such as oak
and ash, the bark is 12 to 15 per cent, of the total volume ;
in the elm, up to 18 per cent, and more; the birch 11 per
cent.; the Scotch pine, 11 to 15 per cent.; spruce logs and
blocks, 12 to 13 per cent. ; silver-fir ditto, 17 per cent, and
more. It should be noted that on good soil with a dense
growth, the bark is least, whilst in unfavourable localities and
open woods it is at a maximum.

Whenever stems are sold at their full length, the measure-
ment for timber stops naturally where the small end becomes
less than the minimum in timber-classes, and the rest of the
log can be measured only as firewood.

l<> Dimensions.

In some localities, where there is an extensive trade in logs,
it has been for a long time customary to arrange them in
classes which do not depend on their cubic contents. Thus,
for ea,ch class (1 lolliiiulcrlioh, etc., of the Black Forest), a log
of average dimensions is assumed as a standard and by its

KSTIMVi IX<i THK YIELD. 205

value that of all other logs in the class is regulated, according
to variations in length and thickness at the butt-end.

In the Kinzigtal of the Black Forest, which has been
renowned for centuries for its fine logs, a silver-fir log 20
meters (65 feet) long and 46 centimeters (LS inches) at the
butt-end, is considered the standard.

In many regions of the Southern Alps, in the same way,
butts 12 — 15 inches in largest diameter are considered
standards. Thus traders speak of 2 pieces of 10 — 12 inches,
4 of 8 — 10 inches, 8 of 6—8 inches as equivalent to a standard,
whilst butts of 15 — IS inches are considered equivalent In I.1.,
and larger butts to 2 standards. A similar custom prevails in
Norway where a standard eonlains about 2.] tons of timber.*

It is clear that such a method greatly facilitates trading, for
the price of each class is a multiple or part of thai of the
standard log and rises and falls with it. At the same time it
is much simpler to calculate prices by the, cubic contents, than
where a few millimeters in the diameter of the butt give rise
to a considerable difference in prices. Besides, it is evident
that traders must have experience in the method before! they
can understand all its refinements thoroughly, and tin's gives
local traders a considerable advantage over would-be com-
petitors from a distance. This naturally reduces competition
and prices. Hence the method is falling into disrepute;, and
will probably be replaced gradually by that which employs
the cubic contents.

(b) Piled Lots. — With the understanding that poles and other
small classes have been duly placed in lots, all that has to be
done here is to count the numbers of lots of each class and enter
them in the book. They are reckoned also in cubic meters.

When for instance the forest-manager enters half a hundred
second-class hop-poles in his book, their volume is known,
for from the class-tariff the dimensions of a second-class hop-
pole are known and therefore how many such hop-poles go to
a cubic meter.

The cubic contents of poles is measured in the same way
as for logs, but evidently this need be done only in a few cases

* [In the timber- trade, standards usually represent plunks, thus tin- London
standard is 1 I'M x 12 ft. :} in. x '.» in. deals.— Tr.]

206 FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER.

to determine the average, or experimental tables may be
referred to for the purpose. It is to be regretted that there is
little general agreement as to the class dimensions of poles,
and the volumes of different lots are in a state of chaos.

(c) Stacked Wood. — In estimating the quantity of stacked
wood and faggots, all that has to be done is to count the
number of units of recognised dimensions and enter them in
the book, and as the stacks are usually 1, 2, 3 or rarely 4
stacked cubic meters, this is a very simple affair. At the
same time, the dimensions of the stacks as to height and
breadth should be checked, here and there, by actual measure-
ment. The depth is the actual length of the billets, the
correctness of which should be seen to carefully during the
conversion. The stacks must be piled also as densely as
possible ; badly piled stacks should be upset and piled again.
The length and girth of the faggots should be checked at the
same time, and the number of faggots entered in the book.

3. Estimating the Quality of the Produce.

This includes all the points already referred to, such as
species, grain, and customs of the market. The species
should be entered always in the range receipt-book, but to
enter the other points would lead the manager too far into
detail. Taken altogether, however, they enable the forest
manager to decide on the quality of the produce and he will
pay the more attention to these points, the more valuable each
lot is likely to be.

As already stated, the greatest attention should be paid to
the quality of the oak-timber and to logs of spruce and silver-
fiv, which have far to go to reach their ultimate destination.
In the interests of trade, it is desirable that such wood should
be perfectly sound at least when handed over by the forester to
ilic timber-merchant.

4. Vahialion.

As soon as the quantity of the produce of the felling has all
Ucn cntoTod, and llio manager has become acquainted with
the quality of each lot, he should proceed to put an estimated
]tri<-<> on MIC lots, in accordance with Ilir laics!, information he

REGISTERING THE YIELD. 297

has acquired regarding local demands. The sale-price which
the produce will realise often depends greatly on the fact that
a proper valuation of it has been made before the sale by the
forest-manager.

In order to arrive at such a result, he must be acquainted
thoroughly with the actual state of the market, and with the
technical qualities and defects of his wood, and the purposes
for which it is likely to be employed.

The manager should bestow the greater care on the classi-
fication of his produce, the more valuable it is, and when full-
sized logs of good timber are included, a rough estimate of
their value will not suffice. In such cases, the entire log
should be valued in length sections in accordance with the
uses to which it may be put. As each piece or lot is valued,
it should be stampod with the range-hammer, generally close
to the number it already bears. This denotes that the wood
has been entered in the range receipt-book and is useful in the
control of the transport or in possible cases of peculation.

SECTION X. — CONCLUDING THE BUSINESS OF FELLING AND
CONVERSION.

As soon as the range receipt-book has been written-up, the
produce of the felling must be tabulated to show its value, then
the depot should be inspected, the workmen paid, and thus
the whole business concluded.

1. Ih'f/istrij <>!' tlic AmtHUif au<l Value of (lie Vlcld frmn
llif 7-W/ /////.

The results of the felling, as shown in serial numbers in
the range receipt-books, must be entered in the felling-
register, which summarises the total amount of produce of
each class of material and its value. The prices of the units
of each class of produce should be average local prices, and
generally are kept up to date separately for each range and
sometimes termed timber-royalties (7/o/,:7rt,/v//).

At tho same time, the produce may be marked for sale in
lots which as already stated should be larger or smaller,
according to the circumstances of the market (F'/W/-, p. 242).

29$ FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER.

As these prices, or royalties, are fixed by units — at so much
a cubic meter or cubic foot, per log, per hundred poles, etc., per
stacked cubic meter, 100 stacked cubic feet, cord or 100
faggots — all that has to be done is to multiply the number of
units in each class by the price of a unit.

The felling-register usually contains a summary of the
whole produce of the felling, and for this the cubic me,ter is
used generally throughout Germany, France, Austria-Hungary
and Switzerland.

There is no difficulty in calculating the cubic contents of all
the timber and poles, and certain reducing factors established
by experiment are used to transform all the stacked volume of
the firewood, faggots, etc., from stacked to solid measure.

The following average reducing-factors were determined by
measurements made in Austria, for pieces one meter long :—

Hardwood . Si >f t w< >m I .

Stacked timber .... '73 '11

Split firewood 1st class . . . '67 '68

2nd class . . '63 '65

„ 3rd class (knotty wood) *58

Round billets .... '57 '64

Ditto small .... '44 '50

Boot and stump-wood . "40 '47

100 Faggots ..... 1-61 1-65

Beech, [ash, sycamore.— Tr.] hornbeam and oak are classed
as hardwoods; alder, birch, aspen, spruce, silver-fir, larch,
Scots and Austrian pines as softwoods.

2. Revision of the Record.

On completion of the felling-register, or before it is written
up from the range timber receipt-book, the record of the produce
of a felling may be revised by a superior forest official. This
should be done carefully in the case of valuable timber, but is
hardly necessary for firewood.

3. Payment of the

As soon as tho full statement of the prod-urn from the felling-
area has been prepared, there can be no difficulty in settling

REGISTERING THE YIELD.

accounts with the woodcutters ; for by multiplying tbe con-
tracted rates of pay per unit of produce by the quantity of
material, the total amount due to them is easily calculated.
Owing, however, to the generally impecunious condition of the
men, it is usual from time to time to pay them advances in
respect of work done; generally these are made every fortnight,
or weekly. The sums paid should be proportional to the work
done by the men, that always can be calculated roughly. In
ordor to prevent the risk of over-payment and keep the men
at the work, about one quarter of their earnings is kept back
till the whole work is done ; then the balance is paid to the men
after deducting all their advances from the total amount due
for tho work.

It is generally tho duty of the foreman to draw the payment
from the forest cashier, and distribute it among the different
parlies of woodcutters. "Wherever the work has been given
to a contractor, he will be paid for it in full.

To attempt to pay ready money for tho whole work during
its progress, as portions of tho wood are felled, converted and
placed in the depot, is only to introduce complications and
unnecessary trouble into tho business.

300

CHAPTEE III.

WOOD TRANSPORT BY LAND.

INTRODUCTION.

THE largest forest areas are found generally in thinly-popu-
lated remote districts, and the forest-owner must, therefore, in
such cases, expect only a limited demand for the produce of
his forests unless he can improve the means of communication
between them and distant markets. The forest-owner often
undertakes the transport of his own wood, sometimes directly
to the timber-market, or to a place where existing means of
communication are good enough for no further trouble in this
respect on his part to be necessary. If, however, the trans-
port of the timber is undertaken by agency independent of
the forest-owner, the latter should endeavour to improve
the means of communication between his forests and the
markets, so that wood may be conveyed as cheaply as
possible.

The great improvement during the present century in com-
munications, and especially by means of railroads, tends more
and more to reduce the cost of carriage, which is a vital ques-
tion in forestry. It is therefore necessary to connect the
forests with the general lines of land and water communica-
tion, in order to get full value for forest produce, and especi-
ally for the better classes of timber. Although the forest-
owner has to face greater difficulties in this respect than any
other large producer, yet recently nowhere has greater energy
been shown than in improving forest communications.

Wood-transport, therefore, means the conveyance of the
wood to tho more or less remote markets or depots by moans
of mom or loss permanent routes. Transport is thus dis-
tinguished, by the gmalor distance over which it acts and
the mom permanent nature of the routes employed, from
clearance of the felling-area, although both these mcnsures

FOllEST-liOADS. 301

frequently coalesce, and cannot be sharply distinguished from
one another.

The transport of wood is distinguished as transport by land
and transport by water, a short account of each of which will be
given ; the values of the different methods described will then
be compared, and permanent timber-depots will be described.
In the present book, full details as regards the construction
of the different means of communication will not be given, and
they will be described only in a general way.

This chapter deals in detail with land-transport only, the
different means of land-transport for forest produce being
forest - roads, timber - slides, forest - tramways and wire-
tramways.

SUCTION I. — FOKEST-IIOA:

A. CONSTRUCTION AND MAINTENANCE.

(a) General Account. — Forest-roads are undoubtedly the
best means of land-transport for forest material, and good
forest management must attend strictly to the necessity for
intersecting forests with good roads. The chief reason for the
preference of roads to other modes of timber-transport depends
on their superior durability.

Forest-roads are constructed not only in plains, hills and
low mountainous districts, but even in high mountain-ranges,
and are being extended constantly to the less accessible forests
at high altitudes.

(b) Network of Roads for a Forest. — In constructing
forest-roads it is absolutely necessary to proceed according to
a well-considered plan, forming a network of roads through-
out a forest range or a separate forest. The planning of this
road-network should contemplate not only present demands
but also those of the future, and thus consider parts of the
forest which will be worked at some future time.

The road-network therefore should be projected and planned
for the whole forest, though it may be necessary at present

* ('/. •• Waldwegbuu " by C. Schuberg, Berlin. 1873, also by StoUer, 3rd ed.,
is'.):,. Wimrnc-naurr, is'.n;. l>,,t/.d, IS'.is. Maix'het, 1898, l . <i. liogers,
" Foiust Kn^ineerinL'- in India," Calcutta., 1'JOU, ;i vols. Matlicy. »i>. fit.

302 WOOD THAN SPOUT JiY LAM).

to construct only certain parts of it. The other parts of the
network will be constructed, seriatim, as the working of the
forest proceeds, and by the end of a forest rotation, the
whole projected network will be completed. It is, however,
indispensable to take in hand the roads for certain forest
compartments several years before the regular course of
fellings reaches them, so that they may be ready in time. It
is especially necessary in mountain-forests, where road-making
is most difficult and expensive, that the plan for the network
of roads should be thoroughly well devised. In the case of
forests in plains, it may be permissible to construct temporary
roads, which are allowed to fall into disrepair when all the
material for which they were constructed has been transported.
This is not sufficient for mountain-forests, where all roads
made should be kept in constant repair.

The main roads should run through the heart of the forests,
and be so directed that they lead to other public roads in
direct communication with timber-markets, or to railroads or
streams serving for water-transport. The forest-roads are
themselves often public roadways. Subsidiary roads branch-
off from the main roads into the forest, and may serve as means
of transport from all .parts of it. In tracing subsidiary roads,
the forester always must keep in view the fact that each of
them should serve several compartments of the forest, and
therefore should cut right through the felling-areas or adjoin
them, or be connected with them by smaller bifurcations.

The principal forest-road usually follows a valley leading
towards the timber-market; it either reaches this valley within
the limits of the forest, or keeping more to the high and less
broken ground descends to it outside the forest. The main
roads should be arranged so as to connect the market with all
parts of the forest, by means of the subsidiary roads, without
its being necessary for the latter to make any long ascent to
reach them.

In level and slightly undulating ground, every forest
boundary-line and every forest-ride may serve as a subsidiary
road. In mountainous forests, however, the roads, descending
in long curves from the heights to the chief line of com-
munication below, pass repeatedly through the compartments;

FOREST-ROADS. 303

or roads at different altitudes are connected by means of
slides, which are often necessary where the mountain-slopes
are steep. The subsidiary roads may be traced also along the
narrow side-valleys of the higher mountain-ridges, into which
the wood is brought from both sides. In such cases the roads
must wind round every intervening spur or rock in order to
communicate with the felling-areas.

In the case of an extensive tract of woodland belonging to
one owner there is little difficulty in laying out a network of
roads, but where the properties are subdivided among several
owners, or where the forest surrounds other property, there
are often serious obstacles to be dealt with. Old roads which
one is loath to abandon are often sources of difficulty, it may
also be the outlets from the forest where difficulties arise,
when the fields beyond it that should be traversed by well-
constructed forest-roads belong to poor or obstinate village
communities, or to private owners.

As regards the kinds of road to be constructed, a distinction
may be made between earth-roads, paved-roads or chaussdcs,
and roads chiefly made of wood.

(c) Earth-roads. — In earth-roads no material is used but
that found in the immediate neighbourhood of the road. In
the plains the road is lined-out, roots of trees extracted and
removed, ditches dug to serve as road-boundaries and for
drainage, and the material from the ditches placed on the
surface of the road to give it the requisite curvature.

In mountainous forests a horizontal basis must first be
given to the road by excavating the slope above its axis and
throwing the material below it. Wherever the slopes are very
steep, retaining-walls of either stone or wood must be con-
structed below the road ; in such cases the stones necessary
for this purpose are nearly always available alongside the
road, and with them dry masonry retaining-walls may be
constructed ; only exceptionally should wood, which i» so
perishable, be used for this purpose.

Earth-roads may be improved considerably if they pass
over clay or limestone, by strewing the cart-track with small
broken stones, sand or gravel, or by putting on a layer of clay
if the soil is too loose. AYhenever roads are much used this

.')(>! WOOD TRANSPORT BY LAND.

must be done if they are to be at all permanent. If, instead
of merely spreading stones on the surface, the cart-track is
covered to a depth of 8 to 12 inches with broken stones which
are well rammed down, the road is said to be macadamised.

In constructing forest-roads the greatest attention must be
paid to drainage, and this is of the highest importance in
plains and on peaty soil. In hill-roads, drainage is generally
secured by their sloping nature, especially on sunny aspects.
In order to drain roads on north and east aspects and on level
ground, side-drains must be kept open and the surface of the
road suitably curved. The road also must be raised above
the ordinary ground-level and well aerated by keeping it free
from over-hanging trees [although it is well-known that road-
side avenues are highly efficient drainers when the trees are
not too near the cart-track and are properly pruned — Tr.].
Where sufficient fall cannot be given to the side-drains, and
stone is not available, as in depressions on the plains, in
alder-woods, etc., every means should be taken for raising the
level of the road, and the ditches kept at some distance from
it so that the water in them may not permeate into the road
and make it soft. The draught of air is increased by keeping
the road straight, clearing broad road-sidings through the
forest and cutting away all overhanging trees.

Macadamised roads have the great advantage over paved
roads, especially when gravel and small stones are at hand, of
being not only cheaper but actually easier for traffic than the
latter, except when very carefully constructed.

(d) Paved Roads. — Paved roads are distinguished from
ordinary roads by their greater width and the greater atten-
tion paid to the gradient, but especially by the care with
which they are metalled. The cart-track in them is excavated,
lined with stones or cement, and coarse broken stones arc
then spread on the surface and rolled down firmly. Several
other layers of stones are then superposed, each layer con-
sisting of finer material than the one below it. It is always
better to use broken stone, which packs bettor than round
pebbles. Each separate layer is rolled and firmly pressed
down. The more gradual the change of size in the material
used for successive layers of metalling, the more durable the

FOREST-KOADS. 805

roadway will be. If small stones are placed directly on a
coarse basis, the road soon becomes worse than the simplest
macadamised road ; the coarse stones from below work their
way through to the surface, rendering it uneven, and forming
holes into which material placed to mend the road soon sinks.
As these paved roads everywhere must be constructed strongly,
the retaining walls, culverts, bridges, etc., are much more
elaborate than on ordinary roads ; frequently solid masonry-
revetments are applied to the steep slopes above them in order
to prevent landslips, and in any case, slopes of soft material
must 1)6 terraced and wattled.

The main roads coming from a forest, where the traffic is
continuous, should be constructed as paved roads or at least
macadamised. Even the most frequented subsidiary roads
should l>e macadamised. False economy is never more out of
place than in the construction of indispensable forest-roads.
[Kven mole-tracks four to six feet wide, in the Ilimala\;is.
should be macadamised. — Tr.j

(e) Roads made of Wood. — Such roads are not durahle
and should l>e avoided as much ;is possible. On pealy
soil and in swampy depressions, however, they cannot be
dispensed with, nor for summer-sledging. They ;ire of three
kinds : roads made of fascines, of round pieces of wood and
sledge-roads.

i. /tf>/t(/x iiidilr irilh l-'dsrinc*.

Fascines are used for short distances in crossing swampy
ground, which cannot he drained easily, especially over peat-
mosses where macadam would sink in uselessly. After digging
the boundary ditches of such roads, a layer about one foot
deep of birch, spruce or Scots-pine branches is placed evenly
on the track, the larger ends being turned inwards ; on this is
laid a layer of moss, heather, bilberry or turf-sods, etc., which-
ever the locality affords, and the surface is completed with
gravel, iron-pan or clay. Sand alone should not be used, as
it soon finds its way through the substructure of the road,
and in any case is a bad binding material ; sand, however,
when mixed with clay or loam, may be used to cover the
roadway.

1. 1. \

306 WOOD TRANSPORT BY LAND.

Where roads cross shifting sands they may be constructed
similarly.

ii. Corduroy-roads.

These are made under similar circumstances to the
fascine roads for crossing short stretches of swampy ground.
In this case, the lowest layer consists of middle-sized logs
placed close together longitudinally in the direction of the
road, and upon them round or split billets of wood are packed
transversely, whilst poles are pegged down firmly on both sides
along the edges of the roadway above the billets to retain them
in position.

This kind of road is used to prevent the feet of beasts of
draught from sinking into swamps, and is also much used for
filling hollows in the construction of sledge-roads.

iii. Sledge-roads

Permanent sledge-roads are used in the summer transport
of wood over slightly sloping ground. In order to reduce
friction in sledging logs or fire- wood, the road is laid trans-
versely with middle-sized round billets which are held in
position by pegs driven into the ground. Their distance
apart should not exceed two feet, so that the sledges may
rest always on at least two of them. To reduce friction
further, the billets are often smeared with grease, or water
is poured on them. In the case of their being too slippery
after rain, sand may be strewn on them to increase the
friction.

In the Barr forest-range in Alsace, sledge-roads are exten-
sively used, also in most of the forests of the Vosges
mountains.

[A much more elaborate sledge-road than those described
here was made in the forest of Tihri Garhwal, in the
north-west Himalayas.* Its gradient varied between 5 and
11 degrees, and experience shows that 8 degrees is best, and
the sharpest curve has a radius of 20 feet. The length of this
sledge-road is 5877 feet, and the total fall 835 feet. It was

* For :i complete ncroim! of Ihisslcd^c-roml, sec '• Indian Forester," Vol. XII.
p. .",r,<;.

FOREST-ROADS. 307

constructed of defective meter-gauge deodar railway-sleepers
which measure 8 feet X 8 inches X -J ^ inches, two sets running
horizontally and 2J feet apart, being jointed and pegged
together by oak pegs, whilst the transverse sleepers were
pegged into them at distances of 2J feet. The grooves in
which the sledges run varied in breadth from 1 (> inches
according to the curves, and were \ to '•[ inch deep, and 2 feet
apart. The central part of the roadway was ballasted up to the
level of the transverse sleepers to prevent the roadway from
shifting, and to serve as a footpath. (luards consisting of
half-sleepers were placed on the outside of all sharp curves to
prevent the sledges leaving the road.

The roadway itself in many places was 1 (lasted out of
precipitous rock and contained 20 bridges and wooden viaducts,
altogether 10f>8 feet long. This sledge-road proved very
economical in the transport of railway-sleepers. In the
adjoining U-imsu sledge-road, the line on th> radients

was made of pine, the cross-pieces being :> fed apart to increase
friction, and sand used freely. On low gradients finely Drained,
hard timber, such as Sissoo, was used, and the, cross-pieces,
'2 feel, apart. ( hi intermediate gradients, deodar. - Tr. ]

(f) Horizontal Plan of Roads.-— As re.ga.rds the hori/onttil
plan of forest roads, sharp curves with a nidi us less than
100 feet should he avoided as much as possihle, especially in
mountain districts, and the roads should run in long sweeping
curves. Wherever the transport is mainly concerned with
logs, attention should be; paid to the possibility of the road
being used for sliding the timber or for a forest tramway.

(g) Gradient — It is most important to decide on the
gradient of a forest-road, which should be constructed only
after pegging out the levels, lloads for general traffic have a
maximum gradient of 5 per cent., which is also a desideratum
for main forest roads, as in such a case, the road may be con-
veniently traversed in both directions. Forest-roads, however,
are generally used uphill by empty conveyances, and those
which are laden generally come downhill, so that gradients in
main roads may go up to 7 and 8 per cent., and in subsidiary
roads to 10 per cent., and even more according to the manner
in which they are used.

x 2

308 WOOD TRANSPORT BY LAND.

Steep gradients should be avoided always for cart- traffic, not
only to facilitate the latter, but also to protect the road, which
when steep is liable to much injury from the use of the brake
and owing to erosion by water. Sledge-roads, on the contrary,
require a steep gradient and have been constructed recently in
a most perfect form in high mountain-regions, being made of
two kinds for sledges drawn by men or animals ; they may be
termed feeders and main sledge-roads. The latter are confined
to the lower ground ; traverse long valleys, and serve for
conveyance of the wood to depots. The feeders descend the
mountain-slopes from the highest and most inaccessible parts
of the forest, they often wind round all kinds of obstacles,
rocks are blasted to make way for them, galleries cut along
precipices and tunnels bored. By their means the wood is
brought down to the main sledge-roads. Wherever sledge-
roads run through cuttings in districts with heavy snowfall,
they must be covered with rafters and spruce branches for
protection. The gradient of the feeders should not be less than
6 to 8 per cent., or greater than 18 to 20 per cent., though
even the latter is sometimes exceeded, but 12 to 15 per cent,
are the usual gradients. The main sledge-roads are less steep,
and 8 to 12 per cent, are usual gradients, but even a slight
ascent cannot always be avoided in their case where a ridge
has to be crossed between two valleys.

Ground timber- slides are used extensively in the eastern
Schwarzwald; they may be used also as sledge-roads chiefly for
the transport of logs. Their gradient should lie generally
between 9 to 12 per cent., and may go up even to 18 per cent.
A steady gradient is more necessary in the case of sledge-
roads than on roads for wheeled traffic ; in the latter case,
now-a-days it is considered better to vary the gradient, as this is
loss tiring to beasts of draught than a uniform gradient which
always calls on the same muscles.

(h) Breadth of Roads. — The breadth of forest-roads
depends on the mode of conveyance used, and the amount
of traffic. Main forest-roads should not be less than 18 to
24 feet broad, if the traffic on them is not to be impeded, 6J
to 8 feet being the width between the wheels of a cart.

The subsidiary roads need not have a greater breadth than

FOREST-ROADS. 309

10 to 15 feet. The breadth of sledge-roads is still less, for the
main sledge-roads 8 to 10 feet, and for the feeders 3 to 4J feet.
Road-slides may be 6 to 8 feet wide. All roads, however, which
are wide enough only for one cart or sledge, must have
sufficiently wide places here and there for the return traffic to
pass ; wherever logs are transported, the breadth of the road
must be increased at all turnings, or where curves run round
projecting rocks. Otherwise logs must be fastened along the
edge of the road on which the projecting ends of logs dragged on
small sledges may slide.

In the case of narrow sledge-roads with steep gradients
passing with curves over precipitous ground, accidents are
avoided by placing logs along the edge of the road, that
touch one another at their ends and are kept in place by piles
or props.

(i) Maintenance of Roads. — Wherever there is heavy traffic,
roads suffer much damage, by the use of brakes, etc. ; in
mountains the rain- water brings down silt and landslips, and
may inundate the roads at certain points, so that their surface
is constantly being degraded. Continual prompt maintenance
and repairs, improvements of the drainage of the road and
lilling-up all holes and ruts are there-fore necessary. Repairs to
roads, therefore, require almost as much attention as their
construction. The chief rule is not to allow any damage to
get the upper hand, but to commence repairing it as soon
as the weather is dry. It is often advantageous to entrust
the repairs of the roads on contract to trustworthy woodcutters
[or to apprentice forest-guards, as in France (f/ardes canton-
nicrs), who work themselves and also supervise the other
labourers. — Tr.] .

In many forests it is customary to place a bar across roads
after the season's transport is over, in order to protect them
from extraneous traffic. The possibility of doing this depends
on the nature of the forest-rights and other local circum-
stances. As a rule, such a practice does more harm than
good .to the forest. Koads should be open to traffic, and the
more they are used and injured by the traffic, the more
useful they are, and the higher the net-revenue of the forest
will be.

:jj() WOOD TRANSPORT BY LAND.

B. MODE OF CONVEYANCE.

The conveyance of the converted wood along roads to the
collecting or sale depots is effected either by men or beasts.

(a) Conveyance by Men.

Conveyance by men is confined almost entirely to sledging,
which in transport, as opposed to clearance of the felling-
area, takes place on permanent sledge-roads. Only firewood
and scantling or butts, but not long logs, may be thus trans-
ported. In the case of sledges, it is impossible to draw any
sharp distinction between transport and clearance, except that
in high mountain-regions sledging bears more of the character
of transport, and in lower hills, of clearance. From both
points of view the methods of sledging have been described
already (p. 272).

In forests of low hills and plains, no permanent sledge-roads
exist, and sledges are used only to convey the wood to the nearest
cart-road. In mountainous regions, however, there is no object
in removing the wood merely from the felling-area to the nearest
road. It is a question of transporting it for miles over permanent
sledge-roads down to the valleys to depots, or rafting-stations,
at low altitudes ; this implies a separate industry not always
intimately connected with the felling operations.

i. Winter Sledginy.

In most cases sledging is done over the snow, and the same
kinds of sledges are used as in clearance of the felling- area (vide
p. 271). Sledges used for firewood have high side-pieces, but
for those used for cariying butts, the loads are fastened by
means of chains and ropes, and the sledges are longer, as shown
in Fig. 180, which represents a Bavarian timber-sledge. Before
sledging begins, the wood is frequently piled-up in stacks, but
usually the sledge is laden on the felling-urea and brought
down to the depot. Wherever sledging is done indepen-
dently of tlio felling operations, and by many workmen acting
together, a certain order a,nd uniformity in the operations will
bo found very ellective. Therefore, and in order to avoid

MODE OF CONVEYANCE ON ROADS.

.'ill

the constant interruptions to the work, which sledges ascend-
ing and descending simultaneously would cause, a large
number of sledges are laden, and descend and ascend together

Fi;_r. !*<). — Bavarian timber-sledge.

( rig. Js7). Sometimes the returning empty sledges are carried

back along the sledge-road, but the workmen usually prefer to
carry them by the shortest cut, uphill. At the collecting

w--

>&%^

Enber-sledging.

depot the wood must be stacked carefully in order to economise
space ; or if further transport is down slides or by water, it
may be thrown at once down the slide or into the water.

WOOD TKANsi-oKT i;y LAND.

In many mountainous districts, as in the Alps and Vosges,
sledging is the usual mode of conveyance of wood ; the work
is commenced at the first fall of snow and continued as
long as the weather permits. Huts built of wood or stone are
provided in suitable places for the workmen, so that they may
remain constantly at the work ; these huts prove useful also
during felling operations.

The loads which may be transported by a sledge vary with
the size of the sledge, the skill and experience of the workmen,
the gradient, the nature of the sledge road, and the distance
of the collecting depot from the felling-area.

Much greater loads can be carried down regular sledge-roads
than on mere hillside tracks. The load may be 1^ to 2 stacked
cubic meters, i.e., 50 to 70 stacked cubic feet. This, however,
implies that the sledge-road is in good order and to secure this
the workmen have often to work several hours daily. The
amount of wood a man can bring down in a day depends firstly
on the distance traversed, and then on the condition and
gradient of the sledge-road. With moderate and uniform
slopes and a good road, a man can bring down 3 to 5 stacked
cubic meters (100 to 175 stacked cubic feet) of firewood for a
distance of about 3 kilometers, say 2 miles ; or 10 to 12
slacked cubic meters (350 to 420 stacked cubic feet) to half
that distance. The amount of work done is, however, reduced
where the gradient is very slight or excessive, as in the latter
case the return of the sledge is difficult ; also, where the
gradients vary so that brakes have frequently to be used.

.

Sledging during summer takes place on the sledge road
described on p. 306, and both firewood and butts are thus
transported,

In the forest of Barr, in Alsace, there are 24 kilometers of
Hummer sledge-mids, the longest being 7 kilometers. These
roads cost l:J pf. per meter (5d. a yard), and the round billets of
Bilver-fir and beech last ten years. The cost of the transport of
fuel is 70 pf. pur stacked cubic meter (2». per 100 cubic feet) ;
'2 tu f, .Lacked cubic meters (70 to 175 stacked cubic feet) of

SIDE ELEVATION

FRONT ELEVATfON

PLAN

PLATE III.
HIMALAYAN SLEDGE FOR RAILWAY SLEEPERS.

[To face- />.

MODK <)F CONYKYANCK ON KOADS. 3 1 3

firewood form the load, or from 3 to 6 butts, according to the
gradient.

[In the Himalayan sledge-road referred to on p. 306,
two men carry down daily 100 — 120 meter-gauge sleepers
(6J ft. X 8J X 43 inches), whilst they could carry down only
24 on their shoulders, the distance being 1 mile and 1 furlong.
Twenty-five meter gauge or 15 broad gauge sleepers go to a
load, the weight being about 1 ton. Plate III. shows the
nature of the sledges used ; they are 3 feet wide. — Tr.j

(b) Transport by Beasts.

Transport by the help of beasts is carried on with carts and
sledges, and less frequently by dragging or by pack animals.

i. Ordiiuiri/ Curl Tr<ijjir.

On a dry roadway the ordinary four-wheeled timber-cart is
used, and for firewood it must have sides, but for poles and
middle-sized logs, these are not required. The wood is secured
to the cart by means of ropes and chains ; and specially
strong carts are used for largo logo and butts.

The mode of transport by carts depends chiefly on the quality
of the roads, as obviously larger carts may bu used on good
roads than on bad ones. The largest waggons for lire wood
are used in the Schwarzwald, and often carry 30 to 30 stacked
cubic meters of wood (14 to 17 tons).

In carrying long logs, the front and back parts of the timber-
cart are separated and the butt-ends of the logs are placed in
front, their smaller ends being suspended under the axle of
the hinder pair of wheels, so as to allow for turning at curves
in the road. All timber-carts should contain levers, a screw-
jack and the necessary chains. If the wheels are high
enough, the log is sometimes hung under both axles, which
saves the frequently laborious process of loading the timber ;
and if, in such cases, in descending steep slopes, one end of
the logs drag along the ground, it then acts as a brake.

Generally horses are employed in timber transport, although
bullocks are very serviceable and replace them in certain
districts on the Continent and in hot countries.

314

WOOD TKANSl'OKT JJY LAND.

/I

n ' i

/ 1 i

<>!' CONVEYANCE ON 1M>AI>S. :j I

H'ith liwtsls.

After a fall of snow, sledges laden with firewood may be
dragged conveniently by a horse or bullock ; they are larger
than the ordinary sledge, and have short horns and two shafts.
For the transport of butts, short sledges are used. In many
Alpine districts, horse-sledges are provided with a moveable
frame (Fig. ls,S). In transporting butts the latter are lixed
at their upper ends to the short sledge (Fig. IH'J) by chains
and nails, their lower ends sliding on the ground. If the
gradient be strep another butt is dragged behind the sledge.
The brake consists either of a bundle of iirewood attached

. P.M. — Waseomeigter'a l»rakr.

to a short chain, or a piece of planking, on which the driver
stands. It may be the brake shown in Fig. 1(JO, on which
also the driver stands. The construction of Wasenmeister's
brake is seen from Fig. 11)1.

Sledging by the help of horses is followed extensively in
the Bavarian Alps, where the brakes just described are all
in use.

iii. Iti'tinu'mif hi/ Jicftsls.

Dragging logs by beasts is often impracticable on ordinary
roads, on account of the great damage which would ensue.

iv. l.-'sc of 1 * a<- k -<-n( I lc.

In (iermany the use ot pack-cattle, mules, or ponies for the
transport of Iirewood or charcoal-wood, is limited to the Alps,

316

WOOD TRANSPORT BY LAND.

where the wood which has been collected lies scattered over a
large area. A horse carries only 2 cwt., while it can drag 7 to

9 cwt. At the same time,
pack-ani m als require
only bridle-paths, which
can be constructed and
kept in repair much
more easily and cheaply
than cart-roads.

[In the Himalayas
the transport of firewood
is carried on extensively

Fig. 192. — Carriage of boxwood by mules.

by means of pack-mules
and ponies, in billets
3 feet long, and the cost of conveyance is 1 rupee 6 annas
per 100 stacked cubic feet per mile for oakwood, and 1 rupee
2 annas for fir (Fig. 192).— Tr.]

SECTION II. — TIMBER-SLIDES.

A. CONSTRUCTION.

A timber-slide is a more or less permanent channel, either
constructed of wood or excavated in the ground, and placed
along a mountain slope; the wood descends by its own
weight. Slides may be distinguished as wooden slides, ground
slides, or roads used for sliding timber.

1. Wooden Slides.

Wooden slides may be constructed either of butts or poles,
or of planks.

(a) Log or Pole Slides. — These are semi-circular channels,
made of closely-packed poles, or logs, 4 to 12 inches thick, and
are used for timber transport. The pieces of timber used in
constructing ordinary slides of this kind should be 10 to 2(>
feet long, and the separate sections of which the slide is made
are the same length as the pieces. The length of a slide
is thus frequently described by the number of sections it
contains. The channel lias a width of 2.J to 5 foot ; it rests

TIMBEB-8LIDE8,

317

on strong wooden supports, which may be termed block-
sleepers, and are made of different shapes. Owing to the
great weight of the slide that naturally tends to drag it
down-hill, this tendency being increased by the shaking to
which it is subject whilst sliding is in progress, the block-
sleepers must be supported by props on both sides to keep
them steady. Only when the block-sleepers are sufficiently
massive to preserve their own stability can these props be
dispensed with. The lowest section of a slide is made very
strong to resist shocks, and is either horizontal or inclined
upwards, in order to moderate the fall of the wood as it slides
down. It should rest on strong blocks of wood driven into

Fi.L'. 193.— Timber-slide.

the ground, and the effect is to shoot the descending piece of
wood upwards in a curve, so that it may fall without any
great shock (Fig. 1!W).

Asa rule (Fig. 193), each section consists of six poles, two
(a a) forming its base, two (b 1>) the sides, and two (c c) the
edges of the slide. In curves, one of the pieces c. may be
omitted on the inner side. Where the gradients are very steep
a second pair of poles (d d) may be added. The pieces of
wood on the inside of the slide are all barked.

The sections of the slide are joined together as shown
in Fig. 194. The pieces a a fit into the groove of the
block-sleeper (Fig. 195), the pieces b b rest between the
former and pegs driven into the block-sleeper, and c. c on
these pegs and two others similarly fixed ; they are kept

WOOD TRANSPORT BY LAND.

in place by props (w) ; d d, when used, are similarly sup-
ported.

The construction of slides in the Black Forest is somewhat
different, as shown in Fig. 19(5, where all the poles, except the
two lowest, are bored by augers, and kept in position by strong
beech trenails. In some cases a plank is used for the bottom
of the slide.

The trestles supporting the block-sleepers vary in height,
according to the nature of the ground, or the block-sleepers
may rest directly on the ground.

In the Black Forest and the Tyrol, the block-sleepers
rest usually on round billets.

Fig. 197 shows the mode of construction of the end-section

Ki<jf. 11)4.— MH liod of joiiiiiiir pieces of a slide.

Fig. 1 !)">. — r.lock-sloeper.

of a slide, m being a plate of wrought iron, over which the
descending pieces slide, and which, owing to its elasticity,
propels them upwards before they fall.

Slides intended for the transport of logs must be constructed
in a much stronger manner than those for firewood, and it is
then chiefly the side-pieces (b and c) which must be strongly
supported; logs measuring one foot and one foot two inches
in diameter and 50 to GO feet long may be used.

The slide shown in Fig. 198 is used for logs in the Pril'tcn-
thal, in N. Tyrol. It is sub-divided above into two branches,
and is chiefly used for bringing down bulls ; its strength of
construction ni;iy bo judged from the plate.

\Yb<'ii sliding logs JJO to (>() foot long, it must bo
hored that wlioro the slide is of any considerable longth

logs shoot out from it with great velocity, and to considerable
distances, which may extend to 200 or 300 feet in the gently

••:.— l'.lark Forest siidc.

inclined foreground of the slide (in the Salzkammergut and

other ]>l;n

Arrangements sometimes h;ivr to lx- mndi; io reduce the

Fitr. 1!»7. — Lo\vcr cxiroinity of a slide.

velocity of logs when sliding, and a mode of brake for the
purpose is shown in Fig. 109 ; as the log coming down strikes
and lifts the brake, its velocity is reduced. Another plan
i« to load an intermediate section of the slide upwards,

320

WOOD TRANSPORT BY LAND

and allow the piece to fall into a side-bifurcation by which the
slide is continued. The piece of wood loses all its acquired

. 198.— Slide in N. Tyrol.

velocity in this change of direction and then descends again,
until it meets with another brake.

[The largest slide of this nature hitherto made in India is
the Bakani slide, near Chamba, in the Punjab. It is 12,f>;-W
feet long, with a vertical fall of l,(5f)0 feet, or an average
of 1:U per cent. It is formed of 4,000 deodar-logs of

TIMBER-SLIDES.

321

various sizes, of which there are 4 — 6 in a cross- section, and
generally they are embedded in boulder ballast ; when the
present working of the forest-block has been completed these
logs will be removed and exported as timber. Where the line
is above the ground-level, the slide is supported on piles made
as follows :—

Two logs, about 8 feet long, are placed 10 feet apart in
line with the slide, cross-wise on these are placed two others
12 feet long, notches in their ends fitting into corresponding
notches in the others, then two more longitudinally and so on,

i !>'.».

till the required height is reached. The middle space is filled
with boulders, and the outer frame-work is packed with dry
stone-masonry to give solidity to the piles.

The largest log sent down was 48 feet long and it descended
for 2,500 feet, at the rate of 20 miles an hour. Vide Plate
III.— Tr.]

(b) Plank- Slides. — In plank-slides, as shown in Fig. 200,
the base and walls are made of planks, which are let into the
block-sleepers and nailed firmly to them.

[In the Lambatatch Forest in Tihri-Garhwal in the north-
west Himalayas, a slide of this kind, 2J miles long, was made by

F.U. Y

322

WOOD TRANSPORT BY LAND.

simply wedging together two vertical and one horizonta
planks, each measuring 13 feet X 12 inches X 5 inches, into
block-sleepers. It was used for broad-gauge railway-sleepers,
which fell into a deep part of the river Tons. This slide was
1 mile 1,052 feet long and the fall 2,687 feet, the average
gradient being 2 in 9 or 22 per cent. Brakes formed of 2 and 3
inch planks placed 15 feet apart were used to stop the velocity
of the sleepers, but this proved of no avail and the slide was
then divided into two sections, the steeper part being covered
in with planks. A little water was admitted to prevent the
wood from taking fire, which eventually happened to the lower

Fig. 200. — Plank-slide.

part of the slide, down which the sleepers went with great
velocity. — Tr.]

Plank-slides are used extensively in the Black Forest. If
plank-slides are to be used for the export of large quantities
of timber they must be constructed strongly, but when only
for temporary use, the sections are lightly built and portable, as
shown in Fig. 200. In this case the ends of the planks are
sloped off and fastened by screws to those of the next section.
These portable slides are used for firewood in the Sihlwald,
near Zurich.

(c) Wet Slides. — The description of slides will be completed
by an account of wet slides, which must be made as nearly
water-tight as possible, so as to hold a moderate stream of
water; therefore they must be constructed much more carefully
than dry-slides.

PLATK V.

HIMALAYAN WKT-SUDK MIMIMJK.

<'n»«. in- Chasm !Hl feet wide ami Sd feet deep.

[/•'. Gleadow, T.F.S,

To face p. :w

TIMBER-SLIDES. 323

As Fig. 201 shows, they are made generally with eight hewn
poles, the sides of which fit closely, and the interstices are
stopped with moss, or with tarred tow, etc.

[A wet slide in the Deota Forest in Tihri-Garhwal in the
X. W. Himalayas was constructed in 1876-78, heing 12,192
feet long with a fall of 1,300 feet, the gradients from 1 in 14
to 1 in 2*5, and the best gradient 1 in 4. It consisted of a trough
composed of three planks (12 feet X 13 inches X 5 inches)
roughly joined and firmly wedged into block-sleepers. Being
made of Pinus lonyifolia, the latter only last 3 or 4 years, but
should be made of deodar- wood, which is very durable in the hill-
districts of India. The slide is worked by means of a good flow
of water, which is supplied by troughs at intervals of about a

Kijr. L'nl. — Wet slide.

quarter of a mile, a good depth of water being required when
the gradient is less than 1 in 3. When there is plenty of
water, 1,200 railway-sleepers can be passed down in about 10
hours, each sleeper taking ten minutes on its journey. Such
slides cost about 16rf. a yard in India.* Fig. 202. — Tr.]

For short wet slides, where there is a plentiful supply of
water, preference should be given in their construction to merely
hewn poles, instead of planks, as repairs are thus facilitated.
Water is brought into the slide whenever it passes any stream
or spring. In the Salzkammergut, planks are used in a similar
way to the Tihri-Garhwal slide. In California, hundreds of
miles of wet timber-slides have been constructed as shown in
Fig. 203.

* An account of this slide is given in the working-plan of the Tihri-Garhwal
Forests by N. Hearle, published at Allahabad, for the Government of the N. W.
Provinces, l.xxs.

Y 2

324

WOOD TRANSPORT BY LAND.

(d) Gradient. — The amount of gradient is a most important
consideration in constructing slides. Too small a gradient
renders a slide useless, with too great a gradient the wood
will leave the slide and great danger arises to any person
who may be near at hand. The permissible limits are
5 % and 35 to 40 %, but the way in which the slide is used,

Inch Lo IFoot

Fig. 202. — Deota sleeper slide.
Drawn by T. Marten, Indian Forest Survey.

and the size of pieces of wood to be brought down, affect the
question.

Thus there are dry slides, ice-slides, and wet slides.

In the case of dry slides, a steep gradient is necessary,
which may go up to 40 per cent, and more.

[If, however, the gradient be very steep, the slide should
be fairly straight, as, otherwise, the shocks to which it is
subjected by wood coming down causes too much wear and
tear. There is also always a danger of fire from friction in
dry slides with excessive gradients. — Tr.]

TIMBER-SLIDES.

325

As a rule, however, dry slides become slippery owing to the
moist air, or may even contain a certain amount of snow, so
that in such cases a lower gradient will suffice than if the slide
is used when quite dry, as may he the case in hot countries
with scanty rainfall.

In the case of ice-slides, water is introduced into the slide dur-
ing a frost, so that it becomes coated internally with ice ; a
very slight gradient
is then required.

In wet slides, a
thin stream of water
is necessary, and
should be deeper the
steeper the gradient.

Besides depending
on the manner in
which a slide is used,
the gradient will be
affected also by the si/<> of the pieces brought down, so that
there are slides for firewood, logs, or scantling such us railway -
sleepers, and in the Alps, for billets two to three meters long
used for charcoal.

Slides intended for bringing down logs and butts must have
lower gradients than those used for firewood, as the former
pieces attain a much greater velocity than the lighter pieces of
firewood.

The following gradients are usual:—

Fiir. 203.— California!! wet slide.

; ial Transported.

Dryslid.'.

[ce-Blide.

W.-t slid.-.

Etamarkfl,

Percentage.

Firewood ...

20 :>>:,

»; 1-2

5—8

r> per cent, is 1 in 20.

1 5 i'< »

3— <j

3—6

( 'harcoal pieces ...

Midway between above.

Railway-sleepers ...

30

—

26

[The data for railway-
sleepers result from

Indian experience. —

Tr.]

In the case of dry slides, as already stated, the degree of
dampness of the air, and the nature of the atmospheric

326 WOOD TRANSPORT BY LAND.

precipitations affect the surface of the slide, and modify the
necessary gradient very considerably.

However desirable it may be to give to each slide the most
suitable gradient, the nature of the ground frequently renders
this impossible, and the gradient is thus consequently greatly
modified. As a rule, by using the sides of a mountain
torrent, these slides run more or less directly down to the
lower valleys, at whatever gradient the bed of the torrent may
render practicable. Slight changes of gradient over a few
sections of the slide must be avoided, however, by levelling the
base of the slide, either by cuttings, embankments, or con-
structing viaducts, so that the vertical section of a slide may
represent a gradual descent, and there should never be any
decided angles between two connected sections. [Plate IV.
shows a slide crossing a mountain ravine in the Himalayas.
-Tr.]

It is also necessary to secure steeper gradients in the higher
portion of the slide than for the lower portion, so that the
latter may more and more approach the horizontal direction ;
the last few sections of it may even ascend, and the longer
the slide and the heavier the pieces to be sent down, the more
this must be accentuated. As regards the horizontal plan of
a slide, it should be straight or form a steady curve without
sharp corners, especially for long logs.

(e) Collecting-places for Wood. — In high mountainous
districts the configuration of the ground will not allow always
of the construction of a continuous slide from the lofty ridges
down to the valleys, and several transport-works may be
made, such as sledge-roads, slides, wire-tramways, etc., accord-
ing to the nature of the ground in each part. In order to
collect the wood coming down from one side to another lower
one, a collecting-place may be constructed. It is barred with
stout poles with side palisades and has an aperture below,
into which the expanded upper end of the next section is
inserted to receive the wood for the next stage of the descent.

(f) Maintenance of Wooden Slides. — Wooden slides are
either permanent or temporary, the former serving a certain
forest tract for a series of years, or connecting a collecting
depot high up in the mountains, to which the wood is brought

TIMBEK-SLIDES, 327

in sledges, with a lower depot in the valley. Such a slide
must be constructed most carefully and strongly, the site
for it well chosen, and the gradients very carefully arranged.
Temporary slides are used in hringing-down wood from the
upper to the lower part of a felling-area, or to a road, and are
constructed in a much lighter and less expensive way than
permanent slides. They may be made with portable segments
(p. 322).

The construction of slides requires a large quantity of wood,
and this is further increased by the slight durability of the
latter, for although slides may last longer in damp, shady
places, and shorter on sunny aspects, yet they rarely last
more than 7 years, and usually repairs are required after 3 or
4 years.

[In the Himalayas, deodar-wood is so saturated with oil,
that its heartwood is practically imperishable in mountain
districts ; timbers in bridges in Kashmir exposed to alterna-
tions of damp and dryness have lasted for hundreds of
years, so that very durable timber-slides may be made of
deodar.— Tr.]

As progress is made in the construction of roads, slides
become less important; at any rate, this applies to slides
several miles long, which were formerly so prevalent on the
southern declivity of the Alps, where the best constructors of
slides are to be found.

Shorter slides, however, intended to complete communica-
tions over steep ground, are still employed extensively in the
Alps and other mountain-ranges, and their use is increasing.

2. Ground-slides.

Ground -slides are tracks often found on mountain-sides,
and are made either on the bare ground by the repeated
sliding of logs, or artificially improved in various ways, so as
to be fit for sliding. As a rule, a depression on a steep slope
is selected, a line for sliding dug along it and pieces of wood
placed on it transversely on which the logs may slide, other
pieces being placed here and there along the edges of the
slide to prevent the logs from leaving it.

328 WOOD TRANSPORT BY LAND.

In the Black Forest wet sloping meadows are used for this
purpose, the line of the slide being bounded by logs. In the
Alps the method of sliding along the ground often alternates
with timber-chutes. Ground-slides are used for the transport
of logs only.

A ground-slide serves its purpose only when its base and
walls are sufficiently firm and smooth ; therefore all stones,
roots, etc., must be removed, intervening rocks blasted, the way
improved here and there by laying down transverse pieces of
wood, while in the more difficult places which have to be
traversed short wooden slides are constructed to complete the
work.

It is evident that ground-slides cannot be maintained in
workable condition for any prolonged length of time. If they
have no rocky subsoil they are torn-up soon by drainage water,
and may become buried in silt, gravel, and other debris.

Sometimes a wire rope is fastened to the logs whilst they
descend a ground-slide. A rope is coiled round a windlass at
the top of the slide so that as a log goes down attached to one
end of the rope, the other end is wound round the windlass
ready to be fixed to another log as soon as the former has
reached its destination ; often three or more logs are fastened
one behind the other, and go down together. The windlass
works with a simple brake arrangement. The logs may be
placed in trucks and these let down a tramway by the rope.

Although ground-slides should possess steep gradients, yet
if they are used when covered with snow or frozen, the
gradient need not exceed 20 to 25 per cent., especially when
they are well constructed and bounded by logs placed laterally,
for in such cases descending logs soon attain a very high
velocity.

3.

In some valleys leading from the Black Forest, especially
those of the Wolf and Kinzig, regularly constructed roadways
are used for sliding logs and sledging, as shown in Fig. 204.

It has been laid down already on p. 308 that roads when
used as slides should have gradients of 9 to 18 per cent., and
more, and should be steepest above and become gradually level

TIMBER-SLIDES.

329

below. Although slides should be as straight as possible, and
free from sudden curves and angles, this principle may be

v.

Fi.u. 2< > I. —Black Forest road-slide.

departed from if the direction of the slide has to change
suddenly. A barrier is then erected at the end of a section of

330 WOOD TRANSPORT BY LAND.

the slide at which the downward section begins, and the log,
after striking against the barrier, rolls into the lower section
(m, n), and continues its descent as shown in Fig. 205.

[A similar turning was effected in a fuel sledge-road near
Chakrata, N. W. Himalayas, by using a large cart-wheel
set on a pivot as a turn-table, on which the direction of the
sledges was changed. Fig. 206, show a Japanese method
of changing direction in a slide. — Tr.]

The upper end of a slide is generally somewhere near the
felling-area. Its lower end should lead to a plot of land
sufficiently spacious for the material brought down to be
collected and sorted. In order to manage this better the

Fig. 205. — Change of direction in n, slide.

slide may be divided below into several branches. In any
case, it should terminate above a cart-road or stream used
for floating.

Once the logs which are to be transported are brought by
any means whatever to the head of the slide, they are used to
fix its sides, commencing at the top ; being placed along the
outer sides, or on both sides, of the roadway, supported by
pegs either through the logs or outside them, and at such a
distance apart as to allow for the easy passage of a sliding log
between them (Fig. 204). In order to prevent descending
logs from jamming, the distance apart of the boundary logs
should be greater on curves than on straight sections of the
slide, or the inner side of the slide may be left free. On the
outside of curves it may also bo necessary to put two or three

TIMBER-SLIDES.

331

boundary logs one above the other, in order to prevent the
sliding logs from leaving the slide. In mountain-regions
transport on road- slides deserves more attention than has
hitherto been bestowed on it; it wastes no wood, is very
expeditious, for with a length of 2,000 meters (1J miles), 100
to 300 logs may be brought down in a day, and the roadway
may be used also for sledges. Sliding on roads is therefore a
highly practical method where cart-traffic is impossible.

Fig. 2<>C>. — Change of direction in Japanese slide. From a .lap. State publication.

Eoad-slides are now used in Austria, Galicia, the Carpathian
mountains, and in the Salzkammergut. In Hohenashau,
in the Bavarian Alps, the ordinary sledge-roads are used in
winters without much snowfall for sliding 8-meter logs. They
are also used in Franconia, but there only on snow or ice,
the transport being chiefly confined to butts for saw-mills.

4. Mode of Transport on Timber-slides.

The mode of transport of wood on slides is very simple, and
depends on the construction and purpose of the slides. Besides
launching the logs the requisite labour-force is employed on
the maintenance of the slides.

332 WOOD TEANSPOKT BY LAND.

(a) Wooden Slides. — The chief object to be secured in the
maintenance of wooden slides is to get as smooth a surface as
possible. This may be secured by watering the slide during
a frost, so as to get a smooth, icy path ; by using the snow
which lies on the slide, removing most of it and pressing-
down the remainder ; in wet slides, by using all available
water ; or generally, by keeping the slide free from dirt, dead
leaves, etc., and using it simply as a dry slide.

Slides are used chiefly during winter or early spring, partly
on account of the ice and snow, and partly because the wood
must be brought down then, so as to be ready for floating
when the water rises in the streams in the spring, dry slides,
however, may be used throughout the summer.

Whenever, owing to slight gradients of 5 to 6 %, ice-slides
must be used, a good deal of labour is involved in watering,
one man being required to water and look after every 40 or 50
sections of the slide. Sliding then is often done at night,
when the work has been prolonged into spring, and frost
occurs only on clear nights. For the most part slides are
used either covered with snow, or dry. The work then con-
sists in removing superfluous snow which may have fallen
during the night, and in thoroughly freeing dry slides from
pieces of bark, wooden splinters, etc.

Owing to the prolonged use of the principal slides, the bottom
pieces get worn- away, and pieces to replace them when
necessary should always be kept at hand. During the work
of sliding, the logs and other pieces of wood which have been
collected at the top of the slide during winter, are thrown in
piece after piece, or they may be launched as they arrive
at the top of the slide. The work of sliding is done generally
by contract-labour. All the wood should be round, except in
slides specially made for railway-sleepers or other scantling,
and logs should be barked. In clearing the slide of dirt, etc.,
the men ascend with climbing-irons on their boots.

In all slides, effective means should be assured of warning
men below who may be repairing the slide, before any wood
is sent down ; also when sliding has been temporarily stopped
and the woodcutters have gone to fetch more wood, the men
below should be signalled to continue their repairs.

TIMBER-SLIDES. 333

[In the Tihri-Garhwal railway-sleeper slide, a wire for an
electric bell at the top of the slide was provided along the
line, and men were stationed at intervals, so that if by any
chance the sleepers jammed, the men above might be warned
to stop sliding any more sleepers till matters had been set
right below. — Tr.]

In the case of temporary slides, as soon as all the wood
lying at the slide-top has been launched, the pieces which
have stopped on the way are sent down, and then the pieces
of the slide itself are taken up one by one, and sent down
the remainder of the slide. Usually the slide leads down to
the stream used for floating, into which the wood falls, but
if the logs fall on to the ground at the end of the slide,
one or two men must be there to roll them out of the way
of the succeeding logs, which might cause breakage if they
fell on other logs. All this work is very dangerous to people
who may be anywhere near the slide, and the workmen must
be exceedingly careful to avoid accidents. Sometimes, for
instance, a slide crosses a footpath or cart-road, or there
may be interruptions in the slide, or difficult places with
insufficient gradient, etc. At all such places men must be
posted to warn passers-by of danger, and to expedite the
logs, etc., which are descending.

(b) Road-slides. — In the transport of logs by road-slides
men must be posted along the slide ; they should place fresh
transverse pieces under the logs which are sliding-down, or
remove some of these pieces, according to the rate at which
the logs descend. They should also repair the roadway, where
any damage has been done, signal to the men above and,
below them, and generally expedite the work. On such slides
only one log descends at a time, and as soon as it has arrived
at the bottom of the slide a signal is given to launch a fresh
log, which three or four men effect at the top of the slides
with krempes.

Road-slides with gradients of 8 — 12 % can be used only
in winter. With a gradient of 12—50 % they may, how-
ever, be used in summer, and the logs always descend
butt-end first, the ends of the logs being rounded for the
purpose.

334 WOOD TRANSPORT BY LAND.

SECTION III. — FOREST-TRAMWAYS.*

It is only during the last twenty years that iron tramways
have been used in forests. At first, forest-tramways were
constructed chiefly of wood, of which those by Leo Presti,
von Lippert and improved kinds in Austria-Hungary by
Egetz, are the best-known.

Decauville's portable railways, which were used in France
for agricultural purposes, have proved thoroughly adapted for
timber-transport, and have found many imitators in Germany.
Although there may be differences of detail in the various
kinds of tramway in actual use, yet the chief points to be
secured are easy transportability of the plant combined with
strength and solidity of construction.

Monorail Tramways are used in America, and in 1898,
de Coulon constructed a monorail tramway from the forest
of Neufchatel in Switzerland.! There is also a system of
conveying trucks on a strong level wire, supported by trestles,
where the motive power is supplied by a stationary steam-
engine.

1. Kinds of Tramways used.

If forest- tram ways are to be thoroughly useful for timber-
transport, they should start from the ordinary country lines
of communication, and penetrate along the main and subsidiary
forest roads into the interior of the forest as far as the felling-
areas, and even up to the individual felled trees.

It follows that some of the lines should be permanently
constructed, that a second portion should be more or less
portable, and that those sections of the tramways which reach
the felling-area should be of a light portable nature.

It is evident that in certain cases the line cannot be continued
up to the felling-area, whilst in other cases the portable parts

* lUmnebaum, "Die Waldeisenbahnen," Berlin,

•• Indian Forester," Vol. XII., 1£8(>, p. 244, for an account of a forest-tramway
used at Kottenforst, near Bonn, by Sir D. Brandis, K.C.I.E., and Colonel
I'.nilcy, U.K. Also cf. Mathey, " Kxploitation des Bois," Vol. I., liHiC,. where
is :i very detailed account of tramways.

{ The Monorail Portable Railway Co. (Caillet's Patents), 22, 2'.}, Lawrence
Pountney Lane, Cannon St., London. K.C.

FOREST-TRAMWAYS. 835

of the tramway communicate directly with the permanent
way, and the half-portable portion is not required. In fact,
all lines do not include the three kinds of tramway already
mentioned.

2. Mode of Construction.

This includes laying-out the road, the rails and sleepers,

the rolling-stock and apparatus used for loading the trucks.

(a) Laying-out the Road. — Ordinary forest-roads will suffice

Fiir. 2i>7.— Kail. Fi<r. 20S.— Iron sleeper.

for the main tramways and the half -portable way. They
should be as straight as possible, and there should not be
much range of gradient, which may reach 8 or 10% though
moderate gradients from 0 to 6 % are preferable. The sharpest
curves should have 60 to 100 feet radius.

For the 'main and secondary lines, earthworks to improve
the gradient cannot be dispensed with, but the portable

. 2H'.).— Portable pair of rails.

portions of the railway must run according to the lay of the
ground.

(b) Rails and Sleepers. — Flange rails (Fig. 207) of the best
Bessemer rolled steel are used. Transverse sleepers only are
used. For the main lines wooden sleepers are used, but for the
portable portions of the line steel sleepers (Fig. 208) are required,
and these sleepers are strongly and permanently united to
a pair of rails, constituting a section as in Fig. 209. The
rails are 6 to 8 meters long in the main lines, but only 2 meters
long on the portable lines, and a section must not be heavier

WOOD TRANSPORT BY LAND.

than a man can cany (Fig. 210), i.e., 35—45 kg. (76— lOOlbs.).
Whilst on the main lines consecutive rails are fastened

Fig. 210. — Laying the lines.

together by plates and bolts, in the portable portions they
must be attached so as to link and unlink with one another

Fig. 211. — Fastening for the rails.

quite easily, as shown in Fig. 211. This costs sixpence a
meter cheaper than the usual method of fastening rails,

Fig. 212. — Junction between two lines.

while the cost of maintenance of the portable lines in 1900

was 45'6 % and in 1901 35'9 % of the cost of permanent lines.

Bieran, at Schizmede in Blears in 1898, gave up sleepers

and laid heavy steel lines 9 meters long and weighing 1G kg.

FOREST-TRAMWAYS. 337

(35'2 Ibs.) directly on the road. The rails were screwed
together every 1 to 1J meters by tension rods and joined
longitudinally by strong lappets.*

As regards the gauge, experience shows that for main lines
70 centimeters (27 inches), and for portable portions 60 centi-
meters (23 inches), are most suitable.! Junctions on the main
lines are effected by a combination known as switch and points,
a description of which may be seen in Dempsey's Practical
Railway Engineer, but on the portable lines a junction is
effected more easily by means of a curved section placed over
the rails, as in Fig. 212.

[Brandis states that at Kottenforst, wooden sleepers are

L'Ki.— Truck for logs.

preferred even for the portable portion of the railway as not
liable to bend on uneven ground. Two kilometers (1 J miles)
of branch- railway may be laid by two men in a day. With
two wooden sleepers, one at each end, a section weighs 38 kilos
= 84 Ibs., but the rails must be heavier than when more
sleepers are used, 8 kilos per meter. — Tr.]

The main lines might be constructed in similar fashion to
the portable lines, but in their case the rails are 5 — 6 meters
long, instead of only 2 meters, and the sleepers 80 centimeters

iii, \'c lieu-bare Bahncu ohm: Schwellen, All;.:. Ft. u. Jd. Zeituug,
-•ilso 1902,

f [So (layer, but change of gauge is of doubtful efficacy. — Tr.]
F.U. Z

338

WOOD TRANSPORT BY LAND.

to 1 meter apart, instead of being only at either end of the
portable sections, so that two men are required to liftjeach

Fig. 214. — Transport of firewood.

section instead of one man. It is also greatly preferable to
use wooden sleepers for the main lines.

(c) The Rolling-stock. — The rolling-stock, or trucks used

Fi.Lr. ^1;">. — I, iii ling the trucks.

for transport, must, though strongly built, be as light as
possible. It is clear that these trucks must be constructed
most carefully, when it is remembered that heavy logs are to

FOREST-TRAMWAYS.

339

Fi.Lr. L'lii. — Simple crane.

Fi.ir. 217. -Double crane.

Fig. 218.— Windlass.

be carried, and that the workmen incur considerable danger
in moving such heavy pieces of timber. At the same time
light trucks are essential, especially on lines with a gradient

z 2

240 WOOD TRANSPORT BY LAND.

up to 7 % and without steam-power, as they have to be dragged
back to the felling-area by horses; as far as possible they
should be made of wood.

The trucks are constructed below like ordinary railway-
trucks, but they support a revolving horizontal plate furnished
with an iron crescent-shaped support, or a horizontal bed with
inclined arms, on which the logs rest as shown in Figs. 213,
214. These revolving plates allow of a log resting on two
trucks being taken round curves. Each truck is provided with
a brake, and different lands of brakes are used.

For the transport of firewood the revolving plate is
not required, but the truck forms a platform at its sur-
face, and uprights are supplied on both sides to support

Fig. 219.— Windlass for lading.

the wood. Evidently the transport of logs can be conducted
only by means of two trucks ; firewood also may be piled
on two trucks over two scantlings placed longitudinally
(Fig. 214).

(d) Apparatus for Lading the Trucks. — In using forest
tramways all suitable mechanical appliances for saving labour
should be provided. Although in lading trucks with poles
and other light pieces manual labour alone is required (Fig. 215),
cranes are supplied for lifting logs on to the trucks. Fig. 216
represents a special tripod crane, Fig. 217, a double crane
capable of lifting 4% tons, which may be separated into two
parts for convenience of transport and Fig. 219 an improved
timber-loader constructed by Haarmann at the Osnabriick
steel works. [This is said by Brandis to be the safest method
for the workmen. — Tr.] Finally, Fig. 218 shows an improved

FOIIEST-TRAMWAYS. :U1

windlass, which is very effective, the method of loading by
means of it being shown in Fig. 220.

How useful it is to have recourse to machinery, in case of
extraordinary demands on labour, was seen in 1891 and 1892,
in Brannenburg in Upper Bavaria, when thousands of large
logs from trees killed by the " Nun " moth caterpillars in the

*-*¥

L'L'n. Mrtluxl of lading.

Ebersberg Forest were laden on to trucks by a steam-crane
as shown in Fig. 221.

By means of one of these cranes the log is raised high
enough for the rails to be laid under it, and the trucks
pushed on to them, when the log is lowered and fastened
by chains on to the trucks. Heavy logs must be laden by
means of cranes, and only smaller ones by the use of levers.
In the case of firewood there is no difficulty in loading the
trucks.

[The cost of I) miles of tramway (I main lines and 1} miles

.34-2

WOOD TRANSPORT BY LAND.

FOREST-TRAMWAYS. 348

branches) at Kottenforst, rolling-stock, loading apparatus, and
laying-down 4 miles of main line, in which £40 was spent on
earth-work, was 1'252 per mile and it is estimated to last for
15 years.— Tr.]

3. Mode of Transport.

A distinction may be made in forest-tramways according to
the means used to work them: merely utilizing a down-incline

l-'i.u'. 222.— Use of brake.

of the line of road ; dragging the trucks by means of horses
or men, or finally by locomotives.

Where the incline of the roadway is used, there must be a
fall in it of about 3 to 4 %, and the trucks must be provided
with suitable brakes. The empty trucks are dragged back by
horses and less frequently by men. This method is employed
for short distances wherever the ground is suitable, and is
n -presented in Fig. 222.

344 WOOD TRANSPORT BY LAND.

Horses are used on nearly all branch-lines which are con-
structed in level land, even when of quite a temporary nature.
The horses do not pass between the rails but alongside of them ;
they are accompanied by drivers and other men, especially when
several trucks are united so as to form little trains (Fig. 214).
Brakes are always required.

At present on the main lines, as in Elsass (Schirmeck,
Alberschweiler), also at Schneegatten in Upper Austria, loco-
motives are used almost everywhere, unless the lines are
very short. The locomotives are small ; in mountainous
forests specially constructed, light, mountain-locomotives with
3 axles are used, which can travel on curves even with a
radius of 25 meters (80 feet). In this case the brakes must
be very effective. If the main line is of the ordinary
railway-gauge, the usual kinds of trucks are used in trains
of different lengths, as in the forest of Ebersberg, where 190
truck-loads leave the forest daily, the total annual yield of the
forest in timber being 45,500 truck-loads.

The loading of the trucks is effected by rolling or sliding
over inclined poles as shown in Fig. 215 ; also special machines
for loading are used, and wherever the timber is transferred
from trucks of one gauge to those of another, cranes are
indispensable.

Whether the construction and working of a forest-trarn-
way is best undertaken by the forest management, or by a
contractor, is a question which cannot be answered in a
general way ; the nature of the locality, volume of wood to
be transported, length of the lines, greater or less delay
experienced in clearing the felling-areas and several other
factors, intervene. Circumstances differ materially in the
case of tramways which are at present being worked. In
general, except in the case of railways of the ordinary gauge,
experience has shown that it is more economical to con-
struct and work the lines directly, and not by contract;
this is quite independent of the advantage to the forest-
owner in having, in the former case, more freedom in the
management of his forest.

Main lines in complete unison with the ordinary railway
system of a country should be constructed and managed

POKE ST -TRAMWAYS . 345

by railway engineers. Thus the 12 kilometers (7J miles)
of railroad in the Ebersberg forest were constructed very
rapidly by the 1st Pioneer battalion from the Munich
Garrison. [Forest-tramways are used in Assam, the Punjab,
and other parts of India.* — Tr.]

4. Statistics.

The nineteenth century was characterised chiefly by great
improvements in machinery and a consequent complete revolu-
tion in the means of transport and communications. Forestry
should therefore march with the times, and improve the means
of transport in forests which are difficult of access. It is a
great mark of progress during the last 20 or 30 years, in such a
conservative industry as forestry, that a considerable extension
of forest-tramway has taken place.

Dozens of forest-tramways have been constructed in Ger-
many during the last ten years, and there is scarcely a German
province in which either a permanent or temporary tramway
is not being worked. The first steps in this direction were
taken in North Germany, in the different Prussian and Saxon
provinces, and South Germany has followed suit, partly owing
to the enormous volumes of timber following the great destruc-
tion of forests by insects, or storms, in South Bavaria, the
Vnsges Mountains and "\Viirtemberg. The oldest forest-tram-
way is that of the Sihlwald, near Zurich (Fig. 230).

The most important forest-tramway hitherto made on level
land in Germany was constructed in 1889 — 92 to remove the
enormous volume of timber (4 million cubic meters, or 2f
million loads) which had been killed by the " Nun " moth
caterpillars, in the forests of Ebersberg, Perlach, Sauerlach
and Forstenried. This tramway consisted of 12 kilometers
(7£ miles) of main line of the ordinary gauge, from the rail-
way-station of Kirchseeon, passing through the middle of the
devastated forests, with 40 kilometers (25 miles) of branch-
lines, a gauge of 60 centimeters (say 2 feet), and 27 kilometers
(17 miles) of portable lines which passed right up to the

* •• Indian Forester.'' Vol. XFI., p. HI'.) gives an account of the Changamanga
tramway in the Punjab.

3i6 WOOD TRANSPORT BY LAND.

felling-areas. The construction of this tramway was com-
menced in August, 1890, and it was opened for transport by the
beginning of December of the same year, but has now7 been
removed entirely. The most recent level forest-tramway is
that 15 kilometers long at Rheintessen from Sprendling to a
depot on the Eiver Main. This depot covers an area of 12J
acres and affords convenient quays for lading boats with
timber.

The forest-tramways in the German Vosges near Barr,
Rothau and St. Quentin are the most important mountain-
tramways hitherto constructed. Owing to the nature of the
locality, consisting of narrow winding valleys, frequently with
steep gradients, many difficulties were encountered during the
construction of these tramways, and deep cuttings, viaducts,
bridges and double curves are frequent. Thus, the Schirmeck
tramway, 40 kilometers long, with a gauge of 70 centimeters,
and wrorked by locomotive powTer, ascends 501 meters (1,612
feet). The branch-lines of similar construction to that of the
main line are 16 kilometers long, with a maximum gradient of
7-14%.

[In the State forests near Schlettstadt on the river 111, in
Alsace, that are liable to inundations and where the con-
struction of roads is very costly owing to the spongy nature
of the ground, short portable tramways are used to transport
the heavy oak and other timber to the banks of the 111. — Tr.]

For a discussion of the value and suitability of forest-tram-
ways, as compared with other means of transport, the reader
is referred to p. 430 of the present book.

SECTION IV. — WIRE-TRAMWAYS.

At the end of 1850, the first wire-tramways of the simplest
kind were erected in order to convey bundles of firewood and
faggots weighing up to half a cwt. down precipitous hillsides.
A stout iron wire was used for this purpose, which descended
the valley with a gradient of 25 — 30 % and on which the
transported material passed hanging by a hook, or a twisted
withe.

This simple; arrangement has led more recently to continual

WIRE-TRAMWAYS. 347

improvements at several places in Switzerland, the Tyrol
and Germany, with the object of transporting larger pieces of
wood, and especially logs and butts for sawmills. At present
there are two kinds of wire-tramways, those with one or twro
wires.

1. Double Wire-Tramways.

These consist of two wires about 3 centimeters or 1 inch
thick, each of them composed of a wire-rope made of 6 strands

Fi<r. 223.— Giindlischwand wire-traimvay.

of wire closely twisted round a hempen cord and extending
without supports from the top to the bottom of a declivity.
One serves for the descent of laden cars, and the other for the
ascent of the empty ones. The upper ends are fastened to
large trees and run over a pair of iron rails, which are curved
downwards in front (Fig. 223). The lower ends are wound
round horizontal cylinders, which can be turned by means of
levers and cog-wrheels, so as to stretch the wires (Fig. 224).
The log which is to descend the wire, is suspended from it

WOOD TRANSPORT BY LANJX

by chains from two wheels (a a Fig. 225) running on the wire
and kept at a suitable distance apart by a rod (/>). This
arrangement is termed a truck. Were the laden truck left
to itself, it would descend with constantly increasing velocity
down the wire, and smash the wood and itself at the end of its
course. In order to prevent this and control the course of the
truck, a second and more slender wire (S Fig. 225) is attached
to the rod (b), and is wound round two rollers at the upper end
of the tramway, so that the truck may be let down and drawn

Vig. 224. — Lower end of a wire tramway.

up again empty. These rollers also serve as a brake to regulate
the speed of the truck.

The wire-tramway at Giindlischwand in the Grindelwald,
which is shown in Figs. 223 and 224> is 4,300 meters (say
14,000 feet long), and the wires hang quite freely without any
support at an angle of about 26 degrees. Another double
wire-tramway has been constructed in the forests of the Count
of Stolberg-Wernigrode. It differs from the preceding one
owing to its moderate gradient and because the wires are
supported at several points' by bent iron rods (Fig. 226)
attached to horizontal poles (ni) supported by trestles.

In Fig. 226, (a) is the win; and (<•) wheel of the truck.

WIRE-TRAMWAYS.

.349

This tramway is supplied with a special windlass for dragging
logs up to it from distances of 200 meters by means of a wire.

ii:. '«.">. Truck for wire-tramway.

The Prince of Sehwartzenburg has similar wire-tramways in
his forests in Bohrnerwald. The largest wire-tramway of this
class is at Koveredo, and is 5 miles
long.

[In the Bamsu wire- tramway in
Tihri-Garhwal, in India, described in
* ' Indian Forester, ' ' August, 1897, page
283, there are 3 spans with a total
length of 1,825 feet, used to connect
two sledge-roads, Bullivant's patent
steel f -inch diameter wire-rope. Two
spans (6:-34 and 432 feet) single wire,
other span 759 feet, the steepest,
double endless wire running round
two drums with vertical axles. Oak
saddles are used to support the
sleepers as they reduce friction.
Tension applied by means of rough
winches. The double wire works
best, and 250 sleepers per diem were
carried, but after 20,000 sleepers had been passed down, wear
and tear was so great, that carriage by coolies at 8 pies per

ijf. ±>«». —Truck.

350

WOOD TRANSPORT BY LAND.

sleeper was equally cheap. However, the construction of the
wire-tramway reduced this charge by 25 % from 1 anna to
8 pies. The gradients are 26 and 27 degrees for single
wire and 31 J degrees for double wire. — Tr.]

2. Single Wire-Tramways.

In single-wire tramways, the laden and empty trucks travel
at the same time on a single wire ; otherwise their construc-
tion is similar to that of the double- wire tramways, the only
peculiarity in this case being the arrangement for allowing the
empty and laden trucks to pass one another on the wire.

Fig. 227. — -Transfer station.

To allow for the possibility of this, at the middle of
the wire, where the trucks cross one another, a so-called
transfer-station is arranged as follows : a workman stationed
on a scaffolding lifts the empty truck from the wire and
replaces it beyond the descending truck so as to allow the
latter to pass.

An automatic siding has, however, been invented, as shown
in Fig. 227 : at a short distance above the wire, is fixed, on the
poles (c d) which serve to support it, a rod (e c df) for the
passage of the empty truck. The part of this (e c), jointed to
the remainder by a hinge at (c), has also a counterpoise, so
that it remains parallel to the wire unless pressed-down by the
weight of the truck, (c d) is fixed parallel to the wire, and (df)
is also jointed at (d) and meets the wire at (/). The empty

WIRE-TRAMWAYS.

351

truck B on reaching (/) ascends (/ d) and passes from (d) to
(c) whilst the laden truck passes under it, and then rejoins the

wire by pressing down (c e). The ladm truck A on reaching
(/) lifts up (///) and passes on its way.

The iir.st single wire-tramway was constructed in Schlieren-

Fig. 229.— Truck.

thai near Alpnach, in Canton Unterwalden, in Switzerland, it
has a length of 2,100 meters (1 mile 3 furlongs) and is sup-
ported at numerous points, with a gradient of 35 %. It differs
from the tramway just described by the fact that the wire is

352

WOOD TRANSPORT BY LAND.

supported at the end of horizontal rods to which it is fastened
by plates and bolts, so that the wheels of the truck may pass
freely over it (Fig. 228) . The iron rod of the truck supporting
the log is also bent outwards (Fig. 229).

Single wire-tramways have been constructed in the Salzkam-
rnergut, in Carinthia, and other places on the southern declivity
of the Alps. In Canton Tessin, Switzerland, there are 141
double or single wire-tramways.

Fig. 230.— Forest- tram way in the Sihlwald,

353

CHAPTEE IV.
WOOD TRANSPORT BY WATER.*

TRANSPORT of wood by water consists either in floating
logs, scantling or firewood, piece by piece, down streams,
or in rafting them, after they have been bound together
in rafts.

This is the oldest form of transport known, and is referred
to in the Bible in 1 Kings v., when Solomon rafted large
cedar logs from Tyre for the construction of the Temple at
Jerusalem. In the Roman provinces of Germany, only logs
were floated, the floating of firewood being a more recent
industry. At present, timber-transport by water is carried
on more or less in many streams, especially in mountain-
regions where it is most highly elaborated.

SECTION I. — FLOATING.

Under this section the floating of single pieces of wood to
their destination will be discussed.

The section describes : — the natural suitability of any
stream for floating ; artificial improvements of streams ;
erection of the works necessary for the maintenance of a
proper supply of water and for catching the wood at its
destination, and the methods employed in floating wood.

All streams cannot be used for floating wood : they may be
too weak or too strong, with too narrow or too wide beds ;
they are sometimes too winding ; bad banks, rocks, boulders,
etc., may interfere with the floating in an otherwise suitable
stream, or floods may effect serious damage. In the most
favourable cases similar protection must be afforded to the
floating-channel, as to a stream driving water-mills or other

* There is very little literature about water-transport of wood. The best
German works are— Forster : " Das forstliche Transportwesen." Vienna, 1885.
Barth. " !>!<• (icschictc (ier oboren Kin/lir." ISllf..

F.U. A A

354 WOOD TRANSPORT BY WATER.

hydraulic works, and manual labour is required to conduct
the floating. Hence floating has become a highly elaborate
undertaking, in the carrying - out of which many costly
constructions and protective works are needful.

1. Conditions necessary for Streams to be Utilizable.

Independently of artificial improvements which may be
effected, a watercourse used for floating timber must possess
certain natural peculiarities, depending on the direction,
power and fall of the stream. The direction must eventually
lead to the timber-markets, however much the stream may
wind on the way there. Not unfrequently artificial channels
are cut in order to shorten the course of the stream.

The minimum width admissible is the length of the logs to
be floated, as, unless they have room to turn, constant blocks
will occur during floating. Only in the case of artificial
floating-channels, where the banks are quite smooth, and
butts for saw-mills are floated, may the width of the stream
be less than the length of the logs.

The maximum width of a stream used for floating depends
on the possibility of securing and extracting all sunken wood
by means of ordinary appliances. Even with the best
management some of the heaviest logs will sink, and this
sunken wood is either carried along the bottom of the stream,
or sticks in holes in its undermined banks. In very broad
streams sunken wood cannot be guided to the shore or other-
wise secured. Hence, unless the logs are being rafted, the
breadth of streams used should not exceed that of a large
brook, or small river.

The depth of the water is also an important point; this
should be sufficient to float water-logged timber which will not
quite sink, without danger of its grounding on the bottom of
the stream. Long and slowly running streams should be
deeper than rapid streams, which carry the timber better
where the distance for floating is short, and there is, there-
fore, less chance of the wood becoming water-logged. When
large, round timber is floated, a greater depth is necessary
than for poles and split wood, which are easier to float.

FLOATING. 355

When thoroughly dried, all woods indigenous to Northern
Europe will float, but heavy, broadleaved species lose this
faculty much more quickly than coniferous wood ; so that
while the latter may he floated in the round for great
distances, this is not possible with the former. [Of
coniferous wood, that of pines and cedars rich in turpentine
floats much longer than that of spruce and silver-fir.
Experience in India has proved this fact. — Tr.] Gene-
rally water-logged wood floats vertically. The best depth
for floating coniferous logs and split pieces of hard-
wood is one and a half to three feet, as then the work-
men always can wade into the water to secure the sunken
wood .

There is no necessity for any uniform fall in a stream, and
most streams used for floating timber vary greatly in this
respect. The best fall is ^oo ^° TO> as then ^ne wood descends
rapidly and is guided easily by the workmen ; there is also
little wear-and-tear owing to the pieces dashing together or
against rocks, that may also cause continual Mocking of the
stream and necessitate severe labour to set the logs floating
again. Floating, however, has to be undertaken frequently
with a fall, less or much greater than the above. In the
latter case, cascades have sometimes to be passed, and much
timber is lost.

Eafting can be done with much less fall, and artificially -
constructed or improved rafting-streams have falls of only

^00 tO 400-

The last point to be considered in the practicability of
a stream for floating timber consists in the possibility
of damming its tributaries artificially, so as to collect
temporarily a much greater head of water than it usually
holds.

There is much periodical variation in the amount of water in
a mountain-torrent, and sometimes a formidable, destructive
torrent may be seen where a few weeks later there will be
merely a little thread of water. In other cases a stream may
be always too low for floating, but by collecting the water of
its tributaries, enough water may be obtained to float down a
sweep of logs.

A A2

356 WOOD TRANSPORT BY WATER.

2. Improvement and Maintenance of Watercourses for
Floating Wood.

No watercourse is constantly fit for floating without some
artificial improvement, but all streams are not susceptible of
the same amount of improvement ; in many cases the low
value of the timber to be floated will not allow of much
expenditure at a profit in this direction, and sometimes the
forester has to put up with the mere maintenance of the
natural state of a stream. Hence, the works on no two
streams used for floating resemble one another. In the
following pages the most perfect methods of improving and
maintaining a floating-channel are described, so that the
forester may select what is practicable in any particular case.

The improvements consist of : — increasing the head of
water in a stream according to requirements, beyond its
average quantity ; regulating the course of a natural stream ;
constructing an artificial channel to replace it, and booms to
stop and collect the floated material.

(a) Increasing the Head of Water in a Stream.

Besides rivers such as the Inn, the Isar, the Oder, etc.,
which are constantly used for timber-floating, nearly all
German mountain-streams require arrangements for raising
the average height of their water. It is especially the higher
parts of streams, near their sources, where this is most
necessary, for there they contain the least amount of water
and pass through forest areas where floating is most neces-
sary. The means used for increasing the water are : — lakes
and ponds, feeding- canals, dams and tanks.

i. Lakes and Ponds.

In valleys and mountain-depressions at a high elevation,
natural reservoirs such as lakes and ponds are of frequent
occurrence, especially in high mountain-ranges with masses of
snow and glaciers, where lakes of different sizes are frequently
found in the upper stages of the side-valleys. These per-
manent water reservoirs are very valuable, for they usually

FLOATING. 357

lie along the line of floatage, and by means of a simple sluice
at the outlet of a watercourse from a lake, the level of the
latter may be maintained high enough to furnish a good head
of water for floating wood down the stream. Many lakes are
thus utilized.

A small lake from which a side-stream passes into the line
of floatage, or which may be connected with it by a canal,
may also be utilized similarly, and in both these cases the
dams to be constructed are similar to those that will be
described further on.

ii. Feeding-canals.

Instead of lakes and ponds, watercourses near the floating-
channel may be utilized to raise the water-level of the latter
by leading their water into it. A mountain-range, through
the principal valley of which the floating-channel passes, is
often a rich water-collecting basin, its springs and brooks
running through the forests ; if here, not only the less impor-
tant springs, but also the brooks of adjacent valleys, are united
to the floating-stream by canals, and its tributaries provided
with sluices, the best possible measures will have been taken
to gain a sufficient water-supply.

Lines of levels should be run for these projected feeders,
which often must be conducted round spurs and precipices so
as to secure, if possible, a uniform fall, which should rarely
exceed 3 or 4 %, or serious damage may ensue. Sluices are
required where the feeder leaves the brook the water of which
is to be utilized, and also where it joins the floating-channel,
so that swollen torrents may be avoided, and water admitted
to the latter only when it is required. It must not be sup-
posed that it is always a difficult matter to lead water from
one basin into another, for in the upper parts of a mountain-
range several streams may be quite adjacent, which diverge
widely lower down ; the feeding-canals also are not difficult to
construct, being usually mere trenches like those used in
irrigating meadows, and it is usual to utilize only tributaries
of the same stream that eventually join it lower down.

The direct line of floatage is not often supplied by feeders,
but frequently they are used to fill reservoirs.

358

WOOD TRANSPORT BY WATER.

iii. Dams and Reservoirs.

Whenever lakes and ponds are not available, the water of
the floating-stream itself may be dammed-up, and thus a
stronger head of water obtained. This is secured by means
of a dam furnished with a sluice-gate, that is erected
transversely across the valley in which the stream runs so as
to maintain the level of the water behind it. A reservoir is
thus formed, the water in which may be made available for
floatage when required, by opening the sluice-gates.

There is much variety in the mode of construction of dams,
and according to the material used for them, they are made
of earth, wood or masonry. The chief point is to make the
dams and sluices watertight ; cemented masonry-dams are
best in this respect, but earth-dams are superior to wooden
sluices.

(a) Earth-dams. — Earth-dams are formed of heaps of earth
at the ordinary angle of repose for the material used, as

Fig. 230.— Earth-dam.

shown in Fig. 230, which gives the section of such a dam. A
facing (a) of clay or loam is added to the dam on the side
near the reservoir, to make it watertight, and another vertical
layer of clay or loam (a') in the middle of the dam will prevent
nits from perforating it. In order to strengthen the work, a

FLOATING.

359

/

L.— The Martin's dani in the I'.uviiniin- Bohemian Forest, that has now
been rebuilt in masonry.

232.— Wooden dam at Absdaeh (Black Forest).

•

360 WOOD TRANSPORT BY WATER.

thick facing of rough heavy stones is piled on the side of the
dam, away from the reservoir. The impermeability of the
dam by water is specially influenced by the nature of the
ground on which it rests, and for its site, a place is therefore
chosen where there is solid rock, or a clay bed ; if this is
some depth down, it may be necessary to have artificial clay
foundations.

(b) Wooden sluices. — Wooden sluices have a framework
of wood strengthened by means of earth or stones, usually
the latter, in which case the wooden framework is lined with
clay and filled with stones. Fig. 231 shows the ground-plan
of such a sluice, there being three rows of partitions to be
filled with stones. On the side away from the reservoir, these
partitions are only half as high as the other two rows, and
are planked over (c, c). A roof is usually placed over the
sluice, and it is crowned by a planked bridge. Buttresses
(a a a a) of somewhat similar construction to the rest of the
sluice are added to strengthen the structure. They may,
however, consist only of coarse, dry, stone masonry ; b is the
channel for the passage of the water in the direction m n,
and is closed by a sluice-gate.

Fig. 232 shows another weaker kind of wooden sluice in
the Black Forest, at Absdach, on the river Wolf. It consists
of piles boarded over, and strengthened, away from the reser-
voir, by large blocks of stone between which an opening is left
for the sluice-gate.

(c) Masonry-dams. — These are built very strongly, chiefly,
or entirely, of large hewn stones. As a rule, however, they
are only faced with hewn stones, the interior being filled with
rammed broken stones, or with gravel or rough stones
imbedded in clay ; buttresses are then required.

In order to increase their strength, they are frequently
made in a regular curved shape, the convex side of which is
opposed to the water-pressure, but in that case it must rest on
either side on firm rocks, and then resists the pressure of the
water like a great vat.

Fig. 233 shows the plan and elevation of a masonry-dam
at Herrenwies, in the Black Forest, with two sluice-gates (b b) ;
a a are smaller gates which are opened first to relieve the

FLOATING.

361

\'i'^. -2:',:',.— Masonry-dam at Ik'rremvies (Black Forest).

pressure on b b. This clam is to be recommended owing to
its simple gates and manner of opening them.

(d) Dams of combined masonry and earth. — These are the

362

WOOD TRANSPORT BY WATER.

most highly perfected of all dams, and are used in the
Bavarian forest, as shown in transverse section, in Fig. 234.
The masonry rests on a foundation of piles, and the reservoir
side of the dam is faced with hewn stones resting on cemented
rubble-masonry containing a thin layer of concrete. A wall
of cement and clay bounds this structure, and a well-stamped

Wvvvw

Fiir. 284. — Masonry and earthen dam in Bavaria.

earth-dam is continued towards the valley. This mode of
construction, and a liberal use of cement and concrete to a
considerable depth in the foundations of the dam, make it
watertight in the highest possible degree.

(e) Sluice-gates. — The gates for the chief outlet of water
from the reservoir are usually in the middle of the dam, but
sometimes at its base. The sluice-gates open usually into a

FLOATING.

363

channel, which conveys the rush of water at some distance
from the dam into the natural bed of the stream. This pro-
tects the lower side of the dam from heing undermined by the
water, and is specially important in the case of wooden sluices
and earth-dams, as in Fig. 231, in b n. The sluice-gates are
closed by various contrivances, and they may be distinguished,
according as they open with a rush, like ordinary sluice-
gates, or are raised gradually, as in the case of vertically
opening valves.

(f) Sluice-gates opening in the ordinary way. — This is

i.'_r. 2ir>. Sluice-.<:at<>.

effected by means of hinges, but the gates are closed by
various contrivances. The usual method of closing them is
shown in Fig. 235. A is the gate revolving on hinges at a.
B is a revolving elliptical cylinder of wood, which is kept
closed by means of a peg (b), a lever placed between b and
the wall of the dam and the pressure of the water in the
reservoir, until the lever (m) is withdrawn ; the pressure on
B then causes it to revolve on its axis through an angle
of 90° and present its smaller diameter to A, so that the
latter can open, b entering a recess in the wall made to
receive it.

Another mode of opening a sluice-gate is shown in Fig. 236:

364

WOOD TRANSPOKT BY WATEE.

as long as the end (??i) of the lever (s d in} rests against the
peg (b), the cylinder is kept closed, but when s is pressed

' !

Fig. 236.— Sluice-gate.

down, b is released, and the gate opens. This mode of
opening is used chiefly when the walls of the dam are high.

FLOATING.

365

Fig. 237 represents another mode of opening sluice-gates,
where the bar (m) is fastened back by an iron pin which fits
through a projecting stone at P, and can be easily withdrawn.

[In the case of all the above sluice-gates, there is danger
of the gate swinging violently against the wall of the dam,
and being broken or injured. This is avoided by having the

Fig. 238. — Earthen dam with sluice-valve.

hinge at a short distance from the wall, so that when the gate
is opened, there may be a passage for the water between the
hinge and the wall of the dam ; the intervening water then
breaks the force with which the sluice-gate swings, and
prevents its striking the wall. — Tr.]

It is evident that when the confined water of the reservoir
presses with all its weight on the whole sluice-gate, on

366

WOOD TRANSPORT BY WATER.

opening the latter, the violent rush of water would damage the
banks below ; such gates can therefore be used only where the
watercourse below has steep rocky banks. They have also
the disadvantage, that the sudden rush of water may not be
able to carry downstream all the wood which is lying on the

bed of the watercourse, so that
much of its effect is lost. In
the Tyrol, self-opening sluice-
gates are used, which open when
the reservoir is full.

(g) Sluice - valves. — Sluice -
valves are used in well-con-
structed floating-channels and
wherever the banks need pro-
tection against the downward
rush of water, so that the
amount of water passing through
the passage in the dam may be
regulated at will. These valves
are opened by means of a lever
fitting into cogs, a ratchet pre-
venting the descent of the valve
(Fig. 238). In the Absdach
sluice, the so-called ladder sluice-
gates are adopted, the construc-
tion of which may be seen in
Fig. 232. In order to avoid the
use of heavy valves, two smaller
ones side by side may be used,
or several, each of which works
in its own groove and may be
raised by a revolving axis by
means of rollers and chains, or winches.

The mechanism for raising these heavy valves with a small
expenditure of strength should be of a very simple nature.
Fig. 239 gives a simple combination of cog-wheels and endless
screw for the purpose. This mode of raising valves is in
general use for the tanks which will be described lower
down.

Fig. 239.— Sluice-valve.

FLOATING.

367

(h) Sluice-gates made of logs. — The roughest method
adopted for closing sluices is to place a number of round logs,
split in half, vertically alongside one another, with their
ends resting against two strong beams above and below. The
crevices between them are then stopped with moss, and a pile
of earth is often made behind them. When it is desired to
release the water, a hook attached to a rope is passed through
an iron ring in the central log, which, on being lifted, is

Ki-r. i'io. — IMuj,'- valve.

carried down by the water ; the other logs are similarly lifted
out of the way.

Balks of wood one above the other also may be suspended
horizontally, as is usual in the Black Forest, by chains before
the opening, as shown in Fig. 233. They are raised one after
the other by hooked poles. Fig. 240 shows the so-called
plug-valve which is much used, especially in Austrian Silesia.
The valve fits vertically into a channel (a) excavated under
the dam and projecting 4 or 5 yards into the reservoir, where
it is strongly closed, the open end of the channel leading
down-stream. The end under the reservoir is open at m and

368 WOOD TRANSPORT BY WATER.

can be closed by a conical plug (n) which is raised by means
of a vertical bar and screw (b) ; (p) is a plank bridge for
giving access to b. The chamber in which this plug plays is
covered with a fine grating to exclude rubbish. This kind of
valve weakens the dam much less than any other form of
opening for the water, and the water can be allowed to pass
through the channel as gradually as one could wish ; it is
however very liable to become filled with silt and mud, that
are removed with difficulty.

All sluice-gates must allow for an overflow of excessive water
from the reservoir and also for passing a small quantity of
water into the floating-channel before the principal sluice-
gates are opened. The principal rush of water, which is
required for floating, passes through the sluice-gates, of which
there may be several in the case of large dams, but when once
the reservoir is full of water, any more water coming in must
be allowed to escape, otherwise the top of the dam would be
injured. For this purpose, therefore, a small channel is
generally provided at the top of the dam, unless there is a special
gate constructed for this purpose. It may also be necessary
to completely drain the reservoir of water, in case of repairs,
or to free it from sand, gravel, etc. ; for this purpose a third
opening may be necessary lower down than the principal
gates. It is usual to admit a little water into the floating-
channel so as to set the logs slowly in motion, before the chief
rush of the water comes. This can be done at pleasure by
means of sluice-valves, but where there are sluice-gates a
special opening must be made in the large gate for this
purpose, unless the floating-channel is provided with a small
quantity of water by a side-channel, opening with its own
sluice-gate. The size of the principal sluice-gate depends
on whether it serves only for the passage of water, or for
the wood as well, and in the latter case it must evidently be
4 or 5 meters broad (Fig. 232).

(i) Dimensions of Dams. — Dams vary much in size ; there
are some dams which maintain reservoirs capable of
submerging a whole valley below them ; these are 450 feet
long, and over 65 feet in breadth, and in their construc-
tion a considerable amount of capital is invested, whilst

FLOATING. 569

others can raise the level of a stream barely above its full
strength.

The more a watercourse is encumbered with boulders and
rocks, the lower the dry-season level of its water and the
longer its course, the more plentifully should water be
supplied. Sometimes in such cases dams are constructed
which allow of a depth of water in the reservoir, at the dam,
of 15 to 30 feet. Well-constructed floating channels with a
small and uniform fall require much smaller dams.

Generally large reservoirs are preferable to small ones, even
though they take a comparatively long time to fill, as their
effects are more proportional to their cost, and the floating is
more certain than where several small dams are constructed.
Very large dams have been made in Carinthia and the southern
Alps, and in Austria and Hungary.

. (/i) Position of Dams. — The principal dams are made always
in the uppermost parts of a mountain-valley, and their effect
reaches for several miles down, so that in many valleys no more
dams are required below the principal one. In other cases,
however, there are floating-channels with several small dams at
distances apart of from 1J to 2 miles.

Dams are intended, as far as possible, to drive the drainage of
a locality into the watercourse which is used for floating.
Watercourses, however, contain least water near their sources,
but are here most in demand for floating purposes. It is there-
fore necessary to utilise the first weak run of the water, and
wherever it is possible to do so, a strong dam is erected near the
very top of a valley, so as to collect as much water above it as
possible.

A site is therefore preferable for the principal dam
where the sides of the valley approach one another with
rocky walls, whilst above this gorge is a basin-shaped
expanse of valley. Such places are often found in mountain-
ous regions.

Care must be taken that the water entering a reservoir is
fairly free from silt and gravel, which would soon render it too
shallow for use. Wherever this is not the case, special works
must be constructed to keep out the sand, etc. ; these will be
described further on, under the heading "Weirs."

F.U. B B

370

WOOD TRANSPORT BY WATER.

iv. Tanks.

Dams can be constructed across a stream only in narrow
mountain-valleys where they can rest on mountain-spurs on

Fig. 241. — Tank A supplied by river t.

both sides, without being necessarily of any considerable
length. In wider and broader valleys with a slight fall,

Fig. 242. — Sluice-gate of the tank A.

where there are meadows, cultivated lands and perhaps
houses, which a dam would obviously inundate, while its cost

FLOATING. 371

would be prohibitive, owing to the large amount of compen-
sation involved, it may, nevertheless, be necessary to obtain
larger supplies of water for floating timber than the natural
course of a stream affords, and these may be secured by
constructing a tank. This is an artificial pond surrounded by
strong embankments, that is fed by underground culverts, or
by a canal bringing water from the upper part of the water-
course ; thus water may be collected in the tank to swell the
stream below it.

There may be peculiarities of the locality that modify the
mode of construction of tanks, but in this respect they are much
less variable than dams.

Figs. 241 and 242 represent a tank which has been con-
structed at Wilgartswiesen, in the Bavarian Palatinate. The
reservoir A is situated between the floating-stream t and a
small mill-stream m. It is surrounded by strong embank-
ments (d, d), 14 feet high, and is fed by the mill-stream, which
bifurcates from the watercourse above the reservoir and is led
along the hill-side with a gentle fall, so that at a it is about
10 feet higher than the watercourse, which it rejoins after
passing the mill M. There are sluice-gates at a and b, the
former for admitting the- water and the latter for its escape ;
s, s is a cart-road along which is conveyed the wood which is
stacked at h, and there put into the stream. This tank holds
280,000 cubic feet (8,000 cubic meters) of water, it can be filled
once daily, and takes 2 hours and 40 minutes to run dry, float-
ing 42,000 stacked cubic feet (1,200 cubic meters) of firewood.
The embankments of tanks may be of earth or masonry, or
half earth, half masonry, as shown in section in Fig. 242.
Here A represents the stone-masonry, B the earth-work, a the
sluice-valve, m the feeder, and t the watercourse.

Tanks to assist floating have been constructed at several
places in Silesia, Franconia, the Palatinate, etc. ; they are
utilised in summer for irrigating meadows and cultivated
lands.

v. Wt'irs.

The works already described have for their object to increase
the quantity of water in a floating-channel, but as soon as the

B B 2

372

WOOD TKANSPORT BY WATER.

accumulated water has run off, the stream resumes its natural
level.

Weirs, on the contrary, are constructed to raise the water-
level permanently and moderate its fall and velocity. They
consist of a shallow dam erected across a stream, the top of

which is either
slightly below,
even with or
above the water-
level, so that the
water must more
or less increase
in depth behind
the weir before

Fig. 243. — Wooden overflow weir.

passing it.

Thus we may

have ground- weirs, below the surface of the stream; overflow
weirs, between the highest and lowest levels of the water,
and sluice-weirs which are provided with gates: in the latter
case, the quantity of water in the stream can be perfectly
regulated.

All these three kinds of weirs are employed in streams used

Fig. 244. — Overflow weir with slight fall.

for floating ; they are necessary not only to divert water to
mills and irrigation-canals, when the water is used for these
purposes besides for floating, but also to maintain a high
permanent level of water in a floating stream.

The construction of ground-weirs is very simple, they may
be composed of a ridge of stones, a stem of a tree kept in

FLOATING.

373

position by piles, or row of piles behind which sunken fascines
or stones are placed.

An overflow weir may be constructed either of wood or of
stone : Fig. 243 shows a section of a simple wooden weir with
a steep declivity ; Fig. 244, a weir with a slight fall.

Stone - work is
naturally prefer-
able to wood in
constructing weirs,
and wherever coarse
stones are available,
a weir may be con-
structed as in Fig.
245. Weirs con-
structed of hewn
stone- masonry
(Fig. 246) are preferable to rough constructions, but unless
the watercourse has a rocky bed, piles must be driven in to
serve as a foundation under the weir.

The efficacy of any weir is measured by the height to which
the water rises behind it, and the distance back to the point

Fit:. iM.~,. — Stone- overflow weir.

Fi<_r. 246. — Stone weir.

where the stream retains its former velocity, or ceases to be
slack- water. Hence, in order to improve thoroughly a stream
for floating, a succession of weirs should be constructed from
slack-water to slack-water ; in this way the average fall of
the stream will be reduced, a very important point in
floating.

374 WOOD TRANSPORT BY WATER.

The slower the current, the further back the slack-water
extends ; in sluggish streams, weirs may reduce the velocity
of the stream too much for floating, and are useful only for
diverting mill-streams from the main watercourse. Wherever,
on the other hand, the current is rapid, it is evidently advan-
tageous to keep the water back as much as possible; for then,
independently of the advantages of a moderate current, the
banks and works to improve the floating are secured much
better against erosion, and the depth of the stream is
rendered much more suitable for floating, an important
matter when it contains much gravel and boulders.

The most suitable places for weirs are narrow valleys between
rocky banks, as in such places the water cannot damage the
banks of the channel and cause inundations, even when its depth
is considerably increased.

In such places generally several consecutive weirs are
required, so that the watercourse in certain cases becomes
regularly terraced, with a succession of falls. As a rule,
the number of weirs should be proportional to the rapidity
of the current and the quantity of gravel and boulders in the
stream. These weirs are not constructed all at the same time,
but by degrees, as the space between any two of them becomes
filled with silt and gravel, and therefore a new weir becomes
necessary.

Besides the above-mentioned weirs, others also are required
wherever any side-channel leaves the main stream to supply a
mill, etc. Booms for collecting the floating wood also are
erected frequently on weirs. The more remote the point where
the water from a side-channel is required, the higher must be
the weir which supplies it.

It is evident that sand, gravel and boulders accumulating
behind the weirs constantly raise the bed of the stream, so
that the water will in time overflow its banks unless they are
sufficiently high. This is dangerous not only for the banks,
but also for the wood which is being floated and tends to leave
the stream and become stranded. If then a rush of high water
follows, much damage may be done to the riparian properties,
for which the manager of the floating will be held respon-
sible unless he has taken proper precautions. In all cases,

FLOATING.

375

therefore, where such damage is to be feared, weirs should be
furnished with sluice-gates, which may be opened when there
is danger of a flood.

Fig. 247 shows a section through the middle of a weir in
which a sluice-gate is supplied, m o n being the section of the
weir, and o m the sluice-gate with a sloping base (s m),
enclosed by wooden horizontal walls ; this gate is closed when
the water-level is at its ordinary height, but can be opened in
floods.

More frequently, however, a ground-weir is erected with a
number of sluice-gates arranged side by side, by opening

L'I7. — \\Vir with sluice-gates.

which all the water may pass in high floods or the timber be
allowed to float through.

It has been remarked already that certain works may be
necessary to keep silt, gravel or boulders out of reservoirs ;
these works are merely weirs made of wattle-work or stone,
across the small brooks which feed the reservoir, and thus the
results of denudation of the hill-sides are kept from descending
the watercourse. In addition to these weirs, the ordinary
measures should be adopted for fixing the slopes on either
side of a mountain-torrent, and keeping it stocked with forest
growth.

(b) Works for regulating the Course of a Natural
Stream.

There is not a single watercourse, which is naturally so suit-
able for floating timber, but that it may be improved by some

376 WOOD TRANSPORT BY WATER.

artificial works, to render the floating more regular and to
avoid damage. In strong or weak waters there are always a
number of hindrances: the banks may require securing; it
may be necessary to remove obstructions from the bed of the
stream, by blasting, or otherwise ; sometimes the current
requires modifying, or bifurcations of the stream should be
cut off whilst floating is in progress.

i. Strengthening the Banks of Streams.

Artificial works may be employed with advantage wherever
the banks of a stream are too steep, or too sloping, or. where

Fig. 248. Fig. 249.

Methods of strengthening the river bank.

the breadth of the stream requires modification. High, steep
or vertical banks of a stream, if not of hard rock, get under-
mined and fall in, holes being formed in which the wood
sticks ; or the material of the bank may be carried away and
form an obstruction lower down the stream. Wood which
lodges against the bank becomes at length waterlogged, and
may be lost. Hence, all bad banks require facing. Wherever
the bank is composed of mere earth, a slope of 25 to 30 degrees
should be given to it, and it should be sodded or planted with
willow-cuttings to give it firmness. If a current sets in
against such banks they may be protected by wattle-work,
a trench being dug along the bank, a wjittlo-work fence

FLOATING. 377

constructed and the interval then refilled with earth well
rammed-in. The earth bank may also be faced with ordinary
stone-masonry, or merely with large dry stones, and the trench
filled with broken stones or gravel. Where stones are scarce,
fascines may be laid parallel to the bank, secured by means of
stakes, and covered alternately with stones or earth.

Other modes of protecting banks consist in a row of piles,
which are driven-in in front of the place to be protected, and
either bound with wattle-work, or planks or fascines fastened
on inside them (Fig. 248). Where wood is plentiful the walls
may be of logs 4 to 6 inches thick (Fig. 249), supported by
stakes (a), and nailed together
with long iron nails. It is,
however, always better to
employ stone-masonry for the
purpose wherever stone is pro-
curable, both to economise
timber, and because the latter
is not durable. Where stone
is used for the purpose a good
foundation must be supplied,
as in Fig. 250, to prevent
undermining, and a slope of
about one in ten should be

1- iL'. 2."iii. Stone-facing.

given.

As great a hindrance to floating as steep banks, are banks
which are too flat, as the stream widens-out in such places,
and tends to fall-off in strength, depth, and rate of current.
The gravel and other material brought down from above
accumulate in such places, forming shoals which the floating
timber only passes with difficulty, and many logs become
stranded. Improvements thus have for their object to restrict
the bed of the stream.

The simplest method is to drive in a double row of piles as
close to one another as the length of the logs which are floated,
they demarcate the stronger water from the slack-water near
either bank. The piles are high enough to overtop the highest
level attainable by the water, and the logs as they float down
align the piles and exclude the dead water.

378 WOOD TEANSPOET BY WATEE.

In some cases wattle-work is applied round the piles, other
rows of piles are driven-in a few feet from the first rows, and
the interval filled with stones, branches and sand. Finally
solid parallel lines of masonry may be constructed, which are
no other than dams running parallel to the stream and united
to the old banks by wings ; they may be looked upon as artificial
banks to the stream.

The top of these dams must be of about the average level
of the stream so that all flood-water passes over it, carrying
with it silt and gravel which gradually fills-up the site of
the slack-water. Sometimes where there is an extensive tract
of slack-water, it may be covered with a network of dams
crossing one another, which gets filled with silt, etc. ; if these
dams are raised gradually as the spaces between them become
filled, the slack- water may disappear entirely, and the lateral
dams be overflowed no longer at high water.

ii. Strengthening the Bed of the Stream.

The bed of a stream requires artificial improvement much
less frequently than the banks. This is, however, sometimes
requisite, in the case of mountain-torrents with stony beds,
and usually consists in blasting-away the rocks and removing
stones, which otherwise might cause holes to form behind them
in the bed of the stream, and thus catch the floating logs. The
best season for these operations is the autumn, or whenever
the water is lowest ; the stones removed from the stream
may be utilised to improve its banks. It is, however, easy to
do too much in the way of removing obstacles from the bed of
a rapid stream : for if a floating-channel be freed from all
impeding rocks and stones, which form so many natural weirs
in its course, the stream often becomes torrential and its banks
may be broken and inundations or other disastrous conse-
quences ensue.

Kapids may occur where the bed of a channel is narrow and
steep, where the stream runs between rocks in passing from a
higher stage in the valley to a lower one, and there is then
likely to be difficulty in floating the timber. If in such places
the bed be terraced (Fig. 251), floating will be much expedited

FLOATING. 379

by making a network of logs which is filled in with stones.
The blasting necessary in such a place is, however, so difficult
to carry-out, that frequently the wood is landed and passed
down a water-slide and placed again in the stream further on.

Fig. 2.")1. — Fixing the bod of a stream

Careful paving of the bed of a stream is not unfrequent
at openings from tanks and to a certain distance inside the
latter.

iii. Rectifying I he Floul'inij Chaniu'1.

Usually the channel of a mountain-stream winds consider-
ably as soon as it approaches the plain, and its current is thus
reduced considerably. The wood, which is being floated, has
therefore to travel far in order to pass over a comparatively
short distance, and may become water-logged. Owing to the
slight fall, inundations occur with every high water, the banks
of the stream are injured and much wood stranded far and
wide.

Straightening the channel of the stream is then the best
mode of obviating these dangers. The stream is straightened
by making short artificial cuts between its bends and windings.
Such a cut is commenced generally at several places between
the points on the stream that are to be joined, the banks
then serve as dams until the channel is completed. In such

380 WOOD TRANSPORT BY WATER.

cases it may be even worth while to make tunnels for the
water to pass, as at Hals, near Passau.

Artificial floating-canals leading to a timber-depot are of the
same nature as the above and sometimes run from one river-
basin into another.

The best known of these artificial floating-canals is that
belonging to the Prince of Schwartzenberg, at Krummau, in
Bohemia ; it is 35 miles long, of which 600 yards are tunnels
leading from the centre of the forests to the river Miihel,
which flows into the Danube between Lintz and Passau and
brings down the yield of 35,000 acres of forest.

Whenever a canal is dug, levels must be taken most carefully
beforehand ; one in fifty is the best fall, though frequently
unattainable. The canal just described has a fall of one in nine
for a short distance, and one in the Bavarian forest a fall of
one in five. In such places, the bed of the canal must be
paved, or terraced, as already described.

In the latter case, the upper section of the canal is only 4
to 5J feet broad, and 1% feet deep ; it brings down very large
butts for the saw-mills. It is there constructed of blocks of
granite ; lower down, its banks are made of wood, but in 1882
the floods proved too much for these wooden constructions.
In the lowest section, where there is much more water available,
the width of the canal is 10 feet.

In constructing such canals the chief point is to secure a
good supply of water, owing to the snowfall in mountainous
regions this can generally be done. The line is then taken, as
far as possible, through all adjoining mountain-streams, or it
is supplied with water by reservoirs and dams.

iv. Lateral Booms.

All streams used for floating have branches either natural or
artificial, and arrangements must be made to keep the wood
out of such bifurcations, or in certain cases to conduct it into
a side-stream. To effect this, lateral booms either floating,
or fixed in the bed of the stream, are required. A thoroughly
dried spruce-log fastened to the bank of the stream by withes
and floating in the water in front of the side-stream will often
suffice.

FLOATING.

381

Should the width of the stream be
sufficient, a chain of two or
more logs (Fig. 252) attached
together either by withes or
iron rings may be substituted.
These are floating booms. Wher-
ever a boom has to withstand
a great pressure, as, for instance,
where numbers of saw-mill
butts are being floated, or the
floating wood is being driven
from the main stream into a
bifurcation, a fixed boom
(Fig. 253) should be constructed.
In this case, piles (m m) are
driven into the bed of the
stream and are supported by props

so great that this is not

. 2:>2. — A lateral floating boom.

(s s).

Fiir 253.— Fixed lateral boom.

The logs forming
the boom are then
attached to these
piles and close the
stream. One row
of logs is often
insufficient, and
then two or more
logs are fastened
together and
placed in front of
the piles. Such
booms will not,
however, stop
water -logged
wood ; when there
is much of this, a
more elaborate
boom is required,
the construction
of which will be
described further

on.

382 WOOD TRANSPORT BY WATER.

v. Accessibility of the Banks of the Stream.

Accessibility of the banks is another necessity whenever
a stream is used for floating timber. The water must be
accessible at least from one of the banks by a good foot-path,
so that the workmen may be able to fasten logs to the shore,
push off stranded logs, or land timber, and move about
expeditiously.

The only difficulty in lower mountain-valleys and level
ground is to come to terms with the riparian owners about
sites for the construction of booms, etc. In the higher
mountain passes, however, steep precipices often line the
banks of narrow gorges, through which the stream passes,
and the logs can be controlled by the workmen only at great
risk to their lives. Such gorges are especially common
among limestone rocks ; they form passes between the higher
and lower stages of the valleys, the water falling in a series of
cascades among large boulders and masses of rock. The
floating wood is constantly sticking in such places, and a
whole sweep of timber may thus be stopped. In order to
prevent this mischance the gorges must be made passable ;
often a pathway is constructed with wooden galleries sup-
ported by numerous iron bars and wooden beams let into the
rock, and connected with one another by steps cut in the
rocks, and by ladders.

3. Booms.

Booms are constructions intended to arrest or divert the
passage of all floating wood at a fixed point in a stream.
All floating timber is stopped or diverted by the boom, and
where large sweeps of timber come down, the boom has to
resist considerable pressure and must be very strongly con-
structed; its site also should be situated favourably for the
purpose in view.

Booms, therefore, vary from those of the simplest nature to
colossal structures costing thousands of pounds. Most of these
booms are constructed by ordinary woodcutters or floaters,
who from long experience in the work frequently show great
ingenuity ; some of them may even be classed as engineers.

FLOATING.

383

But for the very reason that the nature of booms depends
on local conditions, no constructions are more varied, and
hardly any two booms are alike. In the following paragraphs,

. L'54. — Wooden grating to serve as a In mm.

therefore, some characteristic forms of booms only will be
considered.

(a) Mode of construction. — There are three essential points

Fig. 255. — Transverse section of above.

in the construction of a boom : the supports, the horizontal
bars which stop the sweeps of timber, and the grating of rails
that surmounts the boom.

384

WOOD TRANSPORT BY WATER.

Booms may be divided into two classes, according as the
grating is vertical or oblique, the largest and most important
belonging to the latter category.

Fig. 254 represents a simple form of wooden boom with a
vertical grating which has to resist a moderate pressure only ;
Fig. 255 shows the section of a support to this boom, and m
the grating and horizontal bars. Wherever in mountain-
streams rocks occur on which the grating may be supported,
they may be utilised as supporting piles for the boom ; but if
such natural supports are wanting and the pressure of the

Fig. 256. — Boom with stone supports.

sweeps of timber is great, masonry-pillars must be erected for
the purpose (Fig. 256).

The horizontal bars are constructed of large balks of
timber, which are bored through in order to allow the rails of
the grating to be inserted ; or they are composed of three
balks, the middle one perforated to support the grating. The
lower bar is placed frequently at the water-level (Fig. 254),
where it is best preserved.

In the case of large booms required to withstand the
pressure of large sweeps of floating wood and powerful streams,
oblique gratings are used. It is evident that such an

FLOATING.

385

arrangement will withstand a much greater pressure than will
vertical gratings. The inclination of the grating to the surface
of the water varies, depending on the absolute weight and

Fi'_r. i'".7. Support of an oblique boom.

stability of the rails which form the grating. Where these rails
are large — in large booms they often attain lengths of 20 to 25
feet and a thickness below of 8 to 10 inches — the inclination

Ki-r. 2:>S.— Oblique boom with masonry supports.

of the grating may be 60 degrees, but otherwise it is placed
more obliquely, say, at an angle of 25 to 30 degrees.

The rails of the grating are always round pieces, barked
spruce or larch, with their thicker ends in the water, and they

F.U. c c

386

WOOD TEANSPORT BY WATER,

rest without any support -on the bed of the stream. In front
of them, floating spruce stems are placed to take the shock
of the floating wood from the grating. Where the stream is
broad and the grating long, supports are also necessary, their
simplest mode of construction being shown in Fig. 257.

The supports of large booms require, above all, a solid
foundation : in the case of wooden supports, piles are driven

Fig. 259. — Boom with removable grating.

sufficiently deep into the firm (rocky) bed of the stream ; wlu>n
there are masonry-supports, a firm foundation of piles is sup-
plied, in case a rocky base cannot be reached. Fig. 258 repre-
sents a large boom over the river Kegen, at Regensburg ; in
this and other large booms the supports are similar to those
used for large bridges, they are arranged with their longest
sides parallel to the stream so as to offer as little resistance to
it as possible. Of a similar construction is the large boom at

FLOATING.

387

Baden, near Vienna, also that over the Ilz at Passau, the boom
nearly a kilometer (f mile) long at Brixlegg, and other large
booms.

What enormous pressure such booms have to support,
especially in floods, may be imagined easily from the fact,
that floating timber often accumulates behind them to a
height of 15 to 20 feet and sometimes even overtops them.
In such cases, as has been already remarked, not only must
the construction of the boom be of the strongest possible

Fi<:. L'i',0. — Tit-stir to

a L'i;uini:.

character, but also the locality must be specially adapted
for it.

In the case of many booms, with either vertical or oblique
gratings, the latter are placed in situ only during the floating
season, and for the rest of the year are removed and kept in
sheds on the river-banks. This cannot be done always, when
the grating rails are very large and weigh several hundred-
weights each, but even then, part of the grating must be
removed if the stream is to remain navigable, or passable by
rafts of wood. In such cases, the rails are provided with
strong iron rings so that they can be raised by means of
hooked poles and placed on the horizontal bars, and on a
planked footway constructed behind the latter.

c c 2

388

WOOD TRANSPORT BY WATER,

Water-sawmills always require booms to keep out the float-
ing wood which is intended to pass beyond them. Such booms

Fig. 261.— Trestle for a boom.

must be constructed so that part of the grating may be readily
removable and allow entrance for the butts which are to be

Fig. 262.— Trestle boom.

sawn. The grating is, therefore, frequently provided with
the arrangement shown in Fig. 259. The hooks at n n are
for the removal of the rails, each of which is perforated for

FLOATING.

389

the admission of a wedge to keep it in position when raised,
the wedges resting on the bar (a a).

Besides the above usual kinds of booms, special, local booms,
such as trestle-booms, portable booms and booms with gabions,
are in use, of a cheaper and simpler mode of construction.
They are used chiefly for temporary floating, or in the case of
streams subject to such high floods that the construction of
more elaborate and expensive booms is not advisable. They

Kijj. '2(\:>>. — Moveuble support for booms.

are therefore re-made every floating season, and then broken-
up, and are prevalent chiefly on the south side of the Alps, in
Savoy, the South Tyrol, Garinthia and other districts.

The essential feature of a trestle-boom is a three-legged
trestle (Fig. 260). These trestles, strengthened by the trans-
verse pieces (a a), are placed in a line across the stream so
that one foot of each projects somewhat over the foot of the
trestle next to it, and the tops of all the trestles are about the
same height above water-level. Thus different-sized trestles
are required according to the depth of the water. In the case
of large trestle-booms over strong streams, a second row of

.S90

WOOD TRANSPORT BY WATER.

trestles is placed behind the first to strengthen it, one of the
feet of the second row crossing the feet of those in the front
row. This crossing of the feet of the trestles strengthens the
boom in a very marked way.

After all the trestles are in position in the water, the bars
()> l> />) are nailed on to them ; they are intended to support
heavy logs with which the trestles are loaded, to add weight
to the boom and render it firmer. As the trestles are not
imbedded in the ground, but only rest on it, they would
not withstand the force of the stream if they were not
heavily weighted. Further weight is added by placing stones

Fig. 264. — Gabion boom.

and boulders above the logs which rest on b b b. Supports
for the rails are then nailed on to the trestles, the rails
fastened to them with withes, and floating logs placed in front
of the rails. Fig. 262 represents a form of trestle-boom
common in S. Alpine countries.

Portable booms form another class which may be erected
and removed at pleasure, but their mode of construction varies
considerably. Fig. 263 represents a section of such a boom
with a permanent base, which is used in streams where sudden
floods occur, as in Lower Austria, the rivers Ziller, Gail, etc.
The fixed base is composed of a beam (a) and piles (c c) ; on
the latter the trestle-beams (m w) rest, and the grating-rails
(d d) are supported by pieces (b b) which are bolted to tu.
Another kind of portable boom is used in Nadworna, in

FLOATING. 391

Galicia, in which three twisted wire ropes are stretched as
tightly as possible one above the other and supported by
trestles at distances of 30 feet apart.

Another kind of boom is formed of gabions (Fig. 264), as
used in Venezianisch and other places. Here, instead of
wooden or stone pillars, gabions of basket-work filled with
stones are used, which support the horizontal bars and the
grating-rails. The gabions are placed in a line across the
stream at distances of 5 to 15 meters (16 to 48 feet) apart,
according to the strength of the stream, and are tall enough
to be above the highest water-level ; their height varies,
therefore, with the depth of the water in which they are
placed. Planks are then placed from gabion to gabion, form-
ing a footway, and stout poles (a a a) are bound to the
gabions by means of withes. The grating-rails (b b) are then
bound to c outside the water and let down into it from the
footway, till each rail rests on the bottom of the river. The
several rails are bound by withes to a a a, and along the
grating floating logs are placed.

These gabions have the advantage of costing little, of being
erected in a short time by the floating-gang and of being
repaired easily. At the same time, they are not durable, and
are often overthrown by heavy floods, to which they offer a
large, exposed surface. They are adapted specially for small
temporary sweeps of floating timber, chiefly on unimproved
mountain-torrents.

Finally, floating booms must be mentioned. They consist
for the most part of spruce-logs which are united at their
ends by iron rings and fastened together in sufficiently long
chains. These chains of logs are fastened at one or both
ends, and float on the surface of slowly flowing streams, on
which floating is done only occasionally. In order to give
them a greater power of resistance, some of the logs are
anchored to the bottom of the river. In spite of this, how-
ever, they cannot resist a sudden flood, as has been often
experienced, in the breaking of such booms, especially if the
stream is fairly strong (the river Inn).

[In the river Jumna, at Daghpathar, a boom is placed at a
point where the river is 120 yards broad, it consists of two

392

WOOD TRANSPORT BY WATER.

portions, a raft 354 feet long, constructed of railway-sleepers
as shown in Fig. 265, and a line of logs. The raft is fixed at
one end to a rock on the right-hand side of the river, and kept
obliquely inclined towards the current by wire ropes anchored
to the other bank. This portion of the boom is placed in the
full current of the powerful stream. From its other end extends
a line of logs fastened end to end by a wire rope, and 910 feet
long. The floating sleepers are stopped by the raft-boom, and
then float along the line of logs into slack-water, when they are

PLAN

ELEVATION (up-sl ream edge of Boom)

Support :?*^=j| ,
Iron rndx*2.Cir.l II -I

Iron

Fig. 265. — Daghpathar boom.
Drawn by A. G. Hobart-Hami><lfii.

caught easily by men swimming on inflated buffalo-skins, and
landed.

The construction of the raft-boom is as follows : —
Two broad-gauge sleepers are placed 6j feet apart and with
their broad face vertically downwards ; transversely to these
and dovetailed or merely let-in, are placed at intervals of
about one foot meter-gauge sleepers with the broad face hori-
zontal. In the centre are two planks placed longitudinally
and serving as a footway. A wire rope runs along each side,
and is firmly fixed to the broad-gauge sleepers. This is to give
the boom flexibility against sudden strains. Below the sleepers

FLOATING.

393

are three iron rods one inch in girth supported by bars 2 inches
in girth from the broad-gauge sleepers.

This boorn cost Es. 1150, including Es. 500 for wire ropes,
which last for many years ; it is annually removed before the
July monsoon, and replaced in October. About 400,000 sleepers
and scantling are stopped by it annually and made-up into rafts
at Daghpathar. — Tr.]

(b) Modes of using Booms. — According to the strength of the
stream, the purpose for which they are erected, but above all on
account of their suita-
bility for any particular
locality, various kinds of
booms are used. Here,
in the first place, a dis-
tinction must be made
according as the booms
are used, either to stop
all the wood floating
in a stream (terminal
booms), or to divert it
into a side-channel
(lateral booms) ; it must
be considered, secondly,
what steps may be
taken to reduce the
pressure on booms and
prevent them from
breaking.

Fig. 21)6. — Terminal boom at Passaii.

Trrniinal

Terminal booms, in-
tended to stop all the
wood floating in a stream, are erected either transversely or
obliquely across a stream, the former being termed straight
and the latter oblique booms. Booms may run in a broken
line, or be arranged so that a quantity of floating wood may
be collected and taken away from the boom.

Straight booms are made chiefly on streams with a slight

394« WOOD TRANSPORT BY WATER.

fall and where sudden floods are not to be feared. They have
to resist severe pressure, and wherever large sweeps of wood
are floated should be constructed strongly.

Oblique booms are commoner both in the case of lateral
and terminal booms, they have naturally a greater length in
proportion to the breadth of the stream than straight booms,
and the longer they are, the better able are they to withstand
the pressure of the floating wood and floods. Most booms are
not straight, but have a broken line of contour ; and many
booms, and some of the most important ones, collect and
retain for some time a large quantity of the floating wood.
The boom across the river Ilz, near Passau, built as in Fig. 258,
and a plan of which is given in Fig. 266, collects over ten
thousand saw-mill butts, and allows for their being continually
removed by the underground channel (a).

ii. Lateral Booms.

These booms are intended to divert floating timber into a
side-channel, and are long and oblique.

In powerful floating-channels, a terminal boom usually
cannot be laid across the main stream without danger of
being broken. In such cases, therefore, a side-channel is
diverted from the main stream and the sweep of timber con-
ducted into it, the main stream being barred by a boom.
Fig. 267 is a long lateral boom, only closed in the middle
by floating logs. H is the main stream ; s, the side-channel,
lower down in which the terminal boom is placed ; b is a weir
diverting water into s. As in this case the pressure of the
sweep of wood and of the stream is divided between two
booms, neither of them need be very strongly constructed.
This is the chief advantage of leading the floating wood into
a side-channel. Where a natural bifurcation of a river does
not exist, an artificial side-channel is constructed frequently
with advantage ; if, then, the lateral boom is supplied with a
strong weir, or, if possible, with a sluice-weir, the supply of
water to the side-channel may be regulated at will. On this
general principle are founded all the better kinds of riverside
sawmill timber-depots, which will be described further on.

FLOATING.

395

By supplying booms with sluice-gates, they may be improved
considerably; but this necessarily pre-supposes sufficient
strength to withstand the
pressure of the wood and
water. Sluice-gates are
specially valuable in the
case of large booms with
masonry supports. By
regulating the supply of
water, the • front of the
boom may be covered
more uniformly with
floating wrood, so that
when the sluices are
opened the greater part of
it may become stranded,
or can be brought to land
easily. In the case of
long booms, it is highly
advantageous, by opening
first one sluice-gate and
then another, to drive
the wood in front of

portions of the boom
hitherto free from it ;

7. — Lateral l;o<>m.

and, finally, by opening all the sluice-gates to bring in the tail
of the sweep of the wood.

of the Pressure on a

Attempts should be made in every possible way to reduce
the pressure on a boom ; this object may be secured in
various ways, by constructing booms on weirs, by means of
channels for waste water, channels to remove sand, sluice-
gates, etc.

Generally lateral booms are placed on a weir, which supports
part of the water-pressure and reduces the fall of the stream
and the pressure on the boom. Nearly all large booms which
are intended to strand the wood, or to serve as lateral booms,

396

WOOD TRANSPORT BY WATER.

are of this nature. Channels for waste water are artificial
cuts, which branch-off from the main stream above the boom,
returning into the stream below it. Thus a certain portion of
the water is led away from the boom, which has, therefore,
less pressure to withstand. Fig. 268 represents such a channel,

Fig. 268.— Side channel taking
pressure off a boom.

Fig. 269. — Floating-channel with
sand-grating.

which is supplied at its outlet (m) with a lateral boom and
sluice-gates and sub-divides below into several branches (b I b).
If the terminal boom were also in a side-channel, which has
besides the advantage of a weak current, its utility may be
increased further by smaller channels taken from above the
iHtom and returning into the othor below it.

FLOATING.

397

V

Fig. 270.— Sand-grating and sluice.*
From " Atlas.'zum forstliche Transportwesen," Forster, Vienna, 1888.

398 WOOD TRANSPORT BY WATER.

Booms in streams that bring down boulders and gravel,
besides the force of the current and of the floating wood, have
to withstand the pressure of the sand and boulders. Wherever,
therefore, the fall of the stream is considerable, it is sufficient
usually to place the boom out of the main current by allowing
surplus water to pass off by a side-channel ; or, when the
boom is in a side-channel, a deep and steeply inclined cut,
termed a sand-canal, is made in the latter to carry the sand
and boulders into the main stream. Fig. 269 shows the float-
ing-channel («, s), which bifurcates from the main stream, 77,-
in, m form so many cuts between strong, solid masonry walls,
which may be closed by lateral booms and sluice-gates ; a is
the sand-canal, which at d is only half a meter deeper
than the rest of the floating channel, but deepens gradually
towards p. The boulders which accumulate in d, p are
passed through a temporary opening (p) and the corresponding
sluice-gate in the lateral boom, and pass along m into the
main stream 77.

Simple sand-canals can be opened for the passage of silt,
etc., only whilst floating is not in progress. In order to free a
floating-channel from these accumulations during the floating,
they may, as at q, Fig. 269, be covered with a wooden
lattice-work (Fig. 270) constructed at the bottom of the float-
ing-channel («). Besides this method, double booms may be
used, which are erected the one close behind the other, and
the silt and boulders are admitted into the interval between
them by opening the first boom and then passed through the
second boom, so that always one of the booms is ready to stop
the floating wood. In order also to expose the bed of the
stream in front of a boom and then strand the timber, deep
culverts with sluice-gates may be made and opened to pass the
water under the boom.

(c) Further Details regarding Booms. — In the preceding
paragraphs, a distinction has been made between lateral or
terminal booms, but the latter maybe of several kinds. Every
boom, whatever its dimensions, which catches floating wood at
a timber-depot is a principal boom. Owing to certain condi-
tions of a locality and want of sufficient space, it is not always
possible to supply every river timber-depot with a principal

FLOATING. 399

boom ; or the risk cannot be incurred, in the case of numbers
of saw-mills situated along a stream, of entrusting the supply
of the thousands of logs they require for their annual work to
one boom only, which is always liable to be broken. In such
cases, subsidiary booms are used in order to ensure a supply
of wood for all the saw-mills.

For this purpose narrow parts of the stream are selected,
confined on either side by rocks, and there booms with move-
able gratings are erected, from which the wood can be again
despatched down-stream in small sweeps to the different saw-
mills or timber depots.

Not unfrequently a stream is broken-up by booms at not
very long intervals ; this is either for charcoal-burning, in
order to land the wood required where permanent charcoal-
kilns are maintained ; or each forest-owner or principal wood-
merchant has his own boom, in order to collect his own wood
and float it separately from that of other owners to the principal
boom ; or the saw-mills situated along the stream have each
its special boom, provided with passages to allow extraneous
wood to pass through them.

Subsidiary booms are erected sometimes in strong streams
below the principal boom, where, owing to occasional floods,
there may be danger of the latter breaking. Whenever floating
timber is rafted, or passed in lines of logs across a lake, most
of the water-logged wood would enter the lake and sink to the
bottom without possibility of recovery, were not a boom
stationed at the point where the stream used for floating
passes into the lake.

4. Method employed in Floating Wood.

(a) Season for Floating. — The more quickly a sweep of
wood is floated and reaches its destination, the better is the
business of floating conducted. For this purpose, a steady
and ample supply of water is necessary. The melting of the
mountain snow in spring brings most water into European
streams, and spring is therefore the chief season in Europe
for floating timber. At this season all the brooks and springs
which flow into the floating-channel are swiftest and most

400 WOOD TRANSPORT BY WATER.

buoyant, owing to the coldness of the snow-water. Thus
all reservoirs and tanks can be filled readily, and the largest
possible volume of wood brought down in the shortest possible
time.

The weaker the floating-channels, the greater care must be
taken to utilise, for floating, the critical period in the spring,
after the snow has disappeared. Although in mountainous
districts, with heavy rainfall, the period of melting snow brings
down sufficient water into the streams for floating purposes,
floating is protracted frequently into the summer months, it
then requires all the help of an artificial supply of water. In
such cases, the forester will direct his attention to the summer
rains for supplying his reservoirs. It is evident that the
whole prosperity of the saw-mill industry depends on a choice
of the right moment for floating the wood.

Floating on large streams permanently well supplied with
water, and on smaller streams supplied from lakes and
reservoirs, may continue throughout the year. In such cases
it is preferable to float in the autumn, when floods are less to
be feared than during the spring. [This is the case in India
with rivers such as the Jumna, where the principal boom is
always removed from May till November, when the river is
swollen with snow-water and water from the summer mon-
soon.— Tr.] In high mountain-regions floods occur late in
the spring and in the early part of summer, and it is therefore
in several districts safer to choose midsummer (in the Italian
Alps, late autumn) for floating, especially where protective
works against floods are wanting.

Small reservoirs may be filled three or four times in "a day,
but large ones may require several days to fill.

(b) Nature of the Wood to be Floated. — Saw-mill butts
and the better kinds of firewood (split billets, and large round
pieces) are floated. [In India also rail way- sleepers and other
scantling. — Tr.] The butts are first barked and trimmed free
from knots and stumps of branches, and frequently rounded
at both ends to guard against splitting. Firewood and
charcoal-wood is floated either in round butts (twice the
length of the ordinary billets) which are sawn and split into
billets after landing at the booms, or in split billets.

FLOATING. 401

Whether it is preferable to float butts, or split billets,
depends on circumstances ; butts require a stronger current,
though in a floating-channel they are less liable to breakage
by boulders, etc., than billets, which require improved channels
with a moderate current. It is evident that light coniferous
butts are floated more easily than broadleaved ones ; also,
wherever carbonisation is effected with round pieces, as in
the Alps, they must be floated in that form. Butts for saw-
mills require stronger water than firewood, lengths of 3 to 4
meters (10 to 13 feet) being most suitable, although in Sweden, •
butts are floated up to a length of 7 meters (23 feet). It is
often difficult to float heavy butts, especially of silver-fir,
unless they have been previously dried.

The most important operation, before floating is undertaken,
is that of drying the wood, for the amount of water-logged
wood varies inversely with the comparative dryness of the
wood when launched. Wood felled in the growing season
dries more quickly than winter-felled wood, and is therefore
more easily floated. It is indispensable to dry thoroughly the
butts that are to be floated for long distances.

It is especially requisite, from a consideration for the quality
of the wood, that butts felled and barked in the summer should
be removed from the felling-areas immediately after felling,
and deposited in airy depots, in order to become thoroughly
dried. If, then, during winter wood is brought to the side
of the floating-channel, not only does the drying process
improve its quality, but also facilitate the operation of
floating.

(c) Conservancy of the Floating-channel. — Before the
wood is thrown into the floating-channel, the condition of the
latter, and of the different works which have been constructed
to improve it, should be known. For this purpose, an inspec-
tion should be made, preferably with the co-operation of
riparian landowners, owners of saw-mills and other hydraulic
works along the floating-channel ; enquiry should then be
made into all claims for compensation for damage done
by the floating-gang, in order to prevent unfair excess in its
amount, and, if necessary, these claims should be settled by
arbitration or the law-courts. This inspection should, if

F.U. D D

402 WOOD TRANSPORT BY WATER.

possible, take place in fine weather and when the water is
clear, so that the bed of the stream may be seen.

As this inspection serves for settling excessive claims for
compensation, it should be made as soon as possible after the
previous year's floating is over ; it is also useful to assist the
forest-manager in deciding about the suitability or defects of
any of the works along the water-channel. It is clear that
repairs to these works cannot be postponed till shortly before
the floating season ; they must be done, together with any
new indispensable works, when the water is low in summer or
early in the autumn. The same proviso holds good for
clearance of the floating-channel, which is required both in its
lower course, where the current is sluggish, and also in its
upper course, among rapids and boulders. Whenever it is
necessary to expose any portion of the bed of the channel for
this purpose, arrangements should be made to procure the
necessary stoppage of all mills, etc., for the purpose. The
days on which the stream is allowed to run dry are either
fixed by law, or secured by compensation to the mill-owners ;
only owners of works established on the stream before it was
used for floating are entitled to compensation.

(d) Conduct of the Floating Operations. — During winter
and early spring the wood is brought to the side of the
floating-channel, and placed on its banks in loose stacks.
Should there be, as is frequently the case, a narrow valley
just below the reservoir dam, so that the wood cannot be
washed away laterally, it is frequently placed on the dry bed
of the channel ; then the pieces of wood should be scattered,
so that when the dam is opened a jam may not arise.

If, then, all the wood from most of the felling-areas has been
brought down, the efficiency of the floating-channel and its
works has been ensured, and everything is ready at the
timber-depots below for the reception of the wood, the first
sweep of wood may be sent down at the right time. A careful
choice of the latter is of great importance, and is a matter of
days, even of hours. A commencement should be made always
in the most remote and weakest of the subsidiary streams, so
that the sweep of timber passing through it may come down
as soon as possible into the main stream, where progress is

FLOATING. 403

not so dependent on the period of the highest floods. Hence,
a distinction may be made between subsidiary sweeps of
timber and the principal sweeps.

Wherever the cost and difficulty of subsidiary sweeps is out
of proportion to their utility, attempts should be made to
substitute sledging for floating, as is being done already in
the Alps. In other localities, as in the Palatinate, only sub-
sidiary sweeps are attempted, the wood being floated right up
to a railway.

Before the sluice-gates are opened, and floating the sub-
sidiary sweeps is begun, the quantity of the wood to be
launched should be proportioned to the quantity of water in
the reservoir and the strength of the boom, otherwise there
will be danger of the tail of the sweep being left stranded, or
of the boom being broken, if a flood should occur. Due con-
sideration having been given to these points, the sluice-gates
are opened, and after the preliminary flooding, the strength
of which depends on the amount of impediments there may be
in the floating-channel, the floating-gang commence throwing
the wood into the stream. As soon as most of the water has
left the reservoir, the gang stop launching the wood, so that
tin- residue of the water may have its effect on the tail of the
sweep and carry it away. As soon as the reservoir is empty,
the dam is closed again in order that a fresh supply of water
may be collected.

In the case of floating-channels which cannot be flooded by
a considerable body of water, but only by a moderate supply
from fear of damage to their banks, it is the duty of the forest
guard in charge of the reservoir to be careful not to supply
more wrater at a time than is absolutely necessary. He will
learn easily by experience for how many miles down the water
from his reservoir can flood the floating-channel sufficiently,
and how long the sluice-gates should be kept open to ensure a
proper supply.

The wood now is carried down by the flood from the reservoir,
and the best, smoothest, well-dried wrood keeps at the head of
the sweep, whilst inferior knotty wood and hea\'y butts gradually
la 14 behind to form its tail. However well the floating-channel
may he regulated, hindrances will arise whenever the wood

D D 2

404 WOOD TRANSPORT BY WATER.

enters a difficult place and blocks the way for the rest of the
sweep ; it may thus block the channel and drive the flooding
water over its banks, or in the most favourable case allow it to
run away uselessly. In order to prevent such a mischance, the
sweep is accompanied by some men of the floating-gang, and
also men are placed beforehand at any places along the channel
where a block is to be feared, so that with their hooked poles
they may push off all pieces that are jammed. It is necessary
for overseers to supervise these men, and hence, a fairly good
pathway must be provided all along close to the side of the
channel (vide p. 382) .

Although in the case of floating split firewood billets in well-
regulated channels the work may be very light and easy, it
involves extremely hard labour and danger to life in the case
of saw-mill butts coming down from high mountain-regions.

Wessely thus writes in his excellent work about the Austrian
Alps : — " The mere releasing a jammed mass of logs is a
formidable undertaking. In order to save labour, it must be
set free from below ; a single crossed log often detains the
whole pile of timber ; this is at once recognised by the wood-
man, who drags it out, but he has hardly done so before all
the logs come crashing down on him and roll thundering down
the flood. If he does not succeed by skill and good luck in
jumping aside, it is all over with him. There is mutch jodeling
over the break-up or a jam, but only too often does the mass
of timber fall on the daring man who ventures upon it, and
but rarely is he fished seriously injured from the flood by
the help of a hooked pole. In gorges — and there are such
50 fathoms deep — a man is let down by a rope into the
foaming torrent, and must actually stand on the heap of
wood. If his comrades do not draw him back at the very
moment when the logs are set in motion, he will be carried
down hopelessly with them."

In the Bavarian gorges, as has been already stated, this
dangerous work is assisted by means of galleries let into the
rocks.

Once the wood has been carried down to the main floating
channel, the sweep of logs now becomes the principal sweep
HI id iloats on to the boom. In the case of larger brooks and

FLOATING. 405

rivers, the wood is left to itself, but if the water is shallow,
assistance must still be afforded from reservoirs.

Usually the principal reservoirs of the subsidiary streams,
if they help one another, and flow one after the other into the
main stream, assist greatly in floating the principal sweep.
Experience shows how long a flood from a reservoir takes to
reach the main stream, and this period is chosen for the in-
terval between the opening of the sluice-gates of neighbouring
reservoirs. In long and weak floating-channels the reservoirs
of the tributaries are not sufficient to maintain high water in
the main stream, and in such cases reservoirs should be pro-
vided along the main channel. In floating a sweep great care
must be taken that the reservoirs on the subsidiary and main
channels work together well. As soon as the reservoirs of the
tributaries are again full, more wood is launched and floated ;
this continues daily until all the wood has been launched
and has gradually reached the booms, when it is either collected
in tanks, or taken out of the water, according to the nature of
the boom.

Whenever a floating-channel passes through a lake the
wood must be stopped as it enters the lake and towed across it.
Everywhere for this purpose light coniferous logs are used,
which are bound together by iron rings, or withes; they thus
form a long floating girdle which may be used to surround the
wood in the lake and keep it together. AVith this object, the
chain of logs is placed in an arc before the entrance to the lake,
and as soon as it has enclosed as many logs as possible, its
ends are joined. The raft thus formed is then borne to the
other end of the lake, either by help of a favourable wind, by
beasts or manual labour; the chain is then opened and the
logs floated further down the stream.

Favourable weather is necessary for this crossing to be
effected; storms not unfrequently break up these rafts and
scatter the logs over the surface of the lake, so that great
expense is incurred in collecting them. On the Pacific coast
of North America, and also in Norway and Sweden, where it
is quite usual to convey logs in those temporary rafts, screw
steam- boats of light draught are attached to them, or they are
dragged forwards by ropes attached to windlasses on boats

406

WOOD TRANSPORT BY WATER.

oThalham

anchored in the lake. This practice is in vogue on the Tegern
lake (Fig. 271). The wood floated down the river Weisach
runs into the lake at a, is bound into temporary rafts and
drawn by the anchored boat (m) to about the middle of the

lake, whence the mountain-
wind blows it to d at the
other end of the lake. The
rafts which are collected
there are opened one by one,
and the wood floated on the
Man gf all river to the timber-
depot at Thalham, where it
reaches the railroad to
Munich.

(e) Completion of the
floating. — All the wood
which has been launched
by no means floats steadily
down to the boom. Fre-
quently, a considerable per-
centage of the launched
pieces remains on rocks,
shoals and other inequalities
of the channel, sticks under
its banks, or remains float-
ing in the still water near
the banks. All this wood
should now be set free,
drawn into the stream, or
else placed so that it may
be caught by the next flood
from a reservoir, or natural
flooding of the river, and
carried down to the boom ;
this operation is termed after-floating. This work, which
is often protracted well into the summer, is commenced
usually from up-stream, but if after all the reservoirs are
exhausted, or owing to unfavourable weather, the water in the
channel is very low, only a portion of these stranded

. 1^71. — Floating wood across a lake.

FLOATING. 407

logs can be floated before the succeeding year. In such a
case it is better to begin from the lower end of the channel.

During the after-floating, but chiefly when a certain amount
of progress has been made in floating off the tail of the sweeps,
the sunken wood should be fished up, most of it being at the
lower end of the channel.

The quantity of sunken wood depends on the amount of
drying to which the wood has been subjected before being
launched, the condition of the floating-channel, but above all,
the nature of the banks, the fall and buoyancy of the water,
the length of the channel, and the species, nature, and size of
the floating pieces. Round pieces sink more readily than split
pieces, and branches of spruce and silver-fir being much heavier
than their stems yield a greater percentage of sunken wood.

The workmen use the hooked pole to spike the logs or billets
;iiid draw them to the bank. Fine wreather is required for this
work, and clear water, so that the bottom of the stream and all
sunken wood may be seen. The wood is collected daily and
piled in loose stacks on the bank of the stream, and when dry,
it is either transported by land, or sold.

As soon as the annual floating is over and the sunken wood
collected, a report is drawn up by the same commission which
acted before the floating. In this report all legal damages are
entered which neighbouring properties may have suffered from
the floating operations, all legal compensation being paid.
This opportunity also is taken to prepare a list of any damage
which may have been done to the floating-channel or the works
attached to it, so that they may be repaired in the ensuing

summer.

SECTION II. — KAFTING.*

Hafting is distinguished from floating by the fact that the
wood is no longer in single pieces, but is bound together into
rafts. A quantity of wood firmly bound together is termed a
raft-section, and a number of sections form a raft.

* Although rafting is done rarely by the forester, yet the rafts are made-up
with withes and cross-pieces that he has to deliver. In certain districts, logs
are measured only when they are bound into rafts, and frequently a floating
channel is also a rafting-channel, and has to be prepared with that object in
view. Forty per cent, of the 14,000 kilometers (8,750 miles) of German rivers
are used for rafting.

408 WOOD TRANSPORT BY WATER.

1. Rafting -channels.

In order that rafting may be possible, generally it is necessary
that the water in a stream should flow uniformly and gently,
with only a slight fall. In well-regulated rafting-channels a
smaller head of water is required than in mere floating-channels,
but the depth must not be less than 2 or 2J feet. Although
rafting may be done more favourably on the lower courses of
streams and large placid rivers,* yet sometimes higher moun-
tain-torrents are thus utilised. In such cases, however, where
the channel is full of rocks and boulders and has a consider-
able fall, a larger head of water is required than for floating,
for unless the rafts are carried over all obstacles in the water,
they will be stranded and broken-up.

In the latter case, therefore, artificial supplies of water are
requisite, and both reservoirs and weirs placed along the stream
are employed to increase the head of water. The latter are
either sunken weirs with a long wooden wall in the middle of
which there is a passage which may be closed, or stone
overflow - weirs. Keservoirs are not so valuable for
rafting as for floating, as they do not concentrate the
water in a certain part of the rafting-channel. On the other
hand, this may be done effectively by placing weirs at
short distances apart along the channel, when the water can
accumulate between any two weirs to the height required by
a raft.

Wherever the sections and rafts are made-up in powerful
streams, a side-channel or basin is required wide enough for
the logs to be turned and placed alongside one another. In
smaller streams this is best secured by constructing weirs at
places with shelving banks. In the upper portion of rafting-
channels the rafts may be made-up in the bed of the stream
at any suitable place with shallow water. It has been already
remarked that tanks are used to supply water to rafting-
channels ; they are preferable to any other mode of strengthen-
ing the head of water, as they permit rafting to be carried-on
without interruption.

* In 1883, a raft consisting of eleven sections, each containing 500 logs, and
800 ft. long, was towed GOO miles from St. John in New Brunswick to New
York in ten days by two powerful steam-tugs.

RAFTING. 409

The constant struggle in Germany to extend and improve
commerce by reducing the cost of transport is now directed
chiefly to the work of improving moderate-sized rivers by
canalisation.* This cannot but have considerable influence
on the rafting of timber and on the dimensions of the rafts
and their mode of conveyance, etc., and arrangements should
be made to allow sufficient way through bridges, locks and
sluice-gates for the rafts. Accordingly, through the canalisation
of the rivers Main, Neckar, Saale, etc., timber-rafting will be
more and more extended to the lower courses of these rivers,
if by forming suitable collecting-places out of the reach of
floods and spacious tanks in which the rafts can be made-up
and through which they can pass, the construction of large
rafts is rendered possible. For if the rafting business is to be
conducted on a large scale, spacious timber- tanks at central
places to which rafts converge down the smaller streams are
indispensable.

2. Raft*.

Raft-sections and rafts are made-up in various ways in
different countries, the chief difference between them being
due to differences in the kind of wood to be rafted. All wood-
assortments may be rafted. At present, however, in Germany,
Austria, Hungary, Russia, etc., only logs and sawn goods are
rafted. Sawmill-butts are floated chiefly piece by piece, and
even rafting firewood across lakes has been abandoned in

* [Inland navigation in France in T.»«) :

8,694 miles / Mil canalised riyers,

\ 3,83:$ eanals.

All hut I7."» miles of canals are in Hie hands of the State, and those are to be
taken over. Traffic in 1 s'.t:,, :>7.l 7:i.«.MU tons. Employment to 27,000 men and
women, and 13,000 children.

Building materials. .. ... ... ... ... 32 per cent.

Coal and coke ... ... ... ... ... 28 ,,

Agricultural produce ... ... ... ... 18

Firewood ... ... ... ... 7£

Iron and steel ... ... ... ... ... 1\

Manures ... ... ... ... (5 „

In Britain many of the canals are in the possession of railway-companies,
and their competition is discouraged, while railway-rates on timber are exces-
sive. Time is not important in timber transport, and the. timber is seasoning
while it is in barges on canals. Free competition and extension of canals
would benefit producers of timber greatly. — Tr.]

1H» WOOD TRANSPORT BY WATER.

favour of the mode of floating with a chain of logs explained
on p. 405. Wherever on large rivers the floating of firewood
is not allowable, it is conveyed in barges,* or as ballast on
timber-rafts. Logs are bound together by means either of
withes or poles.

(a) Rafts of Logs.

i. Raft-sections made up with Withes.

A very convenient method of binding logs into sections is
by means of withes. First the logs are stranded, being rolled
along two pieces of wood gently inclined into the water, and
arranged as in Fig. 272 ; the triangular holes are then cut in

Fig. 272. — Fixing rafts with withes.

deeply with a special hatchet. The corresponding holes
(a a, a a) are then completely bored, and the logs pushed
back into the water and tied firmly in raft-sections by strong
withes.

These withes are generally spruce branches, or dominated
spruce or hazel saplings, which have grown for a long time
under the shade of larger trees ; they are first baked in ovens
and then twisted, their thick ends being held by a special
contrivance. The withes are from 1 to 6 centimeters (J to 2
inches) thick, and their preparation for sale in many districts
forms a special trade. On the Vistula, ropes made of lime-bast
are used for tying the logs.

The number of logs which are bound-together into a raft-
section depends on the breadth of the rafting-channel, and in

* Specially low, broad barges are built for the purpose on the Danube and
other rivers. Those from Russia are 200 to 250 feet long.

RAFTING. 411

'certain cases on the width of the openings in the weirs.
Tsually the thicker ends of the logs are placed at one end
of the section and their thinner ends at the other. In fastening
the withes care must be taken to give the logs sufficient play
so that at any rate each log may be able to move slightly
in a vertical direction. This is absolutely necessary for
watercourses with numerous little rapids and with inequalities
in the bed of their channel, as each section is then better able
to accommodate itself to the uneven surface.

On the channels with an even flow, and on the larger streams
and rivers, the logs are fastened together as follows, with
rigid raft-sections.

ii. liaft-xt'ctioiis ia*t<'n«l irith

This second mode of making up raft-sections is shown in
Fig. 273; it is much more common than the former method,

ion with pule.

and is in use on nearly all steadily flowing rivers, the Spree,
Saale, Oder, Elbe, Main, Rhine, etc. The logs are landed and
bored through at a b and d c, Fig. 274 ; they are then
returned to the water and fastened to a pole (m ?/), as in
Fig. 273. Generally beech poles are used, but also spruce
and silver-fir poles. The poles being placed over the ends of
the logs which are to be fastened and between the bore-holes
in them, the thin end of a withe is passed through a b over
the pole, and then into c. The thick end of the withe
gets jammed in a />, and the thin end is fixed in c d by
means of a wooden wedge. Instead of withes, the poles may

412

WOOD TRANSPORT BY WATER.

be fastened to each log by iron nails or clamps. In this'
method the raft-section is a rigid body, and no independent
motion is allowed to the individual logs.

This mode of fastening has the great advantage, that the
logs are much less injured by the bore-holes than by the
larger holes made in the former case. In that case, the ends*

of the logs must be sawn off, whilst
when the pole is used, the bore-
hole can be plugged eventually
with a piece of wood and the
whole log become utilisable.

In powerful streams with
numerous rapids, as in the river
Isar, the poles or planks are
sometimes let into the logs. The latter are grooved at their
ends, so as to admit the plank, and then fastened to it as
before. The raft-section thus fastened is more rigid and
stronger than without the groove. In Moravia, only the

Fig. 274. — ^Method of fixing pole.

Fig 275. — Fixing a section by a plank.

outer logs are grooved, and trenails are used to fix the
plank to the logs (Fig. 275).

The first condition for rafting is that the wood to be rafted
is lighter than water, which is the case with all German woods
except oak. Whilst, therefore, all other woods may be used
alone to form a raft, oakwood must be mixed in rafts with
other species which are light and will support it. For this

* These separate ends of floated logs arc used in many places for paving
stables.

RAFTING.

413

purpose coniferous wood always is used, and is distributed
among the oakwood in the raft-sections, so that they may be
weighted as uniformly as possible.

Poles are used for fixing the sections, and are fastened to
the logs with iron nails. In countries where the necessary
coniferous wood is scarce, old wine-casks (on the river Moselle)
are used to buoy up the rafts. It should also be noted that
some oakwood will float well, and in that case rafts may be
made-up entirely of light oakwood, as, for instance, well-
seasoned Spessart oak.

(b) Rafts of Sawn Timber. — Of sawn timber, it is chiefly
boards, planks and battens that are transported in rafts.
[In India, rafts are made-up
of logs, railway- sleepers and r—
other scantling, and bam-
boos.— Tr.] Boards are
fastened together in various
ways in different countries, L_
one of the commonest

Fig. 276. — 1 lank raft-section.

methods being as follows : —

Ten to fifteen boards are fastened together on a bank of the
stream, and six or eight* such bundles of boards so placed that
the two outer bundles (a a) project beyond the others (Fig. 276),

n n

Fig. 277.— " Vertical" section of Fig. 27C>.

and besides, the lowest board of each bundle projects about
40 centimeters (15 inches) beyond the other boards. This is
done, so that in making-up a raft out of the sections the latter
may dovetail into one another. The six or eight bundles are
now fastened together by means of two or more pairs of poles,

* These numbers are generally chosen, so that each raft-section may contain
]<><», 120, or ].">(.) boards : 120 boards usually form a "standard.1'

414

WOOD TKANSPORT BY WATER.

and one of each pair (m in) being placed above the bundles and
one (n n) below, transversely to the raft-section, the withes are
fastened round these poles, which thus enclose all the boards

Fig. 278. — Union of sections to form a raft.

in the raft-section (Fig. 277). Such a section is quite rigid.
The raft-sections fastened together on the land and slid into
the water are then bound into rafts as shown in Fig. 278.

Fig. 279. — Method of fixing planks.

The sections A, B, C, and D, are not dovetailed together by
their projecting borders, but long slender spruce poles (Figs.
277 and 278, d d) are fastened to their sides, passing from

Fig. 2SO.— -Plunk nil1!.

section to section, and thus affording rigidity to the whole
raft.

Another mode of binding rafts is shown in Fig. 279. The
bundles of boards are tied with withes, but each withe passes

RAFTING. 415

through that of the neighbouring bundles, so that the bundles
are slightly bound together. The raft-section (Fig. 279) being
thus made-up, a pole (a b) is fastened to it by the wedges
(m m in}. In the method of making-lip rafts of boards, as
shown in Fig. 280, the bundles of boards are fastened one
below the other, poles being used for the purpose, as in Fig.
279. This method of rafting requires deeper water than the
preceding ones.

(c) Method of making-up Hafts. — Several raft-sections are
fastened together to make a raft. This is done either by
attaching the ends of the sections together by withes, leaving
them sufficient play — an important point in long rafts and in
floating channels with sharp bends ; or the sections are bound
firmly together with withes, as is the practice on the river
Kinzig, so as to make a rigid raft. The spruce poles, as shown
in Fig. 277, are used also for fastening the sections together.

In binding the sections into rafts, the lightest ones are
placed in front at the head of the raft, and the heavier ones
behind in the tail. The more attention must be paid to this
rule, the more rapid the stream of the rafting-channel, for the
light sections float more freely than the heavy ones, and were
the latter placed at the head of the raft, they would be pressed
upon by the lighter ones, and the latter would even press the
heavy ones down and mount on to them, rendering the
management of the raft impossible.

It is a rule that each section should be formed of stems
equally long and thick ; if the sections are small, containing
five to eight logs, the bases of the logs are all put together
at one end of the section, and their tops at the other. Where
the sections are larger, and the logs markedly uncylindrical, the
butt-ends and tops of the logs are placed alternately side by
side, in order to give the raft-section a uniform breadth
throughout. Such raft-sections are united more easily in a
raft.

8. Dimensions of Rafts.

A distinction is made between rafts only one section broad,
the sections being placed one behind the other, and large rafts
formed both in breadth and length of many sections. The

410

WOOD TRANSPORT BY WATER.

former class of rafts is in use in the upper and middle courses
of rivers and brooks, whilst the latter is employed on broad,
steadily flowing streams.

The former kind of rafts may, however, be very long, and
often consist of from 40 to 70 sections hung one behind the
other, containing altogether 300 to 500 logs and more. The
large rafts, on the other hand, are often 50 meters (160 feet)
broad and 200 to 250 meters (650 to 810 feet) long, and were
formerly even larger.

4. Mode of Rafting.

A raft should be conducted so that it can be guided, its pace
moderated, or it can be stopped at pleasure. On slowly

Fig. 281. — End section of raft.

flowing waters, ordinary spreads are used to guide the rafts.
Where the current is rapid the rafts are made long so that
they may travel slowly, and spreads are hung out behind the

last section to drag
along the bottom of the
channel ; the last sec-
tion may also be opened
out as in Fig. 281, or
a kind of brake is used
from the last section as
shown in Fig. 282 in sec-
tion and Fig. 283 in plan.

This brake consists of a stout beam (a) passing between two
poles (b) fastened to the raft by clamps, or withes. The brake
drags obliquely along the bottom of the channel, whilst it is
firmly held above between the poles. In this way the pace of
a raft may be regulated, and the raft directed through difficult
passages and even stopped or stranded. Long heavy rafts on

RAFTING. 417

fast streams with a steep fall have always several of these
brakes on the last raft-section.

Eafting on shallow mountain streams demands the greatest
attention and care, long experience of the rafting channel,
and assiduous, trusty workmen. Men engaged in rafting
require an amount of skall and daring which only experience
from their youthful days can give. The workmen on the
Wolf and Kinzig rivers and their tributaries, in the Black
Forest, are veritable masters in the art of rafting ; it is now
proposed to follow a raft down one of these rivers.

The logs are floated down to a boom and sorted along the
river-bank ; then they are fastened together in its bed into
raft-sections and rafts. The rafting-channel here is only 8 to
4 meters (10 to 13 feet) broad, with a rocky bed strewn with
boulders and a fall of
iV t° T^ (sometimes even
•J) ; in the worst places it
is improved somewhat by
simple weirs, and at the
time the wood is floated
has a depth of only 15
centimeters (6 inches).

, . Fig. 283. - Plan of brake.

At longer or shorter in-
tervals there are weirs in its upper course, and sluice-gates
where its higher tributaries join it.

The raft, consisting of forty to fifty sections, is made ready,
and attached by ropes to the shore. The front section con-
sists of only four small logs, which run together like a wedge
in front and terminate in a short piece of planking. The
second, third, and succeeding sections increase gradually in
width up to a middle width of 4 to 5 meters (13 to 16 feet) ;
this is attained also by all the remaining sections of the
raft, except the last, on which are the brakes, and which is
as broad only as the water in the stream. The sections are
fastened so that all the small ends of the logs are in front,
which gives them a fan-shaped appearance as represented in
Fig. 284. Owing to this form, the raft may be actually
broader than the stream and the passages through the weirs
provided that the latter are not narrower than a b, as the

F.U. K K

418

WOOD-TRANSPORT BY WATER.

wings (a c and b d) of the sections then fold back over the
rest of the section, recovering their former position as they
emerge from the passage. It is evident therefore that rafts for
floating on mountain- streams must be throughout quite loosely
jointed. Suppose now, the long raft, which is lying in the
nearly dry bed of the stream and overlaps it here and there
on both sides, is to be floated : a few days beforehand all the
sluice-gates of tributary streams must be closed, as well as the
sluice-gates on the weirs down-stream, so that as much water
as possible may be available in the upper course of the rafting-
channel. Men are posted out on the hills along the stream to
receive notices from those in charge of the raft and pass them

Fig. 284.— Flexible raft.

on (in Galicia, telephones, of a total length of 50 kilometers in
one instance, are used for this purpose).

While the raft remains fastened firmly by ropes to the banks
of the stream, the filled reservoirs and weirs up-stream are
opened, and the foaming flood rushes over and past the raft.
This flood must be allowed half-an-hour's start ; for the raft,
once released, descends the stream quicker than the torrent,
and should the latter be caught up, the raft would run into
the dry bed of the channel, and its end-sections overshoot its
front-sections, forming a chaotic heap of logs. As soon as a
sufficient start has been given to the flooded water, the ropes are
loosened, and most of the men mount the five or six front-
sections to direct the raft. All the other sections, except the
end ones, are left to themselves, and, as the middle sections
are often broader than the bed of the stream, the butt-ends of
their wings dash along the banks. Men are placed also on
the four to six last sections to manage the brakes. The brakes

RAFTING. 410

are used now at short intervals to slacken speed at narrow
places and dangerous corners, and the men must know exactly
when the front of the raft will reach a dangerous place so that
they may apply the brakes in time. When the brakes are
applied, the whole raft creaks and shakes through all its
members, and the last sections spring up and down according
to the inequalities in the bed of the stream. The men with the
brakes have hard work to do, for when the brake is withdrawn
by removing the withes which bind it to the raft, it has to be
replaced in time for the next dangerous passage. Meanwhile
the raft floats so rapidly down-stream that a man running full
speed along the bank can hardly keep up with it.

The first flooding of the stream may take the raft down from
five to ten miles ; then the water runs dry, and the raft lies on
the bed of the stream until sufficient water is collected for a
second flooding, when the work recommences. Once the raft
has reached the broad and deep water below there is no more
difficulty about conducting it to the junction with a large river.

Only spreads are used in guiding rafts on large rivers. On
the Rhine different kinds of spreads are used, either spruce
boards or long logs cut into shape of a board at one end.
The larger kinds of spreads are so heavy that they are moved
by a number of men, who push them with their shoulders and
take several strides in turning them. The men need not leave
their places to move the smaller spreads. The rafts are pulled
ashore by means of anchors fixed to the shore, and attached
by ropes to the raft.

On the larger German rivers, both logs and sawn timber are
rafted, and the rafts are further laden with firewood, oak planks
and scantlings, laths, staves, vine-props, poles and many
other wares, termed raft-ballast (Oblast).

[On the Brahmaputra and Ganges rivers, heavy logs of sal
(Shorea robusta) and other wood, which will not float in water,
are attached by ropes to long poles fastened across large
buoyant boats ; they are thus floated down- stream. — Tr.]

B E 2

420

CHAPTEE V.

COMPARISON BETWEEN DIFFERENT MODES OF
TRANSPORT.

THE various modes of transport described above must
differ considerably in value in different cases. For many
forests no choice is possible ; the local conditions absolutely
decide the mode of transport. In the case of other forests,
especially in moderately elevated or high mountainous regions,
several methods may be followed, and the question is, which of
them is preferable? Some of the chief points determining the
choice of any particular mode of transport for a forest are as
follows : —

1. Conditions of Locality.

The configuration of the ground on which a forest is situated,
the local climate, the density of population, the habits of the
people and the method of agriculture followed, all influence
the mode of wood-transport. In flat or hilly districts, with
mild winters, dense population and plenty of strong beasts of
draught, it is evident that throughout the year there will be
less difficulty in transporting wood in carts or on forest-
tramways, than in mountainous districts; this is. specially
the case with steep slopes, where road-making is difficult on
account of the destructive action of water, the number of
beasts of draught is limited, and snow falls heavily every
winter. Under the latter conditions, sledging, or a partial
use of slides and chutes, is to be recommended. For descend-
ing very steep slopes wire-tramways are best and deserve
more consideration than has been given to them hitherto.

Floating and rafting can be followed only where water-
courses are available. As regards floating, mountain districts
are more suitable than hills and plains, where the presence of
evenly-flowing streams renders rafting a suitable method ;
rafting is also permissible and actually practised along some
of the weaker mountain-streams.

COST OF TRANSPORT. 421

Although much thought has been expended on the advis-
ability of abandoning chutes in mountainous countries, for they
need constant repair and are known to be prejudicial to forests,
as yet they cannot be dispensed with in high mountain districts.
At the same time, they may be replaced gradually by sledge-
roads and improved floating- channels. Log-slides along
made roadways, however, will prove always a useful method
in mountainous districts. In the Alps and other neighbouring
countries floating has been always a prevalent mode of trans-
port, and will remain so for many districts. Floating is followed
much less in the plains and hills of North Germany, and
even then chiefly for firewood, whilst rafting is pursued exten-
sively on large rivers and canals. It is much easier to lay-
out and use forest-roads and tramways in the plains than
among mountains, but recent experience in the Vosges and
elsewhere shows that the fact of a district being mountainous
need not exclude these modes of transport.

2. Wood-assortments.

Although every felling-area yields a number of different
wood-assortments, yet only a few form the great majority of
its produce : frequently one single assortment determines the
revenue of a forest, and therefore may have a decisive influence
on the choice of the mode of transport. Butts and firewood
may be transported in various ways, but logs, poles and
coppice-wood cannot be floated, though suitable for all kinds
of land-transport, whilst logs form the chief object of rafting.

In mountainous districts there are many forests that produce
splendid long pieces of timber, but at present yield sawmill
butts only, the stems being cut into lengths of 3 to 4 metres
(10 to 13 feet) for floating, because, rightly or wrongly, the
forest-owners consider this mode of transport alone justifiable.
[In the Jura long logs are transported on splendid cart-roads,
while in the Vosges sawmill butts are the chief produce and
are brought down on sledges. — Tr.]

3. Cost of Transport.

The cheapest is also the best transport, if it is sufficiently
expeditious and prejudices neither the forest, nor the wood

422 COMPAEISON OF MODES OF TRANSPORT.

it produces, in quantity or quality. The cost of transport
is affected greatly by the cost of construction of the neces-
sary works, their effectiveness and durability, and the cost
of their maintenance. It should be noted that the crucial
point lies rather with the actual current charges for trans-
port and maintenance of the works, than with the original
capital expenditure on construction. From these considera-
tions, however, it cannot be laid down as a general rule,
which method will be cheaper, or which dearer.

If only the cost of construction when compared with current
charges were to decide the question in mountain-districts, a
well-designed network of cart-roads and slides must be
abandoned for ever, for such works, especially among high
mountains, require a very large capital expenditure ; also then
all ideas of constructing forest-tramways would be illusory.
Whilst, however, the original cost of other works, such as
wooden slides or wooden works on a floating-channel, is com-
paratively low, the cost of maintenance in their case is very
high. This is also the case as regards the cost of using wood
instead of stone in works on roads or floating-channels. In
most cases an estimate of the cost of the works will show, that
unless the price of wood is very low, the greatest attention
must be paid to solid construction and durable material.
Even where the prices of wood in the forest are locally and
temporarily depreciated, there can be no reason for neglecting
modern and rational modes of transport, improvement in
transport being followed always by higher prices.

How illogical it is that a forest-owner should be frightened
by the prospect of large initial expenditure on durable means
of transport, is borne out by actual experience in the case of
forest-tramways. Independently of the great advantages they
ensure for expediting the transport of forest produce to the
centres of the timber-trade, for facilitating the sale of inferior
assortments, for a rapid clearance of the felling-areas, prevent-
ing a loss of wood, etc., the transport charges are actually
much lessened when compared with ordinary cart-traffic, so
that good interest is obtained for the capital which has been
invested. In the Grimmnig forest range near Potsdam, the
cost of transporting a cubic meter (35 '3 cubic feet) of common

LOSS OF VOLUME. 423

pine timber on the 2J kilometers (12£ furlongs) of forest
tramway is 0'62 mark (7£d.), whilst its cost by cartage is
1*50 to 2 marks (Is. Qd. to 2s.). On the tramway in the forest
range of Barr in the Vosges mountains, the cost of transport
for a cubic meter of timber or firewood in the year 1889 was
75 pfennigs (9d.)» whilst cartage for the same distance cost
1*84 marks (Is. WcL). The forest tramway at Eothau in the
Yosges may be confidently expected to yield 6 per cent, on its
initial cost, for the cost of transport per cubic meter is now
1*60 marks (Is. Id.) compared with 4'50 to 5 marks (4s. 6d. to
5s.) by cartage. The cost of construction of the tramway in
Ebersberg forest was very high, in round figures, 20,000 marks
per kilometer (£1,600 a mile) for the main line, and 4,000
marks per kilometer (£320 a mile) for the branches (including
lading apparatus, rolling-stock, etc.). It has, nevertheless,
been possible to deliver a cubic meter of wood for 31 pfennigs
(3j-</.) at the nearest railway-station, for which the cost of cartage
would be about Wd. The cost of constructing 105 kilometers
of forest-tramways in certain Prussian provinces averaged
4'32 marks per running meter (4s. a yard). The tramways in
the Saxon forest-ranges of Kossau, however, cost 8*95 marks
per meter (8s. 3<7. a yard).

Water-transport by rafting and in barges on streams and
canals has been always one of the cheapest modes of transport,
and so, in many cases, has floating. As regards floating, how-
ever, the crucial points are : not too much cost in maintenance
of works and conducting the business, and especially a con-
siderable length of floating-channel. A regulated floating-
channel always involves expensive construction for reservoirs,
dams, booms, maintenance of the banks of the stream, etc.,
and these consequently increase the cost of floating, the more,
the shorter is the floating-channel. For the annual convey-
ance to a distance of large volumes of butts and firewood,
floating has been always one of the cheapest of methods
practised; it often repays the cost of constructing works in

solid masonry.

4. Loss of Volume.

The quantity of material loss of wood during transport
depends on the configuration of the ground, the mode of

424 COMPARISON OF MODES OF TRANSPORT.

transport it necessitates, and also on the distance over which
it has to be transported. In plains and low mountain-ranges
there can be no question of any loss of wood during cartage or
sledging on good roads, or in transport on tramways ; this is
also generally true for log- sliding. There are also well-regu-
lated floating-channels on which scarcely any loss of wood is
experienced. In the higher mountain- ranges, however, where
usually several modes of transport are combined, where there
is an insufficiency of good roads, where the floating-channels
are impeded by rocks and boulders, and where wood must pass
over long slides or be thrown down chutes, it is evident
that loss of volume is unavoidable, in spite of every precaution.
By the loss of bark (which for timber forms 10 to 15 per cent,
of the whole volume) chiefly by friction during the process of
landing, or of wood sticking on rocks, etc., or sinking in the
stream— in such cases and where a long distance is floated
over — the loss of volume may be considerable and reach 10 to
20 per cent., or more.

[In India, a good deal of floating timber is stolen : between
1884 and 1886, 3,200 railway-sleepers were stolen from the
Tons river, one side of which is not in British territory, out
of 100,000 sleepers floated. There is also much scourage,
owing to the rocky nature of river-beds, and railway- sleepers
intended to measure 6 feet by 8 inches by 4£ inches are cut
6J feet by 8J inches by 4| inches to allow for this. — Tr.]

In order to give an idea of the loss of volume in high moun-
tain-districts, the results recorded for the Eamsau forest range,
near Berchtesgaden, will be given. Here, as in most mountain
forest ranges, all modes of transport are used, and late in the
spring the wood is thrown down chutes (p. 278) ; the conse-
quent loss of volume, varying with the length of the fall
and the nature of the ground, is not less than 2 per cent.,
but not more than 12 to 15 per cent., for were it greater than
the last figure, the utilisation of this unfavourably situated
forest must be abandoned. Once the wood has thus gone a
certain distance it is conveyed further by means of slides,
roads, or floating-channels. In sliding, if the slides are not
interrupted by chutes, there is little loss, scarcely more than
1 per cent, on fairly good slides, but if the slides are very

DETERIORATION IN QUALITY. 4-25

steep and combined with chutes, the loss may attain 15 to
20 per cent, and more. In transport on sledges and carts
there is loss only when part of the wood is dragged behind
the sledge as a brake, and even then the loss seldom exceeds
J per cent. Where sawmill butts are slid on the ground, or
thrown down-hill, as is sometimes unavoidable, greater friction
and loss ensues, which is at least 10 per cent. The loss in
floating varies between 2 and 15 per cent, of the volume
launched. Since frequently very different modes of transport
are combined, as in the Ramsau forest-range, it is difficult to
assign the amount of loss to any one of them in particular,
but on the whole it may be admitted fairly that in land and
water transport there is 6 per cent, of loss, of which 4 per cent,
is in land-transport, and 2 per cent, by water. According
to old observations made at the salt springs of Berchtesgaden,
the loss in land-transport and floating to the timber-depot
there was 5 per cent, from the Bischofswies, 8 per cent,
from the Hintersee, Ramsau and Schwappach, 20 per cent,
from the Konigsee, and 30 per cent, from the Both, a fall
over a steep incline 600 meters (1,950 feet) high. At present,
in all these districts, great improvement has been effected by
constructing good sledge-roads in all directions.

5. Deterioration in Quality of the Wood.

The deterioration in the quality of wood during transport
consists in external and internal damage.

The former kind of damage may be recognised as soon as
the wood has reached its destination by a brush-like loosening
of its fibres at either end, in the case of both butts and fire-
wood billets. To this may be often added a certain number
of radial cracks.

The internal damage is of much greater importance, affect-
ing as it does the soundness of the wood ; land-transport
cannot have any influence in this respect, but floating is
held to be a cause of decay, which in the case of sawmill
butts is often considerable. Provided the floating is effected
properly, it could not be solely responsible for this, sup-
posing that it were always possible to take the necessary
precautions. But frequently this cannot be ensured, and

426 COMPARISON OF MODES OF TRANSPORT.

consequently in the outturn of the sawmills there must be
a certain proportion of unsound boards and scantling. In so
far, therefore, as floating actually increases the difficulties and
practical impediments in the way of a rational treatment of
wood, it is advisable, wherever it is not susceptible of improve-
ment, to limit its use, at least as regards valuable timber.

6. Influence of Railways on the Timber-trade.

It is easy, from observation of the freight of goods-trains
which pass through forests, to form an idea of the share that
the ordinary railroads of a country take in the transport of
wood. By the co-operation of branch-lines and road-railways
the meshes of the railway-net are constantly narrowing and
a great and important future is being prepared for facilitating
the transport of wood by the use of railways, and by uniting
them with main forest-railways and portable tramways. Plains
and hilly districts alone can profit fully by these benefits ;
and although mountain forests, as we have seen, may par-
ticipate also to some extent, it is chiefly long, gently inclined
valleys, penetrating the interior of mountain-districts, where
projects for the construction of forest-railways can be enter-
tained at present. In general, however, the decisive arguments
for and against the adoption of a forest-railway are : — whether
large quantities of wood are available for trade along a given
line of export, or the produce of a forest has to be distributed
in detail to satisfy merely local demands ; the total amount
of the produce in question, which may be augmented
temporarily owing to damage by storms, insects, or other
causes of injury ; and sometimes the probable duration of
the demand for the produce. This last motive may also
involve serious danger to the forest, in case the existence of
a forest-railway should lead the manager, by over-felling, to
pass beyond the limits of true forest conservancy.

It is in the interests of silviculture, especially for the repro-
duction of the standing-crop, to extend portable tramways as
much as possible, in order to remove the produce of secondary
fellings and standards in full-sized logs without injury to the
young crop, and thus supply a quick and cheap transport of
wood from the constantly shifting felling-areas to the nearest

CONCLUSION. 427

timber-depot, or to a junction with an ordinary railway-line.
It is, however, evident that for such a purpose only plateaux
and plains can be utilised. The introduction of portable
tramways into the forest-range of Einsiedel-Bebenhausen is
well worthy of imitation, for there also a considerable saving
of expense as compared with cart-traffic has resulted.

[British railway-companies are often the owners of steamers
and of quays at seaports, and therefore in order to attract
custom favour the transport of foreign timber, by charging
lower freights than for home produce* from intermediate
stations. The rates for transport for home-timber are also
much higher than on Continental railways, as the following

table shows : — ivr t«,n per mile.

in PL- nee.

England 2'5

Belgium -6

France ..... -7

Germany ..... -57 — Tr.]

7. Canals.

In lowlands, canals are even more useful than railways,
owing to the reduced cost of transport which they involve.
The network of canals in Prussia is now being rapidly extended,
and enormous quantities of indigenous and foreign timber
are carried by the various canals. Canals are now being
constructed to unite UK; Rhine with the Weser, and also with
the Danube and Main (V/1. p. 40'.)).

8. Conclusion.

Facilitating wood-transport by increasing and improving
the means of communication within and outside the forest
has become a question of the first importance. Forestry has
in many places lagged behind almost every other industry in
this respect. Owing to the situation of forests, transport

* In the United States of America, owing to cheap acquisition of land for
railways and rough construction, the capital expenditure is much less than in
the United Kingdom. Consequently freights for timber are much lower ; and
owing to the plan of charging by complete car-loads, instead of merely by
weight as here, a car-load is hauled for l.oon miles for 12.v. or 13*. per ton,
costing more here for 100 miles.

428 COMPARISON OF MODES OF TRANSPORT.

from them is most difficult, but this does not relieve foresters
from the duty of making every endeavour to utilise all present
engineering resources, so as to reduce, as far as possible, the
present high rates of timber-transport. Apparently the present
tendency is to curtail floating in favour of land-transport,
either by cart-roads or tramways.

Success in carrying out this programme will be justified at
any rate by the consequent improvement in the quality of
timber ; its adoption is further enforced owing to the con-
stantly increasing utilisation of water-power by other indus-
tries, in most cases incompatible with the use of the same
streams for floating. Changes in the mode of transport are
occurring constantly, as sawmills are established more and
more in the interior of forests. Nevertheless the time is far
distant when floating and rafting will disappear completely
from the list of means of forest-transport, and in many districts
they can never be dispensed with.

Fi<ar, 284A. — De Coulon's m.moruil ;ii NYulVliatrau.
After MatluT. (/'/'. j>. 334.)

429

CHAPTER VI.

WOOD-DEPOTS.

IN order to collect transported wood in an orderly way, and
store it for a longer or shorter period, a site must be selected
for a permanent wood-depot, from which it may pass into
the hands of the wood-merchant or consumer. Cases occur
not unfrequently when it is necessary to keep the trans-
ported wood, especially logs and sawmill butts, in water until
it is used, but usually wood is stored on land and kept dry.

The arrangement of a wood-depot differs according as the
wood has been transported by land or water.

1. Land-depot*.

Any well-drained area, sufficiently extensive and accessible
to cart-traffic, will serve as a depot for wood transported on
carts, tramcars or sledges. In collecting and storing logs,

Fi.Lr. -*•">. — Arrangement of logs in depot.

which are to be transported further by the purchaser, all that
is required is to arrange them in an orderly manner after
duly considering the available space. If there is plenty of
room and the logs are to be numbered, measured and regis-
tered at the depot, they may be arranged as shown in Fig. 285,
or the logs and butts may be placed in three or four layers,
crosswise, one above the other. If there is not much room,
and no necessity for estimating the volume of the wood, the
logs and butts may be rolled into heaps, as in Fig. 286. In

4-30

WOOD-DEPOTS.

any case, precautions must be taken to keep the logs raised
above the ground, and to secure for them free admission of
the air.

If the wood is to be sold in lots at the depot, it should be
arranged in suitable lots, according to trade custom.

Wherever logs are to be stored for a number of years,
it is best to keep them under water, provided they are
immersed completely, and there is a moderate inlet and
outlet of the water to prevent its becoming stagnant. Logs
are then preserved most securely for several years from
decay and cracking, and can be converted readily into planks,
scantling, etc. If it is not possible to submerge the wood,

Fig. 2SC.. — Stacking logs in a depot.

and large quantities of wood must, be stored dry for several years
(as after insect-attacks, storms, etc.), the greatest care must
be taken to isolate them from ground- moisture. Logs, there-
fore, are barked thoroughly and rolled into parallel rows one
above the other, in shady places, which are not exposed to dry
winds ; also the stacks of logs are covered lightly with sods,
to protect the logs from cracking in dry weather. The wood
suffers least of all on northern aspects. Under similar cir-
cumstances, spruce logs keep better than silver-fir or common
pine, and logs better than butts.

In depots used for firewood brought by land, only the best
class of firewood will repay further land-transport. Firewood
requires the same precautions as timber, and generally fire-
wood depots also should be fenced and furnished with a gate,

RIVER-DEPOTS.

431

which can be locked. The arrangement of the wood is done
in a way similar to that in river- depots, which will be now
described.

2. River -depots.

A large number of depots are used for storing wood after
transport by water, and then arrangements are required differ-
ing from those described under
"Land -transport," especially
after the wood has been floated.

The necessary characteristics
of a good river- depot are :—
immediate proximity to the
floating-channel ; a site
thoroughly exposed to air and
wind ; the soil formed of sand,
gravel or boulders to a depth
of at least half a meter (1£
feet)— otherwise it should be
paved with large stones ; eleva-
tion of a few yards above the
highest flood-level of the
stream, or in case the depot
is so arranged that the wood
lands itself, a sufficient fall in
the different basins of the depot,
that are separated by sluice-
gates. In many cases it is also
necessary to include protective
works against floods, which will
be described further on.

Wherever only a little wood is floated and labour is plentiful,
generally a sloping bank of the stream above the boom, if
otherwise suitable, is selected, on which the wood is landed.
As then all the wood must be dragged from the stream, and
many men employed simultaneously, the depot should extend
for some distance along the river-bank and its breadth be
reduced to a minimum, allowing sufficient room for storing
and removing the timber.

-i.—///, ///.' River-depot.
<t, b Rivers, c, c Floating
canals.

432 WOOD-DEPOTS.

It is a good plan to dig a canal from the floating-channel,
which reunites with it lower down the stream. The land
between the two watercourses will form a good depot. At the
point where the canal leaves the floating-channel, the latter is
barred by a lateral boom, the terminal boom being placed at
the point where the canal reunites with the main stream. If
the terminal boom is on a small weir, and sluice-gates are

Fig. 288.— River-depot at Thalham.

supplied to the lateral boom, the wood can be stranded almost
dry in the bed of the canal. Fig. 281 affords an example
of this system in the river-depot at Berchtesgaden. The
floating-channel (a) from the Konigsee here joins the river
Ram sau (b) ; canals and depots are provided for the wood from
the Konigsee at c and ra, and at c and m- for the wood from
the Eamsau, whilst the terminal booms are at b and b'. The
canals are paved with stone, and the wood is stranded almost
dry.

Side-canals often bifurcate from floating-channels and lead
to all parts of the depot, they again unite into mam canals,

RIVER-DEPOTS. 438

and these rejoin the main floating-channel. In such cases,
the floating wood and the water are distributed, and the
pressure on the sluice-gates and gratings, with which each
side-canal is provided at its inlet and outlet, is as slight as
may be. In order to attain what is desirable in this respect
and avoid fracture of the booms and other calamities from
floods, the main canals and sometimes the floating stream
itself are provided with outlets. The best and largest river-
depots such as those supplying wood for salt-mines in the
Alps are constituted on the principle of leading the floating
wood out of the main stream, and distributing it as much as
possible in the different basins of the depot, so as to reduce
pressure on the booms and save manual labour in landing the
wood. As an example, the newly-constructed river-depot at
Thalham, near Munich, may be cited (Fig. 280). Firewood is
floated down the river Mangfall to the boom (a), and hence by
a side-cut into the reservoir, where the wood is collected in a
preliminary manner. The reservoir has two outlets (m, m) as
a protection against floods : at b are two canals, each provided
with booms and sluice-gates, leading to the basins (/ and //)
where the wood is received. The basins are surrounded
by solid earth-dams faced with masonry, paved with stones,
and provided at their entrances and outlets with sluice-
gates. At the end of the basins are gratings, through which,
after opening the sluice-gates, the superfluous water can pass
through the outlets (c, c) back into the river Mangfall, leaving
the wood behind the grating. By this arrangement the current
and the floating wood can be conducted into either basin until
it is full of wood. In a few hours, owing to the sloping nature
of the bottom of the basins, all the water can be withdrawn
through c, and the wood left stranded. Then it can be split on
the spot and removed in a perfectly dry state. The firewood
thus stored in either basin can be conveyed to Munich, as
required, by the adjoining railway. Unfortunately this depot
was injured seriously by a flood, a few years ago.

The extensive river-depots at Traunstein and other places
serving for timber for saline works are now mostly abandoned,
but there are still large depots in the Alps constructed on lines
similar to those of the Thalham depot. As an example, the

F.U. F F

434

WOOD-DEPOTS,

281).— River-depot at Luna, near Meran.

METHOD OF LANDING AND STORING.

435

depot at Lana, near Meran is given (Fig. 288). The stream
K coming out of a rocky valley R R brings the wood between
the strong river- walls a, a and the long boom m, m by the
floating-channel </, d into the depot z, where the wood is
stacked at M. The waste-water flows back into the river.

In all mountain-streams where floods occur, sawmills, as
well as wood-depots, are placed in side-channels. This is
essential, so that each mill may obtain its water-power
separately and leave the main stream free for other mills and
for floating purposes. In Fig. 290, the stream A is closed by
a long lateral boom (w) at the outlet of the mill-steam B. A

. — Sawmills, /,-, A1, on a stream.

(n) is a second boom with a removable grating, behind which
are sluice-gates, so that both the water and the floating wood
may be under control ; (a, a, a . . .) are outlets. The saw-
mills (k, k) receive the butts directly by water ; the sawn
boards are bound into rafts below the mills and rafted down-
stream.

(b) Method of Landing and Storing Floated Wood. — As
soon 'as the wood has been collected in front of a boom, the
measures taken for landing it must be arranged so that it may
be brought out of the water as soon as possible. Whenever
the depots are arranged so that the wood becomes stranded
of itself (p. 433), the workmen must be stationed at the

F F 2

436 WOOD-DEPOTS.

various sluice-gates and gratings, and be instructed carefully
in the manner of landing the wood.

Wherever the wood has to be dragged up to the depot,
different methods of doing so are followed for sawmill butts
and firewood. Butts are either rolled up the river-bank, or
dragged up an ascending slope by horses or by machinery
worked by the driving-wheel of a sawmill. Firewood billets
are either spiked by a floating-pole and thrown upon the river-
bank, or passed from hand to hand by a chain of workmen.

In some places machines are used for landing firewood.
These machines consist of two horizontal rollers, one of which
is alongside the water, and the other up on the bank of the
stream. Two chains bound together link by link, and pro-
vided at short intervals with projecting iron hooks, are passed
round the rollers ; the billets of wood are then placed on these
hooks, whilst the chains are set in motion by the upper roller ;
the hooks ascend the river-bank with the billets, which fall
off as they reach the upper roller.* These machines are
specially useful when the depot is situated on a high, steep,
sloping river-bank.

3. Methods of Storing Wood.

The landed billets are conveyed to the stacking-yard in low
tramcars or wheelbarrows, the round pieces being split pre-
viously ; they are then stacked, beginning at a point in the
depot the furthest removed from the water. In stacking, great
care must be taken not to occupy too much space, to leave suffi-
cient room for ventilation between the different stacks and erect
the latter in a stable manner. With this object, the stacks of
firewood are placed in long rows, in the direction of the prevail-
ing wind, and made as high as their stability will permit. This
is rarely higher than fifteen to eighteen feet. In erecting a
stack, first the base is prepared as in Fig. 291, in order to keep

* On the river llz near Passau, there are ten of these machines which save
40 % of the former cost of manual labour for landing the firewood. 180 to L'oo
stacked cubic meters (100 to MO loads) of wood c;ui bo raised thus iu a day.
At Hals, also on the Ilz, similar machines worked by steam-power are used for
raising butts up to the depot, 8 meters (2(5 feet) high. Thus the heaviest kind
o!' butts are raised.

METHOD OF STORAGE.

487

r. I'M I.- -Base <>f stack.

the wood as much as possible from the ground and prevent
its deterioration ; or merely two parallel lines of billets are
laid on the ground, on which the wood is stacked. In the
clamper parts of wood-depots, especially in the case of large
depots where there is not enough fall to allow the water to
drain-off rapidly from the wood, and wherever the wood is
stacked whilst still wet,
this should be done as
in Fig. 292.

Each stack must be
finished off at both ends
by crossing the billets to
prevent it from falling.
In very long stacks, it
is advisable to place
some rows of crossed billets in their centre, so as to give more
stability to the structure. In the case of very high stacks,
the crossed billets at their ends should be connected by trans-
verse pieces, as in Fig. 298. Between any two stacks there
should be left a space of at least two feet, to allow for
ventilation. Wherever, on account of scarcity of space, it is

necessary to reduce
the distance between
the stacks to two feet,
and the stacks are
also high, two adjoin-
ing stacks are joined
as shown in Fig. 298,
which greatly adds to
their stability. Wher-
ever carts must pass
between the stacks to remove the wood, a sufficient passage
must be allowed between adjacent stacks for their passage.
Not unfrequently, however, owing to want of space, four to
six stacks are crowded together without any intervening space,
as, for instance, at Prague, where the arrangement shown in
Fig. 294 is followed.

Where large quantities of firewood remain stored for a long
time at a depot, often a roofing of billets is supplied, as in

.'. L".»2.— Stack of wet billets.

438

WOOD-DEPOTS.

Fig. 293.— Roofed stack of billets.

Fig. 293. This excellent mode of stacking keeps the wood dry

without any considerable cost. Wherever, in high stacking,

the stack has become higher
than a man's chest, stands must
be used from which the billets
may be handed to the stacker.
This is especially the case with
roofing. Evidently the billets
should be piled as densely as
possible, and the walls of the
stacks made vertical.

Many wood-depots in towns
are intended to facilitate the
sale of wood to small pur-
chasers. In such cases the
wood must be supplied in
ordinary sale-lots. The stacks

are then usually twice as high as the billets are long, and are

separated by upright posts. In other depots the wood is

measured separately for each

purchaser. Whenever the

sale of firewood is carried on

in detail, it should also be

sorted according to quality;

this assortment of the wood

is effected as soon as the

wood is landed, the various

pieces being brought together

from all parts of the depot.

When once the wood has been

sorted and stacked, the stacks

are numbered and measured.
Wherever firewood is piled

in mixed stacks without

separation into sale-lots, the

• j -11 Fig. 294. — High stacking of firewood.

measuring is done simply by

taking the length and height of each stack ; where the billets
are crossed, a deduction must be made from the volume, the
amount of this deduction being ascertained by experiment and

REGISTRATION OF RECEIPTS. 439

averaging the seventh or eighth part of the length of each
stack. Wherever the firewood is arranged in sale-lots, its
measurement consists simply in counting the latter.

4. Registration of the Receipts of Wood at a Depot.

It is quite obvious that in all wood-depots an account must
be kept of all the receipts of wood both as regards volume
and quality. The volume of the timber and of the stacks of
firewood is ascertained in the usual manner. A further allow-
ance has, however, to be made for the loss incurred during
the transport of the material, which also naturally involves
measurement of the wood before it was transported. Wherever
wood has been transported carefully by land, the loss is either
inconsiderable or absolutely nil, but when wood has been
dragged over rough ground, or thrown downhill, etc., there
may be a considerable loss of volume during transport. Loss
during transport by water also may vary between 0 and 10 or
12 per cent. It is obvious also that the volume of the sunken
wood which has been recovered should be deducted from the
loss during floating, and that any losses occasioned by careless
land-transport previous to floating must be excluded from loss
due to floating alone.

The following circumstances influence the loss of floating
wood : — the condition of the works on a floating-channel ; its
length ; the kind of wood floated and its comparative dryness ;
the manner in which the wood is stacked in the forest, and in
the depot ; the question whether wood has been brought down
to the launching place on slides or roads ; also extraordinary
occurrences such as floods, theft, etc.

440

CHAPTER VII.

DISPOSAL AND SALE OF WOOD.

THE disposal and sale of wood includes all the transactions
by which wood passes directly or indirectly into the hands of
the consumer. A distinction is made between the disposal of
the wood, and its sale, as two questions are pending : to whom
in the first place shall the wood be delivered? — then, how
shall this be effected ?

SECTION I. — DISPOSAL OF WOOD.

According to the nature of the produce of a forest, the
demands made on it, and the various intentions of its owner,
different destinations may be given to the converted wood on
a felling-area. The demands on the forest are of a double
nature : they are either legal demands which limit the freedom
of the owner in disposing of his produce, as in the case of
forest-servitudes, contracts, etc. ; or the owner is absolutely
free to dispose of the produce according to his own wishes.
In the latter case the question arises, whether the forest-owner
will be disposed to consider the requirements of residents in or
near the forest ; or will merely study his own direct interests,
a very different matter. It is obvious that in both these cases
he will consider first of all what wood he requires for his own
special wants.

As all these different modes of disposal of forest produce
remain about constant year by year for a separate unit of forest
management, there is generally no difficulty in subdividing the
annual yield of a forest according to certain fixed heads, which
must now be considered seriatim.

1. Wood delivered to Right-holders*

Wherever a forest is burdened with wood-servitudes, the right-
holders have the first claim to the produce of a felling-area.

RIGHT-HOLDERS' WOOD. 441

The legality of all claims for wood, as a right, must be proved
first by reference to the map or record-book of the forest
rights ; this enquiry is often a serious business when the
right-holders' wood has to be distributed in small lots among a
number of persons. In such cases, in many districts, fixed days
are assigned for the right-holders to attend the forest-manager
and make a declaration of their demands. This declaration
must be examined, rectified, and if needful referred to the
superior officials for confirmation. Every delivery of wood to
right-holders must be made on presentation of a written order
from the forest-manager, and a receipt for the wood must be
given by the right-holder.

If the right is to firewood, the quantity and quality of the
wood being stated, the forest-owner is least seriously affected
by the right ; and in the next degree, when the right is to the
kind of timber prevalent in the forest. If, however, the right
is to all wood of a certain class, for instance, all branches and
round billets, all the brushwood or stump-wood of a felling-
area — if also the quantity depends on the manner in which the
wood is converted and sorted — the distribution and supervision
of the right-holders' wood becomes more arduous, and often
involves complaints of short measure from the right-holders.
Great care must be taken during the conversion and sorting
of the produce ; wherever also the dimensions of the right-
holders' wood are given precisely in the statement of rights,
this must be attended to carefully during the conversion.
The most hurtful rights are those that are not fixed in
quantity, but only by the requirements of the right-holders.
If such rights to firewood should burden a forest and no legal
definition can be obtained of their extent, an annual com-
putation must be made of the volume required by each right-
holder, or for each class of household. This burdens the
manager with a tedious undertaking, beset with all kinds of
difficulties.

Deliveries of building-timber to right-holders are of a
similar nature. Such a right can be limited only to the actual
requirements of the right-holder, according to the number and
dimensions of the buildings in question. It is the duty of the
forest officials to ascertain carefully the actual requirements of

I 12 DISPOSAL AND SALE OF WOOD.

material for repairs or new buildings, whenever a demand for
building-timber is presented. If the demands of the right-
holders are supported by estimates made by trustworthy
builders the forest-manager is spared much trouble. Deliveries
of wood for implements or industrial purposes are also arranged
similarly.

2. Wood delivered to Contractors.

Frequently a forest-owner is under agreements, more or
less binding, to supply wood to neighbouring industrial works ;
such as iron-foundries, smelting-furnaces, sawmills, factories
for furniture, pyroligenous acid, wood-pulp, etc. ; or to
contractors or wood-merchants. Wherever the manager is
bound to deliver a certain volume of wood to such establish-
ments, their claims must be satisfied after those of the
right-holders.

As a rule, except after some extraordinary calamity such as
a storm, snowbreak, etc., the manager is not bound to deliver
any fixed quantity of wood to a contractor ; but an agreement
is made, to deliver to a factory or a wood-merchant all the
material over after satisfying the local demand, or all the
wood of a certain class, such as round billets, etc. Whether
or not a forest-owner should undertake such contracts,
especially in the case of timber, depends chiefly on the
market there is for his wood. In extensive forests which are
not opened-out sufficiently by roads or other means of com-
munication, managers of industries which utilise wood, and
wholesale wood-merchants, are often the only purchasers ;
the forest-owner is then willing to submit to an otherwise
burdensome agreement, in order to increase the forest
revenue. Wherever there is a good competition for the
wood, there can be no reason for contracting beforehand for
its disposal. Not unfrequently, however, the possibility of a
good sale of timber, even in the forest itself, depends on the
maintenance of such industries, especially sawmills, which
consequently do not reduce the prices of wood. This is due
to the fact that sawmills favour the transportability of wood
and convert it into actual merchandise. Even in this latter
case it is advantageous to the forest-owner, who wishes to

REQUIREMENTS OF FOREST-OWNERS. 443

support such industries in his forest, to bind himself only
partially. Thus it is advisable to make contracts for two or
three years only, and especially when trade is slack. Finally,
in deciding the terms of a contract, great care and fore-
sight must be shown by the forest-owner, or his interests
will be prejudiced seriously, as long experience has proved.
Wherever it is possible, the owner should not guarantee the
quality and volume of the material to be delivered ; if
certain assortments are to be supplied, they should be only
such as are prepared usually in his forest, otherwise it is better
to abstain altogether from a contract.

3. Satisfaction <>(' tlic Requirements of (he Forest-Owner.

Every forest-owner requires wood for his own use, whether
on a large scale or not ; after satisfying the demands of right-
holders and contractors ; therefore he will consider what are
his own requirements.

A private owner of forests requires firewood, building
material and wood for gate-posts, fences, etc. If he owns
any works, the wood necessary for them should be supplied
also.

Municipalities and Communes owning forests require fire-
wood for public offices, schools, etc. ; they also grant firewood
free of charge to school-instructors and ministers of religion ;
timber for repairing churches, public buildings, etc. ; finally
every household has to be supplied with firewood and building
material according to its requirements.

The State, as owner of forests, may be expected to supply
firewood and timber to meet the requirements of the Forest
Department, of its mines and smelting furnaces, of the Public
Works Department and other public bodies.

(a) The requirements of the Forest Department. — Wood
is required for forest departmental purposes, for fencing
nurseries, parks and lands occupied by forest officials, but
especially for the construction and repairs of departmental
buildings, woodcutters' huts, roads, bridges, slides, etc.*

* [All wood used in this manner should be shown separately in the registers
of forest produce. — Tr.J

444 DISPOSAL AND SALE OF WOOD.

(b) Wood required for Mines, Smelting Furnaces, etc.—
Where works of this nature are very extensive and require
annually for their maintenance the yield of entire forests, it
was formerly the custom to assign the management of a
sufficient area of forests to the administration of the works,
in order that the forests might be managed purely in their
interests- (such forests are termed in German, Saalforst,
Montanforst, or Reservatforsf) . Experience has, however,
shown that such an allotment of entire forests to mines, etc.,
has not resulted in any benefit to the forests ; on the contrary,
in some cases, they have been thus destroyed. Forests have
therefore, recently, as in Bavaria, been withdrawn from the
administration of the mines; the necessary wood is now
furnished to them by the Forest Department.*

(c) Wood required by the Department of Public Works.
-The requirements of the Public Works Department for

rectifying river-banks, for railways and less frequently for
public buildings, gave rise to similar assignments of forests
(such as coppice for growing fascines) to that department, with
this object in view. Experience has shown that it is disad-
vantageous to the State to deliver timber for building purposes
to the public works officials from the State forests, the
procedure being uneconomical and inimical to the State
budget. Even forest buildings do not form an exception to
this rule.

[As the French Navy has still the right of preemption of
wood, chiefly oak, in the French State forests, a short account
of the procedure in such cases will be useful. Eoyal ordi-
nances dating from A.D. 1318 allowed the French Navy the
right of preemption of wood in all the forests of France,
whether private or otherwise, agents being sent by the naval
authorities to mark trees in the felling-areas. This right
continued up to 1838, when it was abandoned (with, how-
ever, the power of resuming it if necessary) in favour of
purchasing the required wood in the open market. After the
latter procedure had been in force for 20 years, the right of
marking suitable trees in the State forests was resumed by the

* [A similar case is the Kunmon Iron Mining Company's Forest Grant, in the
N. W. Provinces of India, which has been resumed by the State. — Tr.]

WOOD FOR PUBLIC WORKS. 445

Navy in 1858. In 1866, rules regarding wood for the Navy
were framed by the Forest and Marine Departments, and may
be summarised as follows : —

Before the trees are marked for felling in any State forest,
the agents of the Navy mark with a circle of oil paint any
trees which they may consider suitable for naval construc-
tion, in compartments where fellings are in progress. These
trees are then marked for felling at the usual time and in the
same way as the other trees in the felling-areas, but with
special marks. All the marked trees are sold standing, as is
usual in France, but the purchaser pays only for the crowns
of trees chosen for the Navy, excluding any boughs which
have been specially reserved. He then fells all the trees, but
a naval engineer examines those steins which had been
specially marked for the Navy and then proceeds to convert
them into the necessary pieces and remove them to a sea-port.
The price is fixed for a period of five years at so much a cubic
meter, and a current account kept between the Navy and
Forest Department. Boppe, op. cit., p. 228. — Tr.]

(d) Wood required for Floating. Channels and Wood-
Depots. — Formerly it was considered the duty of the State to
maintain large firewood-depots in districts where there were
no forests, and to convey the wood there at its own charge.
In order to carry-out this object a special floating department
was organised, to which the necessary volume of wood was
delivered from the German State forests. Since means of
communication have been extended and with them the trade
in firewood, the necessity for the department has disappeared,
and it has been abolished.

(e) Wood required for Sawmills. -- There are several
German States and Communes owning sawmills, the manage-
ment of which is more or less independent of the Forest
Department. (For instance, Brunswick, Alsace and Lorraine,
Hanover, Baden, etc.)

(f) Wood given to Privileged Persons (Deputotholzer). —
Under this heading comes wood given as part of the salary of
Government servants ; in some States, as in Mecklenburg,
inferior firewood is given gratis to the poor.

Special orders are given by superior authority to the local

446 DISPOSAL AND SALE OF WOOD.

forest officials as regards the delivery of wood of the different
classes referred to above.

4. Disposal of Wood by Sale.

All wood which is not required under any of the above
headings will be sold. The next section describes the different
modes of sale, the only point of interest here is into what
hands the wood should come after being sold. A distinction
is thus made between satisfying local demands and sale of
wood to traders.

(a) Satisfaction of Local Demands. — Care for the protection
and tending of his forest often will lead a forest-owner to con-
sider, first of all, the requirements of people living in or near
the forest. As this can be done only to the extent of their
own absolutely necessary requirements, it will suffice, if, as a
rule, the less valuable assortments are set-aside for this
purpose; usually only inferior assortments of firewood and
building timber are sold thus in a market limited by the
exclusion of wood-merchants. Whether or not the State will
undertake to satisfy local demands on a large scale depends on
its vacillating interpretation of the laws of national economy.

(b) Sale of Wood to Traders. — The sale of wood to meet
local demands is opposed to its sale to traders, as then an
open market is understood. When once a forest-owner has
satisfied local demands, his desire to sell the rest of his
produce at the highest price attainable is distinctly to the
advantage of his forest. It is chiefly the best timber and
wood with which the forest-owner can speculate that can
be exported with profit to a distance. For very many forests
the mode of treatment and conversion depends on the timber-
trade, and many forests can be worked only with the help of
the wood-merchant, local demands being small and easily
satisfied. Disposal of wood for trade purposes is therefore in
most forests the most important mode of utilising them.

5. Loss of Wood.

Cases occur where wood already registered as received may
be lost, for instance, by fire, theft, etc. The possible loss of
wood is therefore a mode of its disposal.

FORM IN WHICH WOOD IS SOLD. 447

SECTION II. — SALE OF WOOD.

Wood, like every other raw material, is an object of trade
and is sold in various ways, the pro and contra of which will
be described here. As, moreover, every forest-owner desires
to obtain the highest possible revenue from his forest, and
this is chiefly determined by the price he obtains for his wood,
the question arises as to the general trade-principles govern-
ing the sale of wood, in order that this object may be attained.
The modes of selling wood may be distinguished in two ways :
first, the form in which the wood is offered for sale by the
forest-owner ; secondly, the different kinds of sale, depending
on the manner in which the price is determined.

1. Form in which Wood is Sold.

Wood may be sold either by detail after conversion into
logs, stacked firewood, etc. ; or by standing trees.

(a) Sale by Detail.

Sale by detail follows after the felling, conversion and
removal of the wood to a forest-depot, which operations have
been effected by a body of woodcutters engaged for the work
by the forest-owner. The wood is sold in larger or smaller
lots, or by the whole volume of certain assortments, according
to the kind of sale in question.

Sale by detail is the most rational mode of sale, as the lots
have been estimated in quantity and quality and their value
can be determined accurately. It presupposes, however, the
certainty of recovering from the purchasers all the cost of
felling, conversion and removal of the material. Wherever
there is a fair demand for wood, this is the usual mode of
sale in Germany, Austria, Hungary, Switzerland and some
other European countries.

(b) Sale of Standing Trees.

The sale of standing trees involves the sale, or at least, the
fixation of the price, before the wood is felled. This may

448 DISPOSAL AND SALE OF WOOD.

imply the sale of the fall of timber on a felling-area for one
year, either by single trees, or by a part or the whole felling-
area ; or of the principal yield of a forest for a term of
years. Where the fall of timber during a single year is sold,
two methods are in force, according as the felling and
conversion is done by the owner, or by the purchaser.

i. Sale Inj Unit of Product*.

Sale by Unit of Produce implies either that the felling,
conversion and clearance of the felling-area is done by the
forest-owner, or by the purchaser (as in France) ; in the first
case it closely resembles sale by detail, differing from it only
in the fact that the prices are fixed for each wood-assortment
before the trees are felled, also that the purchaser contracts to
pay at rates previously agreed upon for all the wood of the
assortments he has bought.

Such sales are at present frequent in Germany, Austria-
Hungary, Switzerland, France, etc. They extend usually to
the produce of a whole felling-area, and the fellings may be
of any character, as neither silvicultural interests nor the
revenues of the forest are prejudiced by the mode of conver-
sion. As the prices are fixed separately for each wood-assort-
ment, and for different classes of assortments by the unit of
cubic contents (cubic meter) , an approximately correct estimate
of the real value of the yield is secured. When experience of
the results of former fellings does not guide the owner (by
taking percentages) as to the volume and quality of the crop,
the probable produce from each tree should be calculated
separately, and an estimate thus made of the volume and
quality of the yield of the whole felling-area. It is, however,
evident that no guarantee should be given to the purchaser of
the exactness of this estimate.

Where this mode of sale is applied to single trees (as, for
instance, large oak-trees) and not to entire felling-areas, a
better forecast of the real value may be obtained.

[In France, where the conversion is done by the purchaser,
all the wood cut and converted is measured by the manager or
his forester before it leaves the area. — Tr.J

FORM IN WHICH WOOD IS SOLD. 449

ii. Ciuu'i-rxion- by the Purchaser.

When trees are sold standing and the purchaser undertakes
their conversion into timber and firewood, if the seller and
purchaser are not to be quite in the dark as to the real value
of the trees, a much more careful forecast of the yield should
be made than in sales by unit of produce ; if this is not
thoroughly well done, the forest-owner will certainly come out
of the business at a loss.

These sales may deal with all the standing trees on a
felling-area or on a demarcated portion of a felling-area. In
such cases, the estimate of their value depends on an accurate
survey of the area, and a calculation of the average yield of
an acre, which is possible in the case of homogeneous woods,
such as pure coniferous even-aged woods, or coppice. Then
care must be taken, in case experience of the yield of similar
fellings is not available, to make use of every assistance which
the different methods of valuation can afford. Generally,
in Kussia, crops of standing trees are sold by area [and so is
coppice in England. — Tr.]

If, however, the sale is only of certain marked trees on a
felling-area, the protection and tending of the forest may be
endangered much more than when the sale is by area. This
is specially the case in regeneration-fellings or fellings by
selection, and in those of trees standing over poles. This
mode of sale may, however, be applied advantageously to
standards over coppice, or to isolated large trees in middle-
aged high forest, or in forests where the trees are far apart, as
in Russia. It is more admissible for conifers than for broad-
leaved species, as the real value of the former may be forecast
more accurately than that of broadleaved species, which so
frequently suffer from internal defects.

Here and there, material of little value, the conversion
of which would prove too costly for the forest-owner,
may be sold en masse, such as stunted wood on waste
land, inferior pollards, stumps of trees which are difficult
to uproot and split, etc. A purchaser who estimates his
own labour at a low value may find a profit in purchasing
such material.

F.U. G G

450 DISPOSAL AND SALE OF WOOD.

iii. Lease of the Yield of a Forest for a Term of Years.

The two preceding modes of sale involve the sale of only
one year's fellings in a forest, but not the lease of the annual
yield of a forest for a term of years. This was formerly
almost the only mode of sale in the vast Austrian mountain-
forests. During the eighteenth century, nearly all extensive
works using wood obtained the assignment of adjoining
forests for their exclusive use, sometimes with the sole
stipulation that the management of the works should remove
all the trees in a forest during a rotation, on undertaking to
pay all the costs of maintenance of the forest. This privilege
was termed Kohlwidmung (charcoal concession), and implied
the right of the works to take so much charcoal annually from
the forest. Such concessions of forest produce are made no
longer, but leases of forests for terms of three to ten years still
prevail, chiefly in Kussia, Sweden, West and East Prussia, in
some provinces of Austria-Hungary (Moravia, Bohemia, etc.),
Switzerland, etc. The price is then fixed by formal, written
agreement. Some of the older concessions are not yet
abolished, in spite of repeated endeavours on the part of the
German Forest Departments and of private forest-owners.

iv. General Remarks.

The chief point to be observed in all sales of standing trees
is to decide the requisite silvicultural and protective conditions
and to word them clearly ; a thoroughly detailed description of
the material to be sold should also be given. In France, lists
of trees to be sold standing are published in pamphlet-form
giving all the sale-lots on the felling-areas of a single forest
range (inspection) for a whole year.

[In these French lists, besides the number and species of
trees in each lot and their cubic contents in timber and fire-
wood, a list is given (collier des charges) of all the protective
works to be done at the expense of the purchaser, such as
pruning, planting-up blanks, repairs to roads, etc., together
with estimates of their cost. Strict general silvicultural and
protective rules for the conduct of the fellings also are printed in
each pamphlet.— Tr.]

SALE BY ROYALTY. 451

In Austria, also, much acuteness has been shown in devising
the conditions of sale of standing trees.

2. Various kinds of Sale.

Three kinds of sale of forest produce are in use, which
depend on different methods of fixing its price, namely, sale by
royalty, sale to the highest bidder and sale by private
contract.

(a) Sale by Royalty.

Whenever wood of any assortment is sold at rates fixed by the
forest-owner, the mode of sale is termed sale by royalty, or
sale at fixed rates or tariff-prices. The characteristic of this
mode of sale is that the price is fixed by the seller, the forest-
owner providing for the distribution of his forest produce
among its consumers.

i. J/ndr of fi.riinj Ihi1 Royalty.

By the term royalty is meant the present local value, in a
forest-district, of any wood-assortment, as it is determined by
the free action of demand and supply in the timber-market and
in auction-sales. The royalty for any assortment is determined
by taking the average price during a recent period for all
similar wood sold within a certain district. The larger the
volume of wood sold in the open market, and the narrower
the limits of time and place within which the average price is
fixed, the more nearly will the royalty correspond to the
correct price of the assortment.

Formerly royalties were fixed on quite different grounds
from these. Up to the end of last century it was considered
advisable — and in some countries this is even still the case —
that the State, at any rate, should sell the produce of its
forests at moderate rates to the people. Eoyalties therefore
were kept low purposely, so much so, that they were considerably
under current local prices ; they formed the minima margins
of the prices of forest produce.

Eoyalties were fixed for a district by making benevolent
estimates of prices, after considering the area of the district

G G 2

452 DISPOSAL AND SALE OF WOOD.

that was under forest, the economic condition of the popula-
tion, the cost of transport, and, finally, the different qualities of
the wood-assortments. It was, therefore, a mere stroke of
luck if the royalty was anywhere near the correct price of an
assortment. How little, indeed, this was the case, may be
gathered from the fact that often royalties were fixed for
entire provinces or small States, and frequently remained
unaltered for long periods. If the forest officials desired to
counteract these bad results to some extent, they had to
propose an increase in the royalties for certain special cases,
and thus attempt to reform an evil by imposing a greater one.
This system did most damage in Austria, where certain State
and private forests were assigned to mines of salt and other
minerals, supplying them with forest produce at prices
which were for the most part ludicrously low, often so low
as to cover barely the cost of maintaining the forests.
In this way, forests were deprived of their proper revenues,
and their maintenance and development were hindered
unfairly.

The great harm done to forests by low wood-prices, the
rising value of all raw material, the constantly increasing
demands on State treasuries and the many inconveniences
resulting from the above antiquated ideas in the sale of forest
produce, have, in most countries during the second and third
decades of the present century, led to a complete change of
principle. It is now admitted that the forest-owner, like any
other producer, is thoroughly justified in selling his produce
for its full value.

Even if there can be no question that the price of firewood
depends on that of coal, yet to depress it as low as that of coal
merely on this account is not fair, for there are several other
intervening circumstances which must not be neglected, such
as custom, comfort, etc.

The price of wood varies with time and place, and in order to
allow due weight to these factors in fixing royalties, different
tariffs must be assigned to different districts or sale-depots.
Thus, all places where wood prices are about the same should
be comprised within a sale-district, excluding places where
there are any marked differences in prices. In a province,

SALE BY ROYALTY. 458

district, or forest-range, therefore, there will be as many
tariffs as there are market-values for the same wood-assort-
ment. But even the very points which have occasioned the
separation of sale-districts from one another may themselves
vary, and render it necessary to alter the circumscriptions of
the latter. In a similar manner allowance is made for
periodic variations in wood prices, by revising the tariffs
whenever a general rise or fall in prices has occurred. Owing
to the present changeable nature of trade this should be done
almost every year, at any rate for sale-districts within the
reach of the general trade in wood. As regards very valuable
wood-assortments, tariffs should be revised even more than
once a year, whilst for inferior assortments, longer intervals,
from two to three years, will suffice.

Where most of the annual yield of a forest is sold to the
highest bidder, tariffs are prepared for the ensuing year by
taking the average sale-prices in round numbers for each
assortment, due allowance being made for any abnormal cir-
cumstances affecting particular sales, or for assimilating the
tariffs sufficiently to those in force in neighbouring sale-
districts. Whenever the average results of sales to the highest
bidder do not afford sufficient data for framing tariffs, the
market-prices of wood in neighbouring towns should be
utilised also, naturally after deducting the cost of transport
from the forest depots.

In many cases the forest-range will suffice as a sale-district.
It may, however, be necessary to subdivide a forest-range into
two or more sale-districts, i.e., to fix several tariffs in a range
according to the different directions in which the produce is
distributed. This is generally the case with ranges situated on
the borders of extensive forests, or composed of widely
scattered isolated forest blocks, and where considerable differ-
ences of prices result from different transport charges. In
high mountain-regions, especially the Alps, tariffs will depend
on the altitudes of different zones of forest ; thus, the lowest
zone, including the valleys, may form one sale-district, the
middle zone, another, and the highest forest zone, with Alpine
hamlets, cheese-factories, etc., the third.

As a rule, royalties include the cost of conversion and

454- DISPOSAL AND SALE OF WOOD.

removal from the felling-area. In districts where the conver-
sion and removal of the wood is done partly by the purchaser,
two tariffs will be in force, including or excluding the above
charges.

ii. Application of 1he Method of Sale ly Royalty.

There are districts where, in consequence of admitted rights,
almost the whole annual yield of forests in firewood is disposed
of by royalt}7, either at a full or reduced value ; in other dis-
tricts this happens in the case of only a portion of the yield
and no further than sheer local necessity requires. In most
cases, however, sale at tariff-prices has receded quite into the
background, and is confined to : cases of unforeseen distress ;
wood-assortments which cannot be sold to the highest
bidder ; inferior lots, the sale of which will not repay auction
charges, or rare assortments of specified kind and shape ;
also, finally, in some districts, to the requirements of the
forest ofncials, who are not allowed to bid at auctions.

In country districts, it is chiefly wood for agricultural
requirements, such as bean-sticks, tree-props, etc., which in
cases of considerable demand should be sold by royalty, as in
this way theft may be prevented.

It may be imagined, since sale by royalty is at present
generally the exception, that the fixation of a correct tariff is
a matter of only second-rate importance. This is, however,
not the case, for a continual knowledge of the actual value
of forest produce is advantageous in many ways. Eoyalties
are the best means of deciding the acceptance of offers to
purchase wood, or when to knock-down lots to bidders at
public auctions ; they afford a means of estimating the value
of stolen produce ; they are indispensable in every kind of
forest valuation, and in calculating the value of forest rights,
damage, sale of forest land, or other similar questions,
and finally in calculating budget-estimates and other state-
ments.

Royalties are evidently useful only when they represent the
actual momentary local value of wood, i.e., its average market
pi ice for the time being. Unless this can be affirmed of them

PUBLIC AUCTION. 455

they are absolutely worthless. It must not, however, be for-
gotten, that royalties also possess the character of prices fixed
by authority, and thus often exercise an influence on market
prices that is not always justifiable.

(b) Sale to the highest Bidder.

The next mode of sale to be discussed is, when a purchaser
offers his wares for sale to the highest bidder in the presence
of a larger or smaller number of purchasers. The charac-
teristics of this method are, that the price is fixed by the
purchasers, and the wares, i.e., the forest produce, is divided
among the consumers according to their own requirements
and without direct interference on the part of the forest
owner.

Sale to the highest bidder may be effected by public auction
or sealed tender.

i. Sale l»j Fublir

(a) General Account. — Public auction-sales may be con-
ducted either by the purchasers out-bidding one another, or by
putting up each sale-lot at a prohibitively high figure, a public
crier then calling out at regular intervals successive reductions
by a fixed sum of this figure for any lot, until one of the
purchasers signifies his acceptance of the lot at the last figure
proclaimed by the crier. This latter mode of sale is termed a
Dutch auction, and in case two or more purchasers accept a
lot simultaneously, it is put-up for sale to the highest bidder
among them.

Sale by successively increased bids is the common mode of
auction-sale in Britain, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Switzer-
land, etc., whilst Dutch auctions for forest produce prevail in
France, Belgium, Holland, Alsace and Lorraine.

Dutch auctions for forest produce are employed generally
only in the case of valuable timber sold in large lots, and when
only a few purchasers are present who are men of means ; they
are preferred in Alsace. Wherever wood is sold in small lots
to a number of small purchasers such a method would be out
of place, for the following reasons : it takes much more time
than when purchasers outbid one another ; where there are a

456 DISPOSAL AND SALE OF WOOD.

large number of purchasers assembled, only a few of them
will have the requisite presence of mind to make a bid at the
right moment ; customary usage may be against this mode of
sale.

[Dutch auctions are preferred in France in the sale of
standing trees in the principal fellings, because there are a
body of large contractors, termed adjudicataires, who make it
their business to purchase the marked trees standing on a
felling-area, and convert and remove them for sale to smaller
dealers or industrial enterprises. These men visit every
felling-area within they: beat, measure and estimate the value
of every marked tree ; they know exactly what amount they
can afford to pay for the trees and bid accordingly. French
foresters consider that Dutch auctions prevent the purchasers
from agreeing not to out-bid one another ; a purchaser cannot
know beforehand at what figure any other purchaser will buy,
and therefore dare not delay too long in his offer to purchase,
fearing lest the lot should fall to another person. In France,
the felling-areas are subdivided into lots, which are marked out
on the ground : no lot should exceed 10,000 francs, £400, in
value.— Tr.]

(b) Procedure in Auction-Sales of Wood.

When once the mode of disposal of the produce of a felling
has been decided, the wood that is to be auctioned should
be carefully valued without loss of time. Then the date of
the auction should be fixed, and this, as well as the place
where the auction will be held, and the list of material to
be sold, should be advertised publicly. The procedure of
the auction itself begins by an announcement of the conditions
of sale made to protect the seller against injury or loss, the
lots are then put-up successively at the fixed upset-price and
knocked down to the highest bidder ; the highest bid is there-
fore the price of each lot. As soon as the last lot has been
sold, the auction is concluded by ascertaining the total price
paid for each wood-assortment and for the whole of the
produce which has been sold.

The success of the auction will depend in some measure on

PUBLIC AUCTION. 45?

the place where it is held. This may be either on the felling-
area or at the wood-depot, or in a building in some neighbouring
and suitably situated village or town.

If the sale is effected in the forest or depot, then every
would-be purchaser can examine each lot, and estimate its value,
and bid for it with confidence and deliberation. This is par-
ticularly useful for purchasers when there is a considerable
difference in the quality of the various lots.

When, however, in a sale by detail the lots are scrupulously
assorted as at present in many forests, the buyers are accus-
tomed to visit the felling-area before the sale, and true descrip-
tions of the lots are given by the auctioneer — or where in
sales of standing trees sufficient information regarding their
volume and quality has been supplied beforehand to the
buyers — a sale under cover of a roof is preferable, as it is
much more expeditious and usually attracts a greater number
of purchasers than a sale in the open air. Anyone wishing to
purchase a large quantity of timber, will in any case visit the
felling-area before the sale, and small purchasers have no time
during the sale to measure and value every log, without
delaying the auction intolerably. An auction in the forest
is therefore advisable in the following cases : when buyers
cannot be induced to visit the felling-area or depot beforehand ;
when the wood has been assorted carelessly, or each lot con-
tains wood of various assortments and qualities. Generally,
in all other cases, the interests of the forest-owner are safe-
guarded better when the auction is held in a building.

The date chosen for the auction, the place in which the
auction is held, and the list of material to be sold, should
now be advertised publicly, both in the best local newspapers
and in printed notices posted up at inns and public buildings
in the sale-district, as well as by the public crier. If the pro-
duce to be sold is chiefly wood for local demands, it is super-
fluous to spend much money on advertising; it is then
sufficient in the notices to give a list of the chief assort-
ments, and to advertise in purely local newspapers only.
If, however, valuable timber is to be sold for which there is a
good demand or which is suitable for export, or in sales of
quantities of merchantable firewood and especially of

458 DISPOSAL AND SALE OF WOOD.

standing trees, the sale - notices should be more widely
published. In such cases the forest-manager should select
the best newspapers for his advertisements, and too much
economy would be out of place. Whenever purchasers from
a distance may be expected, they should be informed by adver-
tisements of the chief conditions of the sale.

Whether the sale should be conducted by Forest or Accounts
officials, depends on the special administrative arrangements
of different countries. Although unnecessary expense in this
matter cannot be justified, it is, on the other hand, unde-
sirable to leave all responsibility for the sale to the Forest
Department. The Accounts officials are, in any case, better
acquainted with the buyers than the foresters and should
therefore be responsible for their solvency ; this is the case in
Prussia, where the Forest Accountant attends all State forest
auctions.*

The auction commences by an official reading out and
explaining the conditions of sale. These include : a state-
ment whether the sale is with or without reserve ; the terms
of security for payment to be offered by the purchasers ; con-
ditions under which unknown strangers are allowed to bid ;
measures of security against a conspiracy among the buyers to
keep down prices ; dates of payment, and limit to which credit
is given ; a list of roads by which the wood may be removed,
and the conditions of removal ; special political and silvicul-
tural conditions which are considered advisable ; finally, that
no complaint will be entertained as regards any lot after it has
once been knocked down.

The upset-price at which the lots are offered for sale must
evidently be less than that expected from the purchaser. How
much lower it should be is a question not without importance
as regards the obtainable price. Too high an upset-price
frequently prevents the purchasers from bidding freely ; when
too low, it causes delay, and if the competition is limited,
leads to inferior prices being obtained for the wood. Although

* [In France, the Prtfet or Smtx-prcfct presides at State forest auctions. In
Belgium, sales of standing trees in private forests are conducted by a Xota'tre,
or notary public, who charges 11% commission, 3% of which is a State tax, and
.'j-ii:ir;intees the solvency of the purchasers. In France, the

PUBLIC AUCTION. 459

local circumstances, the social condition of the purchasers,
their number, and several other matters, may influence the
choice of an upset-price ; in most cases, it should be 10 to
20 per cent, under the royalty or real value of the wood. In
the case of valuable merchantable timber, the upset-price
may be higher, and even equal to the royalty when there
is a probability of eager bidding. In the administration
of some State forests (Saxony and Baden), the practice
of fixing an upset-price to the lots in proportion to the
royalty has been discontinued ; unrestricted bidding being
considered more advantageous to the owner, as well as to
the bivyer.

Every sale-lot should be clearly designated in the sale
catalogue by its number ; the assortment, volume or
dimensions of the wood, and any other particulars which are
advisable being given. In important timber-sales, intending
purchasers should be allowed, before the sale, to consult the
felling-register, or facsimile extracts from it should be handed
round. In sales of standing timber, ready assistance should
be given to enable purchasers to obtain knowledge of their
value. The amount of the highest bid for each lot, with the
purchaser's name, is then entered in the auctioneer's report,
or in the felling-register. This is often attested by the pur-
chaser's signature and that of a trustworthy surety. In sales
by detail, after the last lot has been sold, the price of the
different assortments is totalled and the average price of each
assortment calculated, so that it may be decided whether the
confirmation of the sale may be at once effected, or must be
postponed, in case the average prices of the assortments are
under the royalties* at which the forest official is authorised
to sell the wood. In case the prices are lower than the autho-
rised minima, either they must be confirmed by superior
authority, or a fresh sale held.

* A sale may be confirmed in Baden, when the average price offered is not
!»•-.> than 10% lower than the average price of the last sale in a neighbouring
forest range. In Prussia, the Oberf order can confirm a sale, if prices are not
20% lower than fixed royalties. In Bavaria, the Forstmelstcr sanctions annually
the percentage by which sale-prices may fall below royalties (for timber, gene-
rally, 10%, firewood 15%).

460 DISPOSAL AND SALE OF WOOD.

(c) Delivery of Wood to the Purchasers.

The sale having been confirmed, the wood of the different
lots is delivered to the purchasers immediately after the sale,
unless there is any difficulty in furnishing security for pay-
ment. If the sale is held in the forest, this is done either by
handing over the wood at once, or by giving each purchaser a
written order of removal for the wood he has bought. When
sales are not held in the forest, the forest-manager assembles
all the purchasers at the felling-area or depot, on a day fixed
as soon as possible after the sale, and shows each purchaser
his wood. Either then, but generally at the auction, each
purchaser obtains his permit to remove his wood, on which is
stated.: the place where the wood is lying; a sufficiently clear
description of the wood sold ; the price to be paid for it and
sometimes the dates when payment should be made. This
permit should then be taken to the forest cashier and the
price paid to him, when it is returned stamped and receipted,
and then the purchaser can remove his wood. When credit
is given, and payment is therefore not immediate, the cashier
should notify to the forest-manager the names of any pur-
chasers regarding whose solvency he has any doubt ; in such
cases, the wood must remain in the forest until payment has
been made or satisfactory security provided.

Sometimes a period of time is fixed during which the fores-t
manager is responsible for the safety of the purchasers' wood
lying in the forest.

As a rule, however, wood once sold and delivered to the pur-
chaser remains at his risk after he has received the permit for
its removal, although the forest-guards are expected to watch
it carefully and prevent fraud. In many districts — as, for
instance, in the Khine-valley — the forest-owner declines all
risk for the sold wood, but a special guard is appointed and
paid for by the purchasers for one or more felling-areas, to
protect their wood when lying in the forest. A fixed rate of
payment is then allowed for every stack of wood, every log
and every hundred faggots, which is paid to the guard by each
purchaser on the removal of his wood. Generally this institu-
lion of a guard for felling-areas is agreed to tacitly by all

PRIVATE CONTRACT. 461

purchasers of wood. Usually, the men who stack the fire-
wood also guard the felling-area, for they can carry on these
double duties conveniently.

ii. Sale l»j fr><tt<><l Tfinh'r.

The other mode of sale to the highest bidder is that in
which, after public advertisement of a sale, the offers or
tenders to purchase are written and submitted in a sealed
cover to the seller. In the case of a sale of standing trees,
the written tenders to purchase may be either for the produce
of a whole felling-area, or for separate lots; in both cases a
valuation in volume and by assortments of wood is presup-
posed. If the wood to be sold has been converted, it is
sold generally in assortments, or classes of assortments, usually
by the purchaser tendering so much per-cent. more or less
than the upset-price (say, 2, 5, 10 per cent, over, or under, the
usual royalty). All tenders which have been received are
opened on a fixed date and hour, in the presence of the
intending purchasers. They are read out publicly, and each
lot awarded to the purchaser who has submitted the highest
tender, provided he can give good security for payment.

Just as the solvency of the persons who tender for the wood
must be assured, so other motives such as silvicultural require-
ments may influence the sale. As a rule, however, the sale
is confirmed to the highest bidder. As in sales by public
auction, it is highly in the interests of the seller and an abso-
lute right on the part of the purchaser, that before tendering
he should have free access to the sale-lots, and, on demand,
should be allowed to see the report of the valuation of the
wood and the felling-register.

(c) Sale by Private Contract.

When an owner deals with a single purchaser, and the price
is fixed after a discussion between them, a sale by private
contract results. This mode of sale is characterised by the fact
that the price is fixed by both buyer and seller.

In arranging the price, the owner will be guided generally

462 DISPOSAL AND SALE OF WOOD.

by the average results of past sales to the highest bidder (or in
certain cases may accept this figure as the price).

Sale by private contract has the advantage of saving expense
in valuation and auction-charges, and in avoiding possible loss.
At the same time, it is clear that the seller undertakes a greater
responsibility than in any other mode of sale, and must have a
precise knowledge of the actual state of the wood-market for
the time being.

3. Comparison of the various Modes of Sale.

Each of the above methods of selling forest produce is
advisable under certain special circumstances ; it is better
that a forest-manager should not be wedded to any one of
them, but that he should be ready at any time to adopt
whichever method may prove most suitable for the case in
question.

(a) Sale by Royalty. — Sale by royalty has the least claim of
all to exclusive adoption or even preference, as has been
shown on p. 454. Only in some places, in the case
of certain privileged demands for wood, is such a method
followed exclusively, and then the formation of a proper tariff
requires great care. Where, on the contrary, sale by royalty
is adopted only occasionally, it forms a useful supplement to
other modes of sale. It has then the advantage, in cases of
necessity (conflagration of a village, scarcity of wood for
agricultural purposes at seasons when the principal sales
are not conducted, etc.) of satisfying urgent demands. Also,
when traders combine to keep the price of forest produce below
its full local value, a recourse to sale by royalty may improve
matters.

To adopt sale by royalty generally and exclusively would at
once exhibit the shady side of this method, and prove that it is
almost impossible for a forest-manager to acquire an accurate
knowledge of the real local value of wood. If also it were
argued that prices may be corrected by the competition of
sellers, a reply may be made that forestry is less able to
effect such a result than any other industry, the forests in
any district being usually in the hands of one or only a few
owners

COMPARISON OF MODES OF SALE. 463

(b) Sale to the highest Bidder. — Sale by public auction,
provided that enough competitors are present, may be con-
sidered as the most usual mode of sale. The chief
advantages and disadvantages of its different varieties are
as follows : —

i. Li Sale by Detail.

When converted timber is sold in small lots by public
auction, sufficient competition will ensure the best prices, for
owing to demand and supply prices in this case most nearly
represent the true local value of any sale-lot, including its
quality, utility, portability, etc. By auctioning forest produce,
it is distributed among the consumers in the simplest manner,
and according to the measure of their requirements. If
there are exceptions to this rule, they are less numerous and
remedied more easily than in sales by private contract. Much
less time is occupied in auction-sales than in sales by private
contract, a matter of great importance. All unjust dealing
and respect for persons which may easily occur in private
sale, or complaints of which may be brought against the most
honourable foresters, are avoided by public auctions. The
superiority of public auction over sale by public contract is
proved by the fact that nearly everywhere in Germany, sale
by private contract has been supplanted by auction-sales.

Amongst the disadvantages urged against sale by public
auction, the following is worthy of notice, namely, the possi-
bility of the purchasers coming to an understanding before
the sale. This is especially to be feared — when the attend-
ance at a sale is small ; when too much material at a time
is offered for sale ; in the case of wood-assortments that not
everyone can buy, either because their cost is prohibitive or the
demands for them are small ; or finally, when the seller pur-
posely tries to maintain prices above their proper local figure.
Coalitions of purchasers are very frequent in the sale of
merchantable timber, rafted wood or firewood intended for
trade, for which local competition may be nil, or of a very
limited nature.

Coalition of purchasers is becoming a common affair in
Germany, being much more frequent than is imagined, both at

464 DISPOSAL AND SALE OF WOOD.

large and petty sales. The theoretical idea of an auction-sale
involves the assumption that every competitor is present
merely on his own account, and that a coalition among the
competitors is impossible : coalition cannot, however, be pre-
vented, provided it is agreed upon freely by the competitors ;
it is illegal only when brought about by threats, etc. The
seller must, therefore, endeavour to guarantee himself against
the damage he may suffer owing to coalition at auctions.
Almost the only remedy available is to stop the sale, and
adopt measures to improve the competition of purchasers.
Among these are the following : advertising widely (this, how-
ever, presupposes sufficient wood to attract distant purchasers);
sub-division of the sale-lots into smaller ones, so that it may
be possible for poorer purchasers to compete ; finally, avoid-
ance of all burdensome sale-conditions that reduce competi-
tion. A further measure against coalition is to adopt another
mode of sale. [A common method of prejudicing sales by
auction occurs in Britain and probably elsewhere. As soon
as the sale-catalogues are out, timber-merchants meet and
appoint a chairman, who acts as a private auctioneer and puts
up each lot to the company present ; they then run it up to a
fair market-price. At the real auction, afterwards, the pur-
chaser is not opposed by any of the clique and has only the
competition of a few outsiders to contend with. After the real
auction the clique meet and divide among themselves the
difference between the real and mock auction prices, very
often a considerable sum practically taken from the forest-
owner. — Tr.]

There are also first principles of justice as well as of self-
interest, which should always induce the seller to avoid all
conduct on his part which may hinder a proper price being
paid, or lead to coalition of the purchasers.

ii. Sale of Standing Tree*.

The sale of standing trees, especially with the right of fell-
ing and conversion by the purchaser, is preferred frequently
by wood-merchants and large dealers in timber to that of
converted wood. This is explained easily by the fact that in
the former case the wood-merchant can convert and remove

COMPARISON OF MODES OF SALE. 465

the wood more profitably to himself, and can time its conver-
sion and removal so as to take advantage of any special demand.
In this mode of sale, however, the purchaser obtains the crown
and stumps of the trees, as well as the stems, and thus may be
encumbered with a quantity of firewood, the disposal of which
is often burdensome and unprofitable to a timber-merchant.

The matter has a different aspect as regards the interests of
the forest-owner. When the standing trees are sold by unit
of produce, this protects the forest-owner from the necessity
of selling his trees at too low a price, at the same time allow-
ing him full play in felling and converting the trees carefully.
AY hen, however, it is important to satisfy local demands, this
mode of sale is not satisfactory [as the whole of each assort-
ment from a felling-area, or the demarcated portion of one,
is purchased necessarily by one individual. — Tr.]

Sale of standing trees to be felled and converted by the
purchaser is generally more disadvantageous than otherwise
to the forest-owner, since he is obliged to hand over the
felling-area more or less to the purchaser, and is unable to
effect an accurate estimation of the volume or quality of the
wood, a condition which is generally more unfavourable to the
seller than to the buyer. It is well-known what large profits
are made by wood-merchants in the purchase of whole forests,
or compartments, of standing trees in Kussia, Bosnia, Hun-
gary, etc. Still, under certain circumstances, the sale of
standing trees may be preferable to that of converted wood,
especially when the wood-market is over-stocked ; when super-
vision is defective or labour scarce ; also in districts where
this mode of sale has become customary, and long usage,
influenced by the interests of both buyer and seller, have
removed much of its harmfulness.

Experience of the sale of standing trees has shown,
especially in Eussia, where this mode of sale prevails, and
also in France* and Austria, that in many cases silvicultural

* [Generally the attention to silvicultural requirements on felling-areas in the
French State Forests on the part of the adjudicatairet, or purchasers of stand-
ing trees, is satisfactory. In thinnings, where all the trees to be removed can-
not be known beforehand, but are marked gradually as the work progresses,
sales in France are effected by unit of produce. — Tr.]

F.U. H H

466 DISPOSAL AND SALE OF WOOD.

requirements cannot be safeguarded to the extent that is
desirable in regular forest management, even after specifying
most carefully the conditions of sale, and with the best possible
supervision. In extensive forests, and where the regenera-
tion and culture of a forest nowise depends on the mode of
utilisation (as in clear-cuttings), there is no objection to the
sale of standing trees. If, therefore, silvicultural considera-
tions do not intervene, it may be to the advantage of a forest-
owner to adopt this method temporarily under certain cir-
cumstances. Such circumstances are : persistent coalitions
of competitors at auctions and scarcity of labour, for wood-
merchants can often engage wood-cutters more cheaply than
the Forest Department. Since a wood-merchant with foremen
attached to his interests is more in touch with the whole
business than the distant and often impersonal forest-owner,
the felling, conversion and assortment of the produce of a
felling-area is effected with more zeal and skill, and some-
times a finer finish is given to what would otherwise be
merely rough conversion.* Finally, in the case of extra-
ordinary quantities of produce, owing to damage by storms,
insects, etc., when the trees may be considered as only
partially standing, it may be more advantageous to the owner
to sell the trees on the whole affected area to a wood-merchant,
than to convert it by the help of his own wood-cutters, and
sell the material by detail.

As regards State forests and those belonging to corporate
bodies, the question between these two modes of sale has
another bearing. Generally the forest official should pay
maximum wages for felling, conversion and removal of the
wood. When, however, in State forests, from short-sighted
financial economy, wages are kept so low that even the
industrious wood-cutter can hardly earn a living wage, the

* [In the Himalayan forests, export- works involving a large expenditure are
required in order to work the forests economically and profitably, and the trees
are converted into railway-sleepers or firewood : it has therefore proved
more profitable, after agreeing beforehand with a railway or the commissariat
department for the sale of the produce, to convert the trees depart mentally
rather than to sell them standing to purchasers, who are accustomed to work
out standing trees from forests of native chiefs without any silvicultural restric-
tions.— Tr. j

COMPARISON OF MODES OF SALE. 467

work he effects must decrease both in quantity and quality,
and he loses all interest in the well-being of the forest. The
rich wood-merchant who undertakes to fell and convert the
trees on a felling-area usually pays high wages, as his
interest is bound-up with careful conversion, etc. That he
considers this expense in the price he pays for the trees
cannot be denied. In such cases, evidently the general
welfare is secured better by selling the wood standing than by
converting it departmentally, the balance falling the other
way for the forest-owner. An example has been cited here
merely to show that there are many factors affecting the
question in any special case.

Sale by sealed tender should be employed for standing
trees, or in sales by detail, for large lots of converted wood ;
it is especially suitable when only a few rich wood-merchants
compete. It also serves as a remedy against coalition of
buyers when trade is slack, and finally, in selling assortments
for which there are no local purchasers, for instance, hop-
poles, osiers, etc.

Whenever only a few large dealers are present at a sale,
they can agree easily to keep down prices. By calling for
sealed tenders the forest-owner may invite competition from
distant purchasers in order to paralyse the coalition of local
traders ; this remedy may, however, prove to be of a tem-
porary nature only.

(c) Sale by Private Contract. — The sale of wood by private
contract is employed when the demand is slack. Often there
may be only one or a few purchasers, it is then preferable
not to auction the produce, but to deal directly with the pur-
chasers ; thus the best price possible will be obtained, which
would not result from selling to the highest bidder when
competition is so restricted. In this case also, the lots should
be large, and the purchasers men of means. Sometimes the
whole produce of devastated forest-areas are thus sold ; some-
times an entire assortment — round billets, charcoal- wood for
smelting-furnaces, large quantities of railway-sleepers, tele-
graph-posts, merchantable timber, etc. ; sometimes large lots
of converted wood, for which at an auction the bids were too
far below the proper prices.

H H 2

468 DISPOSAL AND SALE OF WOOD.

Sale by private contract recently has been extending in a
remarkable manner, especially in North Germany, and desires
for its further extension have been expressed. This may be
justifiable for certain districts, but in most cases, and especially
in sales of State forest produce, it should be considered rather
as a necessary evil, enforced by a limited demand in slack
times, than as an • even tolerably regular mode of sale, for
where trade is brisk, no forest-owner wrould wish, by private
sales, to reduce the competition at auctions.*

SECTION III. — BUSINESS PRINCIPLES INVOLVED IN THE SALE OF

WOOD.

1. General Account.

Owing to the moderate net-revenue resulting from forests,
and the considerable amount of invested capital which they
involve, it is evident that every forest-owner should strive, by
improving the markets for his produce, to obtain as high a
price as possible for it. The forest-owner may be unable to
exert any influence on the general current prices of wood, and,
as regards the sale of his own produce, may be fettered by the
situation of his forest, the state of the local wood market and
many other conditions ; nevertheless the financial results of
the sale of his wood, under the given conditions, depend
greatly on his skill in managing sales. Much has been
said already on this subject in the preceding sections ; it is,
however, necessary to discuss, in a general way, the principles
and experience of mercantile business which are most nearly
related to the above objects.

In order to sell wood profitably, a forester must be a trader,
and must have the same aptitude for trade as other dealers
who sell wares.

* [In Britain, coppice is sold generally at so much an acre, or the wood felled
and sold in assortments after conversion. Stain lards over coppice are sold at
fixed prices per cubic foot that increase with the girth of the tree; only the
bole is cubed, and the crown given-in to cover cost of felling. In beech selec-
tion forests, the marked trees are felled usually by the owner, and the lo,u's and
faggots sold as thgy lie in the forests, and this is also the case with oak and
Scots pines in the Crown forests, the price being fixed by private contract.—
Tr.-J

BUSINESS PRINCIPLES INVOLVED. 469

Forest officials entrusted with the sale of produce should
have either mercantile experience, or endeavour to acquire it
to a sufficient extent. Exactness in carrying out departmental
orders and routine will not suffice here, for this is not by any
means all that is needful for a commercial mental-outfit.
Active and intelligent intercourse with the world, especially in
all industrial and mercantile questions, observation of all
causes which affect the market for his own produce, persistent
endeavours to detect all precursors of trade, to weigh accurately
the importance of all intervening occurrences and to form
correct decisions after considering all these circumstances —
only habits such as these make a successful trader.

2. Genuine Good*, and full We'ujht and Measure.

All solid mercantile success is founded on the, genuineness
of the goods offered for sale, and on giving the purchasers good
weight and measure. Genuine goods are those that are equal
to the description given of them by the seller. Every wood
assortment should contain only pieces of wood, which are thus
classified correctly. Every offer of inferior wood, every con-
cealment of defects and damage in timber, every classification
of pieces above their proper class, and so forth, impairs their
genuineness. Wood should therefore be exposed for sale so
that every would-be purchaser may ascertain its quality easily.
In a similar way, full measure should be given in firewood
stacks, and a thorough understanding arrived at as to the
sale-measurements of logs, in order to maintain a good credit
with purchasers.

A most careful assortment in accordance with prices inspires
purchasers with confidence. With the same end in view, the
price-tariff also should be compiled most carefully in accordance
with the real value of the wood-assortments. Above all, timber
should be classed carefully as regards its quality, and a forester
should give no cause for a report that he sells half-rotten or
inferior material as good timber. He should take great care
not to mix inferior wood with good material, hoping thus to
obtain a better sale for the former.

It is now about time to secure uniformity in all wood

470 DISPOSAL AND SALE OF WOOD.

measurements ; especially should all timber be measured
without its bark, and old country measures should give place
to the metric system. Only absolute correctness in measuring
leads to genuine trade. It frequently happens that in slack
times for trade, logs are measured below their actual dimen-
sions, or timber classified below its proper rating, with the
object of finding ready purchasers at prices which appear to be
on a par with, or even to exceed, the fixed tariff. Such
manipulation must be abnegated entirely, for it impairs the
confidence traders should feel in the honesty and accuracy of
forest officials, hinders the compilation of a correct tariff, and
serves only to blind superior officials.

3. The Produce to be Sold.

Every felling-area yields good as well as inferior wood.
The forester should attend most carefully to the conver-
sion and assortment of good material, for this affects greatly
the financial returns of his forest ; he should endeavour also
as much as possible to avoid overstocking the market with
inferior wood. This should be attended to especially when
trade is slack, or the sale of good material will be prejudiced.

When the market is overstocked, it is better to leave stump-
wood and inferior firewood in the forest than allow it to reduce
the price of the better class of firewood ; also, where poles
from thinnings are in a similar condition, it is better not to
classify them as timber. In slack times it is a matter of
ordinary prudence to reduce to the utmost the cost of con-
version of inferior material. Purchasers of such stuff will
convert it more cheaply and more in accordance with their
own wishes than forest officials.

In converting his trees, the forester always should be guided
by the wishes of purchasers, as far as general rules will allow.
Whenever, as is often the case, there is a generally expressed
desire for any change in the details of the wood-assortments, the
forester should be ready to meet the purchasers' wishes ; they
are usually the expression of the market requirements. When,
for instance, there is a desire that stacked wood should be more
Hum a yard long, or that butts should be longer than is usiml

lU'SINESS PRINCIPLES INVOLVED. 471

in the locality, the question should be considered carefully ; it
often happens that this is in consequence of a new demand
for timber, and then in future the wood should be converted
accordingly.

4. Wood-Markets.

A few decades ago, before the present world- wide means of
communication had been established, each forest had its own
local purchasers, its own more or less limited local market, to
which practically each forest-range was confined. Only forests,
which were favourably situated as regards water-carriage, were
accessible to traders of the world -market to which most of the
best timber was floated. Matters have changed in this respect,
and at present almost every forest-range has a share in the
world-market, and there are few forests too remote to feel its
fluctuations. Although the local market has not lost its im-
portance in certain forest districts entirely, yet, especially as
regards timber, it is the world-market that regulates prices.
Under these circumstances, the really enterprising forester
must know not only his local market, but should also keep in
view all the movements and changes of the world-market ;
although he may be connected with the latter only indirectly
through the middleman, yet he should be acquainted
thoroughly with the prices prevailing in the distant principal
market, as well as with those of the local market.

The generally isolated residence of forest officials would be
an insurmountable obstacle in the way of his obtaining this
knowledge, were he not to avail himself of the assistance which
is open to every trader. This consists in the public press and
in consular reports from the chief timber-markets. As regards
pamphlets dealing with the timber-trade, some are edited and
distributed by the chief forest officials in certain States; others
are private undertakings, for instance, Das Handdsblatt filr
Wcdderzeugnifse, the Berlin Centralblatt filr Holzindustrie,
Austrian Forstzeitung , Revue des Eaux et Forets, The London
Timber Trades Journal, The Timber News, the American
Lumberman, etc.

Agents employed by forest-owners and State consulates
would do great service if they would publish, not merely

DISPOSAL AND SALE OF WOOD.

periodic reports, but any rapid changes in the markets. The
future only can decide as to the extent to which forest-owners,
like other wholesale producers, can make use of regular
travelling agents to offer their produce for sale, and arrange
contracts and deal with purchasers, etc.

It hardly need be remarked that all endeavours which may
be made to raise the price of wood should apply only to timber,
for, with exception of a few country districts, it is impossible
to rehabilitate firewood in competition with coal. As long,
however, as firewood is procurable at a steady and moderate
price, it will find always a ready sale. [In all large cities there
is a great demand for kindling material to light coal fires. The
price of such material in Devonshire is (1908) 50 Ibs. for Id.,
3 Ibs. for Id. in the Midlands, and 1 Ib. for Id. in London, so
that there is still a field for the sale in Great Britain of this
kind of firewood. In Ireland also where peat is the chief fuel,
this cannot be dried in a wet summer, so that in the succeeding
winter there is a good demand for firewood. — Tr.]

Although the fullest attention should be paid by the forester
to the general market, he should endeavour to improve and
extend his local market. Wherever industries using wood,
such as sawmills, factories for wood-pulp, furniture, carved
work, etc., exist, or are to be introduced and extended, they
should be supported and assisted energetically, provided there
is no silvicultural impediment.

5. The Timber-Trade.

Under present conditions, the assistance of the wood-mer-
chant is, in most cases, indispensable to the forester. No
wholesale producer can dispense with the middleman ; least
of all forestry, with its voluminous and heavy produce, its un-
equally distributed producing localities, and its owners, who
are in general unfitted for trade (the State, municipalities,
hospitals, etc.) As far as concerns the local market, and in
cases where the latter favours a direct dealing between con-
sumer and forest-owner, the wholesale timber-merchant does
not intervene. The petty dealer is, however, a necessary and
generally welcome member of the local market. Whenever

BUSINESS PEINCIPLES INVOLVED. 473

large quantities of wood, and especially of valuable timber, are
in question, especially in forests with a small local demand,
the wood, for the most part, would rot in situ if wholesale
timber-merchants did not undertake its sale and distribution
in distant districts, which are densely populated and poorly
supplied with forests. Forest-owners and wholesale timber-
merchants must therefore work hand-in-hand ; good business
relations between them are entirely in the interests of forests, as
long as only through the latter the distribution and conversion
of the raw material into marketable produce can be effected.

Under present trade conditions, so changed compared with
the past, it would be a serious injury to a forest-owner were
he to refuse to acknowledge the necessity of the middleman ;
on the contrary, he must endeavour constantly to improve his
relations with him. For it is the timber-trader who endeavours
to extend the present market and to open out fresh ones and
improve the means of transport ; who invests a large capital
in buying timber and establishing sawmills ; who follows with
attention every change, however small, in the price of wood ;
who is constantly posted-up in all industrial changes in the
conditions of transport or the incidence of taxes, and who is
vigorously engaged in pushing on the timber business. All
this energy of the timber-merchant, even though it is in his
own interest, should be acknowledged thankfully by the forester.
But if these desirable relations in the interests of both parties,
between the forest-owner and the timber-merchant, are to bear
useful fruit, the latter must also be more ready than is often
the case to meet the former half-way.

6. Modes of Sale.

Public auction of converted wood should be considered as
the regular, though not exclusive, mode of sale, for it is suit-
able only when free competition of purchasers may be expected.
In slack times of trade and when markets are overstocked, and
in the case of very large fellings, sale by sealed tender, by unit
of produce or by private contract, may yield better financial
results than auction sales under such conditions. Wherever,
business being very slack, large quantities of wood must be

474 DISPOSAL AND SALE OF WOOD.

sold in remote and comparatively inaccessible districts, the
forest-owner may have recourse to sale of standing trees by
area. Whenever it is possible, however, auction-sale of con-
verted wood is preferable.

After considering all local and temporary objections to any
mode of sale, there can be hardly any difficulty in deciding
which to adopt in any particular case. To act by routine in
such a matter may cause great pecuniary loss, as experience
has often shown. Especially in selling valuable timber, the
forester should be guided not solely by custom, but should
select, without prejudice, whichever mode of sale is best for
the case in point.*

7. Season for Sales.

The season when trade is most active is clearly the best time
to sell the produce. As a general rule, autumn, winter, and
early spring are the best seasons for the sale of wood ; matters
vary locally in this respect, and the best seasons for sale depend
on the necessities of the consumer, the dates of final payment
for the wood, and the amount of leisure which the public
interested in the purchase of wood can command at different
seasons of the year ; also, as regards merchantable timber, on
the usual date when contracts to supply the timber are closed,
and the season in which, according to local custom, wood prices
are steadiest.

Demands for firewood are evidently greatest in winter, whilst
building and industrial timbers are more in demand during
the summer. As, however, nobody burns green wood, but
allows it, in any case, to dry throughout the summer so as to
ensure a profitable sale, it is better to sell the produce of
summer-fellings in the autumn, and those of winter-fellings
early in the spring. In years with prolonged cold winters,
evidently the best time for selling firewood is in mid-winter,
and then cart-transport is readily available. Small wood for
agricultural purposes, which generally is brought into use

* [The Deputy Surveyor reports that in the Forest of Dean, trees are felled
and sold in logs and butts as they lie. Any considerable quantity of timber is
sold by scaled tender, and smaller or inferior lots by private contract, at so much
a cubic foot for timber, varying with the girth, or in cords of 128 cubic feet. —
Tr. I

BUSINESS PRINCIPLES INVOLVED. 475

immediately after felling ; railway-sleepers, which are sold by
wholesale merchants and usually must be impregnated and
delivered to the railway authorities by the beginning of summer,
and other wood-assortments w7hich are required early in
the year, should be sold during autumn or early winter.
When trees are sold standing, the sales should be effected in
September, so that the merchants may know in time what
business they have to undertake during the felling-season. If
the technical requirements for certain woods prescribe that
the felling should take place in the growing season, an enter-
prising forest-owner will endeavour to meet such a demand.
The date of final payment for the wood sold is also more
important than the immediate demand. Where sales are for
cash down, they should be held in autumn and early winter,
when the country people have most ready money ; if payment
is by instalments, with security, the season for sale is less im-
portant, provided the interval before final payment, for which
autumn is best, is not too short.

When the peasantry takes part in wood-sales, these should
be fixed when they have leisure to attend, and that is usually
during winter. As regards wholesale traders, they generally
sell from timber-yards, where they keep their wood a longer
or shorter time, so as to profit by favourable opportunities for
sale. The petty dealer, on the other hand, buys only at
favourable seasons, when he can dispose readily of his wood
at a fair profit.

The above remarks may be summarised thus: — Autumn and
winter, and the times nearest to them, are the most profitable
seasons for selling wood ; by the middle of April, in ordinary
years, the chief produce of felling-areas should have been sold.
It should be noted also that people become accustomed to fixed
dates for sales, conduct business accordingly, and attend such
sales with the determination to purchase sufficient wood for
their requirements.

[In India, the sales of standing trees and other produce
from the State forests between the Jumna and Ganges rivers,
are held annually in September, so that work in the forests
may commence in November, as soon as the healthy, dry
season has commenced. — Tr.]

476 DISPOSAL AND SALE OF WOOD.

Whenever large falls of timber result from storms, snow-
break, or damage by insects, the sales should be hurried on
and the wood cleared rapidly, even if only inferior prices are
obtainable ; for the loss by the threatened decay of the wood is,
as a rule, greater than that due to a low price for it, whilst
danger of further damage by insects is reduced.

8. Extent of the Sales and Sale-Lots.

The quantity of wood offered for sale should correspond with
the number and position of the purchasers. In well-populated
districts, with a fair consumption of wood and to satisfy local
demands, under ordinary circumstances, a moderate supply of
converted wood, say 600 to 1,200 cubic meters (400 to 800
loads) of timber and firewood usually sell better than larger
or smaller quantities. In poorly populated districts with a
small local demand for wood, and with large quantities of wood
for sale and only a few wood-merchants competing, large wood
sales are absolutely necessary. Whether in such cases the
produce of several ranges, or of several felling-areas, should
be sold together, depends on the expected amount of competi-
tion. In no case should valuable timber be sold at different
times ; it is better that neighbouring communes and even
private forest-owners should unite to hold large sales, if their
own fall of timber is small.

It is evident that most large timber-sales in which only large
capitalists can compete, are chiefly sales of standing trees by
area ; for instance, in West Prussia, sales of 10,000 to 20,000
cubic meters (7,000 to 14,000 loads) of standing wood for three
or five years are effected. Sales of 5,000 to 6,000 cubic meters
(3,500 to 4,000 loads) of converted timber are not rare ; as, for
instance, in the forest-ranges of Jachenau, Walchensee, etc., of
the Bavarian Alps, also in the case of the enormous masses of
wood killed in S. Bavaria by the nun-caterpillar, for which
sales of 400,000 and 500,000 cubic meters were held. It is not
advisable to hold mixed sales of timber and firewood when
chiefly wholesale merchants are competing.

Similar principles underlie the formation of sale-lots. The
amount of competition and the class of traders present will
decide their dimensions. The wishes of the public also should

BUSINESS PRINCIPLES INVOLVED. 477

be followed in this respect so far, that it may be possible for
large dealers to purchase separately the assortments which
their business requires. These consist chiefly of the better
class of stem-timber. Where sales are held to satisfy local
demands, only small lots are advisable.

Whilst in sales of standing trees, lots may consist of 500 to
1 ,000 and more cubic meters (350 to 700 loads) ; in large regular
sales of converted wood the lots seldom surpass 30, 50, or at
the most, 100 cubic meters (20, 35, or 70 loads) ; as a rule they
are even smaller. It is otherwise in extraordinary falls of large
numbers of trees, owing to storms, etc. ; in such cases the size of
the lots increases with the quantity of material to be disposed
of, and with the capital of the competing merchants. In the
sale of wind-fallen timber in the Vosges mountains, in 1892,
besides smaller lots, large lots of 5,000 and 8,000 cubic meters
were formed ; and in the case of trees killed by the nun-
caterpillars in Bavaria, the lots attained 10,000 cubic meters.
Whether, in forming the lots, the same care should be taken
as in forming the assortments of timber, i.e., that the same lot
should contain only the same quality of wood, depends on the
numbers and kind of would-be purchasers present. [In the
French State forests no lot of standing timber offered for sale
should exceed 10,000 fr. (£400) in value.— Tr.]

9. Condition* of Sale.

It is self-evident that burdensome conditions, displeasing to
the purchasers, will reduce competition, and that the sale will
be the more profitable the less stringent are its conditions.
On the other hand, the security of the owner against loss, and
the demands of silviculture, must be ensured. It is difficult
to say how far a forester can go in the latter direction without
prejudice to the interest of the forest-owner ; it depends on
the state of the market and of prices, the solvability of the
purchasers, the cost of transport, and the actual demands of
silviculture. The less favourable the local and temporary
conditions of the timber market, the less must one insist on
conditions of sale which reduce competition ; and this is more
necessary when the purchasers are dealers than when the wood
is disposed of among local purchasers.

478 DISPOSAL AND SALE OF WOOD.

One of the most important points is whether cash-payments
should prevail, or credit be given. The question is regarded
from different points of view in different countries. In most
German State forests, except quite recently, cash-payment was
the rule, but this has been modified considerably of late.
Credit increases the work of accountants, often encourages
swindling and indiscretion on the part of certain purchasers,
but all this shady side of the credit system disappears com-
pared with the disadvantage of reducing competition by
demanding ready money. Credit is now-a-days such a neces-
sary condition of all trade and business, that the forest-owner
cannot avoid it. Sufficiently long credits, up to a half-year
and even longer, in the case of trustworthy large dealers, are
conditions which long experience, far from verifying the
fears of extensive loss which have been expressed, has proved
thoroughly justifiable in the interest of forest-owners.*

It is self-evident that credit can be given to doubtful pur-
chasers only on sufficient security (after payment of 25 per
cent, of the purchase money, deposition of valuable docu-
ments, promissory notes on good banking houses, etc.). In
the different German States and in Austria, various systems
of credit prevail, for instance, in Baden, 3 per cent, discount
is given for cash payment, otherwise three to eight months'
credit.

[In India, deposition of Government promissory notes, on
which interest continues to be payable to the depositor, is the
best form of security in wood-sales. It can be stipulated also
that in sales of standing trees, one-third of the purchase
money is payable after the wood is converted, and the balance
on removal of the wood from the forest, more than sufficient
wood being retained in the forest to cover the balance of the
purchase-money. — Tr.]

The date fixed for removal of the wood from the forest or
depot is also an important condition of the sale. If the limit
allowed is too short, or not fixed with due reference to the
cost of transport ; if carts and beasts are few and are required

* The accountant's office at Aschaffcnburg, which receives payment for the
oak wood from the Spessart. had to receive between 1803—73, £111,400, of
which only 27*. was a bad debt.

BUSINESS PRINCIPLES INVOLVED. 479

for the time being for agricultural purposes, the cost of trans-
port will be increased, and the price of the wood consequently
falls. In fixing the date for the removal of the wood, the
forester should respect general departmental orders ; in carry-
ing them out he should be very lenient and consider the
nature of the roads, that in some cases sand does not bind in
winter, or other roads are too wet for use except during frost,
or after dry summer weather ; that in the case of water-
carriage the logs cannot always be floated or rafted at a fixed
time, and that country people prefer to work at wood-transport
before the hay is mown, or after the corn has been harvested.
If all the wood has been brought out of the forest, silvicultural
rules will not intervene to hurry on the removal of the wood
from the road-side.

10. Advertising Sales.

It has been remarked already, that competition at sales is
improved greatly by judicious and timely advertisement. As
no petty dealer is afraid of the expense involved in bringing
his goods to the notice of consumers, and wholesale producers
often spend immense sums in this way with good results ;
it cannot be doubted that in forestry, judiciously advertising
timber- sales must have an important bearing on their financial
results. Too great economy in this matter certainly will entail
loss.

It should, however, be understood clearly, that no allusion
is here intended to puffing advertisements, which are more
calculated to excite mistrust than to stimulate purchasers.
The advertising medium should be chosen much more carefully
than is usually the case. Here is meant not only advertising
in the public press, but also the despatch to large dealers, and
other persons interested in the sales, of printed notices giving
sufficient details of the sale-lots.

AVherever large numbers of logs are sold yearly and there
is a more or less extensive demand for them, the timber-trade
may reasonably expect to be informed by notices published
beforehand, what woods and felling-areas will be taken in
hand, and what will be their probable yield, so that timber-
merchants may undertake contracts and make other prepara-

480 DISPOSAL AND SALE OF WOOD.

tions for the expected timber. In France and in many forest
ranges of Prussia, Baden, Bavaria, etc., such notices are now
issued regularly.

11. Means of Transport.

The great influence which the available means of transport
has on wood-prices is well known, and has been already
referred to. All unwise economy in providing good means of
transport depresses prices, and improvement in this respect
should be one of the first objects of the forest-owner.

Every intelligent forest-owner will endeavour to reduce the
cost of transport from his forest. The forester therefore lays-
out new roads, improves old ones, regulates floating-channels,
constructs slides, sledge-roads or tramways ; establishes depots
on the banks of streams and canals and at railway-stations ;
he will see to the drying and seasoning of his wood, and in
certain cases will convert his timber and split his firewood in
the forest.

He should not be too narrow-minded in allowing the public
use of the forest-roads. If a forest is to be lucrative, its roads
should be always open, provided they communicate with the
general network of public roads. The higher cost of repairs
will be recovered fully by the improved means of transport.

Of immense importance, in this respect, is the proximity of
railroads to the forests. Keduction of railway-rates for wood,
and introduction of railways into the forests are vital interests
to forest-owners, which they, in conjuction with the timber-
trade, should use every possible means to secure.

[In Britain, this question is complicated by the fact that
railway companies grant through rates for timber and other
produce from their ports to the large inland towns, that are
actually less than rates from intermediate places between the
port and the place of destination of the timber. In this way
foreign timber is favoured unduly. — Tr.]

For owners of extensive forests, provided that silvicultural
requirements are not infringed, it is generally justifiable to
entrust the transport of forest produce to contractors, as
generally they can work more expeditiously and cheaply than
large owners, and especially than the State.

BUSINESS PRINCIPLES INVOLVED.

481

12. Forest Officials.

If the manager of a forest is expected to work it to its full
financial advantage, he must be allowed a free hand in timber-
sales, so that he can act without delay in accordance with the
demands of the market. Cases constantly arise when owing to
an overstocked market the competition at auction-sales of con-
verted timber is too slack, and other modes of sale must be tried.

Although control is necessary, especially in large State
departments, yet it should not be too rigid, and a trustworthy
executive official should not be fettered too much by routine
but left sufficiently to his own responsibility, mere routine in
timber-sales having disastrous results to the forest-owner.
Now-a-days, thousands of pounds may l>c gained by taking
time by the forelock, and using telegraphic communication
between buyer and seller.

Fig. 295.— Derrick for raising logs on to carts. (Vide p. 313.)

Drawn by T. II. Monteath.
F.U. I I

482

CHAPTEK VIII.

AUXILIARY FOREST INDUSTRIES.

BESIDES the production of raw material from forests, there
are several industries with the details of which a forester
should be acquainted, as they either form part of his regular
duties or are nearly related to them. They may therefore be
termed auxiliary forest industries. They are based on the
conversion by machinery of raw forest material into com-
mercial products, partly by reducing it in size or altering its
form, as by sawing, splitting, etc., partly by improving the
natural quality of the wood and finally by completely altering
its substance, in order to give commercial value to its consti-
tuents. The present chapter will therefore be divided into the
following sections: —

A. DETAILED CONVERSION OF WOOD.

B. METHODS OF IMPROVING THE QUALITY OF WOOD.

C. ALTERING THE SUBSTANCE OF WOOD IN ORDER TO

OBTAIN ITS CONSTITUENTS.

A. DETAILED CONVERSION OP WOOD.*

In former times it was undoubtedly advantageous to the
forest-owner to conduct some of these industries under his own
direct control. Private enterprise has, however, gradually
intervened, and most foresters now prefer to confine their
exertions to the production of raw material, since owing to
the increasing specialisation of industry and the difficulties of
dealing with labour, it is an acknowledged maxim, at least
as regards State ownership of forests, that the State should
not compete unnecessarily with private enterprise. There

* The best- work on this subject is by I'.nnnn', •' Anlaec. Einrichtung u. Betrieb

<|IT Sii-cwcrkc.'' I'.crlin, I'.iol.

SAWMILLS. 483

are some foresters,* however, who consider it necessary or
advantageous to direct auxiliary forest industries, especially
when the profits made by the middleman in converting
raw material into saleable wares is secured by the forest-
owner, or when private enterprise fails to utilise the raw
material to the best advantage; also in cases where it is
necessary to lead private enterprise in the right direction, and
thus, by producing goods of superior quality, obtain a better
market for them. In the same way agriculture is not
restricted any more than forestry to the production of raw
material, but undertakes many industries that are properly
of an auxiliary nature.

Since, then-fore, several auxiliary forest industries are
often conducted directly by the forest -owner, or by the
State, the most important of these will be now described
in a general manner.

SKCTION I. SAWMILLS. t

The transportability of the wood produced by a forest
influences the revenue of the latter considerably. Timber in
the round cannot, as a rule, bear transport to a distance and
timber-prices would in general be very low, were it not possible,
to convert heavy logs into planks and scantling and thus
facilitate their transport to a distance from the forest. This
conversion is effected chiefly by sawmills situated either in
or near the forest, the existence of which enables many
forests to be worked at a prolit and affords a market for their
timber. |

The question whether sawmills should be managed by forest-
owners, or left to independent private industry, has, in the

* [This is especially the case in the Sihlwald, a forest belonging to the town
of Zurich, where the wood is worked up in detail into all kinds of mercantile
produce, besides being treated on the spot with antiseptic substances. — Tr.j

f "Sawmills,'' by M. I'.. Bale, London, Crosby Lock wood & Co., 1898.

J [It is stated that sawmills were run by water-power in (Jermany as early
as \:\~2'2. An attempt to establish a mill in England in 1663 was abandoned
owint: to the opposition of the sawyers, and one erected at Limehouse, in 1768,
was destroyed by a mob. North America is the home of sawmills, one having
l.eeii erected jn Maine iii li;:',i. •• Kncyc. Brit.," 1886, "Sawmills," by Hotch-
h.

i i 2

484 AUXILIARY FOREST INDUSTRIES.

German State forests, with few exceptions, been decided in
favour of the latter alternative. The State should not, how-
ever, hesitate to favour and support sawmills, as its interest
lies clearly in that direction. As, moreover, sawmills are
controlled sometimes by forest-owners, especially private
owners of large forests, and it is desirable that foresters
should possess some knowledge of their mode of construction
and management, a general account of them is included in this
book.

(a) Forest Sawmills.

1. Description.

The ordinary forest sawmill is characterised by its position
in a forest, its usually simple mode of construction, by being
driven by water-power and having as a rule only one blade to
a saw. It consists of three parts, the frame which moves up
and down with the saw, the travelling or butt carriage sup-
porting the logs, which are to be sawn, and mechanism for
setting both the above in motion.

The saw-blade a (Figs. 296, 297), is nearly vertical and fixed
in the frame bb, moving up and down with it between the
wooden slides ee ; below the frame is a pitman /, which is
attached to a crank g. Every revolution of the wheel B drives
the saw up-and-down by means of g. The cut is effected by
the downward stroke of the saw, the steep edges of the teeth
being pointed downwards. During the upward stroke, the butt
to be cut must be pushed forward against the saw. With this
object, the butt is placed on the carriage h, which consists of a
long, somewhat narrow, strong platform. The head-blocks P
and Fare dovetailed into the carriage at each of its extremities
and serve to hold the butt in position. The carriage is
pushed forward by means of a rack n, which is driven by the
pinion k of the cog-wheel L and the latter by the cog-wheel M,
on the axle of which another cog-wheel N is fixed and driven
by the ratchet q ; q is connected by a hinge with one of the
levers rr attached to a cylinder ?/, which is moved through part
of a rotation, and back again, by the motion of the other
lever r attached to the upper part b of the saw -inline.

SAWMILLS.

485

Thus every upward movement of the saw-frame forces q
against the wheel N, which is thus set slightly in motion and

iir

. — Fmvst sawmill driven by water-power.

communicates the motion through the cog-wheels M, L, kt
and pushes forward the butt-carriage and the butt against the

486

AUXILIARY FOREST INDUSTRIES.

saw. At the downward motion of the saw-frame, the
ratchet q is drawn backwards, catching a cog in A7 when the
saw is at its greatest height and again forcing N round at the

;. 297. — Forest sawmill driven by water-power.

next down stroke of the saw. U is the water-wheel which
drives the saw, the small water-wheel W being used to drive
back the butt-carriage when the butt has been sawn through.

SAWMILLS. 487

H is an iron fly-wheel which regulates the motion of the
machinery.

As soon as the butt has been sawn through its entire length,
the butt-carriage is pushed back as far as it will go, and the
butt adjusted for a second cut and so on, till it has been
completely sawn into planks.

Recently, many forest sawmills have been improved* in
various ways; some of them, however, are still sadly wanting
in this respect. The improvements are directed mainly to
improving the outturn of sawmills, both in quantity and
quality. The most important of these are the material of
which the machinery is constructed ; the mode of suspending
the saw-blade ; its form and the nature of the teeth (their
thickness, shape and set) ; the movement of the carriage and
the mode of fastening the butt on to it ; the rapidity of the
saw, etc. Besides these points there are several others, so
that evidently there are at present many different kinds of
sawmills.

An efficient sawmill should utilise all the available water-
power, should yield a sufficiently large outturn of planks, the
latter being clean-cut; there should also be little waste of
wood and economical working should be ensured.

2. Material /W.

If all the parts of a sawmill are constructed of wood, they
must be very massive and hence require considerable motive
power; much friction is thus caused. The more, therefore,
iron is used instead of wood, the less these inconveniences are
felt ; on this account, the saw-frame and the guides between
which it slides as well as the wheels and driving mechanism
are made of iron in all new sawmills.

3. Mode of Suspension of the Sate.

As a rule, there is considerable resistance offered to the
down passage of the saw-blade by the butt. If the saw is

* See W. Kankelwitz, " Der Betrieb cler Sagemiihlen," Berlin bei Gartner,
iM'iL': .1. I). Dominikus, •' Das illustrirte Handbuch fiir Siigemiiller und Hand-
Bager," Remacheid-Vieringhacuen, 1889-90, 2nd ed., is'.H.

488 AUXILIARY FOREST INDUSTRIES.

suspended vertically, the first tooth of the saw which strikes
the butt would do all the work in sawing, the other teeth
passing uselessly through the cut made by it. In order then
to divide the work equally among the teeth and afford room
for the butt to come forward during the up- stroke of the saw,
the crank gives a forward motion to the blade in its downward
cutting stroke and a retreating motion as it rises from the
cut. The distance by which the topmost overhangs the lowest
tooth is termed the slope of the saw. On this depends the
cleanness of the cut.

4. Kind of Teeth Used.

The most usual mode of construction of the teeth is that
shown in Fig. 298, the cutting side of the teeth being some-
what out of the horizontal line. Fig. 299 shows the old

Fig. 298. — Usual form of teeth. Fig. 299.— Old form of teeth.

German pattern of teeth which is still sometimes employed.
The area of the teeth is usually in a ratio 1 : 2 to that of the
spaces between them, but in the case of saws used throughout
the year for sawing coniferous wood, this ratio may be as low
as 1 : 3.

5. Thickness of Blade.

It is highly important for saws to have a proper thickness
of blade. Too thick a blade wastes much wood and motive
power, for the latter must be greater the more sawdust is
produced and the broader the cut. When, however, a stronger
motive power is used the tension of the blade must be greater,
this involves a heavier frame and increased strength in all
the other parts of the mill. All this causes increased resist-
ance and friction. Too thin a blade, on the contrary, is not
sufficiently stiff, easily gets heated, its tension becomes slack
and it then cuts in a wavy manner ; it may also fail to cut
through hard knots or annual zones in the wood.

SAWMILLS. 489

Saws for hardwoods and for resinous, knotty wood of many
conifers should be thicker than those used for soft, clean-
grained coniferous wood free from knots. For blades of
moderate length 1£ to 2J mm. may be considered the best
thickness for saws. Saw-blades are made now even thinner
than this, while formerly blades 5J to 7 mm. thick were used.
Thin blades give a cleaner cut than thick ones. A good blade
should also thin off towards its back. From average annual
results recorded in the Harz mountains, it appears that with
old thick saw-blades the saw-dust amounted to 10 or 11 per cent,
of the whole butt sawn, whilst with thin blades it is only 2j per
cent. There are, however, in the large coniferous forests, where
the price of wood is low, many sawmills where the loss of wood
still exceeds 12 per cent.

6. Set <>/' tin' Sate.

The extent of the set of the saws also influences the loss of
wood considerably. Setting facilitates sawing, but only at the
expense of the outturn, both in quantity and quality. Old-
fashioned saws working in wood of good quality usually have
a set of 0'75 to TOO of the thickness of the blade, causing the
werf to be often 7 mm. and more. Attempts have recently been
made either to dispense altogether with the set or reduce it as
much as possible.

7. Length <>/' ni<«le.

The length of the saw depends on the thickness of the butts
and on the play of the saw (i.e., double the length of the
crank g, Fig. 296). The shorter the blade the greater its
possible tension and the cleaner it cuts. The shortest length
possible is double the thickness of the largest butt which is to
be sawn. In a good sawmill this minimum should be exceeded
only slightly ; evidently the play of the saw must correspond
with this.

8. Mode of Fixing Butts on the Carriage.

The butt must be fixed firmly to the carriage, so that it
remains rigid while being sawn. Numerous contrivances have
been invented with this object in view.

490 AUXILIARY FOREST INDUSTRIES.

9. Hate of Motion of the Carriage.

The rate at which the butt-carriage moves towards the saw
must correspond with the rate of the saw and the depth of the
cut. The butt must not be too forward for the action of the
teeth ; in order, therefore, not to overtask the teeth, the butt
must advance less than the slope of the saw and size of the
teeth apparently permit. In most old sawmills the depth of
the cut is between 6 and 12 mm. ; in new ones between 30
and 36 mm. Instead of the old arrangement of the rack
and pinion feed, rollers are used, by means of which the work-
man has a far better control over the rate of progression of
the carriage.

10. Rate of Sawing.

The rate of sawing depends on — the relation of the amount
of motive power available to the mechanism in use; the
degree of resistance offered by the wood and of friction by the
saw during the sawing ; also the amount of play of the saw, for
the greater this is for a given motive power the less rapid is
the rate of sawing. In old saws the play of the saw was often
0*60 to 0'80 meters, with a moderate water-power and moder-
ately-sized butts 70 to 120 strokes were given in a minute.
When a return was made to short blades and the play was
reduced there was an increase in the number of strokes per
minute. Superior saws of new construction have a play of
0*30 to 0'50 m., and give on the average 200 strokes in a
minute. It should be noted also, that the more rapid the
sawing the greater the space left between the teeth of
the saw.

11. Economical Working.

The value of a sawmill depends also on economical con-
struction and labour. It is evident that simple forest sawmills
driven by water-power, in which only a small capital is
invested and where owing to their situation in the forest
transport -charges are minimised, can work cheaply and com-
pete with large sawmills which have more difficulty in securing
cheap raw material. As regards the quality of the planking,
however, which depends on the best mechanism, as a rule,

SAWMILLS. 491

the large mills are superior, owing to their smooth cut. [The
maintenance of State sawmills in French coniferous forests
depends on the wish of the Government to enable small timber
purchasers to compete with large sawmill owners, who would
otherwise have a monopoly. The State gives the use of a
conveniently situated sawmill as one of the conditions in the
sale of a lot of trees. The purchaser pays to the State a fixed
rate per square meter of wood sawn. — Tr.]

(b) Steam Sawmills.*

1. Frame-saws.

Although most of the sawmills which will be now described
are driven by steam, the use of water-power is not excluded ;
it must then be strong and steady so as to be suitable for
powerful turbines. Whilst forest sawmills usually work with
only one saw7, or at most two saws, steam sawmills are supplied
with a number of saws and other wood-working machines, so
that they can turn out wood completely ready for use in
buildings, etc. They differ chiefly from forest sawmills by
their enormous outturn and its better quality.

Besides differing from forest sawmills in these points and in
their motive power, steam sawmills also are constructed differ-
ently ; being formed completely of iron they are mora com-
pact, stronger, possess greater stability and work more evenly ;
friction is reduced to a minimum and they are much more
powerful. This greater power is utilised specially in steam
sawmills by there being several saws, up to 10, in the same
frame, all of which work at once ; a butt is thus sawn into
planks in one operation. These are termed multiple saws.
As regards the power required to drive multiple saws, it is
estimated that three horse-power is required for the empty
frame alone, one horse-power for the first four blades and for
every other blade half a horse-power. These saws are con-
structed on the same principle as ordinary saws, but mechanical

* An excellent account is given of modern American sawmills by Hotchkiss
in " Encyc. Brit.." issii, vol. xxi. Also see Worssam & Co.'s catalogue (King's
I load, Chelsea). Mathey, •' Exploitation Commerciale dcs Bois," vol. ii., 1906,
MI excellent detailed account of steam and water sawmills.

492

AUXILIARY FOREST INDUSTRIES.

improvements are introduced to increase their efficiency and

reduce the motive power required to drive them.

Figs. 300 and 301 represent one of the numerous kinds of

multiple saws from the
catalogue of Kircher & Co.,
of Leipzig. The frame,
which is generally driven
from below (A), runs very
smoothly in simple bear-
ings (a a) and may support
10 to 20 blades at suitable
distances. The blades are
usually fixed in the frame
by wedges. The butt to
be sawn is supported on
carriages (m m), one on
either side of the saw and
both running on a light
tramway, on which it is
firmly secured by iron dogs
(n n). Two pairs of remov-
able grooved iron rollers
(z z) above and below the
butt press it forwards
against the saw. As soon
as the butt has been sawn
through it is removed by
butt-carriages in front of
the saw, another butt is
then brought up from
behind into contact iwith
the saw. No time is lost,
, , as in forest sawmills, in

reversing the butt-carriage
while butts and logs of any

length may be sawn. Fig. 301 shows the same saw in

perspective.

In order to save time in sharpening the saws (which must

generally be done every 6 or 7 hours) the frame with the saws

SAWMILLS.

493

in it can be removed easily and another with freshly-sharpened
saws substituted.

The best steam saws have a play of 30 to 50 centimeters

o

Kjir. HOI. —Multiple snw.

(12 to 20 inches), giving 200 to 300 cuts a minute. For
sawing coniferous woods they have very thin blades with
scarcely any set ; they turn out planking, whenever a large
quantity of raw material is available, at rates scarcely dearer.

494

AUXILIARY FOREST INDUSTRIES.

than ordinary forest saws. It should be noted also that saw-
mill engines are often driven by burning sawdust and refuse

Fig. 302. — Transportable sawmill.

wood instead of coal, this being rendered possible by the use
of special furnaces.

Besides fixed sawmills, transportable frame-saws, termed in
America pony-saws, are now employed. Fig. 303 shows their
mode of construction : they are on wheels and are driven by a
belt from a locomobile ; they are valuable in forestry from the

Fig. Ho:-$. — Transportable sawmill.

fact that it is more natural to transport saws to the forest,
than wood in bulk from the forest to the sawmills.

California is at present ahead of all other countries in saw-
mills, not only in constructive ingenuity, but also in the use of

SAWMILLS. 495

mechanism to replace manual labour in working the mills. As
the question there is one of entirely clearing the forests of
wood, for which purpose tramways are constructed expressly
and penetrate every year deeper into the forests, it is evidently
business-like to set up pony-saws in the midst of the forest ;
nowhere therefore are various kinds of pony-saws more the
order of the day than in California. They work generally
with circular saws.

2. Circular S«irs.

Circular SHAYS consist of a circular thin steel blade furnished
at its rim with a continuous row of teeth and capable of rapid
rotation round a horizontal axis. These saws are vertical, and
only about 5 of their area is available for work.

Circular saws require a comparatively low motive power;
their dimensions vary considerably from 8 in. to 4 feet (0'20 to
l'20m.) diameter, whilst the thickness of the blade varies from
1 to 3*5 mm. A moderate-sized circular saw moves, at its
circumference, at the rate of 50 to 65 feet (15 to 20 m.) a second,
for hardwood and (>5 to 100 feet (15 to 30 mm.) for softwood.

The commonest uses of circular saws are as follows :—

i. Large circular saws for removing side-pieces from beams,
thus replacing much tedious work with the adze. Although
this can be done also by frame-saws, yet the circular saw is
often preferred, as it works the more quickly of the two. By
means of mechanism, the log resting on rollers moves automa-
tically towards the saw.

ii. Large saws for cutting butts into planking; these are
generally used after the butts have been sawn in half by
frame-saws. Circular saws are used much more commonly
for this purpose in America than in Europe.

[Where driven by engines of from 25 to 100 horse-power,
the circular sawmill will turn out 20,000 to 60,000 feet a day
in addition to running double-edge and trimming saws, trim-
ming off the rough edges and bad ends of the lumber.* — Tr.]

iii. Double-edging circular saws for edging planks and boards
consist of two saws on the same axis, the distance between
them being capable of adjustment. They feed by rollers.

* " Encyc. Brit.,'' USSii, vol. xxi., p. :<45.

496 AUXILIARY FOREST INDUSTRIES.

iv. Saws for laths resemble the above, but there are 3 to 5
blades on the same axis, which cut up planks into laths or
other scantling.

v. Ordinary circular saws, used for sawing planks into thin
boards, such as those used for cigar-boxes, packing-cases,
staves, etc. The wood may either be pushed by hand along a
bench to the saw, or automatic feed may be adopted.

vi. Another form of circular saw is used for shortening
logs, removing bad ends of planks, refuse wood, etc. These
saws may be either fixed or transportable.*

3. Band-Saws.

A band-saw is a long thin flexible steel ribbon uniting to
form a belt and bearing teeth on one side. It passes above
and below over two large pulleys, the lower pulley driving the
saw, while the upper one is driven by it. Thus, like the
circular saw, the band-saw cuts continuously, and also either
vertically or horizontally.

Band-saws require 25 to 40 % less motive power than
circular saws, the friction caused is also less and very little
waste of wood is caused, saving 20 % compared with other
saws. They yield smooth and fine scantling.

Band-saws were first used in small work, either with a fixed
or movable table, and especially for cutting along curved
lines. More recently they have been used for sawing large
butts (Fig. 304) and are now ousting frame-saws for this and
other purposes, especially in America, where the band-saw is
considered the saw of the future and can turn out 40,000 feet
in a day.

Machine-saws for felling trees have been described already
(p. 181).

4. Saws for cutting Veneer and thin Boards.

Veneer- saws differ from other frame-saws by working
horizontally with their teeth pointed downwards. The wood
to be sawn is fixed in a vertical frame, the feed being of an
ordinary nature, except that it is from below upwards.

* For a good description of an American sawmill, r'n/f " Kiir\c. lint.." vol. xxi.

SAWMILLS.

497

Veneers are sawn from planks of valuable wood, that are
frequently glued to ordinary coniferous planks and then
placed in the frame. The valuable wood can be sawn entirely

Fig. 304.— Band-saw.

into veneer without any waste, the thinnest veneers sawn
being 7 to a centimeter. Drum-saws have been invented
recently for sawing curved staves for barrels.

5. Outturn and Assortment of Scnun Material.

The outturn from sawmills and the sorting of the material
can be discussed here only in a very general way, so far as it
concerns foresters.

F.U. K K

498 AUXILIARY FOREST INDUSTRIES.

[It is best to begin by defining the different kinds of boards
according to the English market :

Boards 7 inches broad are battens

9 „ „ „ deals

11 „ „ „ planks.— Tr.]

When the logs are sawn into boards, there is a wastage of
30 to 50 % in wood free from sapwood, so that one hundred
cubic feet of sawn material comes from 166 cubic feet of
timber in the round, or 100 cubic feet of round timber yields
60 cubic feet of planking ; in planks of the best quality, the
outturn is only 30 to 40 %. The wastage is least in beams and
large squared pieces, more for planks and most of all for
battens free from sapwood and pith.

In assorting sawn timber the most important points are :
soundness, dimensions, knottiness, coarseness and fineness
of sawing, squareness of section; whether the boards are
of the same breadth at either end or are slightly conical, also
whether the bole or the top of the tree has been sawn.
Besides these, the nature of the timber, quality of grain,
straight or torse fibre, colour and finish must be considered.
The parts of the bole between the pith and sapwood yield
the best boards, while the central board is the worst, and
contains usually a number of small hard knots. Of knots,
loose ones reduce quality greatly, while sound firm knots
are less injurious. The length of boards depends on local
custom, but their value increases always with their breadth.

As regards the storing of boards from freshly-felled steins
they should be left lying one on another for a short time after
the sawing in order to prevent warping ; then they should be
stacked vertically for a few days against a horizontal bar with
supports. This allows much sap to run out. They should
then be placed in rectangular stacks, raised from the ground
on supports, each board being separated from its neighbours
by a small piece of wood, so as to allow complete aeration.
Oak planks should not be placed one on the other as they \\viv
in the log, but on their edges and apart. Only after a few
months should they be stacked, as they were in the log, with
pieces of wood between adjoining planks. In large stacks a

WOOD-WORKING MACHINES.

499

slight inclination to the horizontal should be given, so as to
allow the rainwater to drain off.

SECTION II. OTHER WOOD-WORKING MACHINES.

1. Veneer-plane*.

For a number of years veneer planes have been used instead
of saws for cutting veneer. There are two kinds of machines
used, one cutting straight and the other spirally. In the
former, either the horizontal G-foot blade is fixed and the wood
pushed under it, or the
wood is fixed and the blade
works over it, the veneer
coming off of the thickness
of paper. With spiral
machines, the wood is in.
cylinders and is fixed in
a lathe and turned slowly
on its axis. The sharp
blade acts tangentially on
the wood and keeps cut-
ting in deeper, until the
veneer is pulled off in one
long piece from the cylinder

that is reduced gradually

,_ ® J, Fig. 305.— Plessis' machine.

in size. The thickness of

the veneer can easily be as low as 0'25 mm., so that there are
40 widths in a centimeter of wood.

[A machine for cutting thin boards was invented in 1875
by Leon Plessis,* the action of which may be understood from
Fig. 305 ; (a) is the cutting blade, 3 or 4 meters long,
fastened to a frame (b) ; (c) regulates the thickness of the cut
pieces of wood, which may vary from 2 to 20 mm. The
greatest thickness which can be cut is 2 centimeters, supply-
ing boards for cigar-boxes, packing-cases, etc. The instrument
slides up and down in a vertical frame, a piece of wood being
cut at each down stroke, and the butt, which is being cut,

* Societe Franchise de tranchage de bois, 4, Passage Charles Dallery, Tan's.

K K 2

500 AUXILIARY FOREST INDUSTRIK

advances through a space equal to the thickness of the

ion at each up-stroke. The cutting part of the machine

jhs 6 tons. The butts cut are as long as the cutting-blade,

and are steamed previously, the wood being chiefly softwoods,

such as poplar or alder. This process yields 30 or 40 sheets

to the inch, while sawing veneers yields only about 12 sheets.

The pieces when cut are pressed dry by hot rollers ; then

they are replaced consecutively so as to reproduce the form of

the butt from which they were cut, when they are fastened

•her and kept ready for use.

This machine is driven by 20 horse-power and cuts in a
minute 20 pieces, 3 meters long and of any thickness up to
2 c. It can cut 30,000 square feet of boards in a day.* — Tr.]

2. Planmg-Machine*.

llaning-machines consist of rapidly rotating, narrow7, steel
cylinders up to a meter in length on which several removable
blades of the same length as the cylinder are fixed and they
plane the pieces of wood that are pushed forward under the
cylinder. I'lnnes of this kind are now constructed, either to
plane smoothly, or to cut mouldings in the wood. There are
;il~o phtning-rnachines that plane four sides of a piece of wood
ace, In this way wood is prepared for door and window
frames, for parquets, for picture-frames, etc., and such pieces
an: seni ively into the market by forest-owners in

Sweden.

3. Wood-turning M whines.

Wood-turning machines of various patterns are used to cut
curves in wood, as in the legs of chairs, etc. The cutter
the form of a spindle with spiral or angular blades.

4. Wood-wool Machines.

These are planing-machines in which the plane is fixed and

< < ' <>f coniferous, poplar or limewood is pushed against

it, or the piano moves over the wood that is fixed. The

culling e<l</e is movable and of various dimensions, so that

pieces ol wood run be cut of different six<

* P.oppc. iijt. i-it.

WOOD- WORKING MACHi: 501

hints.

e are constructed similarly to the above-mentioned
machines, only there are a number of circular planes fixed
close together on a flat ed-_ ier the wood is pressed

against the planes or the latter against the wood; round
rods or threads are produced of the same diameter as the
planes, and of the same length as the piece of wood.

6. Wood-bending Machine*.

alrea<r I (p. 96) wood becomes pliable when

moistened and heated. Steamed or boiled wood when dried
ins the shape that is given to it. Manual labour suffices
to bend small pieces of wood, but large pieces for wheel-
felloes or for curved wood used in ships and barges are bent
by machines. As in bending wood the fibres on the outer
convex side are stretched and may break, precaution is taken
to bend the wood rather by shortening the inner fibres than
hing the outer ones. The piece of wood is therefore
fixed along a thin piece of steel between two strong bent iron
clamps at its transverse ends. The wood is then pressed
against a cylindrical surface, so that both wood and steel are
bent, the steel preventing the stretching and breaking of the
wood-fibres.

'-pressing Machines.

Cast brazen dies are pressed into wood by a strong iron press,
wood is boiled or steamed, or the dies are heated by red-
hot irons. Wood can be pressed more easily on its transverse
section, than tangentially or radially. A piece of veneer is
glued on to the surface of the wood before it is pressed, so that
it may be imagined that the wood is curved and not pressed.
If pieces of veneer 3 mm. thick are pressed between two
slightly undulating iron plates, the undulations in which fit
into one another, wavy wood, or curls, may be imitated. When
this wood is planed, imitations of mottled wood are produced
completely resembling the structure shown in Fig.

8. Wood-pulping Machines.

There are two kinds of these machines, one in which the
surface of the wood is rubbed or planed away, and th:

502 AUXILIARY FOREST INDUSTRIES.

done usually by manual labour. In the other kind of
machine the wood is cut up into wood-pulp for paper manu-
facture. By the former method the wood in cylinders 10 to 25
cm. in diameter and varying in length, of aspen, lime or
spruce, is barked and cut into pieces about a foot long ; it is
then split and all knots bored out of it. Then the pieces are
pressed against a rotating stone under a steady flow of water,
the coarser fragments are sifted off and separately reduced to
pulp, and the fine pulp freed from superfluous water and
pressed into its marketable shape. This is white pulp of the
same colour as the wood.

If, before grinding, the wood is steamed at a pressure of
2 to 6 atmospheres or boiled, brown pulp is produced, which
has longer fibres than white pulp ; after adding glue, clay,
etc., it is used for brown paper for packing purposes. The
first wood-pulping machines were constructed in Heidenheim
by Volter ; they require a considerable flow of water, both
for power and for the purposes of manufacture. There are
now 700 pulp-factories in Germany, which use annually one
million solid cubic meters of word (35,000,000 cubic feet).

Besides the more important wood-working machines there
are a number of others used for special purposes, such as
mortising and turning machines, and oscillating augers for
boring holes of various dimensions. Among the splitting
machines those for reducing the size of firewood billets are
employed extensively in large towns.

B. TREATMENT FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF
WOOD.*

SECTION I. IMPROVEMENT IN APPEARANCE AND QUALITY.
1. Improvement in Tc.Hure.

The woods of many species, e.g., lime, birch, alder and
conifers, are not ornamental, but the method described on
p. 501 can be adopted to render them so.

* II. StiibliMjj. ••Tcrlmisrlirr l!utp>l>ci' ;iut' dcin (u'lnrtc <lrr I lol/.in.lust rir."
Ldp/ig, 11)01.

IMPROVING THE APPEARANCE OF WOOD. 503

The texture of valuable woods is imitated by stamping on
soft woods the characteristic marks of good woods, by means
of hot cylinders or plates on which these marks are embossed.
They cut grooves in the wood resembling sections of wood-
vessels, so that alder or beech wood may imitate Cedrcla
odi'rata for cigar-box wood. The texture also may be
imitated by graining, in which a ground-work of oil colour is
made, first, by laying on two coats of a colour lighter than
that of the wood to be imitated, and then, with a kind of
comb, or a fine paint brush, the veins, etc., are painted with
turpentine coloured to match them. Thus walnut is imitated
from alder and beech, mahogany from cherry-wood, rosewood
from sycamore, oakwood from spruce, pine or silver-fir. A
finer texture is obtained by branding.

The best means of improving the texture of wood is by the
use of veneer, when softwood is covered by thin sheets of
a valuable wood. This cannot be called a falsification, for
veneering involves cheapness, reduction in weight, and pre-
vents warping. The woods of spruce, pines, silver-fir, limes, and
poplars are used as the substratum (Blindholz), whilst finely
textured and coloured walnut, mahogany, rosewood, bird's-eye
maple, ash curls or oak serve as veneer. By special arrange-
ment of the markings on the veneer, symmetrical figures are
produced that heighten greatly the beauty of the work. The
adjoining surfaces of the blind-wood and veneer are roughened
carefully with a special plane and the former covered with
glue on which the veneer is pressed. This plane has a row of
pointed teeth, instead of a flat cutting edge.

2. Improvement in Colour.

There are numerous materials for improving the colour of
wood. Thus bleaching is effected by destroying the colour-
ing-matter in wood by various chemicals that are rich in
oxygen, such as hydrogen peroxide and ammonia, sodium
or barium peroxides with oxalic acid, or silicates of alkalis ;
also with calcium-chloride and solutions of soda or potash.
Staining is done to give a fashionable colour to inferior wood,
cither by imitating the colours of exotic woods, or even

504 AUXILIARY FOREST INDUSTRIES.

colours that do not occur naturally. If the wood is to be
coloured superficially only, it is sufficient to paint it with the
stain. If it is to be stained throughout, as is necessary for
wood-mosaics, apparatus are used similar to those impreg-
nating wood with antiseptics. Staining does not obliterate
the texture of the wood.

Brown stains are used for imitating oak and walnut wood,
or to give these woods the appearance of antiquity. Beech,
birch, hornbeam, spruce and silver-fir take brown colours well.
The staining matter is extract of the husks of walnut, Cassel
brown, catechu, manganese peroxide, potassium chromate,
gallic acid, extract of tar, etc. Black stains are used to
imitate ebony, the wood of the pear-tree, lime, hornbeam and
holly being suitable. Certain salts of anilin yield a black dye.
[A simple method is to brush the wood over with a strong
solution of sulphuric acid and water, also by boiling 1 Ib. of
logwood with J Ib. Brazil wood for 1J hours in a gallon of
water and brushing the wood several times with the hot
solution. — Tr.J Red stains are used to imitate mahogany,
maple, ash, birch, alder and beech being suitable woods ;
alkanet (Alkanna tinctoria), cochineal and anilin dyes are used.
Green and yellow stains are made from verdigris and anilin.
Blue with indigo and anilin dyes.

Painting wood increases its durability, excludes moisture,
prevents warping and conceals all its defects. Wood-paints are
produced by pounding lime and coloured substances such as
white lead, chalk, yellow ochre, verdigris, Prussian blue, red
lead, chrome red, lampblack, etc., with oil, lac, varnish (alcohol
or turpentine, with sandarac (gum of CaUitris quadriralris),
mastic or lac). Before applying the paint, the wood should
be prepared by filling its pores and unevennesses with putty.

It may be noted that in Japan, pale birchwood is cut so
that yellow and red specks and stripes, due to fungi, appear,
and this improves the colour of the wood, which is then used
for turnery.

3. Improvement in Lnxtrc.

Polishing gives wood a permanent bright lustre, renders its
texture clear, excludes humidity and prevents warping and

IMPROVING THE QUALITY OF WOOD. 505

cracks. Solutions of lac or of Manilla copal in alcohol are
rubbed on the wood. Oak parquet floors are rubbed with
beeswax to make them shine. Lacquering is used for inferior
furniture, by rubbing it with solutions of copal, sandarac,
mastic in alcohol or turpentine ; or with that of copal in
linseed oil, this dries slowly but affords the most permanent
lacquer. Japanese lacquering, famed for its durability, is
effected by means of the latex of nhns rernidjern. Woods of
Chamaecyparis and Ma</ii<>Ua are the substrata of the best
Japanese lacquered work. Cryptomrriii wood is used chiefly
for inferior goods that are exported to Europe or America.

4. Improvement in Hardness.

This may be effected either by hardening or by first
softening the wood. The fibres of the wood are softened by
boiling the wood in water, or better by steaming it under
pressure ; if before steaming it, the wood (e.g. beech wood)
is steeped in dilute hydrochloric acid, it becomes, after being
steamed, so soft and plastic that it can be pressed into -J-th of
its original volume. Boiling wood in saturated solutions of
calcium-chloride also renders it soft and plastic. Wood
may be hardened if it is painted with soluble- glass, or better
still, if it is impregnated with soluble-glass by pneumatic
pressure. Impregnation of wood with caustic potash or soda
renders it highly resistant to atmospheric influences.

5. Increasing the Weight of Wood.

If increasing the weight of wood could improve its economic
value, it would be quite easy to effect this, but whenever the
weight and durability of wood is increased by impregnating
it, the extra weight is an accompaniment that is burden-
some in commerce, so that there can be no advantage in
increasing the weight of the wood unless some other advantage
is secured. A reduction in the weight of wood is attainable
and advantageous only as long as it contains water. Once
wood is dry, its weight can be reduced only by destroying its
substance. Hence, where lightness is desirable, softwood
instead of hardwood should be chosen, or the lightest oak-

506 AUXILIARY FOREST INDUSTRIES.

wood instead of heavy oakwood, or veneered softwood instead
of massive hardwood.

6. Improvements in Hygroscopicity.

In order to counteract as far as possible the evils of the
varying humidity of wTood, such as warping, cracking, swelling
and contracting, the following remedial measures are available.

To prevent air-cracks and heartshake in logs, it has been
recommended that trees before they are felled may be barked
to a height of one meter and not felled until they are dead.
The leaves then pump out much water from the stern.
E. Hartig has, however, shown that the leaves die before the
stem has lost a third of its contained water. Even the girdling
of a tree down to the heartwood, which kills conifers in a few
weeks, does not kill broadleaved trees till 1 to 3 years, so that
in this experiment, as well as in that of leaving the crown
with its foliage on a felled tree, the leaves dry up long before
the stem has become appreciably dry. These practices, which
appear so plausible and easy, have appeared in literature for
more than a century ; they were recommended even by Pliny.

Better remedies may be tried after a tree has been felled,
such as partial barking the tree along the stem in pieces of a
hand's width, or the removal of the bark in a spiral up the
stem so as to delay the drying and the formation of cracks.

In order to prevent star-shake at the base of a log, paper
may be glued on. Paper is glued on to all the surfaces of
valuable exotic balks ; pieces of bark may be nailed on ; on
pieces of thin planks of wood, grease may be laid, or carbo-
lineum, wax, clay, petroleum, linseed oil, tar, rabelka (sebasate
of alumina), soluble-glass; or S-shaped clamps driven into the
wood. It is generally believed, that by washing out the soluble
salts, plasma and sap of wood, not only its durability is
increased, but also cracking is prevented and warping reduced.
Hence floating, rafting, boiling and steaming are recommended.

Impregnating wood with various substances is a good pre-
servative against warping, although the chief object is to
render it more durable. Thorough desiccation of the wood
is highly effective. Formerly this was secured by storing the

IMPROVING THE QUALITY OF WOOD. 507

wood for years in airy places, where the wood was kept first
in the open and exposed to moisture from the air, then in
shady, dry chambers and finally in heated ones. At present
there is not usually space enough for this, and the process
is too costly, so that wood is sold either unseasoned or is
seasoned artificially. Artificial seasoning is employed
extensively in America. In Zappert's method of seasoning
wood, planks, boards, laths, etc., are exposed to air heated to
30° C. (59° F.), while an exhauster removes the damn air;
in this way dry softwoods become dry in 6 to 8 days, hard-
woods in 12 to 15 days, without exhibiting cracks or any
deterioration in colour, elasticity, etc. If the air is also rare-
lied, according to SchafYenius, the desiccation is more rapid.
Wood may also be placed to dry in dry, line sand, charcoal-
dust or powdered pe;it. Wood intended for water-pipes is
plunged in water in order to prevent cracking. After the
wood is dried thoroughly, a coating of oil, paint, varnish, lac or
polish, protects it from moisture, as has been described already.
Warping may be prevented also, by constructing articles of
small pieces of wood, which are fastened together (billiard
cues, parquetry, drawing-boards), or spaces are left to allow
for expansion (door-panels, wooden ceilings, etc.), or species
of wood are selected that are known to be only slightly absorptive
of water.

7. Incrr<(8<> in

The pliability of wood is increased by means of moisture
and heat. Bent furniture is made of steamed wood, so are
felloes of wheels and curved planks in carriage-making and
ship-building.

8. Increase in Durability.

There are numerous ways of increasing the durability of
wood ; some of them can be employed before a tree is felled.
That girdling the lower part of a stem, or felling it with its
crown of foliage, are not effectual has been stated already
(p. 506). E. Mer recommends that a ring of bark should be
removed immediately under the crown, not in order to dry
the stem, but that the latter may be deprived of its sugar and

508 AUXILIARY FOREST INDUSTRIES.

starch by the new foliage, whilst freshly formed carbohy-
drates cannot descend the stem ; this is said to increase the
durability of the wood. The question whether wood felled in
summer or in winter is the more durable has been discussed
since the time of Pliny (cf. p. 102). Of much greater import-
ance, however, than the season of felling is the subsequent
treatment of the wood (during conversion, seasoning or trans-
port) and the kind of weather that prevails at the time of
felling. As regards the latter, autumn and winter are probably
the most favourable felling-periods.

Every precaution taken to secure thorough desiccation and
to prevent the wood from again becoming wet (cf. p. 6) increase
its durability. Slow desiccation of coniferous wood must
increase its durability, as more rosin becomes injected naturally
into the heartwood and less of the volatile turpentine evapo-
rated. Councler considers that when wood is steeped in
running water or floated, its soluble contents are removed and
that this favours durability. This can be the case only when
the wood, after removal from the water, is dried thoroughly.
Steaming wood has a similar effect when it is dried after being
steamed.

When wood is used under conditions unfavourable for its
durability, those species should be selected that are highest in
the scale of durability on page 100 of this book ; as the sap-
wood is not durable it should be removed always. The surface
of posts and piles in contact with the ground may be charred,
which should be done by applying a blast flame to it, as placing
the wood in an open fire cracks it and exposes it to the attacks
of insects and fungi, or to the inhibition of rain-water. The
tops of posts can be sheltered from rain by nailing on them
plates of copper or zinc, a measure that is also protective for
the wood-work at sea-ports against teredos, etc.

Impregnating wood with antiseptic substances is to be
recommended. An extensive literature has appeared on this
subject owing to the great interest in railway and mining
works, street-paving, etc., and to the desire of forest-owners,
that woods which are naturally of slight durability only IIIMV
ohhiin ji better market. The next section will deal with this
subject as far as is necessary for Forest Utilisation.

ANTISEPTIC TREATMENT OF WOOD. 509

SECTION II. — ANTISEPTIC TREATMENT OF WOOD.

I. Methods for Converting the Decomposible Constituents

of Wood into Antiseptics.

According to Renews process at Stettin, the wood is dried
by hot air in a closed chamber; after the air has been
exhausted, oxygen is admitted into the chamber. The oxygen
that is absorbed by the wood is converted by intermittent
electric sparking into ozone, by means of which the readily
decornposible constituents in the wood are oxidised into
terpenes and creosotes.

Haskins' process* consists in placing the wood in cylindrical
waggons into an iron boiler 6J feet in diameter and 112 feet
long (Fig. 309). After the boiler has been closed, air heated
to 300 to 500° C. is pumped into it for several hours, after
which the pressure is removed and the wood allowed to cool.
Owing to the high temperature, sugar, gum, tannin, protein
and starch are converted into the antiseptics, acetic acid,
methyl alcohol, phenol, creosote, etc. ; these substances
amount to 12 per cent, of the weight of the wood. The pro-
cess is termed Haskinisation, or Vulcanisation, and has given
good results on the Manhattan Railway, New York.

II. Methods for Removing the Easily Decomposible,
Soluble Constituents of Wood, and replacing them
by an Antiseptic Substance.

1. Materials used for Injection.

A number of substances have been known for a long time
that render wood durable, such as resin, essential oils,
camphor, tannic acid, acetic acid, heavy tar-oil (creosote) ;
also several salts, as green, white and blue vitriol (sulphates
of iron, zinc, and copper), chlorides of iron, zinc, mercury or
magnesia, Glauber's salt (sodium-sulphate), common salt, etc.
Only a few of them are, however, applicable on a large scale,

* According to Grady, " Rev. des Eaux et Forets," 1896, Mayer has the prior
claim to this invention.

510 AUXILIARY FOREST INDUSTRIES.

and of these the following are at present in the front rank :—
sulphate of copper, chlorides of zinc or mercury, heavy tar-
oils (creosote) and milk of lime. There are also a few other
substances the use of which is still only in the experimental
stage.

Injection with sulphate of copper (blue vitriol) was employed
in France on a large scale first by Boucherie, and has been
used extensively since 1841 for building-timber, railway-
sleepers and telegraph-poles. Formerly this method was
used extensively by railway-companies in France, Austria,
and Bavaria ; this is no longer the case, though it is still
employed here and there for telegraph-poles, stakes and other
small pieces of timber exposed to decay. Wood injected with
sulphate of copper is harder than wood in its natural condition,
but is rendered more brittle and weaker by the process.

[The salt also is washed out of the wood easily and it
reacts on all iron with which it may come in contact, so that
iron-fastenings applied to wood so treated must be galvanised,
or coated with zinc, and the wood tarred at the points of
contact. — Tr.]

Sir W. Burnett, in 1838, patented a process of injection by
means of chloride of zinc, which is at present used in many
German, Austrian and American railways. Chloride of zinc is
one of the cheapest antiseptic substances, and recent experience
has proved that it is preferable to sulphate of copper.

[Chloride of zinc does not corrode iron but is said to be
washed out by water ; to prevent this the Wellhouse * process
has been invented in America. Glue is added to the solution,
which is forced into the timber, and subsequently a solution
of tannin is pumped into the injecting chamber, at a pressure
of 100 Ibs. to the square inch, forming with the glue a leathery
substance which fills the pores of the wood and prevents the
washing out of the zinc chloride. — Tr.]

The use of chloride of mercury (corrosive sublimate) was
patented in 1832 by the Englishman Kyan as a preservative
for timber.

[Kyanising was for some time used extensively in Britain,
and is useful in dry situations but useless in sea-water ;

* "Engineer," Sopt 11, IS'Jl.

ANTISEPTIC TREATMENT OF WOOD. 511

corrosive sublimate being a strong poison has also the draw-
back of injuring the workmen who are employed in handling
it ; it also corrodes iron and is somewhat volatile at ordinary
temperatures. — Tr.]

Creosoting with heavy oils from coal-tar is employed chiefly
in Britain, and is now being used increasingly in France,
Germany and other countries ; although the method of injec-
tion now employed is capable of improvement, it is undoubtedly
superior to injection by metallic salts. Creosoted wood is
hard, tough and black, much less absorptive of moisture than
uncreosoted wood, and does not form chemical combinations
with metals. On the Emperor Ferdinand Railway, in Austria,
a mixture of chloride of zinc and carbolic acid is being used
with good results.

Ely the at Bordeaux injects wood with steam containing
tar-oils. [Boulton considers that no good can result from
this, the light oils being too volatile to remain long in the
timber; on the other hand, the injection of heavy oils in
the form of vapour is prevented by their high boiling point
ranging from 400° to 760° F., while timber is rendered
brittle and unsafe for engineering purposes at a temperature
of 250° F.— Tr.]

Stuart Monteith first used milk of lime to fill the pores of
timber; this method has been reintroduced by Frank and
is useful for preserving furniture and other woodwork under
cover, but its utility is doubtful for wood in the open.

2. Methods of Injection.

The method of injecting wood by the various substances
already referred to is as influential on the result as the anti-
septic substance itself. The most important methods are : —
hydrostatic injection, pneumatic injection, imbibition by
immersing or boiling the wood in solutions of the antiseptic
substances.

(a) Hydrostatic injection. — At first the antiseptic liquids
were absorbed by the natural force of the foliage raising the
sap, incisions being made with this object at the base of the
stem of a standing tree. This method was abandoned owing to
its impracticability [and the fact that the foliage exerts only an

512

AUXILIARY FOREST INDUSTRIES.

upward pressure equivalent to that of 10 or 12 feet of
water.* — Tr.] Boucherie discovered that a pressure of one
or two atmospheres applied at the transverse section of a
log is sufficient to expel the sap and replace it by another
liquid.

Stems or poles, with their bark intact, are placed nearly

Fig. 306. — Boucherie's method of injection.

horizontally (Fig. 306, a, a) on a timber framework; the
liquid (1 part sulphate of copper to 100 parts of water) flows
from a vat I, which is supported on a trestle 26 to 32 feet
high, passing by the pipe in into the conducting tube n under
the ends of the logs, it enters the logs through the gutta-
percha tubes p, each tube having a separate tap. In order
to prevent the liquid from escaping by the anterior section
of a log, a piece of hempen rope is placed round its periphery

ANTISEPTIC TREATMENT OF WOOD.

513

and a board (d, d, Fig. 307) placed over the rope and pressed
firmly against the log by a press h and two tension screws
and nuts. The section of the log, the board d and the piece
of rope placed in a ring between them, enclose a hollow space
with which the gutta-percha tube communicates by means of an
oblique auger-hole bored in the log. The solution of sulphate of
copper flowing from the vat d, with a pressure due to its height
above the ground, is therefore driven into the log and expels
most of the sap, which issues from the smaller end of the
log, at first pure but eventually mixed with the injecting
solution. This waste liquid flows into a wooden trough s,

:'.'»7.— Method by injection.

and then is conducted to the tank K, which is provided with
a filter to exclude impurities [and also a basket full of crystals
of the injecting substance in order to maintain the strength
of the solution — Tr.] . The liquid in K is then pumped back
into the vat b by the pump w. Instead of forming the hollow
space at the base of the log by means of a piece of rope,
Oesau used a metallic vessel like a round, shallow box, the
sides of which are sharpened so that they can be driven into
the base of the log with a few blows of a hammer, whilst
there is an orifice in the base of the box into which the tube p
is screwed.

[Boppe states that long logs in France are injected by being
sawn nearly across at their middle (Fig. 308), so that a

F.U. L L

514

AUXILIARY FOREST INDUSTRIES.

thickness of only 1 \ to 2 inches of wood is left below, then the
log is raised by levers, and a piece of rope inserted in the
opening. On removing the levers, the log returns to its former
position, and the cut closes tightly on the rope ; an auger-hole
is bored obliquely through the log into this hollow space, and
the gutta-percha tube placed in it as before. — Tr.]

Fig. 308. — French method of injection. After Boppe.

Wood to be thus injected should be freshly cut, and still
full of sap. Stems therefore are topped, branches cut down
to short snags, the bark left uninjured and the injecting
process applied as soon as possible. If the base of a log lias
dried it should be cut again freshly before being injected.
Logs kept in water for a long time preserve the faculty of
being injected.

[The free ends of the logs are tested, either by their colour

ANTISEPTIC TREATMENT OF WOOD. 515

or by a chemical test, to ascertain when the injection is
sufficient. — Tr.]

In order to inject logs satisfactorily by Boucherie's process,
a long time (up to 70 hours) and a large timber-yard are
required. The injected logs are dried slowly and as thoroughly
as possible, then they are barked and converted.

When freshly felled stems are injected, the bark must be
preserved completely or the injecting liquid will escape. If,
however, they have been kept for about three months, the pre-
servation of the bark is not material, as the sapwood dries for
a few centimeters down and becomes impermeable for liquids.

Another improved method based on that of Boucherie is
that carried out by Pfister.* Instead of pressure due to a
fall of about 30 feet, Pfister used a portable forcing-pump
producing a pressure up to 20 atmospheres, he thus drove
the injecting liquid through tubes into the wood, the tubing
being arranged so that it can be lengthened at discretion or
conducted at the same time to several logs. The advantages
of this method are, that the injection is effected more rapidly
than by Boucherie, and in the forest immediately after the
felling of the trees or poles without an;y necessity for trans-
porting them to the injecting works.

Pfister's apparatus will inject thoroughly a beech-butt
10 feet long in about half an hour, it being immaterial
whether the bark is damaged or not. He also devised an
improved method of enclosing the base of the logs. The
apparatus, with several closing pieces of various sizes, costs
from £200 to £300.

(b) Pneumatic injection. — Antiseptic substances can be
injected into wood more effectually by means of a forcing-
pump than by the hydrostatic method, the process being
conducted much more rapidly ; at present in Germany
pneumatic injection is employed exclusively in the case of
chloride of zinc, creosote, acetic acid, etc.

In this case the wood is converted into beams, scantling,
railway-sleepers, etc., and they are placed in large iron
cylinders (A, A] containing the injecting fluid, which, at

* Dimitz und Bohmerle, " Ccntralblatt des gesammten Forslwesens," Vienna,

L L 2

516

AUXILIARY FOREST INDUSTRIES.

Fig. 309. — Creosoting cylinders.

ANTISEPTIC TREATMENT OF WOOD.

517

temperatures of 112° to 194° F. (50° to 90° C.) is pressed into
the wood by powerful steam forcing-pumps.

The pieces of wood to be injected are packed as tightly as
possible on the trucks (Fig. 310), and the latter are pushed
along a tramway (in, in, Fig. 309) into the cylinders /I, .1.
When the cylinders are full, the rails leading to them are
removed, and the head x adjusted and fixed firmly so as to
close the cylinder. The wood is first steamod ;it a temperature
of 112° C. (234° F.) for one
hour ; the steam is con-
ducted from the boiler .17
through the steam-pipe a.
When the steaming process
is concluded, the air is
sucked out of the wood by
means of the air-pump />
and the injecting liquid
(30 to 50 fold diluted chloride
of zinc, the latter contain-
ing 25% of zinc) is admitted
through the pipe 1> b into
the cylinders, the air-pump
still working for some time.
AYlien the cylinder is full,
the forcing-pump 7> presses
the liquid into the wood.
In order to effect this, a pressure of about 6 atmospheres is
applied for :,! to 1 \ hours. The injecting liquid is then drawn
back into the reservoir, and the truck removed with its con-
tents. The two cylinders are used alternately.

Quite recently it has become the practice to omit the steam-
ing entirely and to dry the wood, especially in creosoting with
tar-oil, etc. This method is employed in Berlin and also
by the Great Northern Eailway, Ireland. The drying is
effected in a drying-chamber, heated to 177° or 267° F. The
wood is then placed in the injecting cylinders, out of which
the air is drawn, and the tar-oil admitted at a temperature
of 113° to 140° F. (45° to 60° C.), and pressed into the wood
in the same way as when chloride of zinc is used.

Fig. :U<>. — Front of an injecting cylinder
with a truck laden with wood.

518 AUXILIARY FOREST INDUSTRIES.

[Boulton* says that the presence of water in timber at the
time of creosoting is most prejudicial to successful injection,
and that railway-sleepers and other timber should be stacked
and dried for several months before injection. This pre-
caution can be secured easily in the case of railway-sleepers
or telegraph-poles, but when timber is sawn from logs kept
in timber-ponds in the docks, it is difficult to afford a proper
time for stacking and drying it before creosoting. Owing,
however, to the injury done to timber by drying it artificially
at temperatures up to 250° F., the action of stoves in closed
chambers, or of superheated steam, is very prejudicial ; he
therefore considers 230° F. as the limit of safety for heating
timber intended for engineering purposes. Boulton has there-
fore patented a process depending on the different boiling
points of water (212° F.) and of heavy tar-oils (350° F. to
700° F.) ; the creosote is admitted at a temperature slightly
over 212° F. and the action of the air-pump continued, so
that any water in the logs is converted into steam and drawn
off by the air-pump through a condensing worm in a dome
on the top of the injecting cylinder. The creosote is still
liquid at 212° F. and replaces the water in the log, which is
not then subject to any excessive heat, and consequently its
tissues are uninjured. Boulton also maintains that in the
case of railway-sleepers to be used in India and other hot
countries, this injecting at a temperature of 212° F. fills all
cracks in the wood with creosote ; as in India therefore the
sleepers will not be subjected to such a heat in the ballast,
they will not crack any further there, which is not the case
with sleepers injected at a heat less than that they may
experience in Indian ballast. — Tr.]

When heavy tar-oil is used for injecting purposes, the wood
is coloured dark black ; the hard, pitchy components of the
tar form a crust almost as hard as stone on the surface and
fill all the crevices of the wood. [In England about 50 gallons
of heavy tar-oil are used per load of 50 cubic feet, the oil
weighing 11 Ibs. per gallon. — Tr.]

F. Lowenfeld has designed a portable apparatus for injecting

* S. 1'.. lioultoi), •• An improvement in the process o!' Creosoting Timber."

ANTISEPTIC TREATMENT OF WOOD. 519

wood, which is hased on the principle of first steaming the
wood and then injecting it hy forcing-pumps in chambers
deprived of air. There are six of these chambers, which can
be connected successively with the steam-generator, and in
which the process of injecting is carried on continuously, the
sixth chamber being removed and charged with wood, the
first chamber steamed, and so on.

In Blythe's system (according to Gayer) the wood is dried
artificially and then placed in boilers, where it is subjected
to a high pressure of steam containing heavy oil of creosote
in suspension. The wood is subjected to injection during
6 to 20 hours ; it is injected completely, and assumes a dark
colour like that of several tropical woods. The softened wood
is rolled and pressed till it is reduced in thickness by
10 % or even 40 %. The effect of the injection is increased
by compressing the wood, and thus a very superior kind of
furniture-wood is produced (Exner). It is preferable to use
freshly felled wood, and Exner states that beechwood thus
injected and compressed gains up to 19 % in strength.

III. Steeping Converted. Wood in Antiseptic Liquids.*

This method is employed chiefly for kyanising stakes and
small pieces of wood. Large wooden troughs like cooling-
troughs are partly filled with a solution of 1 part of corrosive
sublimate to 150 parts water; railway-sleepers, telegraph-
poles, etc., are placed in them, weighted to make them sink,
and kept from 8 to 10 days immersed. The solution pene-
trates only 2 mm. into the wood, which cannot be altered in
shape after immersion.

[Boulton says that small pieces of wood, hop-poles, fencing-
slabs, stakes, etc., may be placed in an open trough with
heavy tar-oil, which is heated by a fire under the trough, care
being taken not to raise the temperature of the creosote above
230° F.— Tr.]

Other methods by immersion give inferior results. Formerly

* ('/'. K. Henry. " Preservation ties Bois centre la Pourriture." Berger
Leviault et Cie., Nancy. 1907.

520 AUXILIARY FOREST INDUSTRIES.

the wood was frequently boiled in antiseptic liquids, steam
being introduced into the vessel in which the wood was
immersed until the liquid in it boiled. Blue vitriol, borax
solution, etc., were thus injected, but the liquid must be kept
at the boiling point for 10 or 12 hours.

Kecently H. Liebau, in Magdeburg, has attempted to intro-
duce the liquid from the interior of the pieces of wood instead
of externally, in order to protect the heartwood from decay.
This method can be used only for stakes, piles, etc., the axis of
which is bored through after they have been driven into the
ground, and tar-oil, pitch, etc., poured into the cavity. Nothing
as yet can be said regarding the efficacy of this method.

[Boppe states * that in France, mining pit-props are immersed
for about 24 hours in solutions of 1J Ibs. per gallon (150 gr.
to 1 liter) of sulphate of iron, or in wood-tar heated to a tem-
perature of 278° F. (140° C.), in order to render them more
durable. It is found that -if the immersion is continued for
a longer period, the wood becomes brittle, and that chloride
of zinc, blue vitriol or creosote poisons the wood and renders
it dangerous to the miners. — Tr.]

Another plan is to place telegraph-posts in a glazed, burned
clay tube filled with sand and tar; or cement and tar are
poured round the base of the wood in the ground.

W. Powell, of 6, Stanley Place, Liverpool, noticed that
dry rot never occurs in the wood used in sugar-refineries,
and in 1903 invented a process in which timber is saturated
with a solution of sugar, and then the moisture evaporated
rapidly by stoving at a high temperature. The process requires
2 or 3 days only. Powell finds that this processed timber
cannot be infected with dry rot. He experimented with
paving blocks, 3 inches by 5 inches by 9 inches, of red pine,
poplar, beech and red-gum, and found that the}^ gained
respectively 1 lb., 5 Ibs., 4 Ibs. and ^ lb., their original
weights being 4 Ibs. 12 ozs., 4 Ibs. 11 ozs., 7 Ibs. 7 ozs., and
8 Ibs. 13 ozs.

As regards absorption of water, beech in a natural
state absorbs 1 pint of water per block, but processed beech

* " Technologic Forestiere," p. !»7,

ANTISEPTIC TREATMENT OF WOOD. 521

only i pint and less than half the amount of water
absorbed by red-gum. As street paving-blocks absorb
much ammonia and emit an offensive odour this process is
a sanitary one, as well as affording superior durability from
hardening.

3. Suitability of d (if c rent W<*<nl for Injection.

The species of woods are susceptible of impregnation in the
following order : —

Thoroughly.

Partially.

'•itly, or not at all.

Birch.
Horn bean.

A -pen.

Alder.

Heart wood of Oak.
Larch.

Beech.

and sapwood of all
species.

Ash.

Elm.
Lime.
Silver-fir.

Mahogany.

Teak. '
Ebony.

Red beech-wood.

Spruce.

itfl pine.
\\Vymouth piiie.

The question as to the comparative ease or difficulty with
which a piece of wood can be injected and whether the injec-
tion is thorough, or merely superficial, cannot as yet be
answered satisfactorily. As a rule, a thorough injection is
rare; in most cases the antiseptic liquid injects merely the
sap wood and younger woody zones ; in the case of railway-
sleepers which are injected pneumatically, it also passes into
the two ends of the sleepers, whilst the heartwood in the centre
is often only partially injected. There are, however, many
modifications in the above condition of injected wood, accord-
ing to the species of wood, its soundness or unsound ness,
special anatomical structure and amount of contained resin,
which differs greatly in individual cases.

The more resinous a wood the less easily it is injected, and
much resin in the wood may prevent injection entirely, as for
instance in pinewood ; it has not been ascertained whether
the different injecting processes affect matters in this respect.

Beechwood with reddish false heartwood (from trees over 100
years old) is quite unsuitable for injection. It is not known yet
whether variations in the specific gravity of the same wood

522

AUXILIARY FOREST INDUSTRIES.

affect matters in this respect ; this question should be decided
experimentally.

4. Jtcsiilt* of Injection.

As regards the results of injecting railway-sleepers, it is
evident that the locality, nature of the soil and wear-and-tear
on a railway must be considered in judging their durability.
The method of injection, the anatomical structure of the wood
and whether the injected wood is used immediately after
injection or is first kept some time in store, also affect its
durability.

As regards the methods of injection, the following are the
results given by experience on German Railways :—

Life of sleeper in years.

Xatmv dl' antiseptic

Method of

substance.

[rejecting.

Oak.

ScotB pine.

Beech.

Spruco.

Chloride of xinc

Steam-pressure

19—25

22-8

13—15

;• >?

Immersion

—

—

6-6

Creosote

Steam-pressure

I1.)-:,

IS

Sulphate of copper ...

II vdrostat ic

pressure

—

16

—

—

» »

Immersion

—

14

'.)•<;

Other investigations give the following data for the duration

of railway-sleepers : —

Species.

Beech, not injected

„ with zinc chloride

,, creosote
Oak, not injected .

,, zinc chloride .

,, creosote
Scots pine, not injected .

,, ,, zinc chloride

,, ,, creosote

/// Elsass-Lothringen.
Oak, not injected . . . 21
„ creosote ... 21

Beech, creosote .... 21

Years. 1'er ('cut. of
sleepers useless.

5 100

11

50

17

50

13

50

13

28

13

20

12

100

12

23

12

14

52

26-8
6-4

ANTISEPTIC TREATMENT OF WOOD. 528

The greater durability of beech is due to the fact, that it
absorbs more creosote than oak, but its injection is necessarily
more costly.

Thus with creosote :—

Cost.

-v. ,/.

An oak sleeper absorbs . 22 Ibs. 1 3

A Scots-pine sleeper „ . 79 „ 24

A beech sleeper ,, . 79 ,, 24

So that including the cost of the wood, oak sleepers cost 4s.
8<L and beech sleepers 4s. 5<l. each.

Injection with copper sulphate increases three-fold the
durability of spruce and silver-fir.

The Nodon-Bretonneau method of seasoning wood by
electricity was tried in London several years ago, but did not
give satisfactory financial results. The system consists in
placing the timber to bo seasoned in a large tank and immers-
ing all but an inch or two in a solution containing ten per cent,
of borax, five of resin, and three-quarter percent, of carbonate
of soda. The lead plate upon which it rests is connected with
the positive pole of a dynamo, the negative pole being attached
to a similar plate, arranged on its upper surface so as to give
good electrical contact, and the circuit is completed through
the wood. It is stated that under the influence of the current
the sap appears to rise to the surface of the bath, while the
aseptic borax and resin solution takes its place in the pores of
the wood. Tin's part of the process requires from five to eight
hours for its completion, and then the wood is removed and
dried either by artificial or natural means. In the latter case
about a fortnight's exposure in summer weather will complete
the process.

SECTION III.

ALTERING THE COMBUSTIBILITY OF WOOD, ETC.

The combustibility of wood is increased always by drying
it. Absolutely dry wood has the greatest heating-value.

52* AUXILIARY FOREST INDUSTRIES.

When coniferous wood is dried slowly, the percentage of
heat-giving rosin increases at the expense of the volatile
turpentine. As regards the relative increase in heating-power
by the carbonization of wood, see the next chapter.

In order to reduce the combustibility of wood and produce
so-called uninflammable wood, the following substances may be
smeared on it, or injected. Lime-water, clay in a saturated
potash solution painted on the wood in several coats. Alum,
soluble-glass, five to six coatings. Wolframate of soda is
effective, but costly. Hot solutions of green vitriol and iron.
Kyanised wood also is said to be uninflammable. The best
methods are, however, commercial secrets.

[Wood processed by the Non-inflammable Wood Syndicate,
2, Army and Navy Mansions, Victoria Street, London, was tried
recently on the site of the old Millbank Prison and two con-
structions erected of injected and unirijected wood ; all efforts
to burn the former failed. The substance used is colourless
and harmless, it does not rot, does not affect the strength of
the wood, but adds slightly to its sp. weight. It is difficult to
distinguish the wood which has been injected, which is to a
large extent protected from being worm-eaten and from dry
rot. The action of tools on the wood is not rendered
more difficult. The wood is used extensively in America and
Japan ; also for the British Navy and South Kensington
Museum. — Tr.]

Artificial wood. Soft and plastic substances resembling
wood are in demand to fill in defective places in valuable wooden
articles. The less valuable articles are filled in with putty.
Instead of putty the following substances are used : glue, saw-
dust and chalk, lime and flour, lime-water and soluble glass.
Softened cellulose mixed with starch or flour can be made
into tabular shape, and in time becomes as hard as a bone.
It may be pressed into shape between heated and embossing-
pnissos. Jf a thin sheet of veneer is placed between the
artificial wood and the press, the pressed article appears to be
carved out of valuable wood. Caustic soda or rosin may be
mixed with the preparation to increase its durability.

Wood-wool under powerful compression yields a homo-
geneous, rigid mass. Artificial kindling fuel is made of wood

OBTAINING THE CONSTITUENTS OF WOOD. 525

shavings and resin, or coal-tar. Artificial wood is made of
peat mixed with lime and sulphate of alumina in solution.

C. CHANGES IN THE SUBSTANCE OP THE WOOD
IN ORDER TO OBTAIN ITS CONSTITUENTS.

SECTION I. — BY HEAT.

The first chapter on the properties of wood explains the
action of heat on wood. Where wood is burned and oxygen
admitted freely, light, heat and gases (CO^ and H20) are
produced ; combustion is maintained by the hydrocarbon
gases, light by the glowing of the charcoal, and ashes form
the residue. If the wood is burned without free admission of
oxygen, it is said to be roasted with dry distillation, under
which are preserved gases and carbon, with numerous other
products of incomplete combustion, all empyreumatic sub-
stances of great economic value.

Although properly an account of these substances does not
come under the direct activity of a forester, yet he should
possess a general knowledge of the products of distillation of
wood, as well as of all matters which bear on the sale and
value of wood, the chief product of his calling.

1. Distillation of Wood*

The apparatus for distilling wood varies with the products
to be obtained from it. If gas and volatile products are
required, the wood should be roasted in vessels with open
tubing from which those products can escape, in order to be
received in a refrigerator, or to pass through it purified.
Such apparatus consists of boilers, retorts and stoves. If
heavy liquids and solids are the chief desiderata, the wood is
usually piled in large covered heaps, charcoal-kilns or pits.

When wood is distilled in retorts or vessels, according to
Violette, the decomposition of the wood begins at a tempera-
ture of 160° C. ; the condensed vapours yield a yellowish,
aromatic, bitter liquid. At 280° the weight of this liquid is
64% of the weight of the original wood; products that are

* J. Bersch " Die Verwertung des Holzes auf chem. Wege,'' '2nd ed. 1893.

526 AUXILIARY FOREST INDUSTRIES.

obtained between 150° and 280° are the most valuable, and
are chiefly sebacic acids, such as formic, acetic, propionic,
valerianic, caproic acids, then methyl- alcohol, carbonic acid
and carbon monoxide. Between 280° and 360° chiefly carbo-
hydrates are formed ; they take up much space, as 1 cub.
meter of wood yields 80 to 90 volumes of gas. The products
of heating over 360° are dense carbohydrates (tars), such as
benzol, toluol (methyl-benzene), carbolic acid, paraffin, and
the gases acetyl, ethyls, marsh-gas and hydrogen. By heating
over 430°, there is a small volume of the above-named
substances, whilst charcoal remains as a solid residual
product.

In every case, when quite pure, hydrated acetic acid is a
colourless liquid, combustible, very caustic and with a strongly
acid odour ; at 4° C. acetic acid becomes solid, but lignifies
at 16° ; after absorbing water it loses its power of crystallisa-
tion ; hydrated acetic acid is soluble in water, alcohol and
ether. Wood yields 2 to 6% of its weight in pure acetic acid,
which is used extensively for making vinegar. In wood-
vinegar there is always some acetone, a combustible liquid
in which oils, resin and gun-cotton are very soluble ; it is
now used in the manufacture of smokeless powder.

Pure methyl-alcohol or pyroligneous spirit is a colourless
liquid, in which resin and ethereal oils are very soluble, so
that it is highly important in preparing lacquers and varnishes;
after further distillation pure methyl-alcohol is used for making
tar dyes.

The gas distilled from wood, 80 cubic meters from a stacked
cubic meter, owing to admixtures of C02 and CO, requires
purifying by means of lime. [In France charcoal is placed
at the base of the retort in which the wood is distilled, and
the gas passes through the charcoal into a reservoir. This
is said to purify it sufficiently. — Tr.] According to Pettenkofer
the volumes of illuminating wood-gas produced by distilling
100 kilos (220 Ibs.) of wood are :—

Cubic meters. Cubic feet.

Willow . . . .38 1,330

Silver-fir . . 36 1,260

OBTAINING THE CONSTITUENTS OF WOOD. 527

Cubic meters. Cubic feet.

Birch .... 35 1,225

Oak 34 1,190

Beech . . . .33 1,155

Spruce . . . .33 1,155

Larch .... 32 1,120

Wood therefore yields 2J times as much gas as does coal,
and the lighting power of wood-gas is to that of coal as
118: 100.

Broillard states (Rev. des E. et F. 1900) that Biche, by
passing out the wood-gas through glowing charcoal, has
succeeded in obtaining from 350 to 400 cubic meters of gas
from 100 kilos of wood. Any wood, coppice-shoots, etc., will
do, and the apparatus is so simple that it can be set up in
any village or farm where there is plenty of refuse wood.

Neutral (non-acid) tars are used for making dyes, for which
hitherto chiefly coal-tar lias been used. Acid tars (creosote
and carbolic acid) are powerful antiseptics. At ordinary
temperatures solid naphthaline is a constituent and is a
certain remedy against the clothes-moth, also paraffin, but
the latter is obtained usually from raw petroleum.

Charcoal is a residual product from distillation in stoves
and retorts, but is the chief product in the woods from char-
coal-kilns and pits, whilst the gaseous and liquid products
are then either neglected or only of secondary importance.
In the following pages the process of charcoal-making will be
described shortly.

SECTION II. — CHARCOAL-KILNS.*

A charcoal-kiln is a heap of firewood of a regular shape,
and with a covering as effective as possible for keeping the
fire inside the kiln and excluding atmospheric air.

The shape is generally that of a paraboloid and only in
certain cases that of a horizontal prism. Wood may be piled
in kilns either vertically or horizontally, and as these methods
of piling the wood, as well as the external form of the kiln,

* Th«' best work on charcoal-kilns is -v. Berg's '• Anleitung zum verkohlen des
" Sided., 1880.

528 AUXILIARY FOREST INDUSTRIES.

give rise to considerable differences in the process of char-
coal-making, vertical and horizontal kilns will be described
separately.

In vertical kilns, the wood is piled nearly vertically around
stakes in the middle of the kiln, so that the latter assumes
the shape of a paraboloid. Horizontal kilns are distinguished
from the former kind by their prismatic shape and by the
fact that the charcoal is removed from them gradually as the
wood becomes carbonised.

Although the comparison between these methods will follow
at the end of the chapter, here it may be mentioned that the
vertical arrangement of the wood is that followed usually, as
experience shows that it gives the best results. A further
distinction depends on whether the kilns are made in the
forest and consequently in different places every year as the
felling-areas change, near iron-furnaces and other works using
charcoal, or in large kilns away from the forests.

It is evident that in the last case greater care can be taken
and better results will follow than when kilns are burned in
the forest, frequently under very unfavourable conditions. In
spite of this disadvantage, however, forest charcoal-kilns are
more economical, as will be seen hereafter.

1. Paraboloidal Charcoal-kilns.

There are two methods of making charcoal that do not
differ much from one another-^they are the common method
and the Alpine or Italian method. The former is practised all
over Central and Western Europe, except parts of Styria, the
Tyrol, Lower Austria and Lower Bavaria.

(a) The Common Method of Charcoal-making.

i. Wood used for Charcoal-making.

Charcoal-making is a much more important industry in
mountain-districts stocked with coniferous forest than in
broadleaved woods. Whilst in the latter — only the less
valuable fire-wood, round billets from early thinnings and
stump-wood are carbonised — in coniferous forests, frequently

CHARCOAL-MAKING. 529

the best class of firewood and even timber may be used for
this purpose, according to the demands of neighbouring works
for charcoal.

Any species of wood may be carbonised, but the method
employed varies with its density and greater or less combusti-
bility. If two kinds of wood are placed in the same kiln one of
which must remain some time burning in the kiln until the
other is carbonised, the former might be burned to ashes
before the latter can be removed. It is therefore advisable
to pile only one species of wood at a time in a kiln ; if different
species must for any reason be burned in the same kiln the
precaution should be taken to restrict these to hardwoods or
softwoods only, or to split the harder woods and place them
in the centre of the kiln, where the heat is greatest. It is,
however, always better to separate the woods, as charcoal made
from different species is used for different purposes.

As regards the comparative soundness and dryness of wood
for charcoal-making, it is customary to use only sound air-dried
wood, and not dead wood, liotten wood is useless for the purpose,
and must be excluded carefully. Carbonising broken billets is
a difficult process, as the pieces continue to glow for a long time
and may set fire to the kiln during the removal of the charcoal.

All wood for carbonisation should be spread out in dry parts
of the felling-area or of landing depots until it is air-dry, in
order that there may be the least possible waste of heat in
driving off moisture from the wood. Only in very hot summers,
or when the wood is highly resinous, is it advisable to use some-
what green wood so that the process may not be too rapid, or
else the workmen may not be able to keep the combustion of
the wood well in hand.

The shape and dimensions of the billets have considerable
influence on the process of carbonisation. Although all parts
of a kiln do not burn at the same rate, yet it is advisable to
have the billets as uniform in shape as possible. As a rule,
therefore, only one assortment of wood is used in a kiln ; only
in cases of necessity, in very large kilns or in carbonising
stump-wood, should deviations from this rule be allowed.
One of the chief points of difference between the common
and Alpine methods of carbonisation is that, in] the former,

F.U. M M

530 AUXILIARY FOREST INDUSTRIES.

generally the wood is split and used in small pieces, large
pieces of wood being used in the latter.

The length of the billets may be either that usual for fire-
wood, or a special length may be given to charcoal-billets (rarely
exceeding 6 feet). The shorter the pieces the easier it is to give
the kiln its requisite shape, and the less the cost of its con-
struction. Excepting small round billets under 2f inches (7 cm.)
thick, the wood should all be split; stump-wood also should, as
far as possible, be split into small pieces. This is especially
necessary for broadleaved woods, which burn slowly. In order
that the wood may be packed closely, all snags and uneven-
nesses should be trimmed off, and fairly smooth, straight pieces
set aside on the felling-area for charcoal-making. Crooked
and bent branchwood is used only in short pieces. In piling
the kiln, besides the round and split billets, short little pieces
of wood are used to fill interstices between the billets.

ii. Shape and Size of Kilns.
The usual shape of a kiln is that of a paraboloid, the volume

72 7

of which is c— — X L where d is the diameter and k the
height of the kiln ; or, as it is easier to measure the girth than
the diameter of completed kilns, 2* X - X - = <^-

As, however, the shape of a kiln is usually not quite a para-
boloid, but somewhat steeper and more pointed, 4 to 6 per cent,
may be deducted. Some useful tables* have been prepared
for the cubic contents of kilns. It is easy to calculate the
volume of a kiln whenever wood already stacked is used.

Kilns vary greatly in size in different districts ; sometimes,
as in the Spessart, Thuringia, etc., they contain only 400 to 700
stacked cubic feet (12 to 20 st. cub. meters), whilst in the
Harz they may be five times as large, and ten times as
large in the Alps. In the common method a kiln of 1,000
to 1,400 st. cub. feet gives the best outturn and is easiest to
manage.

* Bohmerle, "Tjii'cln /.ur Herechnung dcr Kuhicinlialtc stclicndcr Kohlcn-
meiler." I'.crlin, l';iul hmsy, 1*77.

CHARCOAL-MAKING. 531

iii. Site for a Kiln.

The site for a kiln should be level, sheltered from winds,
with water at hand, and either on the felling-area or close to
it. AVhere several hundred stacks of firewood are to be car-
bonised there should be room for several kilns close together
to save the cost of transport. The nature of the ground below
the kiln has considerable influence on its rate of burning ; if
the soil is loose and porous it admits air to the interior of the
kiln, which will burn rapidly and yield heating charcoal ; if
the soil is heavy, the kiln will burn slowly and yield cold
charcoal. A sandy loam is most suitable, as it allows a
moderate inlet of air, being at the same time porous enough
to absorb the moisture, which descends from a burning kiln.
The soil should be of uniform nature under a kiln, in order
that the inlet of air and the rate of carbonisation may be
uniform throughout.

A new site for a kiln is prepared as follows : the ground is
freed from all sticks, roots and stones ; the grass-sods are
then dug up and the soil prepared as smoothly as for a
garden-bed. The soil must be freed carefully from all stones
likely to heat any part of the kiln excessively. The site
is levelled, a stake driven in at its centre and a circular
line traced as the boundary of the kiln. The centre is
raised 8 to 12 inches (20 to 30 cm.), the higher the
stiffer the soil and harder the wood, the site being made to
slope off from the centre in all directions towards the external
circular line. This arrangement is intended to increase the
inward draught of air and allow the liquids from the burning
kiln to drain away, also that the piled billets may stand on
an edge and not on their section. The site is trampled
down firmly and remains lying unused for some time, gene-
rally during winter, in order to settle and allow for any
improvement that may be required. Before piling the
kiln, a heap of dry firewood should be burned on the site to
dry it.

However carefully a new site may have been prepared, it
is always inferior to one used repeatedly for kilns. The loss
of wood in using a new site may amount to from 10 to 17 or

M M 2

532 AUXILIARY FOREST INDUSTRIES.

even 25 % (according to v. Berg). The reason for this is that
charcoal dust mixed with earth gives the proper degree of
porosity to the soil that is most advantageous for charcoal-
making. The charcoal-burners, therefore, always prefer old
sites for kilns, and changing a site is always disadvantageous.
Although as far as possible suitable sites are chosen for
kilns, yet in mountainous forests it is often necessary to make
one on a slope, in a narrow gorge or other unfavourable place.
Then an excavation is made in the hill-side and an embank-
ment formed downhill so as to secure a horizontal site. It is
then better to support the lower side of the site by wattle-
work, or logs may be piled on one another and covered with
earth to form the lower side of the site. Kilns made on sites
like these always have a draught in one particular direction,
which the burners must try to counteract by various devices
whilst the kiln is burning. There must be round the kiln a
clear space sufficiently large for the burners to work in and
affording room for the charcoal-burners to stack the wood, also
for a hut and so on.

iv. Erection of the Kiln.

At the centre of the kiln is a flue, which is constructed of
three or four stakes driven into the ground about one foot
apart. They are bound round with withes, forming a hollow
shaft, which is filled with very dry, combustible firewood. The
way in which the latter is inserted depends on whether the
kiln is to be kindled from above or below. In the latter case
a dry board is placed under the flue to keep back the soil-
moisture ; highly combustible fuel, such as pieces of resinous
wood, shavings, birch-bark, etc., are then placed upon the
board, the upper part of the flue being filled somewhat loosely
with broken branches, half-burned bits of wood, shavings, etc.
When the kiln is kindled from above, the flue is filled in the
reverse manner.

The flue once filled, finely split pieces of dry wood and
partly carbonised billets are placed around it, the spaces
between them being filled with wood-shavings, and then the
regular kiln is constructed. This is done by piling two tiers
of billets, the burner placing dry pieces of wood as closely as

CHARCOAL-MAKING.

533

possible round the shaft, with their split sides inwards, followed
by larger pieces, so that at a distance of about half the radius
of the kiln the thickest pieces, which burn most slowly, are
placed, and smaller billets outside these, as shown in
Fig. 311. After some progress has been made in the lower

on of diiircoal-kiln.

tier of billets, the upper tier is commenced and the two
tiers continued together till the kiln has attained its full
circumference.

If the kiln is to he kindled from below, a kindling-passage

Kiir. :}\'2. — -Vertical kiln with supports.

is left communicating with the flue ; this is effected by placing
on the ground from the opening in the flue to the edge of the
kiln a thick log, which is gradually drawn away during the
piling of the lower tier, leaving a hollow passage. The billets
placed above this log should be somewhat shorter than the

584 AUXILIARY FOREST INDUSTRIES.

rest, so as to secure a level surface to the lower tier. This
passage should be exposed always to windward, but is not
required if the kiln is kindled from above.

When the two tiers of billets are piled the top of the kiln
is filled in, as shown in Fig. 311. For this, the wood, which
should be composed of small dry pieces, is laid very obliquely
or horizontally. When the kiln is kindled from below, its
whole top, including the flue, is thus covered ; but when the
kindling is effected from above, the flue runs through the top
of the kiln.

Although the burners endeavour in piling the billets to
place them as vertically as possible, as they are piled with
their thick ends downwards they become gradually inclined
outwards, so that eventually the outside of the kiln acquires
a slope of 60 degrees or 70 degrees. This slope is necessary
to support the covering of the kiln, being greater or less
according to the state of the weather : during summer, in
dry weather, it cannot be so great as in damp weather,
whenever the covering does not dry very rapidly, a steeper
slope is permissible.

The charging of the kiln is completed by carefully stopping
all openings and crevices with small split pieces of wood, in
order to prevent too great a draught and save the covering
from collapsing.

v. Supporting and Covering the Kiln.

The next step is to apply the covering, which should be as
air-tight and fire-proof as possible. Two coverings are applied,
termed the inner and outer coverings ; in order that they
may not collapse they are supported by pieces of wood, termed
the upper and lower supports. Every kiln requires at least
the latter, which are formed of stout, short, forked pieces of
wood driven into the ground all round the edge of the kiln ;
they may be replaced by a row of stones as big as one's licml,
on which split billets ;in> phiccd contiguously in :i circle a few
inches from the ground for the covering to rest on and to
admit air to the kiln. In some districts iron supports are
used, shaped like circular segments with a prop at one end of

CHARCOAL-MAKING. 535

each piece ; these are placed all round the kiln and are very
durable.

The upper supports form a similar circle higher up the kiln,
resting on vertical billets or forked pieces of wood; they are
placed in position after the kiln is covered. In some districts
a third circle of supports is added, but that is not usual.

The material used for the inner covering of the kiln con-
sists of sods, leaves, moss, spruce or silver-fir branches, ferns,
rushes, broom, heather, etc. Thin sods placed like tiles over-
lapping one another form the densest covering, and leaves or
silv<T-iir branches also afford a dense covering. The covering
is applied first to the top of the kiln, and should be thick
enough to prevent the earth of the outer covering from
penetrating through it.

The outer covering consists of a wet mixture of loamy
forest soil and charcoal-dust, the remains of former kilns, for
which fresh humu* may bn substituted. These substances
should be mixed thoroughly with a hoe, freed from all stones,
and water added to form a stiff paste, which must have suffi-
cient consistency to serve as a dense coating to the kiln without
becoming quite crusted by the heat, remaining soft enough
during the burning to yield without cracking to the gradual
sinking of the kiln, and to allow the steam to escape.

This paste is applied first at the foot of the kiln, then
the upper row of supports are placed over it and the paste
continued up to the top of the kiln, being applied more thickly
there than below. The total thickness of the covering is
0*7 m. at the base and 0*3 m. at the top, somewhat less round
the flue.

After the kiln is covered, a wind-break is placed around it
at a sufficient distance to allow room for the men to manage
the kiln ; it is made usually of coniferous branches at least
as high as the kiln and fastened to stakes driven into the
ground ; this may be dispensed with in thoroughly sheltered
places.

vi. KimHhitj nnil I turn in fi Hit' Kiln.

If the kiln is kindled from below, one of the burners applies
a torch made of resinous wood-splinters through the kindling-

536 AUXILIARY FOREST INDUSTRIES.

passage to the kindling material at the hottom of the flue,
that is thus fired. When kindled from above a little fire is
lighted at the top of the flue. The kiln is fired always on a
still morning before daybreak, whilst its base is open under
the lower supports. If the fire has caught properly, first
the flue and its contents are burned thoroughly, then the
immediately adjoining wood, the fire rising to the top of the
kiln. As soon as the dome becomes very hot, steam mingled
with thick flocky smoke issues from it. At this period there
is always more or less danger of bursting owing to the formation
inside the kiln of an explosive mixture of air and combustible
gases, or a sudden development of steam. Were such a mis-
fortune to happen, the covering would be blown off and the

Fig. 313. — Showing progress of carbonisation.

arrangement of the wood disturbed. Too loose a soil under
the kiln or too rapid burning may thus imperil matters, the
risk of bursting being greater with dry than with slightly
green wood.

After a few hours, the smoke acquires a pungent odour, a
sign that the wood is being decomposed and that carbonisa-
tion is in progress. Charcoal is formed first in the dome of
the kiln, proceeding downwards in a wedge (Fig. 313), and
the latter sinks down, carrying with it the covering, which
should adhere more or less firmly to it. If the carbonisation
proceeds properly, a flame should issue from the top of the
chimney in the form of a symmetrical cone, widening-out
more and more till flames protrude from the base of the
kiln.

CHARCOAL-MAKING. 537

vii. Mode of Conducting the

The normal process of carbonisation just described cannot
be secured always uninterruptedly. The draught is some-
times greater in one particular direction and the kiln itself
is seldom uniformly built or covered ; it may therefore settle
down unsymmetrically or burn too quickly or too slowly.
Charcoal-burners should know how to secure the kiln against
these mishaps, and keep it burning in as normal a manner as
possible.

This is effected by the following procedure : — The fire should
be led gradually from the top of the kiln to its base, so that
the kiln may settle down symmetrically and without burning
the charcoal. The space left open at the base of the kiln,
that is subsequently closed, may be re-opened if more
draught is required, and holes made in the upper part of the
covering through which flames protrude, in order to regulate
the burning. On the second or third day after kindling, the
first holes are made through both coverings down to the wood
on the leeward side of the kiln. These are usually in two
rows, somewhat below the flame at the top of the kiln. At
first the smoke issuing from these holes contains steam, but
the nearer the combustion approaches the holes, the clearer,
more pungent and pyroligneous it becomes; when it finally
turns blue, it denotes that the charcoal is burning. Before
the smoke turns blue, therefore, the upper holes must be closed
with paste by means of a flat shovel, and a fresh row opened
below the lower row. If burning proceeds too rapidly on any
side of the kiln, all vent-holes must be stopped, the covering
thickened and water applied if necessary.

By means of these simple arrangements, which require the
burners' close attention, the wood in the kiln is carbonised
gradually. When the carbonisation is nearly over, the fire is
at the base of the kiln; holes are then opened there through
which at length flames protrude, showing that the burning is
completed. The burners must be now on the watch to
extinguish the fire at the right moment, and by applying
fresh paste or watering the kiln prevent any cracking or
bursting of the covering.

588 AUXILIAKY FOREST INDUSTRIES.

During the kindling process, the shaft of the flue,
especially in its upper part, burns completely and leaves a
hollow space in the kiln. Hollows also may form in other parts
of the kiln owing to a defective site, to bad piling, kindling or
control of the burning, or to the wood being too damp. If these
hollows were not filled, they would cause a draught and attract
the fire, the normal course of the burning would be hindered
and the yield of charcoal reduced. Owing to the continual
increase in size of these hollows, the covering might at length
fall in and the kiln burst into flames. All hollows must there-
fore be filled promptly with short pieces of wood or large pieces
of charcoal.

The following method of filling hollows is adopted : — When-
ever the burners have noticed that owing to a marked collapse
of the covering a hollow has been formed, and have placed the
wood or charcoal required to fill it alongside the kiln, they
should test the extent of the hollow by tapping the covering
with a mallet. They then remove the covering over the hollow,
press down the contents with a piece of wood and fill the hollow,
covering it again rapidly with branches and paste, and beat
the covering into a firm condition. All vent-holes should be
stopped at least one hour before filling a hollow and for a
whole day afterwards burning should be conducted without
any holes in the kiln. The hollow made by the combustion of
the chimney is filled on the first evening of the burning and
often must be filled again on the second, third, fourth and
even on the fifth evening. Often the top-filling is required
several times on the same day ; in large kilns, as many as
15 to 20 top- and side-fillings may be required during the
burning and several more whilst the kiln is cooling.

It is evident that filling hollows in a kiln must waste charcoal,
as by opening the covering a draught is caused and the iiro
unduly stimulated ; charcoal is thus burned owing to the flames
lnv;i,kiiitf out, {ind in pressing down tho contc.nts of tho
kiln somo of tin; charcoal is bmkc.n into small pieces.
Filling cannot, however, bo dispensed with; every endeavour
should therefore be made to prevent the sides of the kiln from
collapsing, and to reduce a number of indispensable fillings to
a minimum.

CHARCOAL-BURNING. 589

viii. Wall-bin u and Cooling down the Kiln.

Every evening during the burning of the kiln the burners
should adopt proper measures to secure regularity in the
burning. Places where the charcoal is already burnt
should be beaten down with a mallet, any fillings which
may be required should be effected, cracks which may have
opened in the covering should be carefully closed and all holes
closed if the weather is stormy. Frequent inspection of the
kiln at night is necessary.

Towards the completion of the carbonisation, when the kiln
has sunk considerably and the upper covering is very dry and
cracked, it should be well beaten down and covered with damp
earth, or watered, so as to exclude the air more and more. As
soon as the lower covering burns and flames appear at the
foot of the kiln, it is clear that the carbonisation is completed ;
all vent-holes must then be stopped and the whole surface of
the kiln covered with damp earth. The kiln is then left alone
for about 24 hours. Then in order to hasten the cooling, the
burners remove the covering in strips and apply fresh earth to
the glowing charcoal so as to fill up all crevices. This
extinguishes the fire rapidly, an important point when the
weather is dry ; about 24 hours, as a rule, after this has been
done, the charcoal may be removed.

ix. licmnrul of I he. f 7/arcoa/.

In order that the charcoal may be of good quality, it should
not remain longer than is necessary in the glow of the
kiln. At the same time it must be removed gradually, so as
not to set the kiln in a blaze. A commencement is made in
the evening and the work continued all night, when any fire
may be seen nmn; re;idily: each night only a certain quantity
of the charcoal is removed, according to the size of the kiln.

The method adopted is us follows: — The burner, with a long-
toothfid iron fork, opens the kiln on the leeward side and
removes as much charcoal as he can without setting the kiln in
flames. The charcoal is laid on one side and usually watered,
whilst the hole is filled with earth. Then the kiln is opened

540 AUXILIARY FOREST INDUSTRIES.

at another place and so on all round, until there is nothing
left but its centre, consisting of small pieces of charcoal, earth
and ashes, which eventually are raked out and allowed to cool.
Once the charcoal has been removed, it is sorted according
to size, the small pieces being sifted from the ashes. What is
left is mixed with the ashes, etc., and serves for covering the
next kiln. The partly carbonised pieces may be kept for
filling or kindling other kilns, or carbonised in small kilns
made specially for the purpose.

(b) Alpine* Method of Charcoal-making.

The method of charcoal-making employed in many parts of
the German Alps differs in some respects from the ordinary
method. The Alpine kilns are usually in fixed places near
river-booms, in timber-depots or at the base of an extensive
mountainous tract. The wood thus carbonised is almost
exclusively coniferous (chiefly spruce wood and less frequently
that of larch and silver-fir) and generally in round pieces
2 meters (6J feet) long. The site for the kiln is prepared as in
the ordinary method, except that it is quite flat, a wooden base
being supplied to the kiln.

The base is formed, as shown in Fig. 314, by placing split
billets radially from the flue outwards, on them other pieces
are placed sufficiently close together so that all the wood to be
carbonised can rest on them, but sufficient intervals are left
for a draught of air.

The flue is formed by three stout poles often kept in position
by iron rings and is filled, as before, with kindling material.
Piling the wood, on account of the size and weight of the pieces,
is a heavy piece of work. The kiln is formed of two tiers, and a
dome with two thin layers of wood, and is from 5 to 6 meters
(1(5 to 11) foot) high. The wood should be piled as closely as
possible, all tho larger interstices being filled with split wood.
The kilns are usually larger than ordinary ones, but excessively
large ones containing 1,500 to 2,000 cubic meters (50,000 to
70,000 cubic feet) are made no longer.

* [Also termed the lt;ili:ui method, lull Gayer states that usually Italians
follow the ordinary method with kindling from above. — Tr.]

CHARCOAL-MAKING.

541

As the heavy pieces of wood can be piled only with
difficulty on the base of the kiln, a kind of a wooden
tramway or sledge-road is constructed, on which the pieces
can be brought to the kiln in trucks or sledges. As a rule
the kindling is effected from above, and for this purpose a
central cavity is arranged at the top of the kiln in which the
flue terminates. When all the large pieces of wood are piled,
the interstices are tilled in carefully with small pieces of
split wood.

Alpine kilns usually are covered more thickly than common

a

Ki.ir. H14. — Alpine kiln. <i i

applied from below,

a space left when kindling is
in S. Bavaria.

kilns. Ordinary material, it' found close at hand, is used for
the first covering ; usually, however, only a single covering
of mixed clay and humus is used, which must be spread very
carefully over the wood. Special kinds of props also are used
to support the sides of the kiln, which are at gradients of
60 degrees or 70 degrees. These props are formed either as in
Fig. 315, of planks (//i) placed edgeways round the kiln, having
niches cut into them at half their length, on which horizontal
planks (n) rest to support the covering (dd), or stout T-shaped
props are used as in Fig. 816.

The covering is plastered on to the base of the kiln first,
then the lower props are applied and the plastering continued

542

AUXILIARY FOREST INDUSTRIES.

till the upper props are required ; then the dome is com-
pletely plastered, though at first only thinly so as to allow
the gases to escape.

The kiln is kindled by filling lightly the still open Hue with
short thin pieces of split wood, on which comes a layer of

glowing charcoal. As soon
as the kindling material has
thoroughly caught fire, fresh
charcoal is from time to time
heaped on. The split wood
which for a time supports the
charcoal burns completely,
and the glowing charcoal falls
to the bottom of the flue.
The flue is then filled with
charcoal, which is pressed
down, and the kindling cavity
also filled with a heap of charcoal. After a few hours
the flue is burned through from below, and must be
repeatedly filled, as long as the glowing charcoal con-
tinues to sink. When all danger of explosion is over and

Fig. 315. — Plank-supports of
Alpine kiln.

Fig. 316. — Prop supports of Alpine kiln,

the wood in the dome is thoroughly kindled, it is covered
with paste, and the burning conducted henceforth as in
ordinary kilns.

In Alpine kilns the filling which has just been described
must be most carefully conducted ; as a rule, only charcoal is
used for the purpose.

CHARCOAL-MAKING. 543

The Alpine method then differs from the ordinary method
of burning kilns in the following points :—

(i) The large dimensions of the pieces of wood to he carhonised
and the fact that usually they are not split.

(ii) The wooden base of the kiln to cause a draught of air,
which is required owing to the large pieces of usually green
wrood which are being carbonised.

(hi) The large dimensions of the kilns.

(iv) Only one covering being applied to the kilns, that is
usually thick and requires special supports.

(v) By the special mode of kindling, which is usually, though
not always, from above.

2. Kilns with I rood piled Ifnri.:<iut<tUy.

In Sweden and Austria, wood to be carbonised is piled
horizontally, but the practice is becoming less frequent than
was formerly the case. The following are the chief points of
difference between this and the ordinary method.

(i) The wood carbonised is chiefly coniferous ; the pieces are
round logs, barked if possible, and of various dimensions up to
20 feet or (in Sweden) 26 feet in length. The pieces of wood
must be quite straight, or they could not be piled densely.' As
such large pieces may be used for timber, the method is
employed only in localities where the timber of the species in
question is unsaleable.

(ii) The site chosen for the kiln is usually on slightly
inclined ground, but otherwise of a nature similar to that
described for ordinary kilns. It is also prepared similarly, but
often is merely levelled, covered with earth and firmly beaten
down.

The size of the kiln also should be considered, its breadth
being the length of the pieces of wood and its length varying
(usually 13 to 20 feet, but often 25 to 40 feet, and even, accord-
ing to v. Berg, 60 feet). The site should be a long rectangle,
the longer side of which has a slight gradient,

(iii) In piling the wood, the first point is to make the base of
the kiln ; it consists of three long straight poles which are
placed on the ground at equal intervals, lengthways as regards

544-

AUXILIARY FOKEST INDUSTRIES.

the kilns (Fig. 317, w m). At the lower end of the kiln stout
stakes are driven into the ground (Figs. 317, 318, p p p), and
the piling commences against these stakes. As in the figures,
the thickest wood is placed in the middle of the kiln and near

i#. 317. - Horizontal kiln.

its upper extremity, while the smaller pieces are placed above,
below and at its foot.

The wood should, in this case also, be piled as closely as
possible, and interstices filled in with split wood. The flue is

Fig. 31 S. — Hori/xmtal kiln.

formed, as may be seen from Fig. 317, a, by placing several logs
around a cylindrical hole running from side to side of the kiln,
or as in Fig. 318, a, a kindling chamber is left open, as is
customary in Steiermark.

(iv) The kiln is now covered ; the inner covering is usually
spruce or silver-fir twigs, the lower ends of which are stuck into

CHARCOAL-MAKING. 545

the wood so that they overlap one another like tiles. The outer
covering consists of a paste similar to that used in ordinary
kilns, or the same mixed with damp earth.

In order that this paste may adhere to the vertical walls of
the kiln, the latter are supported by poles placed 6 to 8 inches
apart along the two sides of the kiln, and its front (Fig. 319), or
in Steiermark the whole kiln, is surrounded by planks (Fig. 318)
resting on horizontal logs (n n n, Fig. 319), to secure a draught
of air. The paste is applied between these planks and the
ends of the logs, and is rammed down. The back of the kiln
is, in Sweden, supported by props (c c c, Fig. 317). The roof is

Fiir. Ml'.'. Back wall of a horizontal kiln.

at first only thin, and is thickened after the kiln has been fired,
when there is no longer any danger of its bursting.

(v) In order to fire the kiln, the kindling flue, or chamber, is
filled with readily combustible material, the filling being con-
tinued with an open flue until the kiln is thoroughly alight. The
whole front portion of the kiln must burn if the fire is to con-
tinue uniformly throughout. Once this has been secured the
kindling flue, or chamber, may be closed, and the combustion
continued by opening successive vent-holes in the roof (in Steier-
mark also in the sides of the kiln), as in the ordinary method.

Carbonisation proceeds obliquely backwards, the fire being
always more advanced towards the roof than at the base of
the kiln. Thus the base of the back of the kiln is the last to
be carbonised, and the process is completed as soon as flames
emerge from ventholes there. The charcoal is cooled by

F.U. N N

546 AUXILIARY FOREST INDUSTRIES.

removing part of the roof and putting earth on it, the walls
not being opened.

(vi) The charcoal is removed first from the front of the
kiln. A portion is removed daily, and the kiln closed again.

In Steiermark, a commencement is made by removing the
charcoal whilst the back of the kiln is still burning. As the
front part of the kiln burns longest and the charcoal there
becomes light, attempts are made to prevent this by its early
removal. It should, however, be remembered that this frequent
opening increases the draught, and must cause a considerable
loss of charcoal.

3. Pit-kilns.

Charcoal-making in pits is the roughest and least productive
method. A round pit with sloping sides is dug in ground
sufficiently firm for the purpose, to a depth of about a meter,
and is filled with dry brushwood. This is kindled and remains
burning openly until the smoke ceases and the glowing embers
remain ; these are then pressed together, the wood being
placed in the pit and left to burn till the smoke has ceased.
Fresh wood is then thrown in at repeated intervals until the
pit is full. Then the pit is covered with sods and earth, and
the charcoal allowed time to cool ; the pit can be opened in
1 to 2 days for removal of the charcoal. Such a method is
justifiable only when wood has hardly any value, as almost free
admission of air is involved. If the pit is dug on a little hill
or on a gentle mountain-slope so that a channel from it leads
out to the lowest part of the ground, the liquid products of
distillation (tar) can be secured. Similarly tar may be col-
lected from ordinary kilns if pits are dug below the kiln, as in
Kussia. Kilns may be surrounded also by masonry, as in
lime-kilns, so that both charcoal and tar may be obtained.

4. Yield of Charcoal

In discussing the quantity of charcoal which a certain volume
of wood may be made to yield, the following points should be
considered : — the kind of wood, situation of kiln, state of
weather, process and duration of burning, and different
methods of carbonisation.

CHARCOAL-MAKING. 547

(a) Kind of wood. — All wood being converted into charcoal
naturally shrinks. Dry wood shrinks less than green wood,
and consequently gives a larger return. Large pieces of wood
also yield in volume more charcoal than small pieces, as more
of the former can be piled in a kiln.

(b) Situation of kiln. — The nature of the site of a kiln has
an important effect on the yield of charcoal, a new site yielding
less than one repeatedly used.

(c) State of the weather. — The weather has important
effects on the yield of a kiln. Uniformly still weather, which
occurs frequently in late summer and autumn, is best ; change-
able weather, accompanied by storms, is most unfavourable.

(d) Process of burning. — Slow, careful progress, especially
during the earlier part of the burning, not only yields heavier
charcoal, but also a larger volume of it.

(e) Duration of the burning. — The length of time during
which a kiln should burn is very variable and depends on its
size, on the dimensions and degree of dry ness of the billets, the
quicker or slower action of the fire (according to the site,
arrangement of the wood, weather, etc.) and many other
circumstances. Small kilns of sprucewood containing 700 to
1,000 stacked cubic feet are carbonised in 6 to 8 days, beech-
wood in somewhat less time. Large kilns containing 3,500 to
7,000 cubic feet, in favourable weather, require about 4 weeks
to burn, and in unfavourable weather, 5 to 6 weeks.

(f) Methods of carbonisation. — It is difficult in practice to
decide which method gives the best outturn, as there are so
many intervening facts. It appears, however, that the common
method, with kindling from below, gives the best results. The
comparative outturn of charcoal in quantity and quality
depends greatly on the skill and foresight of the burners,
which is really the most important of all factors, as experience
shows in the case of permanent sites of kilns where the burners
are frequently changed.

(g) General results. — Charcoal may be measured by weight
or volume, the latter being more frequent and large baskets or
rectangular measures being used for the purpose.

Coniferous wood yields more charcoal than broadleaved
species ; soft, broadleaved woods less than coniferous wood,

N N 2

548

AUXILIARY FOREST INDUSTRIES.

but more than hardwood. Branchwood and wood in the round
yield less than split wood. Thus the yield of charcoal is
inversely proportional to the sp. weight of the wood, as
heavy wood shrinks more than light wood. The yield by
weight is directly proportional to the sp. weight of the
wood.

The average yield from forest kilns may be considered
good for broadleaved wood with 50%, and for coniferous wood
60%, by volume. The yield by weight is about 25% for all
wood.

Yon Berg,* from average conditions of all intervening
factors and after comparing large quantities of wood, gives
the following percentages :—

Species of Wood.

Volume.

Weight.

Beech or oak (split billets)

52—56

20—22

Birch „ „

65—68

20—21

Scots pine ,, ,,

60—64

22—25

Spruce „ ,,

65—7.")

23—26

,, (stump- wood)

50— 65

21—25

„ (round billets)

42—50

20—24

,, (small branchwood) ...

38—48

19—22

Beschoven t gives the following results of his researches in
Eisleben, in percentages :—

Species.

Volume.

Weight,

Oak

71-8

21 3

Beech

73

22-7

Hornbeam ...

57-2

20-6

Birch

68-5

20-1)

Scots pine ...

63-6

25

5. Assortment.

Charcoal is classified as soon as it is taken from the kiln,
according to the species of wood of which it is made, and
also according to the size of the pieces. The smaller pieces

* " Anleltung 2tmi Yerkolilcn dcs Hol/.cs."

I (irathc, " Brennmaterialien."

CHARCOAL-MAKING. 549

are sifted from the refuse dust and sold separately, while
pieces that are not sufficiently charred are set aside for a fresh
kiln, or are charred again at once in small kilns.

(). Properties of Charcoal

Good charcoal has a heating power of 7,000 to 8,000 calories,
approaching that of pure carbon. Its composition is as
follows :

Carbon .... 75—80%

- Hydrogen . . . T5 — 2'5 ,,

Oxygen . 8—12 „

Hydroscopic water . . 6 — 12 ,,

Ashes .... 1—2-5 ,,

Violette has shown that the quantity of carbon in charcoal
is lower, the greater the heat of combustion. Charcoal has a
higher heating-power, the heavier it is and the heavier the
wood from which it is made ; while the higher the temperature
at which it is burned the lower is its sp. weight. Violette
therefore assigned to charcoal of elder-wood :—

At 350° a sp. weight of 150
,, 1,025° „ „ 184

,, 1,500° „ „ 187

On the average the sp. weight of charcoal varies from 140
to 200, that of water being 100.

The sp. weight of charcoal in pieces, with numerous air
interstices, according to Hassenfratz is :—

Birch 20'3

Ash 20-0

Beech 18'7

Hornbeam 18'3

Elm 18-0

Spruce 17'6

Oak 15-5

According to Mayr's researches, the sp. weight of the best

550 AUXILIARY FOREST INDUSTRIES.

Japanese charcoal (Quercus serrata) is 82*9 ; of beech char-
coal, 38*5 ; spruce, 31/5 ; boxwood, 81*7. Hassenfratz's
figures are too low. Good charcoal should be bluish black,
with an oily lustre ; it should not split, but have a conchoidal
fracture, should have a metallic ring when struck, and exhibit
clearly the structure of the wood. It should be hard and
without taste or colour, burn with a short, blue flame, without
smoke or odour, without crackling or emitting sparks. Good
charcoal is highly absorptive of gases ; beech charcoal absorbs
35 times its volume of C02, 90 times its volume of ammonia.
Charcoal is antiseptic, it prevents a mouldy scent and hinders
decomposition ; it has an immense durability.

SECTION III. — THE COMBUSTION OF WOOD.

As regards the utilisation of the combustion of wood
for heating purposes, this is dealt with in the next chapter on
the industrial uses of wood ; here, changes in the substance
of wood by combustion in order to obtain useful materials
from soot and ashes are considered.

Lampblack is prepared cbiefly where there are supplies
of resinous conifers used for making turpentine and rosin.
The residue after making oil of turpentine and the resinous
roots of pines supply the raw material, which is burned with
admission of oxygen sufficient to maintain a weak, reddish,
smoky flame. The soot is collected from the smoke in
chambers covered internally with wool. Lampblack is
obtained also from coal-tar.

Ashes, manure-ash and potash were obtained formerly,
when wood was without any value, by burning the wood
with complete exposure to the air. Such a practice is now
confined to remote forests only. But in modern artificial
forests there is still much unsaleable material from which
ashes may be obtained profitably. Branch-wood and top-and-
lop, the almost worthless materials from cleanings and early
thinnings, rotten wood and stump- wood attacked by fungi is best
burned, so that it may not increase danger to the forest from
insects, fungi and fires. The ashes thus obtained are rich in
potash, and when mixed with humus si*pply!splendid garden-

CELLULOSE. 551

manure. Ashes when freed from earth and pieces of charcoal
yield the following percentages of potash :—

Silver-fir 39'9

Oak 33-3

Beech 28-6

Birch 23-6

Larch 23'6

Spruce 19'7

Scots pine ..... 14*3

By washing the ashes, hoiling the solution so as to evaporate
the water and heating the residue, potash is obtained.

SECTION IV. — CHEMICAL AGENCIES FOR OBTAINING THE
CONSTITUENTS OF WOOD.

(a) Cellulose. — Cellulose is employed chiefly for making
into paper. Paper-pulp obtained from wood is not only
cheaper than that prepared from rags, hut gives clearer print
and wears away the type less. On the other hand paper that
contains much wood-pulp soon becomes brittle and yellowish ;
hence much of the paper made from wood is useless after
about ten years, and it cannot be used for important docu-
ments. Unmixed wood-pulp is, therefore, used chiefly for
pasteboard, packing paper and the coarser kinds of paper.
For superior paper some rag-pulp must be mixed with wood-
pulp. Nevertheless, the amount of rag-pulp used depends
essentially on the process employed in making wood-pulp,
and good wood-cellulose is considered as an alternative for
rags.

The wood of aspen and lime are preferred for paper-pulp,
but as they are quite insufficient for the demand for this
material, coniferous wood is used, chiefly that of spruce.
Besides these woods those of poplar and birch, and in
America those of Liriodendron and Weymouth pine, are
employed. Poles and logs of 10 to 30 cm. (4 inches to
12 inches) in diameter, prepared as for firewood billets, were
usually chosen. At present wood of larger dimensions is
employed, as the cost of transport, etc., is considerably less.

552 AUXILIARY FOREST INDUSTRIES.

than for small pieces. The wood should be free from knots
and perfectly sound ; half dead and dead wood from thinnings
is rejected. Peeled round pieces 10 to 30 cm. in diameter
and 2 to 4 m. long are stacked in cords for pulp-wood.

The present enormous demand for wood-pulp is one of the
chief causes of the clearance of numerous private woodlands,
as wood of moderate dimensions is quite suitable. In Saxony
60% of the total timber-supply was used in 1902 for paper-
pulp. In North America (1900—3) 200,000 acres of forest
were cleared for wood-pulp, in order to supply 210 paper
factories. By far the greatest supply of paper-pulp comes
npw from the extensive coniferous forests of Canada, and is
more and more threatening to German trade.

As has been explained on p. 79, the walls of wood-fibres
are formed chiefly of cellulose and lignin, with gum, tannin,
coniform, etc. In order to separate the cellulose from these
substances, the wood is macerated and the lignin, gums, etc.,
separated as " incr Listing material " from the pure cellulose.
Various acids, such as nitric acid and mixtures of nitric and
hydrochloric acid are used ; but independently of the great
uost of these acids — for they can be employed only once — this
combination with cellulose is caustic and emits poisonous

The treatment with nitric acid attacks the cellulose and
converts it into sugar, which may be neutralised with lime
and made into alcohol. At Bex,* in Switzerland, 1 cubic meter
(35 cubic feet) of silver-fir wood yields 100 kilos (220 Ibs.)
of unbleached and 70 kilos of bleached cellulose.

Caustic alkalis also dissolve the incrusting substances and
saponify the resin ; they have the great advantage of being
utilisable several times for maceration. Of these alkalis
caustic soda is the most important ; it is prepared from soda
by the addition of lime.

In preparing cellulose by means of caustic soda, the wood,
freed from bark, knots, etc., is cut in an oblique direction to
its length into pieces about 2 cm. thick ; they are ground into
splinters between fluted rollers, working as in a large coffee-
grinder, that are 2 cm. long and 5 and 8 mm. thick. These

* JJrrsdi. '• Die \'c;r\v<Tt 111114- <les I Inl/.cs mil' duMnisclit'ii Wrijr

CELLULOSE. 553

splinters are placed in sheet tin perforated vessels that are
put into a fixed horizontal boiler. When the boiler is full
of these vessels, it is hermetically closed, pumped full of a
solution of soda, and boiled under pressure of 10 ats. by
means of a fire kindled below it. After 3 to 4 hours the boiler
is emptied. The raw cellulose thus obtained is washed, refined,
bleached, and pressed successively by several drying rollers,
coming out in the form of felt. From 75 to 80% of the
solution can be used again. This solution is known in the
trade as " soda-cellulose."

More recently this soda process is being abandoned for that
of preparing cellulose by means of sulphuric acid, which is
brought into contact with the wood splinters in the form of a
solution of calcium sulphate. In this method, introduced into
Germany by Mitscherlicb, the splintered wood is placed in
large boilers and steamed, then the solution of calcium sulphate
is admitted and boiled with a pressure of 2J to 5 ats. for 50 to
60 hours. The solution comes from tall towers filled with
lime, through which sulphurous acid from burning sulphur
passes while water trickles in from above. The solution of
calcium sulphate is collected in reservoirs below. The material
coming from the boiler is in reddish -yellow soft pieces, that
are pounded, washed, passed through sieves, and pressed into
felt by rollers.

Cellulose made by both the above processes is used partly
for paper-making, partly for wood-pulp (p. 501). There are
in Germany 600 cellulose factories using annually 1J millions
of cubic meters of wood.

Kellner's electrical process for preparing cellulose con-
sists in boiling the wood with solutions, chiefly of salt,
and at the same time passing an electric current through it.
This separates the incrusting material from the cellulose.
It cannot be denied that there is now in Germany an over-
production of wood-pulp, that is increased by the competition
of America and Asia.

The following articles are made of cellulose : — Ornamental
relief -work in small pieces for artistic furniture and picture-
frames ; also entire pieces of furniture, the seats of chairs,
casks, buckets, tubs, laboratory and cooking utensils, etc. ;

554 AUXILIARY FOREST INDUSTRIES.

even boats, hollow beams for huts, underground tubes for
telephone wires, frames for doors and windows, oars, etc.
The spokes of railway-carriage wheels are replaced by fill-
ings with compressed cellulose. Antiseptic wood-cellulose of
silver-fir is used for binding wounds. Cellulose is used for
floor-cloth and oil-cloth, for packing material specially used
for the despatch of gunpowder, and for many other purposes.
It is also used for insulating electric conductors, and experi-
ments have been made to prepare gun-cotton from cellulose.
Silk is also made from cellulose.

Chardonnel and Lehnert have a patent for converting
sulphite-cellulose made of 'sprucewood into nitrocellulose by
treating it with nitric acid. It then resembles collodion and
is drawn through fine glass tubes, which press it into
extremely fine threads ; 12 to 14 of these threads are
spun into a silk thread. The danger of an explosion is
avoided by denitrifying the collodion. This artificial silk is
even more lustrous than natural silk and can be dyed readily.
Most of the cheap silk goods now in the market are made of
artificial silk.

A watery solution of cellulose in combination with soda and
carbon-bisulphide is named viscose and used as a substitute
for glue ; when this is heated a hard amorphous substance is
produced, viscoid, which in various colours is used instead of
costly celluloid. True celluloid is produced by heating and
pressing nitro-cellulose and camphor ; this transparent sub-
stance is used as a substitute for tortoise-shell, ivory,
caoutchouc, etc., or for counterfeiting these substances.
Celluloid may be rendered uninflammable, and is then called
pegamoid.

(b) Sugar and Alcohol. — As cellulose has the same
chemical composition as starch it has been proposed to manu-
facture from it sugar and alcohol. The wood in small pieces,
wood-pulp or sawdust, is acted on by acids and boiled for
some time under pressure in order to convert it into sugar
and by means of diastase to ferment it into alcohol. Although
no successful results are known to have been obtained, it
appears as if a great transformation in the manufacture
of alcohol will result and that inferior wood-assortments

OXALIC ACID.

555

will thus become valuable. Ydarek* gives the following
table :

100 Kilos of Wood.

Litres of Alcohol.

Cu. m.

Litres of Alcohol.

Spruce ...
Silver-fir
Beech

5 to <;•:>
4-5
2*5

1
1

50

4o

Pedunculate oak-
Sessile oak

1

1

47-1
50-1

Simonsen found that cellulose yields 42'7 per cent., saw-
dust 22'5 per cent., of sugar. The cellulose in wood is con-
verted into sugar more easily than isolated cellulose; 100
kilos of sawdust yield 6*5 kilos of pure alcohol.

(c) Oxalic Acid! is prepared from wood. For this any
minute pieces of wood, such as sawdust, is suitable. Owing
to the extensive use of oxalic acid in dyes and in calico-
printing, its preparation forms an important industry.

The sawdust is mixed with a double solution of caustic
lime and caustic soda and is heated up to 240° in shallow
vessels. The resulting greenish-yellow mass is mixed in the
water in which oxalate of soda remains dissolved until the
water is cooled ; the salt is precipitated by sulphuric acid in
the form of gypsum and oxalic acid.

[(d) Bamboo-fibre. — Mr. J. S. Owden states that fine
bamboo fibres are prepared in the West Indies, which, spun
with wool in the ratio of 1 : 2, yield very strong cloth.
Bamboo-fibre is also used as paper-pulp, and for packing the
axle-boxes of American railway -carriages. — Tr.]

* "Austrian F. u. Jagdzeiting." V.MIO.

) Bersch ascribes the success of their industry chiefly to Dr. Thorn.

CHAPTER IX.

INDUSTRIAL USES OF WOOD.

THERE are few raw materials which possess such extensive
powers of adaptability and are so largely used for industrial
purposes as wood. A casual inspection of the interior of any
building is sufficient to convince one of this.

Wood may be classified according to the manner in which it
is used, as timber and firewood. In timber the species and
the chemical and physical properties of the wood decide the
purpose for which it can be used ; as regards firewood, how-
ever, the wood is used only indirectly in order to utilise the
heat produced by burning it. The discussion of the proper-
ties of wood for the various industries in Chapter I. renders
further remarks on them unnecessary here. It is also
evident, that in the forestry of the twentieth century not fire-
wood, but timber, must be the chief object of production, for
timber unfit for any other purpose may be used for fuel, but
mere firewood cannot be used generally as timber.

Subdivision I. — Timber.

SECTION I. — THE DIFFERENT CLASSES OF CONVERTED TIMBER.

1. General Account.

The demands on timber are as varied as the kinds of timber
available. In considering merely the woods used in the con-
struction of buildings, furniture, implements, tools, and the
innumerable articles of convenience, art and comfort, it will
be perceived readily that nearly every object requires a special
kind of wood. If, therefore, a forest is to be worked inten-
sively, so as to yield the highest possible revenue, it should
produce wood which may be used to the greatest advantage,
or, in other words, which is most valuable. In order that the
produce of a forest may be of this nature, the forester should

MARKETABLE TIMBER. 557

possess a thorough knowledge of the special requirements of
industries using wood, which is too much to expect from him.
To a certain extent, however, this knowledge is indispen-
sable, especially as regards those industries which obtain
their wood directly from the forest, and require it in large
quantities.

It is true that iron competes more and more with wood for
certain purposes — as for shipbuilding, agricultural implements,
water-pipes, telegraph-posts and railway-sleepers, where it has
been substituted largely for wood; in mines, iron rails and
props are used ; in the construction of large bridges, woodwork
is entirely dispensed with, and iron instead of wooden pillars
are used where vertical support is required to a building.
Even in numerous small articles iron has been substituted for
wood. Yet with the constant increase in human require-
ments, hundreds of new uses for wood are found, and there-
fore the demands for high-class timber increase constantly
whilst the area of the forests decreases, so that the supply of
this valuable material tends to diminish.*

The timber required for various industrial purposes does
not in many cases pass directly from the woodman to the
artisan, but generally through the intervention of a middle-
man, the timber-merchant, who converts rough timber into
pieces of dimensions suitable for the requirements of the
various industries. In this intermediate state it is termed
converted or marketable timber.

Timber may be classified according to its form, adaptability,
and mode of conversion, and this classification naturally pre-
cedes the account of the different wood-industries. Thus, logs
may be distinguished from sawn, or cloven timber.

2.

Logs are pieces of timber which retain the full thickness of
the stem, but may be more or less shortened. They are

* [A paper was written in the " Revue des Kaux et Forets," December, 1894,
showing that in Britain, whilst the production of iron is as <jreat as in all the
rest of Europe, yet the imports of timber have risen, between ISiio and 1890, by
168 per cent. As regards the timber-supply from forests in the United States,
Kc-ll< )<_'<_'. "The Drain upon the Forests," U.S. Dep. of Agri., Novem-
ber 30, 1(J07, says that it is probably three times the annual increment. — Tr.]

558

INDUSTRIAL USES OF WOOD.

distinguished further as round logs, and balks which have
been squared, or are of rough prismatic shape and are then
termed sided timber.

(a) Thus, timber in the round is the part of a stem which
has been merely barked, and may be used directly as piles,
masts and spars, wheel-hubs, scaffolding-poles, pillars, anvil-
stocks, telegraph-posts, hop-poles, or, when bored, for water-
pipes.

(b) Balks are used as beams in the construction of houses,
bridges or ships, being logs squared roughly either with the
axe or saw. If not quite square they are termed waney
(Fig. 320, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, r), wanes being the natural surface

Fig. 320.— Log with bark, balks
without bark.

Fig. 321. -Half -balk.

of the timber, and panes the flat, hewn or sawn surfaces from
which side-pieces have been removed. In the case of waney
balks, for which rarely more than two-thirds of the trunk are
utilised, the waste is about 12 to 15 per cent, of the whole,
while, when the timber is square, the loss is about 27 per
cent.

Boles about 60 feet long and of about 8£ inches mid-
diameter, corresponding to 12 inches diameter chest-high
(4^ feet from the ground), are commonly used for balks.

(c) Round oakwood is sometimes split through the centre
into half-balks, with a section as shown in Fig. 321. These
half-balks are met with in the Baltic oak-trade, and in the case
of oak from the Spessart, they are used in cabinet-making
and joiners' work.

SAWN TIMBER.

559

Quarter-balks (bois tie quurticr) are produced commonly in
France by sawing two cuts at right angles to one another
through the heart of a tree.

3. Sawn Timber.

[Various methods of sawing timber are shown in Figs. 322
to 325, the best sawn pieces being obtained by cutting as much

Fi.ir. :i2L'.

Methods of sawing, after Boppe.

Fig. 325.

as possible in the direction of the medullary rays, as wdod has
a better appearance (silver-grain), and stands friction better
in this way. — Tr.]

Scantling, battens and planking, comprise the different
forms of timber after the stem has received several saw-cuts
lengthwise. Naturally, in these forms of converted timber
the full diameter of the stem is no longer retained, except
sometimes in one direction, and the length of the pieces is

560 INDUSTRIAL USES OF WOOD.

generally of greater importance than their breadth; it is chiefly
large trees (16 inches and more in mid-diameter) which are
most usually converted into planks and scantling, and the
following kinds are commonly known in the timber-trade :—

(a) Pieces square, or nearly so, in Section. (Fig. 326.)

i. Scantlings may be 8 to 20 feet long, and in section
2 inches by 2 inches, 2J inches by 2J inches, 3 inches by
3 inches, 3 inches by 4 inches, 3 inches
by 5 inches, 4 inches by 4 inches, 4 inches
by 5 inches, 5 inches by 5 inches, and
5 J inches by 6 inches : they are sawn from

Fig. 326.— Scantlings. . a J „ . ,

logs and beams, of 2 to 6 inches nnd-
diameter and 8 to 20 feet long, also from planks. They are
used for supporting floors and roofs, for door-posts, gates, etc.
ii. Laths are made by sawing up planks, and are generally
less than 2 inches thick, from 10 to 20 feet long, their usual
dimensions are f inch to 1J inches thick, and 1^ inches to
2 inches wide. They are used in supporting tiles, slates and
ceilings, also espaliers, vines, etc. ; they are frequently split
instead of being sawn. Laths for ceilings may be sold even
when Jrd of an inch thick and 1 foot or 2 feet long.

(b) Boards in which, the Breadth is much Greater than

the Thickness.

i. Planks are cut right through the stem and are usually
10 to 20 feet in length, and 8 to 14 inches by 2 to 4 inches,
and exceptionally 6 inches in section.
t^^^^^u (Fig. 327.)

[In the case of oakwood such planks
take at least one year for every inch
~ 327 —Boards °^ thickness for seasoning, and they

are kept in stock by timber-merchants
and used for all kinds of purposes, frequently after being
further reduced in size. Railway-sleepers are comprised under
this class, their dimensions will be given further on. — Tr.]

ii. Deals under 2 inches in thickness, usually varying from
J inch to 1 inch, and of various lengths, but generally from

SUPERSTRUCTURES. 561

10 to 20 feet long, and 5| inches to 1 foot broad, the usual
breadth being 8 inches to 1J feet. They are used for floors,
door-panels, cabinet-making, etc.

iii. Battens, or small boards, may be 8 feet to 20 feet long,
and in section 4 inches by f-inch, up to 7 inches by 3 inches.
They are used for door- and window-frames, etc.

4. Cloven Timber.

Cloven timber comprises all those sorts of timber in which
the wood is split, or cloven, along the direction of the fibres ;
it comprises staves for casks, park-palings, laths, shingles for
roofing, spokes for wheels, rungs for ladders, hurdle- wood, etc.
This class of wood is characterised by the fact, that the fibres
not being severed, the wood preserves its natural elasticity
and strength and is much less permeable by liquids ; it is less
liable to warp and crack than sawn timber. The work of
cleaving timber is also more expeditious and requires simpler
implements than sawing, and there is scarcely any waste of
material involved. In cleaving wood it is advisable, when-
ever possible, to work from the centre of the piece of wood
outwards.

SECTION II. — TIMBER USED IN SUPERSTRUCTURES.*

(a) Different Kinds of Superstructure. — The term super-
structure includes all parts of buildings that are above
ground or water, so that the timber used in their construc-
tion may be exposed to the external air and to atmospheric
influences, but not to moisture from the soil or in water-
courses. Building- timber may be distinguished as sawn
timber (beams, planks and scantling), which is fitted by a
carpenter, and planed timber used for floors, doors and
windows, and fitted by a joiner.

According to the demands on the durability, strength,
beauty, etc., of the timber used, and to its local value,
different modes of building are employed, some of which
use timber in large quantities, and others much more
sparingly.

* M. I>i/.h;s. ••Haii'lbuch dor forstl. Baukmicie,'' Berlin, l.S'.'i'».
• F.U. O 0

562 INDUSTRIAL USES OF WOOD.

These modes of building may be distinguished by the
nature of the walls erected. Thus, block-houses, or log-
huts, have entirely wooden walls ; the wooden frame-work
sometimes employed for the walls of houses may be filled
in with planks, bricks, or lath and plaster ; the walls of
other s perstructures are built of mud, stone, or brick
masonry.

In the case of log-huts, the walls of the whole building are
made of round logs or squared balks, the necessary firmness
of the building being secured by dovetailing their ends into
beams placed at right angles to them. Log-huts are still
used in the Alps, and in countries like America or Australia,
where timber is still abundant.

A higher class of houses is built with a complete wooden
framework of beams and scantling, dovetailed and riveted
together, and the interspaces are covered afterwards with
planks, or filled-in with lath and plaster, or with rubble- or
brick-masonry. Houses with a wooden framework filled-in
with masonry are termed half-timbered. In the Middle
Ages, owing to the abundance of wood nearly all houses and
even large edifices were built with a wooden framework ;
at present, this mode of construction is limited to woodland
districts and especially to Switzerland and the Black Forest.
Its use is becoming more restricted in Europe as com-
munications improve and it is being replaced by stone- or
brick-masonry.

[In countries like Japan or Assam, where earthquakes are
frequent, this mode of building with wooden framework is
far safer than masonry, the interspaces between the wood
being filled-in with reeds or bamboos and plastered over. In
the event of an earthquake, the whole house holds together
and the danger of falling masonry is avoided. Frequently
owing to the malarious nature of the country in Assam, houses
are raised above the ground on piles. — Tr.]

Brick- or stone-masonry is the best material for the walls
of buildings, and at present is most common [though in
fairly dry countries, such as the N.W. of India, walls and
even roofs are made frequently of mud. — Tr.] In all these
cases the minimum amount of wood is used, and chiefly for

SUPERSTRUCTURES. 563

doors and window-frames, for the flooring and wainscoting of
the different stones (though even these may be made partly of
stone and cement, supported by steel girders), and for stair-
cases and roofing.

Wooden scaffolding used during the construction of build-
ings of all kinds also requires a large quantity of round
timber and some planking ; work-sheds and other similar
constructions are made usually with a wooden framework.

Beams, scantling, planks, etc., and round timber for
scaffolding, are the usual forms in which wood is used in
superstructures, while the properties which timber should
possess for use in superstructures may be considered under
the headings — shape and dimensions, strength, durability
and weight.

(b) Shape and Dimensions of Timber Used. — Although in
the construction of staircases and of half-timbered houses,
curved wood is not excluded, the carpenter requires straight,
cylindrical logs for most of his pieces. The length and
diameter of the pieces depend, of course, on the size of the
building for which they are required, but the pieces used for
any particular building are classed in uniform sizes. They
are seldom thinner at centre than 4 to 6 inches, or thicker
than 1 to 1J feet.

(c) Strength of Material. — Timber is subjected to loads
which when applied transversely to the length of the pieces
tend to cross-break them. In such cases, the timber serves
the purpose of a beam, as for instance, the joists for supporting
floors and rafters for roofs.

The strength to resist bending is proportional to the width
of the beam and the square of its depth. Two beams of half
width have the same strength as one of whole width, but two
beams of half depth superposed one on the other have only
half the strength of one of whole depth. The greater
transverse thickness therefore should be placed in the direc-
tion in which the load is applied. In order to provide
sufficient stiffness aswrell as strength, the depth of beams, etc.,
is made from T^th (in short beams) to ^jth of the length or
span (in beams 20 feet long), and to give lateral stiffness, the
width is about Jrd of the depth in short beams, and Jth in

o o 2

si;s <>i \\OOD.

than indiv.enou,, sprucewood. Wood of the Wey mouth-pine
also is, Used in huildinj'.s ; it \\ as considered to j hllle

durahility <>r strength, BO long ai only young \\<">d \\iihout

heart- WaS USed, \\C\moiilJi pine\\ood indeed is, t ,lie I i",htesl
of the important coniferous, WOOds, hut il is not correct
ay that if is; tin- WOrst, I1'. Until t" The Wood of the
White I'ine/' IS!)!)) sayi lh;i.t in the Tinted States, and
perha.ps t In oiij'Jioiil the world, no wood is, ii;.ed for so many
purpos.es a8 \\ eymout h pinewood.

The wood of lew l>roa,dleaved BpOC "pi tlie oak, are

QSed in hmldni'',;:. | Chest nutwood has, heeli reported to have
heen used in loolm;', caJhedrals in I1' ranee and Kn;da nd, hut
Mafhieu (l<'l<>rc/'»rt'sli<-r<') stales that \\hen the Wood of fhe.,e
loots has, heeii examined hy an expert-, it has heen found
always: to he of oak. Tr. | Klmwood and wood of rohinia,
alTord ;>,ood huildiii", material, hut are scarce in (ierinany,
fhou;di the former is fairly common in Uritain. ANponwood,
in spite of its little durahility, is sometimes used for li;dif
roolin;- spar;.. Almost any wood may he used h» till in the
frame work of fimhered houses; often heech is employed for
this purp

Amoii"s,l foreign woods, thai of the, 1'itcli pino (/'/'////.s i><ilitx-
on account of il;. "leal durahility, strength, heauty of
;-r;iiii and compara I ive cheapnes.s, is in great demand.

In the select-ion of various woods for huildiii", purposes, the
price and facility lor workin;; a re usualU deci,,i i\ e. a l;,o eiisl 0111
and soiuet-imes prejudice.

In the east of North America, lor cent uric;,, the most- impor
(a nl- huildiii", timher has heen that, of Wey moil Ih pine; as now
(he supply of this timher is nearly ex ha .iisled , s\\amp c\|
('l'ti Kxltiim <lixti<-linin) a,nd other timhers I hat \\ere formerly
despised, especially thai of BpeoieS of pine, have come into
llfle. f,>"'P'v"N "^"' n'pl:i.<§^^ "iif oak;,; in the west and south
of North America, redwood (<S'< '<///<>/,/ >,v////>(Tr//v//,s-), in the north,
riiinx i><>ii<l<'i-ox<i and l>oii;das lir, are the most important
timhers. | \\Cstcrn larchuood ( /.«// , from

Montana is eoniin;- into use.- - -Tr. | In ,)a|»an, ( 'n/>(,>nit'ri(i

j<(i><>nic(i LB most used ; wherever this Pails, pines and e\pi.

liro selected. The Imperial palace i. hmll of the \\ood

TIMBEB i BED IN Tin-; GROUND, ;>li7

of Ckamacyparia ohtnxtt .• only Xelkowa Keaki is used for

temples.

|ln liulia, leak. deodar, PinUS exceka &U& Q&\ (Shored rolmxhi)
yield the hest, huildin;; timher, hut. each province (especially
the moister regions »f r>en.";;il, A sun, Hurma, r>omhay and

Mad; .. \\ other S|)ecies \ 'it-Id 1 1 1; • d II ra hie lilllhel'.

r>y far the larger numher of Indian devoured h\-

tlie while ant, however well they may he seasoned; this
illy the possihle selection of lilllhers to he used
fur l.uildin-s. Ti\|

i ION 111. TIMIIKI; i MI; ( ii;ci

\Y« I in the Innii of piles for foiindat i<-ns in swa.inpy

ground, or to siippori :nhankiih d in

aqueducts, mads, railways or mines, come under Ilii., ln-ad.

1. 1 1 '<><><l used in Foundations <>i Buildings*

\\ here hiiildin I on yieldin;; soil, frequently

a foundation is ma.de for them hy driviii" piles S indn
lli inches in diameter, and 1() fed In hi fed Ion;1, into the
ground, soinelin,' ,er;il her die ftbove tin- oilier, until

a firm foundation ha soared, I'Ve.piently ihi baki

very large 'piantityof tiniher. \\'herever Ihesr piles are n«-t
completely under water the\ • mely h;ihle lo rot, Owing

to the variahle moisture in the, soil, which is not, usually siil'li
cienl to exclude the air, and lo the usually moderate lemp-
hire of the soil. Hence (he most duniblo woods are ir.ed for
this purpo ,e, BUC ••hielly larch

and Scots pine. \\herever ihes.oil is permanently wet , aldor
WOOd also may he u ed, ,i i; Mial fhat fhe piles should

'hi.

"2. \\'<><><l<'it

AltJioii-h everywhere iron wafer pipes, a,re replarin;1; woodon
pipes for aqueducts, jet in certain well wooded countries Die
latter are used :till; lor llih purpose fhe hesf Scots pine
wood, larchwood and black pinowood are most siiilahle.
Onl iv u ed, B in hoi in- them the aii;';er musl

not leave the heartwood nor penetrate fhesapwood, which ha ,

568 INDUSTRIAL USES OF WOOD.

no durability. Pines suitable for water-pipes are free from
knots, with fine bark and small crowns. Trees 10 inches to
16 inches in diameter, chest high, are the best. As larch has
very little sapwood any straight tree of sufficient size will
serve the purpose. Usually these woods last 8 years to 10
years if they are laid at a proper depth below the surface
of the soil, somewhat over 2 feet, where frost and heat do not
affect them.

Failing these, woods of spruce, silver-fir and alder may be
used. Oakwood gives the water a bad taste, it is too expen-
sive for the purpose, and other woods are not sufficiently
durable. [Deodar- wood is the best to use for aqueducts in the
Himalayas. — Tr.] The wood is bored and used quite green,
and supplies of wooden pipes must be kept in running water
to prevent warping and cracking. It is preferable to keep
them in dry sheds than in stagnant water, where spores of
fungi get into the tubes and cause premature decay.

Single pipes are 10 feet to 13 feet long, as it is difficult
to bore them to a greater length. The wall is generally as
thick as the bore.

3. Wood used for Timber Export- Works.

Wood is used frequently in forest export-roads, slides, or
sledge-roads. Wherever there are extensive coniferous forests,
and the local prices of wood are low, large quantities of wood
are used for fencing, supporting embankments, culverts, bridges,
and for covering swampy ground ; all kinds of wood, chiefly
coniferous wood, are used.

4. Wood-Paving.*

Wood-paving is now employed in the streets of large cities.
[In London, jarrah (Eucalyptus marginata) and kari (E.
diversicolor) are used largely for this purpose, and doubtless
Pyngado (Xylia dolabriformis), and other heavy Indian woods
might be used with advantage. — Tr.] Among European
species the hardwoods, beech, oak and elm are best, but owing

* C. L. Hill, "Woo<l-i>avin- in the United States,' U.S. Dep. of Agri.,
March 1, inos.

WOOD-PAVING.

569

to its cheapness Scots pinewood is also used and has proved to
be as durable for this purpose as Pitch pine.

Generally injected wood is used, zinc-chloride is said to
have given better results in this respect than creosote. The
wood is used either in rhombs, or rectangular prisms, placed
on a slightly arched layer of concrete, molten asphalt being
poured between the blocks, which are afterwards covered with
a layer of fine gravel and well rolled.

The blocks of wood are 6 inches to 12 inches long, 3 inches

it-paving.

broad, and 6 inches to 7 inches thick ; when rectangular they
are placed endways, and when rhombic, as in the figure.
Experience in London and other large cities gives the
following results.

Qualification.

I.

II.

in.

Cleanliness and hygiene

IV of (lllSt

Duration
y of traflic
< 'heapness <.f construction ...
„ ., repairs ...
,, maintenance ...

halt
Wood
Granite

( ;r.-:
Wood
Granite

( ! i -unite

Granite
Asphalt
Asphalt

Wood

Asphalt
Asphalt
Asphalt

Wood
Granite
Wood
Asphalt
Granite
Wood
Wood

[There are also some important points to be considered,
especially noise from traffic and wear-and-tear of tyres; in these
respects wrood and asphalt are evidently superior to granite or
other hard stone. As regards the various kinds of wood,
softwood wears away evenly and does not impair the concrete
beneath it. Hardwood wears less rapidly, but unevenly, and
injures the concrete below, so that it must be taken up when
fresh wooden blocks are laid. Non-absorbent wood is the most
hygienic, as much horse-urine permeates absorbent wood. — Tr.]

Blocks of Scots (red) pine and other wood are used also for
the flooring of stables, threshing-floors, or outdoor staircases.

570

INDUSTRIAL USES OF WOOD.

«, — 0,28 a

_ o, // <z- 0,23-^ •.

o.22 a, o,3o

5. Railway-Sleepers.

Up to the present time rail-
ways have made great demands
on forests, chiefly for railway-
sleepers, or ties, as they are
termed in America.

[The dimensions of railway-
sleepers vary in different coun-
tries, in England being 9 feet
by 10 inches by 5 inches, or
3 J cubic feet ; eleven of these
sleepers are used for 30 feet of
line, being about 2J feet apart,
but are further apart towards
the centre of the rails and closer
near the joints. Each red-pine
sleeper is saturated with 2J gal-
lons of creosote, which is forced
into the sleepers under pressure. .
The breadth of gauge between
the rails is 4 feet 8^ inches,
which with the width of the
rails, 3J inches, makes up 5 feet,
the ordinary width apart of the
wheels of a cart. In France
great latitude is allowed in speci-
fications of sleepers, as shown in
Fig. 329.

In India, the ordinary gauge,
termed the broad-gauge, is 5J
feet ; and the meter-gauge, 3 feet
3f inches, corresponding to
sleepers 10 feet by 12 inches
by 6 inches or 9J feet by 10
inches by 5 inches, and 8 feet
by 8 inches by 4J inches respec-
tively.

The rails are placed on steel chairs fastened to the sleepers
by iron spikes, oak trenails, or both, and it is essential that

-.o,22 a,

a, c>,3o ------ >

(Dimensions in meters.)

Fig. 329.— Different sections of rail-
way-sleepers used in
(After Boppe.)

RAILWAY-SLEEPERS.

571

there shall be no bad knots on the sleepers just where the
chairs are fixed to them. — Tr.]

In Germany first-class sleepers are 2*7 m. long and 16 by
26 cm. in section ; second class sleepers are 2*5 m. long and
15 by 25 cm. in section. On the average a sleeper contains
0*10 cu.m. (3^ cu. feet), and if the waste of wood in sawing
them is considered each sleeper requires 0'13 cu.m. (4*55 cu.
feet). In Belgium, France and Holland the sleepers are 2'50
to 2'75 m. long and with sections 13 by 26, 14 by 28, 15 by
30, 16 by 32, 18 by 35 cm. ; as already stated, their shape
need not be regular. They are therefore cheaper than
English or German sleepers. It should be noted that the
height of a sleeper has more effect on its durability than
its width.

In 1902, the total length of railway lines in Germany was
53,000 km. (33,125 miles). There are on the average 1,300
sleepers per kilometer, averaging O'l cu.m. of wood. As the
sleepers last about 10 years, every year about 6,890,000
sleepers have to be replaced, requiring 689,000 cu.m. of wood.
Also about 900 km. of new lines are constructed requiring
120,000 cu.m. of wood. Hence the annual demands for wood
for the German railway-sleepers are about 800,000 cubic
meters, or 28 million cubic feet, which if the waste in sawing
the sleepers is included means a drain on the forests of 36
million cubic feet, the annual produce of about a million acres
of woodland ; of the German sleepers 55 per cent, is conifer-
ous, 40 per cent, oak and the rest chiefly beech.

It is evident that the greatest number of sleepers should be
sawn from wood in the round. Experience has shown that in
the sleepers 2J m. long and 16 by 24 cm. in section the follow-
ing sleepers can be cut from round logs.

Diameter of Log at small end.

Centimetres.

Inches.

1

26

10

2

36

14

3

43

17

4

48

19

572 INDUSTRIAL USES OF WOOD.

Wood of large dimensions, oakwood at any rate, is too
expensive for rail way- sleepers, so that only oaks of third class
are used. As a rule from 30 to 40 per cent, of the wood is
wasted.

Oakwood formerly was considered essential for railway-
sleepers owing to its durability, extending to 10 — 16 years.
Narrow-ringed larchwood had an average duration of 10 years,
and close-ringed Scots pine with plenty of heartwood 7 to 9
years, no other European woods heing utilisable unless
impregnated with antiseptic substances. Now, owing to the
increasing scarcity and cost of oakwood and the advantages
of impregnating sleepers, impregnated pinewood as well as
impregnated wood of beech, spruce and silver-fir are pre-
ferred. Beechwood absorbs creosote fully and is now used
extensively. Experimental use is also made of pitch pine and
quebracho wood. The question of impregnating wood has
been dealt with already (p. 509).

Young oakwood on account of its superior density is better
for railway-sleepers, when creosoted, than the wood of old
trees. If many oak sleepers have shown little durability,
that is due to the low class of timber used. The nature
also of the bedding in which the sleepers are laid exercises
considerable influence on their duration.

Iron has come recently into competition with wood for
sleepers, the chief reason for its use being its great durability.
During the years 1891 to 1896 on the Prussian State Eailways,
which use annually about 3J million sleepers, the use of iron
sleepers has gone up from 17 per cent, in 1891 to 25'9 per
cent, in 1896. Of the wooden sleepers, in 1896, 71'3 per-
cent, were of pine and 28'7 per cent, of oak, in 1895, 90 per
cent, of the pine sleepers were imported but only 0*9 per cent,
of the oak sleepers.

[The iron or steel sleepers are either trough- shaped or pot-
shaped, the trough-shaped form being the best. The chief
objection consists in a gradual change in the molecules due to
the action of the traffic that renders this metal brittle.
Wooden sleepers are heavier and more stable than metal
sleepers. Another objection lies in the greater cost of steel
sleepers ; often in India the saline nature of the soil is

MINING TIMBER. 573

prejudicial to steel sleepers. No sleepers can yield a better
running road for traffic than the creosoted red-deal sleepers
of Pinus syh-estris from the Baltic, which are used almost
exclusively in Britain.

In India, teak, deodar, sal, and Xylia dolaliriformis are the
chief woods used for sleepers, and 4 millions yearly are the
estimated requirements for the future.

In America most sleepers are made from the longleaved or
pitch pine (P. 2)alustri»} ; in Australia and S. Africa from
species of Eucalyptus, though much red-deal from the Baltic
is imported into S. Africa. — Tr.]

6. WIHH! ntii'il in r\n'ta.

Palisades in fortresses are made of all kinds of wood, chiefly
coniferous. Platforms for guns and bomb-proof and other
sheltered parts of forts are made largely of all kinds of wood,
chiefly oak and Scots pine.

7. Minin<i Tiinltcr.

In spite of the large use of iron in supporting mine-galleries,
large quantities of pit-wood are used for this purpose, as well
as for lining shafts in pumping- works, etc. In Germany, the
annual production of 120 million tons of coal and lignite
require annually 3'6 million cubic meters of wood (126,000,000
cubic feet), while for all the German mines, 4 million cubic
meters of wood are required. Wood used in mines is exposed
to damp air, damp and frequently wet soil, and, in the deeper
mines, to a constant degree of comparatively high temperature.
Every circumstance, therefore, tends to favour the decomposi-
tion of the wood, and it lasts seldom more than 4 to 6 years.
If the demands were not so considerable, none but the most
durable oakwood ought to be used. It is, however, more
economical to use the wood which is locally more easily pro-
curable ; this is chiefly coniferous, of which larchwood is most
durable, then resinous Scots pinewood, but in Germany even
sprucewood is sometimes used. Among broadleaved trees
beech is used most commonly, and largely so when shod with
steel, as stamping hammers for pounding minerals.

574 INDUSTRIAL USES OF WOOD.

B. Dankelmann gives the following data as regards the use
of various woods for pit-props ; oak, greatest strength and
durability, but too dear ; beech stands pressure, but has low
transverse strength, not durable ; impregnated sprucewood
is better than pinewood owing to its more suitable shape ;
pine has greater strength and durability, but bad shape;
robinia is equal to oak, but dear. Vide p. 106, where the
latest French tests for pit-props are given.

With the exception of beams used vertically, dovetailed
together in shafts, ladder-wood, and some other pieces, wood
for mines is required chiefly in round logs free from bark.
Different forms also of sawn wood are in demand for lining
shafts, generally in the form of inferior coniferous boards and
planks. Wood may be supplied in full-lengthed logs, which
the mining carpenter reduces to the required dimensions; or in
the form of pit-props, in which the chief bulk of mining timber
is comprised, and which vary from three to eight inches in
mid-diameter (not less than 2J inches at the smaller end), and
12 to 30 feet long, and even longer. Only about 15 to 20 per
cent, of the mining-props are required in pieces measuring 12
to 16 inches, mid-diameter.

[Scots pine will yield pit-props when 40 years old, and birch
at 25 years, and for British coal-mines over 600,000 tons of
Cluster pine are imported annually from Bordeaux, where
this tree is grown and tapped for resin in the extensive forests
of the Landes and Gironde. This gives about 1 ton of wood
for 30 tons of coal, the wood costing about 15/- a ton. — Tr.]

Wood is put to some other uses where it is subject to similar
conditions as wood used in mines ; for instance, well-frames,
for which purpose resinous coniferous wood, especially that of
larch, black pine, and Scots pine are suitable ; also in cellars,
for bottle-racks, for which oakwood, good pinewood (or iron)
are chiefly used.

SECTION IV. — WOOD USED IN CONTACT WITH WATER.

1. Bridges, etc.

Wood used in watercourses and bridges is under very much
the same circumstances as wood in contact with the ground,

BRIDGES, ETC. 575

except that it may be partly or entirely under water. All
wooden bridges and works used in connection with them for
strengthening the banks of watercourses, sluices, weirs, booms
and other timber-catching apparatus on streams used for float-
ing, require pieces of many different shapes. Although iron
bridges are now becoming usual even across narrow streams,
and to a large extent roads are replacing water-carriage for
timber, yet the importance of canals for cheap traffic of heavy
goods is being felt more and more, so that very large quan-
tities of timber are required in hydraulic engineering.

Bridges are boarded usually with beech, which gives a
smoother surface and is less liable to splinter than oak or
coniferous wood, but the considerable amount of warping and
shrinking of beech wood must be allowed for.

Timber thus used i- 1 greatly to decay, so that oak-

wood and resinous heart wood of larch and Scots pine are
employed generally for these purposes. In the case of works
for floating timber, it would be highly advantageous were the
best wood used, but owing to its abundance in mountainous
districts, and to the great cost of oak and larch, sprucewood
usually is employed, although its durability is small.

Water-wheels also, for nVmrmills, sawmills and mills for other
purposes, should be made of oak wood, but are made usually of
the wood of Scots pine, larch or even spruce. The axle of a
water-wheel must be thoroughly sound and free from flaws; it
is seldom more than 18 feet long, and is made usually of the
wood of oak, larch, Scots pine, spruce or even beech. The
diameter of the axle does not depend entirely on the size of
the wheel, and the amount of the work to be done, but also
according as the spokes of the wheels are dovetailed into the
axle, or fastened to it tangentially.

Iron wheel-axles rest on beech or hornbeam bearings, which
are supported by a strong framework of oak, Scots pine,
larch, etc.

2. Fascines.

Fascines are often used to support banks, a fascine being a
bundle of young stool-shoots of different species and dimen-
sions. Their usual length is 10 feet to 12 feet, the height to

576 INDUSTRIAL USES OF WOOD.

which the coppice grows, and they should measure 12 inches
in diameter at the larger end. Fascines are used transversely
to the bank of the stream ; long thin fascines, made of the
finest available material, only 5 or 6 inches thick, but 24 to 50
feet long, which are bound with withes at intervals of ten
inches being pegged down over them. Another kind of fascine
is 12 to 20 feet long and 24 to 36 inches across, filled with
heavy stones, and sunk alongside the bank in deeper water
where the stream is strong. Quick-growing trees and shrubs
with five to six years' rotation, especially willows,* are used
for fascines ; also buckthorn, euonymus, viburnum, privet,
alder, elder, hazel, poplars, ash and thorns.

The best time for felling coppice for fascines is in March,
just before the spring- shoots come out. This is satisfactory,
alike to the engineer and the forester, as the former gets the
material when it is richest in sap and therefore heaviest,
whilst the latter cuts the coppice just before sprouting, which
secures a good reproduction from the stools.

For wattle-fences, duck-decoys, etc., osier- willows yield the
best material.

SECTION V. — WOOD USED IN MACHINERY.

Iron and steel are fast replacing wood in machinery ; it
is only in purely agricultural districts that any machines
are made wholly of wood. It is therefore only parts of
machinery, chiefly the frame-work, bearings and fixings of
heavy machinery, that are made of wood. Wood is used
chiefly in sawmills, flourmills, etc., and in machinery for
driving wooden stamping-hammers. Even in large factories,,
however, wood is still required ; this is generally wood of
dense structure, which resists shocks and friction.

In all works driven by water-power, the water-wheel is the
most important implement and has been referred to already.
In extensive plains, sails of windmills replace the water-
wheel ; they are made always of coniferous wood, chiefly of
Scots pinewood of best quality, such as is required for masts
of ships and are sometimes very large. Pieces should

* Sctlix viminalit) /'/•(«/ Hi*, <ill><i. >-nhrit. tiniii<i<l<i!iii<i.tri<i>ti1r(i. acutnindta,etc^

BUILDING OF SHIPS AND BOATS. 577

tail-off at the small end. Steam-power is however replacing
wind-power to a great extent.

As regards the demands for wood for the interior of factories
the following short remarks will be made :—

All wheels are made of iron, but hornbeam and dogwood are
used sometimes for cogs. In sawmills, the supports of the
saw and the bed are made chiefly of coniferous wood, the
rollers of the latter are of wood of hornbeam, elm or oak. In
flour-mills, except the wheels, most of the fittings, such as the
hoppers and meal-bins are made of coniferous wood. The
case in which the mill-stones work should be of Scots pine-
wood as free from resin as possible, or of silver-fir wood. All
parts of the mill where friction is exerted should be of beech
or hornbeam. In oil-mills and stamping- works, hard broad-
leaved wood, such as that of beech, hornbeam, oak and ash,
is required rather than coniferous wood, and also for pounding
troughs in oil, tan, powder and bone-mills.

Stamping-hammers are now made usually of iron, but in
mountainous forest districts, many are still of wood bound
with iron, and large quantities of beech, birch or hornbeam
logs are used for them, in round pieces 8 to 10 inches in
diameter and 6 to 8 feet long. These pieces often require
replacing 6 to 8 times in a year. They come constantly in
contact with the glowing mass of iron below them, on which
water is poured, which causes them to crack in all directions
and wear out rapidly.

The anvil- stock below the hammers is made of an oak log
at least 3 feet in diameter and 6 feet long, which is bound
with iron and let firmly into the ground.

Wood is used largely in all factories for frame-work, work-
tables, floors, etc., and after coniferous wood, beechwood in
thick planks and scantling is employed chiefly.

SECTION VI. — BUILDING OF SHIPS AND BOATS.

1. General Account.

In no industry has wood of recent years been replaced more
largely by iron than in shipbuilding. It is chiefly the larger
men-of-war, steamers, and sailing ships which are built of

F.U. p P

INDUSTRIAL USES OF WOOD.

iron. Iron ships are most resisting to storms, of larger
burden, easier to repair and more durable than wooden ships.

As regards the shape, there is a considerable difference
between ships intended for the sea, and fresh-water barges :
the former are comparatively short compared with their
breadth, with keels which run straight from end to end of the
ship; whilst all the other lines are of various degrees of
curvature. This curved shape is given to ships by means of
ribs, which are made partly by joining different pieces of wood,
but also by using curved pieces.

Fresh-water barges have no keels, but a broad flat bottom
on which the knee-pieces are fastened at a sharp angle, so
that the straight line is much more frequent in their construc-
tion than in that of ships. The chief strength in ships consists
in the ribs, which are very close together, the outer planking
being less important ; in barges the ribs are much further
apart, and the planking is of greater importance.

The demands on wood for building ships and boats depends
on the species of wood, its quality, shape and strength.

2. Species and Quality.

The wood of teak (Tectona grandis) is used chiefly in ship-
building. The preference given to it is due to its large
dimensions, its great durability, its being only slightly subject
to warp, a matter of great importance owing to the varying
degrees of insolation and humidity to which a ship is subject ;
teak-wood also is not affected by contact with iron, so that
there is no rust such as the tannin in oakwood causes, which
loosens bolts fastening iron plates to oaken ribs of ships.
Next to teakwood comes oakwood, which must be durable and
strong. Only heartwood 'is used, and with broad uniform
annual zones, but not broader than 6 mm. (4 to an inch) ; it
should be of uniform colour and with a fresh scent of tannin.

It is uncertain whether the pedunculate or sessile oak yields
the best wood for shipbuilding, but most ships are built of
pedunculate oak. For the Austrian navy, the wood of the
pubescent oak is preferred for ribs ; in Norway, sessile oak is
used chiefly. The best oak for shipbuilding is that grown
on rich soil and in a warm climate, even the coasts of the

BUILDING OF SHIPS AND BOATS. 579

Adriatic Sea, Istria, Carinthia and Steiermark yield excellent
oakwood, while Slavonic, Polish and Spessart oak is less
valuable for shipbuilding. In Britain, that from the south
and west of England and from France is most prized. In
N. America, Quercus alba; in Japan, the evergreen oaks (J.
crispula and Q. (jlandulifera are used for ships. In Europe,
pitch-pine wood and that of species of Eucalyptus also are
used ; for barges, conifers, especially larch and pines.

[Jarrah (Eucalyptus marginata) resists the teredo, it weighs
about 60 Ibs. to the cubic foot, being about the same density as
teak. It is less inflammable than other woods and resists corro-
sion by iron, is not subject to dry rot and has not been known
for the last eighty years to show signs of decay. It might
thus be used as a substitute for teak, in shipbuilding. — Tr.]

Next to oakwood, wood of the Scots pine or red-deal is
used largely in shipbuilding, chiefly for masts and rudders.
This timber varies in quality much more than oakwood, and
the best qualities of red-deal are strongly resinous and have
narrow annual zones.

All wood for masts and rudders should be straight and
cylindrical, free from knots, elastic and uniformly resinous
throughout. The sapwood, which is always trimmed-off,
should be narrow, being only -J to i of the diameter in the
best woods. The large masts taken from the Hauptsmoor
Forest near Bamberg have frequently only 1 to 2 centimeters
(j|- to -g- of an inch) of sapwood, and even this full of
turpentine. Too highly resinous woods are not esteemed, as
they are less elastic and strong. At the same time, the annual
rings should not be too narrow, and experience proves that a
breadth of ring of 0'75 to 2'00 mm. (fa to -^ of an inch),
provided it is continued uniformly to old age, characterises
the best sort of mast-wood. As regards colour, Scots pine-
wood, of clean, bright, uniformly yellow colour, is preferred.

The best red-deal comes from the north, especially the
Baltic coasts, also from Scotland and Norway. The best mast-
wood comes from Eiga, and is superior to all other mastwood
in elasticity, strength and durability. Hardly any mastwood
of the old excellent quality is now to be had, owing to the
prevalence of even-aged woods with forced growth.

p p 2

580 INDUSTRIAL USES OF WOOD.

Larchwood from high latitudes, or altitudes, comes next to
the Scots-pine as mastwoocl, and this species is used largely
for masts in the Kussian navy, where the northern Ural
mountains yield splendid larch-timber. Spruce and silver-fir
yield only inferior mastwood, their timber not being strong
enough for the purpose. In the Austrian mercantile navy,
however, sprucewood from Carinthia and other provinces is
largely used for masts. Spruce masts also are used largely
for sailing-boats on most of the German rivers. [Picea
Omorica was used in Venice for masts. — Tr.]

American and Australian conifers also are used for masts,
such as the Douglas-fir, Canadian Wey mouth -pine, Kauri
(Dammara australis) of New Zealand, all of which come to
European dockyards in increasing quantities.

For the inner lining of ships, besides the woods already
mentioned, of which teak, oak, larch, and Scots-pine are used
largely for deck-planking, many other inferior species are
employed. Injected beechwood is used sometimes, not only
for keels, but for the whole framework of ships on the Dalma-
tian coast ; the wood of elm, maple, lime, etc. ; as well as
ornamental woods such as mahogany, walnut, birds-eye
maple, etc., are used in fitting-up cabins, saloons, etc. ;
guaiacum-wood and boxwood are used for models and pulleys.
[Herring boats in Scotland are made of larchwood, and so
are many English barges. Cedrela-wood is used for river
boats, as well as spruce, oak and ash. — Tr.]

3. Permissible Dejects.

All wood used for shipbuilding cannot be free entirely from
defects, for if that were the case, sufficient wood would not be
obtainable from a large forest district to make a single ship,
as old oakwood is seldom perfectly sound. Wood which,
owing to its dimensions, is ranked as first-class, may have
small local defects which do not weaken the balks. Brown
spots and rings at the larger end of a balk, provided they
do not penetrate far into the wood, and may be removed
by shortening the balk, need not cause it to be rejected.
Where small patches of red or white rot and other similar
defects occur, which are dried thoroughly and are not expected

BUILDING OF SHIPS AND BOATS.

581

to extend any further, the decision of the admissibility of the
affected wood must be left to an expert. Large heart-shakes,
frost-cracks, twisted fibre, deep-going black and brown marks
rotten places descending from branches, are defects, which
naturally exclude the timber possessing them from use in
shipbuilding.

4. Shape and Dimensions.

All shipbuilding timber is either wood for construction, or
for masts or spars.

(a) Timber used in Construction. — This comprises curved
and long wood.

Curved or compass timber is used chiefly in the framework

'•'I.— I'liiformly curved piece.

/met.
Fig. 332. — Knee-piece.

Fig. 331.— Curvature one
third from end.

of ships. As a rule, the curvature should be uniform through-
out the piece (Fig. 330), or greatest at one-third from one of its
ends, and when this is one-third the distance from its larger
end (Fig. 331), the piece is most valuable. Some of these

582

INDUSTRIAL USES OF WOOD.

pieces are 30 to 40 feet long. Curved woods are required
chiefly which have a sagitta or camber of 2'5 and T5 centi-
meters per meter (i.e. ^ and ^§a), but this may be exceeded
in certain pieces as in Fig. 332. The beams used for sup-
porting the deck are much less curved.

Wood is now bent artificially for shipbuilding, as in certain
factories in Hungary, but probably it is then weaker than
naturally curved wood.

Kneed timber is formed where a bough parts from the
parent stem as in Fig. 333. The branch should accord in its
dimensions with the stem, and not be
too small when compared with the
latter.

The chief use of knee-pieces is in
the construction of river-barges ; wood
of smaller size is then required than
for shipbuilding, and in that case the
arm a, Fig. 333, is much longer than
l>, whilst for ships it is onty twice as
long. In North Germany, where oak
is scarce, large, branchy Scots-pines
are used for knees, which otherwise
would be fit only for firewood. Such
knees last 10 years in barges. Beech-
wood also may be so used in the interior of vessels. In Saxony
use is made of the lower part of a spruce stem with a strong
root attached ; this may be 15 to 20 feet long, and 7 to 10
inches thick.

It is difficult to give the proper dimensions for compass-
timber used in shipbuilding, but the longer and thicker, the
more valuable they are ; no sapwood is included ; 10 inches
diameter, and 15 to 20 feet length, represent the minimum
dimensions. When used for barges and boats the diameter
of knee-pieces may go down to 4 inches.

Long, straight pieces of timber are used for keels, but are
sawn chiefly into planks for the inner, or outer, casing of
vessels, and even larger sizes are required than for com-
pass-timber : lengths below 24 to 30 feet, and a diameter
of less than a foot at the smaller end, are not permissible.

Fig. 333. — Knee-piece.

BUILDING OF SHIPS AND BOATS.

583

Only in the case of planks for barges are much smaller
sizes used.

Fig. 334. — Longitudinal section of a ship. (After Boppe.)

Fig. 335.— Transverse section of a ship. (After Boppe.)

Figs. 334 and 335 show two sections of a ship and where
e curved pieces are used.

584 INDUSTRIAL USES OF WOOD.

(b) Mast- and Spar- Wood. — Wood for masts, booms, and
spars should be perfectly straight, as cylindrical as possible,
and when required for large ships, of the largest possible
dimensions. First-class masts must measure, free from sap-
wood, at least 60 to 80 feet in length and be 16 to 20 inches
in diameter at the small end ; formerly such masts were
procurable in Hauptsmoor, near Bamberg. Almost exclusively
coniferous wood was used for masts, but the use of such wood
of the largest dimensions has been replaced by that of hollow
steel masts. Smaller spars still are required which are of
dimensions within the powers of most forests to supply.

5. Supply of Timber for Shipbuilding.

The supply of oak-timber from German forests is only small.
The system of coppice- with- standards is better adapted for the
supply of oak-timber for shipbuilding than the even-aged
systems, and thus France, where this system is very preva-
lent, produces large quantities of suitable oakwood. Most of
the timbers used in shipbuilding are compass-timbers, which
are much more abundant in uneven-aged wood, and even in
hedgerow trees, than in even- aged high-forest. The wood of
standards in coppice is also harder, and of better quality for
the purpose, growing as they do, isolated or in groups, with
plenty of room both for their roots and crowns.

As regards mastwood the opposite conditions prevail ; slow,
uniform, and prolonged growth are required, and the trees
must be grown close until they have attained their full height,
in a uniformly moist soil, a situation sheltered from storms,
and a cold climate, such as the Baltic Provinces. Only
individual trees in such woods will attain sufficient dimensions
for the largest masts, and on them great care and attention
must be bestowed.

SECTION VII. — JOINERY AND CABINET-MAKING.

Joiners and cabinet-makers use large quantities of wood,
which is usually the only material they employ. These
industries have become highly specialised, and there arc all

JOINERY. 585

grades of artisans employed — the joiner, the cabinet-maker,
the wood-carver, model-maker, and tool-maker.

1. Joinery.

The joiner constructs the inner fittings and finishing of
houses, such as the floors, doors, window-cases, wainscoting,
staircases, etc. The material he uses is chiefly sawn timber,
planks, boards and scantling. He does not work usually with
roughly-sawn material, but with planed material, which is
sold by the wood-merchants ready for use, and often with the
requisite mouldings. Thus much labour is spared which
would cost more if executed by a joiner than when made by
special machinery. Hardly any wood in the round, or
roughly-sawn wood, is used by the joiner.

The wood used is chiefly coniferous, and broadleaved wood
to a less degree. Boards, planks, and upright pieces are
chiefly of spruce and Scots-pine, and after this, of silver-fir,
larch, or Weymouth-pine. Owing to its white colour spruce
is preferred for flooring. Silver-fir turns grey and splinters
more readily than spruce. Pines and larch are darker
coloured but more durable than spruce. For wainscoting,
Cembran pine and larch yield excellent wood. The joiner
always prefers fine-zoned coniferous wood, free from knots,
from cool mountain regions or from the north, to coarser
material, except in cheaply run-up buildings. Amongst
broadleaved woods oakwood is preferred, and is used exten-
sively for parquetry floors, for which the blocks are prepared
specially by machinery. It is also used in short, flat, planed
pieces, only wood of large trees without knots being employed,
as the sapwood is rejected. Oakwood is less frequently used
for friezes, door- and wall-panels. Oak panelling made of
wood showing the silver grain is used in dining-halls, staircases,
churches and other public edifices.

Fine mosaic parquetry floors are made of woods of
different colours, such as oak, walnut, birch, teak, etc., and
cut in different ways as regards the grain. Some of the
woods used are coloured by strong acids, others preserve their
natural tints. Oak also is used for staircases, and so is
beech wood, and often ash is turned for banisters. Beechwood

586 INDUSTRIAL USES OF WOOD.

also is used similarly, but is inferior to oakwood in texture,
capability of being polished and resistance to moisture and dry-
ness. Pitch-pine wood also is used, being very hard and resinous
also the wood of Douglas-fir. All these pieces are longitudinal
sections cut between the tangential and radial directions.

2. Cabinet-making.

Furniture is made nowadays more in factories than by
individual makers. It makes a greater demand on the quality
and variety of the wood used than joiners' work, and equals
it in the quantity of wood used.

Sawn timber is used in the form of planks and scantling
and round wood of all dimensions. Veneer of finely-marked
wood is used frequently to face coarser material, and its use is
justified by the fact that these thin strips of wood do not
crack, as is always more or less the case with solid woodwork.
Only the more valuable hardwoods are used in the round by
the cabinet-maker.

All kinds of wood are used, and for coarser furniture,
kitchens, cupboards, school-benches, frames, chests, cheap
coffins, etc., coniferous woods, elmwood and soft broadleaved
woods are used. The inner part of other furniture is made of
these woods and then veneer glued on to it, or they may be
covered with upholstery. Oakwood often is used for the inner
part of the better kind of veneered furniture.

Solid furniture is made of broadleaved species, such as oak,
walnut, cherry, birch, maple, ash, elm, etc. There is, how-
ever, a limit to the construction of solid wood furniture owing
to its weight. Beechwood is used largely wherever friction
and wear-and-tear will be considerable, as in work-tables,
chairs, wedges, etc. Often it is used stained in various tints
to imitate more valuable woods.

The cabinet-maker selects his material for its fine colour,
good texture, freedom from knots, ease in working, capability
of being polished, and for being little liable to warp or crack.
Finely-marked and wavy woods are esteemed.

In order to reduce warping and shrinkage as much as
possible, the cabinet-maker uses only thoroughly seasoned
wood ; he does not care for the most durable wood, but prefers

CABINET-MAKING. 587

wood which is easily worked, with, or against, the grain. He
therefore means quite a different kind of oak wood from that
esteemed by the ship-builder when he speaks of good oakwood,
and prefers that of the sessile to the pedunculate oak. The
best cabinet-maker's oakwood comes from Eussia, the Spessart,
the Pfalz, the Silesian mountains, from French high forests,
and generally from mountain districts with a slow rate of
growth ; on account of its lower density it is less liable to
shrinkage. Slavonian oak and that from coppice-with-
standards is much less prized.

Beechwood would be prized much more highly for furni-
ture, on account of its dense uniform texture, were it more
frequently obtainable from middling sized trees in quarter-
balks from which the core of the tree has been excluded.
Such wood is excellent material for working up, and is now
being used extensively for bent-wood* furniture.

Thoroughly sound beech stem-wood free from knots is used
for bent- wood furniture, and young wood is preferred to old.
Even large pieces may be bent easily, and the bending
dispenses with sharp corners, dovetailing and glueing, the
pieces merely being bent and screwed together. The wood is
felled in summer and sawn into rectangular pieces 6 to 10 feet
long and 1J to 2 inches in diameter, which give a waste of 60
to 70 per cent.

Veneers of maple, walnut, and less frequently of beech, are
glued together and made into the seats of chairs. These
are being used in increasing numbers.

Amongst softwoods of broadleaved species, planks of poplar-
wood are used chiefly under veneer ; that of the black poplar
or of the Canadian (Italian) poplar is preferred, the wood of
the white poplar being very subject to cup-shake. The
greenish-yellow wood of the tulip tree, Liriodendron tidipi-
ferum, known as poplar-wood, or whitewood, is exported
extensively in large balks from America to Europe to serve as
backing for veneer. These woods are of very uniform texture,
and the spring-wood does not shrink so much as in other
woods, causing the summer-wood to project beyond it and

* Sec an excellent article by Exner on bending wood, in the Ccntralblatt fiir

(his irr.-amk' Foi>f wrscii. |X7<!.

588 INDUSTRIAL USES OF WOOD.

giving the veneer, which is glued outside the piece of
furniture, a wavy surface.

3. Artistic and Fancy Ware.

The manufacture of artistic and fancy ware forms a branch
of cabinet-making, and is used in the finer pieces of furniture,
picture-frames, clock-cases, etc. ; according to the present
fashion (old German, Italian Renaissance, Rococo styles, etc.)
it is accompanied more or less by artistic carving, inlaying
with metals, mosaic work, etc.

Walnut, oak, fruit-trees, maples, birch and coniferous wood
are used, partly solid and partly veneered.

Many exotic woods are used, especially mahogany and
foreign walnut, maple and ash-burrs ; also ebony, rosewood,
satinwood, olive-wood, violet- wood, thuya, juniper and cypress
wood, teak and pitch-pine.

Wooden frames for mirrors and pictures, which are made
in Saxon and Bavarian factories and also by individual hand-
work, are chiefly of coniferous wood, but also of oak and
ash.

4. Model-making.

All models used for cast-metal works, of machines, imple-
ments, etc., are made chiefly of coniferous planks and
scantling of the best quality, but also of lime, maple, alder,
ash, pear and beechwood. The model-maker is a real artist
in his line.

5. Wood for Tools and Implements.

Plane-boxes, turning-lathes, presses, joiners' benches,
mangles, handles of tools, etc., are made chiefly of beech,
hornbeam, oak and ash. The framework of agricultural
implements also uses up much coniferous wood, as well as the
above species.

6. Miscellaneous Goods.

Many other industries may be added, which are also
branches of cabinet-making, such as the manufacture of
billiard-tables, boxes, sword-sheaths, and articles used in
dairies and cheese-making establishments.

589

SECTION VIII. — MISCELLANEOUS USES OF WOOD.

A very large quantity of wood is consumed in making
packing-cases, for which coniferous wood of middling or
inferior quality, and side-pieces and other waste timber are
used, especially when the cases are fastened together by bands
of zinc or iron. Casks used for packing also are made of
inferior coniferous wood. Better and more durable classes of
packing-cases are, however, coming more and more into use,
beech being employed largely.

For small boxes used for packing fancy goods, soap and other
small articles, wood of conifers, poplar, aspen and lime are
used, cut like veneers with special saws, or even a whole
round block of wood is revolved against a sharp fixed blade,
and converted into a sheet of wood for this purpose. In
France, light wood such as aspen is thus used to reduce as
much as possible the gross weight of the goods. Wood-pulp
and tin are used frequently instead of wood.

German cigar-boxes are made usually of alderwood, and
the pieces without bark should be 9 inches to 1 foot in
diameter and free from knots ; they are sawn into planks,
and the latter reduced to thin boards by the circular saw. It
is a pity that there is not more good alderwood available.

The wood of the West Indian cedar (Cedrela odorata, L.),
allied to mahogany, is imported in large balks, not only for
boxes for the best cigars, but also for inferior ones, especially
in N. Germany, and this in spite of freights and import duty.
Attempts to use the wood of poplar and lime for boxes for
cheap cigars, and especially stained beechwood, have failed,
owing to the warping of the wood. Cigars are pressed into a
good shape in presses made below of beechwood and above of
spruce, the groove and presses being of beech and hornbeam.
Entire stems of beech are used for this purpose at Hanau,
Bremen, and W6rth-am-Main, but this industry has lately
suffered from American competition.

A very large quantity of wood is used annually in the
numerous pianoforte-factories, which in Germany alone in
1899 turned out about 105,000 pianos, worth £2,000,000. In
piano-making all kinds of sawn wood (oak, beech, walnut,

590 INDUSTRIAL USES OF WOOD.

maple, lime and poplar, etc.) are used, but the wood for
sounding-boards is of a special kind. For this only coniferous
wood is used, chiefly spruce, more rarely silver-fir.

The simple anatomical construction of sprucewood and the
absence of vessels, the extremely fine, evenly distributed
medullary rays, the straight and long-fibred nature of the
wood, and above all its uniform structure, render it most suit-
able of all woods for reverberating pure tones. Such wood
must have narrow and uniform annual zones, must have no
knots, contain little resin, be straight-fibred and of low
specific gravity, 0*40 to 0'45. The best wood for musical
instruments should have zones between 1'5 and 2 mm., and
the summer-wood J to £ of the zone. Trees producing such
wood grow in mountain-regions at altitudes between 2,500
and 4,500 feet above sea-level, on cool and not too fertile
localities. They are grown generally in selection forests,
where the trees get little room for development, until they
are middle-aged, but more room as old trees.

Bubenbach in the Schwartzenberg property, the ranges of
Tuffet, Neutal and Schattawa in the Bohmerwald, also the
Bavarian forest, in the St. Oswald, Manth, and other ranges,
the Bavarian Alps, ranges of Fischert and Trumenstadt, and
the French Jura and Alps are renowned for the production of
this wood, also Lemberg in Galicia, and North America. The
trees are sawn into quarters, and then along the radius, into
planks | inch thick ; they are seasoned, planed, and sorted
according to their tones. Kecently, attempts have been made
to produce such wood artificially by glueing together thin
veneers of wood by means of turpentine, shellac, gum, etc.,
and pressing it into planks.

Straight-grained beechwood in planks 1J inches thick is
used largely for pianos, being cut along the radius, which
prevents it warping as much as ordinary beechwood.

Many foreign woods are used for piano-cases — mahogany,
American walnut and maple, padauk, satinwood, etc., ebony
for keys, and Florida-cedar for the hammers. Woods similar
to those in use for pianos are also employed for harmoniums
and organs.

Venetian blinds and shutters use up much light wood,

WHEELWRIGHTS WOOD.

591

especially spruce and silver-fir. Wood of similar quality to
that used for sounding-boards is used for the better sorts of
blinds, much of it coming from old silver-firs in Bavaria.

Cornices of all kinds may be mentioned here, for which the
best split coniferous wood is used.

SECTION IX. — WOOD USED BY THE WHEELWRIGHT.

The wheelwright, besides carts, also makes a number of
articles used in , agricultural work, and comes in this respect
next to the blacksmith as an indis-
pensable village artisan ; usually he
obtains his wood directly from the
forest. Wheelwrights' wood should
be even-grained, long-fibred, tough
and dense, and free from knots and
all patches of decay.

The chief industry of the wheel-
wright is the construction of carts
and waggons, the principal parts of
which are the wheels, axles and
shafts.

The wheels consist of the nave,
spokes, felloes and tires.

The nave or hub is made gene-
rally of oak, elm or ash, and in the
case of carriages, of walnut, or,
more recently, of plane-wood. The
wood should be hard and dense to
prevent the loosening of the spokes,
which are mortised into the nave.

rr , . . , . . . , .

[It is said that wych-elmwood is
tougher, finer-grained, and more easily bent than common elm-
wood ; both woods are largely used for naves and felloes. — Tr.]
The felloes, which are mortised together in a circle, are
made generally of split wood of elm, beech, birch, ash or
robinia. elm being best for the purpose. The wood should,
if possible, be curved naturally, and as the pieces are only

* Fernandez, " Utilization of Forests," p. 54.

of cuttins out

felloes. (After Fernandez.*)

592 INDUSTRIAL USES OF WOOD.

about 2 feet long, there is generally little difficulty in getting
nearly the suitable curve, the wood being then cut into shape
with a band-saw.

There is a large export of felloes from forests, and in
Germany they are usually sawn out of split pieces, with their
flat sides parallel to the annual rings (Fig. 336), which
enables them best to support the pressure of the spokes with-
out warping. Where felloes are sawn out of ordinary planks
3 to 6 inches thick, they are much weaker than those made
as above. A bent rim sometimes is used for the wheels of
light carriages, being made of one piece of steamed split-
wood ; larch, ash, oak, beech, birch, or hickory are employed.

Spokes are made of cloven oak and ash, also of robinia,
American oakwood or hickory. Wood thoroughly tough and
strong, and not likely to shrink much in dry, hot weather,
should be used.

[Spokes vary greatly in size, the smallest being 2 to 2J feet
long by 2 to 2j inches by 1 to 1J inches and tapering down
to about J inch at the smaller end ; these are used for
omnibuses and coaches. Cartwheel spokes are heavier, but
of about the same length. Large spokes 5 inches by 3 inches
at the thicker end are made frequently. — Tr.]

The principal piece of the body of a timber-cart is the pole,
which is made of split oak, birch, or ash. The axles of the
wheels are made usually of steel, or of strong oak or ash-
wood, with steel ends on which the wheels revolve. Carriage-
poles are preferred of birch, but are made also of ash and
oak ; and for shafts, ash is preferred to oak, the latter, when
strong, being usually too heavy, whilst ash bends and yields
better without breaking. The best shafts are of hickory or
lancewood (Guatteria vulgaris). The size for shafts is 8 to
10 feet by 2J to 4 inches square,

The framework of carts and carriages must be made of
well-seasoned wood, beech, ash and oak being used, the panels
of carriages being of lime or poplar.

Ploughs and harrows are made of heavy wood wherever
iron is not used in their construction, and crooked pieces of
oak, ash and elm-wood are used. Teeth of harrows, if not of
iron, are made of hornbeam-wood.

WHEELWRIGHTS' WOOD. 598

For sledges, generally oak, birch, elm, ash and beech are
used ; their horns are made of the best beech, maple, or birch-
wood. Wheelbarrows also require curved wood.

Ladders consist of two uprights and the rungs, the former
made of coniferous wood, generally of a pole sawn in two, and
the latter of cloven wood of oak, ash or robinia. Mangers
have a similar construction to ladders, and are made of beech,
elm, birch or oak.

The manufacture of the handles of tools requires large quan-
tities of wood, as handles of axes and hatchets, also handles
of hammers, spades, scythes, hoes, thrashing flails, etc.

For axe-handles, split pieces of young beech saplings chiefly
are used, as well as of hickory, ash, hornbeam, oak, juniper,
and the service-tree. Oak, beech, or birch handles for scythes;
for spades and hoes, hickory, ash, elm, robinia, oak and birch
are used. Wooden hay-forks are of forked birch, ash, aspen or
nettle-tree (Celt is) ; wooden brakes for wheels, of beech or birch.

In making all these articles the wheelwright uses logs and
butts of different dimensions, above all, poles of 3 to 8 inches
in diameter of oak, ash, elm and birch ; but all kinds of wood
are used, chiefly cloven wood, from which the core and
sapwood have been removed, as such material is less liable
to warp or crack. Curved and bent wood is often of special
value to the wheelwright, although frequently such pieces are
made artificially.

Elm wood affords excellent material for the wheelwright,
sometimes that of the common elm and sometimes that of the
wych-elm being preferred, but it is very difficult to work,
and costs the artificer more labour and trouble than he often
cares to bestow. Near the sea-coast much exotic wood, ready
cut to size, is used by wheelwrights, especially American
hickory (Hicoria) and oak (chiefly Quercus rirens).

Butchers' blocks use up much ash, as well as beech and
oak, though elmwood is best for the purpose, if it can be
obtained of suitable dimensions. Pieces of large diameter,
and thoroughly sound, are required. Many hundred beech
butchers' blocks from the Spessart go down to the Khine
annually ; they are made often of 6 to 8 pieces of wood bound
together by iron hoops.

F.U. Q Q

594 INDUSTRIAL USES OF WOOD.

The manufacture of railway-carriages and trucks consumes
enormous quantities of wood of high quality. The horizontal
beams, underlying all passenger-carriages as well as goods-
trucks, are made of squared oak timber. They lie between
the iron girders supporting the carriage, and rest directly on
the axles. Broad-ringed ashwood is preferred for the uprights,
these are dove-tailed into the horizontal beams and pieces,
which unite with them to form the framework of the carriage,
but sometimes oakwood is used. The flatly-curved roof-
supports are made of bent elm, ash, or Scots pinewood. For
roofing the long dining-cars and sleeping saloon-carriages, 60
to 70 feet coniferous balks are used. All panels and the interior
work are made of light woods, coniferous, poplar- wood, etc.,
also of sheet-iron, and, more recently, in England, of pressed
oakum made out of old ship-cables. The brakes are made of
poplar, aspen or beech.

In the frequently very luxurious passenger-carriages and
sleeping-cars, valuable ornamental veneers are used in the
internal fittings ; or exotic woods, such as teak, pitch-pine,
American walnut, fine ash, maple or mahogany, in a solid
form.

Even the iron goods-trucks require about 36 cubic feet of
ash and oak in the construction of each truck, and there
are 300,000 goods-trucks on the German railway-lines alone,
of which 35 per cent, are roofed.

SECTION X. — COOPERS' WORK.

The cooper makes all kinds of open or closed wooden vessels
to contain liquids and dry articles. A distinction may be
made between casks intended to hold spirituous liquors, to
hold other fluids, or for dry goods, such as butter, sugar,
herrings, etc. Nowadays casks are made chiefly in factories.

1. Casks for Spirituous Liquors.

The most important use for coopers' timber, and that
employs large quantities of the best kinds of wood, is the
manufacture of casks for spirituous liquors, such as wine,

STAVES FOR CASKS.

595

beer or cider, etc. A good cask should be as durable and
strong as possible, in order to withstand the inevitable shocks
and rough treatment to which it will be subjected during
transport. It must possess the property of retaining its
liquid contents, so that the latter does not escape in drops or
vapour through the
wood-pores. Hardly
any wood but oak-
wood will fulfil all
these conditions, and
especially peduncu-
late oakwood (zones
not exceeding 6 mm.)
from favourable
localities, that is

iir. :>.'i7.— Tin- divider. (Afti-r I'.oppr.)

superior to northern sessile oak for staves. The latter should
be used in thicker staves to compensate for its inferior density,
and is used chiefly for large vats.

In Italy, robinia-wood has a good repute for staves, whilst
sweet chestnut, Turkey and evergreen oaks are less valuable.
Attempts have been made to utilise beechwood for wine and

L Fig. 338. — Method of splitting wood for'cask staves. (After Eoppc.)

beer-barrels, but without success. For spirit-casks, ash,
robinia, and mountain ash-wood also are used.

Casks are composed of side-staves, head-pieces and hoops.

The side-staves should be broadest at their centres and
taper off towards their ends, in order to allow for the bulging
of the casks ; they should, however, be somewhat thick again

QQ2

596

INDUSTRIAL USES OF WOOD.

at their ends, as a notch has to be cut there to admit the
head-pieces. The two broadest staves are, that on which the
cask rests, and the opposite one in which the bung is inserted.

Fig. 339. — Stave-maker's bench with divider and mallet. (After Boppe.)

The best wood is used for these two staves. From three to
five head-pieces are used at either end of a cask, being dove-
tailed together. The tops and bottoms of small casks are

flat, but in larger ones
they are somewhat
curved inwards, in
order better to with-
stand the pressure of
the liquid inside.

Wood for staves
is cloven usually in
the forest by special
artificers, and
straight-grained, light
and sound wood, free

Fig. 3-10.— The Shave.

from knots and other

defects, is employed. It must be strong, and yet pliable and
easily cloven ; it is split with a special instrument, termed
a divider (Fig. 337), in the radial direction, so that the silver-
grain is visible on the broad surface of the staves, as the wood
is least permeable in the direction at right angles to this.
Whether, or not, wine leaks out of casks appears to depend

STAVES FOR CASKS.

597

on the size of the pores, for it finds its way into the anatomical
wood-vessels and oozes out at the ends of the staves.

In the preparation of staves, an oak stem is cut first into
suitable lengths, which are then split in halves by means
of a wedge. Each half -log is split further (Fig. 338) into
three or four sectors ; after the core and sapwood have been
removed, these are split tangentially into pieces as wide
as the staves by means of the divider driven by a wooden
mallet. These pieces are fitted into a stave-maker's
bench, composed of the fork of a tree (Fig. 339) resting on
three stakes driven into the ground ; then they are split
radially into staves, and trimmed smooth by means of the
shave (Fig. 340).

In Germany, the staves also are partly dressed into a
curved shape with the adze, but in France they are bent into
shape. The dimensions of the staves vary considerably,
according to the demands of the trade. The broadest pieces
are required for heading vats, and can be taken only from
large trees, which soon will be extinct in Germany. The
Polish staves, which are exported from North Germany to
England, France, Spain, etc., are classified as follows :—

('kiss.

Length.

Remark*.

Pipe-staves
Hogshead -st;i vi >

Barrel-staves
Ili'ad-pieces

5 ft. 2 in. to .", ft. 4 in.
4 ft. -2 in. to 4 ft. 4 in.

3 ft. 2 in. to :>> ft. 4 in.
2 ft. 2 in. to 2 ft. 4 in.

3 pieces equivalent to
two pipe-staves.
2 pieces equivalent to
one pipe-stave.
4 pieces equivalent to
one pipe-stave.

There is a very large demand for staves for the wine and
beer trades ; they are exported from the Baltic, Fiume and
Trieste, and from North America. The best staves come from
Croatia, Slavonia, Hungary, and Bosnia, which countries pro-
duced about 26,000,000 staves in the two years 1891 and
1892. The Bosnian staves are worked more easily, and there-
fore are preferred to those from Slavonia. Oakwood from
those countries is sound and heavy, and the markets for it
are Fiume and Trieste for France and England, and Vienna

598

INDUSTRIAL USES OF WOOD.

for Germany, the best staves going to France. These are
made as shown in Fig. 341, from the best oak trees measuring
(without sapwood) 22 inches in diameter.

In the trade, the staves are sold in lots each sufficient to
make up into a cask of different dimensions, or for France, in
hundreds.

The import of staves (Quercus alba) from America is increas-
ing steadily at Bordeaux, Liverpool, Hamburg, etc., and is
reducing the price of European wood.

Fig. 341. — Staves shown in a cross-section of oak.

The waste of wood in making staves varies from 30 to 50
per cent.

After rough staves have left the forest they require further
trimming and shaping by the hand of the cooper, and must
be allowed to season in piles in the open for several years
before they are fit to make serviceable casks. If, however,
they are steeped in water when quite green and then dried
carefully, they may be made into casks two years after leaving
the forest.

Machines are used in England for making casks, and the
latter are much more regular and of better appearance than
those made by hand : it is only questionable whether casks

STAVES FOR BARRELS. 599

made of sawn staves are as durable as those made of split
ones. In other countries machines are used no longer for
cask -making, as they do not exclude subsequent manual labour
in finishing the casks. It is stated that, in America, beer-
barrels can be made of papier-mache, which material for
some time has been used for oil-barrels.

2. Slack Barrels.

Slack Barrels are used for non-spirituous liquids, etc., such
as those used for the transport of herrings and other sea-fish,
for living animals, for oil, bathing- and water-tubs, malting-
vats, milk-pails and a number of other articles.

Herring-barrels were made formerly of inferior oakwood,
but more recently of beech, birch, alder, red pine and aspen-
wood. Large malting-vats, and other vats used in brewing,
are made of oakwood. Oil and petroleum casks are made
chiefiy of beechwood, but also of oak and chestnut-wood.
Other slack barrels are made almost exclusively of coniferous
wood, only smaller drinking-vessels being made of maple,
pear and cherry-wood, or in preference, of juniper or Cembran
pinewood.

In splitting wood for staves for slack barrels methods are
followed similar to those already described ; the staves, how-
ever, are split usually along the annual rings, or made of good
sawn material. Freedom from knots, and straight fibre, are
here also the first conditions of suitability.

3. Barrels for Dry Goods.

Dry Goods Barrels are employed for storing and transport
of all kinds of wares, such as salt, colours, cement, gypsum,
sugar, currants, figs, butter, lard, chemical preparations, etc.,
and are made usually of coniferous wood. Staves for these
barrels are seldom split, but are usually sawn pieces, J inch
thick, 2 to 5 inches broad and varying in length ; poles,
4 to 4 J inches in diameter at height of chest are used. Small-
sized beech logs are used in Hungary and North Germany for
barrels to contain currants, flour, and butter.

Barrels for dry goods are made chiefly in factories, and

598

INDUSTRIAL USES OF WOOD.

for Germany, the best staves going to France. These are
made as shown in Fig. 341, from the best oak trees measuring
(without sapwood) 22 inches in diameter.

In the trade, the staves are sold in lots each sufficient to
make up into a cask of different dimensions, or for France, in
hundreds.

The import of staves (Quercus alba) from America is increas-
ing steadily at Bordeaux, Liverpool, Hamburg, etc., and is
reducing the price of European wood.

Fig. 341. — Staves shown in a cross-section of oak.

The waste of wood in making staves varies from 30 to 50
per cent.

After rough staves have left the forest they require further
trimming and shaping by the hand of the cooper, and must
be allowed to season in piles in the open for several years
before they are fit to make serviceable casks. If, however,
they are steeped in water when quite green and then dried
carefully, they may be made into casks two years after leaving
the forest.

Machines are used in England for making casks, and the
latter are much more regular and of better appearance than
those made by hand : it is only questionable whether casks

STAVES FOR BARRELS. 599

made of sawn staves are as durable as those made of split
ones. In other countries machines are used no longer for
cask-making, as they do not exclude subsequent manual labour
in finishing the casks. It is stated that, in America, beer-
barrels can be made of papier-mache, which material for
some time has been used for oil-barrels.

2. Slack Barrels.

Slack Barrels are used for non-spirituous liquids, etc., such
as those used for the transport of herrings and other sea-fish,
for living animals, for oil, bathing- and water-tubs, malting-
vats, milk-pails and a number of other articles.

Herring-barrels were made formerly of inferior oakwood,
but more recently of beech, birch, alder, red pine and aspen-
wood. Large malting-vats, and other vats used in brewing,
are made of oakwood. Oil and petroleum casks are made
chiefly of beechwood, but also of oak and chestnut-wood.
Other slack barrels are made almost exclusively of coniferous
wood, only smaller drinking-vessels being made of maple,
pear and cherry-wood, or in preference, of juniper or Cembran
pinewood.

In splitting wood for staves for slack barrels methods are
followed similar to those already described ; the staves, how-
ever, are split usually along the annual rings, or made of good
sawn material. Freedom from knots, and straight fibre, are
here also the first conditions of suitability.

3. Barrels for Dry Goods.

Dry Goods Barrels are employed for storing and transport
of all kinds of wares, such as salt, colours, cement, gypsum,
sugar, currants, figs, butter, lard, chemical preparations, etc.,
and are made usually of coniferous wood. Staves for these
barrels are seldom split, but are usually sawn pieces, \ inch
thick, 2 to 5 inches broad and varying in length ; poles,
4 to 4 \ inches in diameter at height of chest are used. Small-
sized beech logs are used in Hungary and North Germany for
barrels to contain currants, flour, and butter.

-Barrels for dry goods are made chiefly in factories, and

600 INDUSTRIAL USES OF WOOD.

there are large factories at Miinden, Hanover, etc., for making
margarine barrels. Smaller barrels are made of papier-mache'
with wooden headings.

4. Barrel-Hoops.

Hoops for barrels are nowadays made increasingly of iron,
but a large quantity of wooden hooping is still used. Coppice
poles of oak, chestnut, birch and hazel and in America of
hickory are used, also of willows for the smaller casks. They
should be felled before the leaves are out. The coppice-shoots
are cut with billhooks, trimmed of all twigs and knots, and
then split in half. When green they can be bent easily
to the requisite shape, but if dry, must be soaked first in water.
In the case of slack barrels, the hoops are made chiefly of
pieces of the stem of ash, spruce, or willow, 2 inches broad,
and Jrd to f rds of an inch thick. They are cut smooth with
a knife, plunged into boiling water and bent over a round
piece of wood.

SECTION XI. — SUNDRY USES OF SPLIT WOOD.

Some other articles besides casks and barrels are made of
split wood, or of wood treated in a somewhat similar manner.

1. Shingles for Roofing or to Cover Walls.

Shingles are used either for roofs, or to cover masonry
or cement walls, which otherwise do not exclude atmospheric
moisture sufficiently. The most durable shingles are made
of oak or larch, but owing to the abundance of spruce and
Scots pine, wood of these species chiefly is used, and less
frequently silver-fir wood ; beech and aspen also are employed
sometimes. The butts to be split must contain sound, light,
and straight-grained wood without knots, and, therefore, chiefly
the lower part of stems is employed. Wood of inferior grain,
and less fissile may, however, be split by means of machines.

Shingles are prepared of very different sizes, according
to the manner in which they are to be used. Roofs are covered
usually with shingles three deep, i.e., only a third part of each
shingle being exposed (Fig. 342), and such roofs are very durable

OARS AND RUDDERS.

601

and water-tight. Shingles used in this way are from 16 to 24
inches long, 3 to 10 inches broad, and from f inch down to
^ inch thick. In many countries they are so thin at one
end as to be semi-transparent, especially in the case of larch
shingles. Another kind of roofing (Legdacher) is employed
frequently in Alpine districts, the shingles being from 30 to
40 inches long, and 8 to 12 inches broad. They overlap one
another, and are fastened down by nailing split laths over
them. In the case of tiled roofs, thin laths, 12 to 14 inches
long and 2 to 3
inches broad, are
placed wherever one
tile is superposed over
another.

Shingles are split
radially from the
butts, and the sectors
thus obtained are
continually split until
pieces of the right
dimensions have been
secured ; they are
then made smooth. As the central portion of the butts cannot
be used for shingles, there is a loss of 35 to 40 per cent, of
wood in making them, and even more. Machines have been
invented for making shingles, that by Gangloff* being the
best known ; thus a man and boy can make 700 shingles
in a day, and wood of inferior quality may be utilised.
Shingles stained black or red, the better to resist the weather,
are prepared in Sweden. Fireproof shingles also are employed.
In America, Wey mouth pine, thuya, juniper, taxodium,
sequoia, sugar-pine and Douglas-fir are used.

[In the Western Himalayas, deodar, and other conifers are
used for shingles, the former wood being extremely durable.
-Tr.]

2. Wood for Oars and Rudders.

Large quantities of wood are used for making rudders and
oars. Ashwood is best, but much oak and beech also are used.

* Foret. u. Jagd/eitung, 1872, p. 312.

Fig. :M2. — Position of shingles on a roof.

602 INDUSTRIAL USES OF WOOD.

The pieces used for the purpose are 6 to 15 feet long, 4 to 5
inches broad at the flat end, and 2J inches to 3 inches square
at the other end.

Large spars also, to stretch the large nets used by English
fishing-boats, may be included here. The wood used is in
round or split pieces of slender ash-stems 24 to 30 feet long,
and 7 to 8 inches in diameter at the top. Oars for light river
boats are made of split sprucewood of best quality.

3. Broad split Pieces.

Thin pieces of wood are used for making boxes, sheaths for
swords or knives, by the bookbinder, shoemaker, etc. ; they are
chiefly of coniferous wood (spruce), but also wood of beech,
aspen, and birch is used. They are split out of butts, or straight-
fibred split billets. These pieces are made by planing-machines
worked by water-power, the planes being fixed and the wood
pushed against them. Sapwood of beech is split into sheathes
for swords and hunting knives.

Wood-Tapestry of the thickness of ordinary paper is used
for coating the walls of rooms, up to three feet broad and 60
to 100 feet long, it is prepared from the wood of all species of
trees. This is obtained by supporting the butt on a special
kind of turning-lathe, and revolving it against a blade which
is constantly pressed further forwards as it peels off the peri-
phery of the butt. The same machine may be used for making
veneer.

Straight-grained sprucewood also is split and used for
making plaited wooden baskets, which are exported in large
numbers from the Erzgebirge. The wood of aspen and lime
also is used similarly. In order to prepare the wood for this
purpose, it is soaked thoroughly in water and cat into bars,
which are split into thin pieces along each of the annual
rings. These pieces are extremely flexible.

Sprucewood is used also for sieve-frames and cheese-moulds,
the wood for which is separated from ordinary split billets with
the cooper's divider and afterwards planed with the same
instrument. These pieces are made in different dimensions,
their length being measured in hands (4 inches) : thus there

MEASURES AND BOXES. 603

are pieces of 4, 6, 8, etc., up to 24 hands, the breadth varying
with the length between 2J and 8 inches. Wood must be used
green for this purpose, the preparation of the pieces and sub-
sequent bending thus being facilitated.

The pieces are then steamed and bent on simple frames,
and tied into bundles of 10 to 15 pieces for sale. Wooden
rings are made wider than the frames, but only Jrd of their
height. The bottoms of the sieves are fixed between the
frame and the ring.

The sides of measures for fruit or dry goods, and of drums,
and other round articles, are split radially from billets of beech,
sallow or oak, from which all defective heartwood and the
younger zones of sapwood have been excluded. They are
split with the divider, worked smooth on the cooper's bench,
steamed and bent around frames. They are then sorted, and
sold in assortments like sieve-frames. Young stems of ash
also are used for this purpose, as well as for making tennis
racquets.

The band-box maker uses chiefly spruce and silver-fir wood,
less frequently larch, sycamore, and sallow wood. Wood for
drums and for boxes shaped like drums to contain fruit, etc.,
are made of oak and beech, cut radially out of blocks. They
are fastened by rings of split wood. Butts of straight-grained
wood are cut into the proper lengths, and split into from 4 to
6 billets ; after these are thoroughly dried, they are split
gradually by successive bisection into pieces of the required
dimensions.

Then the pieces are planed carefully, softened in boiling
water, fastened over frames, and when thoroughly dried are
fastened together by wooden bands. The bottoms and lids for
each box are made in a similar manner.

Oblong lucifer match-boxes are made chiefly at Jonkoping
of aspen-wood by means of machines, which cut out a piece
large enough for a box, and press dents into the wood wherever
a side has to be bent inwards. In the absence of aspen-wood,
wood of lime or poplar is used in Germany for these boxes.

Strainers for beer and vinegar are made of hazel, and in its
absence of hornbeam and beech. The wood is steeped in water
till it has lost its colour.

604 INDUSTRIAL USES OF WOOD.

4. Wood- Wool.

Wood- Wool may be mentioned here, which is made from
even-grained wood, chiefly coniferous, though any species of
wood may be used, in round pieces 1 to 2 feet long, and is
used instead of hay, seaweed, etc., as packing material ; for
stuffing chairs, and other furniture ; as stable litter ; for pre-
serving ice, and in surgery, etc. Also it is made into ropes.

Villeroy, in Shramberg, compresses very fine wood-wool
under high -pressure into a sort of papier-mache, which is very
durable and is used for rules, carvings, ornaments, etc.

5. Round Pieces of Wood.

Slender pieces of wood are used for making handles for
paint-brushes and pens, flower-sticks, etc., also wooden thread
for making lucifer-matches and other articles. Fissile straight-
grained sprucewood is used for these purposes. The pieces
used for paint-brush handles, penholders and flower-sticks are
in section either round, semi-circular, oval, or quadrangular,
and of various lengths up to 5 feet. They are prepared by
machines from wood in the rough. Grasenau, in Bavaria, is
one of the chief seats of this industry.

[Beechwood is made similarly into round pieces from the
size of a pencil to that of a flag-staff, and also into conical
spigots, at Villers Cotterets, in France, square pieces being
pushed through a system of revolving planes, and coming out
round.— Tr.]

Wooden thread is now prepared on a large scale, either in
round pieces of sprucewood 8 to 30 feet long, or in short
pieces, used for lucifer-matches in Germany and Sweden.

The round pieces, usually xii^h of an inch (2 mm.) thick,
are made only from the finest grained sprucewood, and thus
the refuse of musical instrument wood may be utilised.
They used to be made by manual labour with Komer 's plane,
which, instead of an ordinary cutting blade, has a blade with
a number of funnel-shaped grooves, each of which cuts-out a
cylindrical thread. After a layer of thread had been planed
away, the wood was planed smooth by means of an ordinary
plane, and then a fresh layer of threads removed.

LUCIFER-MATCHES. 605

At present manual labour has been replaced by machinery
constructed on the principle of Romer's plane. The threads
are then woven with stout twine into blinds, floor-coverings,
table-covers, etc., and in tropical countries are specially
useful for chicks, which, hanging before doors and windows,
allow sufficient ventilation, while excluding the glare of sun-
light and insects.

The short pieces used for lucifer-matches are made from
the most various woods, especially those of spruce, Scots pine,
silver-fir and aspen. They are prepared in factories according
to three different methods. The oldest method, and that still
most usual in Germany, is by means of Rorner's plane, which
in this case is perforated by twenty-five to thirty little cutting
tubes, one above the other, through which the wood is forced
by the workmen. The serviceable pieces are separated by
machinery from the unserviceable pieces, and placed 500
together in boxes, which are fastened by rings into large
bundles containing several thousand pieces ; a workman can
prepare 200,000 pieces in a day.

Another method is employed in Sweden, only aspen-wood
being thus used. The round piece of rough wood, 1 j feet long,
is softened in water and fixed between the points of a lathe,
and the wood is then turned against a blade which peels-off
from it a long piece 1 J feet broad, of the thickness of a match.
This is then cut and split by machines into separate pieces,
each the size of a match. The Jonkoping factories alone used
up, in 1883, 280,000 cubic feet of Eussian aspen-wood for this
purpose.

Pieces with a quadrilateral section are prepared after a third
method, machines similar to those in use for wood-wool being
employed.

The manufacture of lucifer-matches is steadily consuming
more and more wood ; there are factories, which for
matches and match-boxes, consume 200,000 to 300,000
stacked cubic feet of wood annually. Thirty-five stacked
cubic feet of wood will yield 2,000,000 lucifer matches
2 inches long, weighing 3| cwt. The yearly requirements
of Europe in this respect are estimated at more than
14,000,000 cubic feet of wood.

606 INDUSTRIAL USES OF WOOD.

6. Trenails.

Trenails are wooden pegs of various sizes, the largest
being used in shipbuilding and smaller sizes by the cabinet-
maker and joiner, for fastening pieces of wood together ; the
smallest kinds are used by shoemakers. Ships' trenails are
in lengths of 4, 8, 16, 28 inches, 1J to 3 inches thick ; they
are made of robinia, ash and mulberry-wood. Thirty-five
stacked cubic feet yield on the average 200 trenails. Trenails
used by joiners and cabinet-makers are made of the wood of
oak, fruit-trees, beech, and even of coniferous wood, besides
that of robinia and ash. Shoemakers' pegs are made of
birch, hornbeam and sycamore.

The largest kinds of trenails are made by machinery as
follows : — A round piece of wood is cut to the length of the

nails, and then placed on
a sliding frame, which
forces it against the
cutting-blade. It is thus
split in one direction, and
then turned through an
angle of 90 deg. and split
again. The split pieces
y. 343 are then pointed conically

by machines.

Shoemakers' pegs are made similarly, only here, as in
Fig. 343, the points are made by means of planes running
first along a b, and then along a c. The pieces are then split
vertically (a m). There are factories in Silesia where annually
35,000 cubic feet of wood are made into shoemakers' pegs.

Large numbers of wooden toothpicks are made at Weissenfels
and other places, of soft, white wood, chiefly willow.

[6,000 to 12,000 trenails are made daily at a factory in
Walsall, besides 6,000 to 8,000 railway-keys. Large straight
oak logs are used. — Tr.]

7. Lead-Pencil*.

The best wood for lead-pencils is the so-called cedar (Juni-
perus virginiana, L., and J. bennudiana, L.), but inferior

WINDOW-FKAMES. 607

pencils are made of the wood of lime, spruce, Cembran pine
and poplar. The wood is partly split and partly planed into
shape.

8. Wood for Striny Musical Instruments.

Split wood is used for making violins, violoncellos and other
string-instruments. As steamed woods more or less curved
and pressed into shape are required, only split wood, but not
sawn wood, can stand the strain. The fronts and backs of
the instruments are made of spruce and silver-fir wood, and
their sides of sycamore. As regards fine zones and uniform
structure, wood of even superior quality to that used for
pianofortes is required. The zones in the wood for violins
should not exceed 1 to 2 mm. (^ to •£% inch) ; for double-
basses and violoncellos it may be coarser-textured, 2 to 4 mm.
(A to J inch).

The higher the key, the finer the woody zones should be.
This valuable wood is steadily becoming scarce. Up to the
present it has been obtained from selection forests, in which
the suitable trees are found disseminated. It is rare that an
entire stem can be used for making musical instruments, only
the fine-zoned external parts of it being suitable. These
pieces are imported in split sector-shaped pieces, from which
the core has been removed, in lengths of 16 to 30 inches for
violins, or of 40 to 60 inches for the larger string instruments.
Grasenau (in the Bavarian Forest), Mittenwald (in the
Bavarian Alps), and Markneukirschen (in Saxony) are the
best known markets for these goods.

SECTION XII. — WINDOW-FRAMES.

Glaziers formerly used chiefly oakwood for window-frames ;
less frequently, wood of sweet chestnut, elm, larch and Scots
pine. More recently, in large towns, the better kinds of
Scots pinewood [or teak. — Tr.] have replaced oak for this
purpose. The glazier requires oakwood of similar quality to
that used by the cooper ; generally it is sawn, with a nearly
square section, or is taken from the refuse wood after splitting
staves, or is split from billets. Sawn oak planks are used for

608 INDUSTRIAL USES OF WOOD.

the larger windows. The advantage of split wood for this
purpose is that it warps less than sawn wood. Coniferous
window-frame wood comes into the market ready prepared by
machinery. Iron is steadily replacing wood for window-
frames, especially in windows of shops and other large
buildings.

SECTION XIII. — WOOD-CARVING.

The wood-carver is represented by a whole class of artizans
who use a number of chisel-like tools, especially in the finish
of their products. The following classification of these wares
is attempted :—

1. Coarse Wood-Carving.

All sorts of bowls, plates, platters ; corn, meal, malt/ and
bakers' shovels ; kitchen-rollers, milliners' blocks, and stands
for shops, milk-ladles, wooden spoons, wooden shoes and heels,
shoemakers' lasts, saddle-trees, etc. Beechwood chiefly is

Figs. 344 and 345. — Instruments for making sabots.

used for these articles and sycamore-wood for cooking
apparatus ; wood of birch, aspen, lime and poplar also are
used, and boxwood for the finest Russian wares.

Chiefly short wooden butts are used, which for the larger
bowls, platters, etc., should be 3 feet and more in diameter,
and, on account of their size, are becoming scarce. For
smaller articles, and especially sabots, or wooden shoes, the
better sorts of timber are required. All the timber used
should split easily, be perfectly sound and free from defects
and knots.

As the finished articles must be, above all, safe from warping

WOOD-CAKVING. 609

and sufficiently strong, the cuts should be along their lines of
greatest extension. The butt is therefore split into from four
to six sectors, from which the core and bark are removed and
the shape roughly hewn- out with an adze. The farther finish
is given to the articles with special instruments, which are
bent according to its shape, and of which Figs. 344 and 345
represent general types.

The remarkable progress which has been made recently in
wood-working machines favours the idea that handwork on
rough wood-carving will become in time more and more
replaced by machinery. The turning-lathe is already largely
used for round articles, whilst machines have been invented
by which almost any shape may be given to wooden articles.

Wooden shoes (sabots) are made by hand, of the wood of
beech, alder, birch, hornbeam, walnut or poplar, the split
pieces first being trimmed roughly into shape by a short
hatchet and then finished with various curved instruments.
Trees 2 feet to 2J- feet in diameter at height of chest are
preferred for this purpose. In order to give the shoes a dark
colour and preserve them from splitting whilst being gradually
dried, they are smoked. The finer kinds are made of poplar,
or willow, and blackened. The Departement of Lozere, in
France, alone produces 600,000 pairs of wooden shoes yearly.

Wooden soles (ydlochea) for leather boots, and wooden
pattens and clogs, are made largely in France and Saxony by
machinery. Clogs are made in Britain of alder. Shoe-
makers' lasts are made chiefly of hornbeam-wood, and failing
that of beech or sycamore ; there are large factories of these
articles in Bohemia and Saxony, in which machinery is used.
[Wooden heels of women's boots are made extensively in
Normandy. — Tr.]

Broom-heads and brush-backs are made chiefly of beech and
cherry-wood. They are made chiefly at Globenstein in the
Erz mountains, at Esslingen, and at Todtenau in the Black
Forest, where £25,000 to £30,000 worth of broomheads are
made yearly. [There is a small factory for brush-backs at
Villers Cotterets.— Tr.]

Wood is used mostly green for rough wood-carving, as it is
then easier to work.

F.U. R B

610 INDUSTRIAL USES OF WOOJ).

2. Gun-stocks, Wind-instruments, etc.

For gun-stocks and pistol-stocks, \Vavy wood of walnut,
maple, birch, elm and sycamore is used, chiefly from the
lower part of the stem and the roots. Beechwood also is used
:for inferior muskets. [American walnut-trees were sold at
£40 each for this purpose in 1898 (Laslett).— Tr.] The
various wind-instruments, clarionet, flute, fife, etc., are made
from boxwood, and wood of ebony, birch, service-tree, maple,
and grenadil ; wooden pipes from bruyere (Erica arborea, L.),
alder, maple, birch and sycamore. All the wood used must
first be dried, and again from time to time laid aside to dry
during the making of the instruments, or it would soon warp.
Klingental and Markneukirchen in the Erz mountains are
the chief places for the manufacture of flutes, etc.

3. Children's Toys.

Enormous numbers of these pretty articles are made by
dovetailing little cut pieces of wood, also by the turning-lathe
and by carving. Sprucewood chiefly is used, between 60 to 70
per cent, of the whole, also wood of lime, oak, aspen, birch
and alder. Kegarding the importance of this trade, it is
noted that at Olbernhau in .the Erz mountains 1,000 to 1,500
tons, worth <£35,000, are made yearly. The work is done by
manual labour and by machinery ; and there are factories
where only one special toy is made (for instance, toy-guns).

Little animals which are afterwards painted to imitate
nature, are, in the Erz mountains, split-out from rings of
sprucewood, which have been turned on a lathe, so that the
animals are roughly formed along their radii.

This vast industry, of which Germany had for many years
a monopoly for the whole world, has now taken root in other
countries, under protective duties, and toys are now exported
largely from America.

4. Artistic Wood-Carving.

The art of wood-carving attained its highest perfection in
the 14th and 15th centuries A.D., but after a long slumber has
revived recently. Moderately hard, fine and homogeneous

TURNERY. 61 1

woods are most suitable for this purpose, in which neither the
annual rings nor the medullary rays are too prominent.

Lime wood is best, and then comes the wood of sycamore,
horse-chestnut, walnut and fruit-trees. Oakwood is much
used for carving, mountain and Cembran pinewood for inferior
work. Besides carvings in which human figures and beasts
are imitated, ornamental furniture is made largely, also frames
for mirrors, clock-cases, etc.

Numerous smaller articles, such as ash-trays, salad- spoons
and forks, paper-weights, napkin-rings, photograph-frames,
etc., are produced in large numbers. There are now places,
such as Oberanmiergau, Berchtesgaden and Salzburg, where
wood-carving, fostered by schools of art, forms the chief
occupation of the people.

[Fine wood-carving has long been a speciality in India,
and very valuable art-furniture is now made in the Punjab,
Burma, and other provinces. — Tr.]

A special form of wood-carving consists in the large wooden
type used for advertisements, notices, etc. Pear and apple-
wood, sycamore and boxwood are used chiefly, and this
industry has its principal seat in Switzerland.

[Wood-engravers use almost exclusively boxwood for their
plates to illustrate books and newspapers, and this wood is
steadily becoming rarer, selling at from ,£20 to i'30 a ton
in London. There is a considerable area of boxwood forest in
the Himalayas, the protection of which is highly advisable ;
the wood is used chiefly for making combs. — Tr.]

SECTION XIV. — TURNERY.

The turner employs hard, homogeneous wood capable of
being polished, and besides using many exotic woods, such as
box, ebony, etc., prefers the wood of beech, sycamore, horn-
beam, service-tree, birch, aspen, yew, walnut and fruit-trees.
Chiefly split pieces of wood are used and the turner purchases
round butts or split billets.

Although the demands the turner makes on the forest are
only small, it is interesting to give an account of some of his
wares. Large wooden screws for wine or oil-presses are
made of the wood of pear, apple or hornbeam ; for mangles

R R2

612 INDUSTRIAL USES OF WOOD.

for pressing linen, of the same species, and also of sycamore,
service-tree and beech. Turned legs and other pieces for
ornamental furniture are chiefly of walnut-wood. Hat-moulds
are made of lime or alder-wood ; skittles of hornbeam, pear
and service-wood; bowls, of lignum-vitse (Gu-aiacitm); shuttles,
of boxwood ; reels for thread, of birch and aspen- wood ; spools,
chiefly of birch [of which 5,000,000 feet of spool-bars are
imported annually into Britain from America ; birch, beech
and sycamore grown in Britain also are used. — Tr.]; pipe-
stems, of apple, cherry, plum, maple, etc. ; walking- sticks
and umbrella-handles of oak or ash coppice-shoots, white-thorn,
vine-stock, dog- wood, fruit-trees, and many exotic woods such
as those of olive, greenheart, etc. ; cask-taps, of pear, apple,
yew, larch and Cembran pine ; bungs are made of split oak-
wood and inferior sprucewood.

Wherever these articles are made in factories, the demand
on neighbouring forests may be considerable ; as, for instance,
for spools, wooden buttons, bungs, handles for tools, etc.

SECTION XV. — PLAITED WOOD-WORK.

This section may be divided into basket-work, and plaited
wood- work properly so called.

1. Basket- Work.

The basket-maker prepares wares of all shapes and dimen-
sions, from coarse hampers, fish-traps, etc., to the finest kinds
of baskets. The materials used are osiers, chiefly of Salix
viminalis, pwpurea, rubra, amygdalina, triandra, Lambertiana,
pruinosa, etc., also shoots of birch and of climbing plants, and
the finer roots of Scots pine, mountain-pine or larch. The
best osiers are thin yearling shoots, free from branches, about
six to eight feet long, with white, soft wood ; one or other kind
of willow is preferred, according to locality, but S. ri mi mil in
and amygdalina, purpurca and rubra are the best esteemed.

For superior basket-work, the osiers are peeled, which is done
immediately after they have been cut, when the sap is rising.

The osiers may, however, be peeled, if they are plunged into
water at a temperature of from 100 to 120° Fahr., without

WOOD-PLAITING. 613

becoming impaired in colour or texture. After being peeled,
the willows should be dried thoroughly by exposure to the sun
siiid air, or the}' will turn bluish and become brittle. They
must be steeped in water when used, in order to recover their
flexibility. For rough hampers and fish-traps the coarser
osiers up to J inch thick are used, unpeeled, but freshly cut.

Coarser baskets are made from unsplit osiers, the thin ends
being cut-off, so that the thickness of the pieces used may be
fairly uniform. Finer basket-work is made of split osiers.
These fine baskets are made over caoutchouc moulds.
Spanish cane from the Philippine Islands, and split bamboo,
make the finest basket-work.

In vine districts a large quantity of osiers are used as withes
for fastening the vines to tlieir supports. S. riininalis and
»S'. nlba are used chiefly.

Wood-plaiting is the most highly artificial employment of
wooden threads, which are woven on a frame into various
articles. The simplest of these are sieves, mats and carpets
made of wooden threads at Klein-Cerma, in Bohemia. Silver-
fir fibres are employed chiefly in strands 16 to 24 inches long,
spun into threads and woven into carpets.

The finer kinds of goods are formed of woven material,
which is afterwards bent over moulds into hats, purses, cigar-
cases, table-covers, blinds, etc. Alt- and Neu-Ehrenberg in
Northern Bohemia are the chief seats of this industry, and
only aspen wood is used, the wood being imported chiefly from
Poland, and kept in pits under water till required.

The wood-fibres are prepared by the use of planes with
numerous longitudinal groovings, and from them the material
is woven on looms in pieces 2^ to 3 feet long and 2 feet broad.
The threads are sometimes coloured.

Another way of making textile fibres from wood is to boil
pieces of sprucewood, 8 or 9 inches long, with gypsum, as in
cellulose-factories, so that the wood becomes resolved into its
ultimate fibres. These fibres may then, like cotton or hemp,
be spun into threads and twisted into ropes. In California
this material is used on a large scale for various purposes.

HL4- INDUSTRIAL USES OF WOOD.

SECTION XVI. — WOOD FOR AGRICULTURAL PURPOSES.

A considerable amount of wood is used in agricultural indus-
tries. These products have one character in common, being
used more or less in the rough, or at least without any
elaborate preparation. The following comprise the chief
classes :— -

Pea-sticks, consisting of twigs 1 to 3 years old from various
broadleaved species, especially beech and birch, are the tops
and branches of poles and trees that are cut off after fellings,
in lengths from 2 to 4 feet.

Bean-sticks are used for scarlet-runners and other climbing-
beans ; they are poles 8 to 10 feet long, and up to about 1J
inches thick at the base. Coniferous saplings, or straight
coppice-shoots of broadleaved species, are employed chiefly
for this purpose.

Stakes are intermediate in thickness between bean-sticks
and hop-poles, and are used for all kinds of purposes, chiefly
to fill gaps in hedges and fences. They are generally
coniferous saplings and smaller poles. Stakes are used also
for tightening chains and ropes, in lading timber and firewood
on to carts. Saplings and small poles of various lengths,
of oak, ash, birch, beech, etc., are employed.

Hop-poles, for use in hop-gardens ; chiefly light, straight
and slender coniferous poles are employed. [Sweet chest-
nut coppice also yields excellent hop-poles, and has been
grown largely and profitably in Kent and elsewhere for the
purpose. — Tr.] The introduction of steel-wire between
wooden supports has replaced hop-poles in many localities,
and reduced considerably the demand for the latter.

Hop-poles are usually placed in 4 to 6 classes, according to
their dimensions, being from 16 to 40 feet long, and from 2J
to 5 inches thick at the base. Generally they are barked in
order to render them more durable.

Tree-stakes, to support freshly-planted orchard trees in
Germany usually consist of coniferous poles cut into lengths
of 10 to 20 feet; also old (red) aspen-wood, robinia, and
other broadleaved trees (ash, etc.) are employed for this
purpose,

AGRICULTURAL WOOD. 6] 5

[Hurdles and crate-wood. — Much split ash, oak, pollard
willow shoots and other coppice-wood is required in Britain for
hurdles, and for crates used in packing machinery, crockery,
etc. Crate-wood is in great demand for the Potteries. — Tr.]

Tree-props, which are used to prop up the boughs of
orchard trees when heavily laden with fruit, are usually of
the same dimensions as small or middling-sized hop-poles,
and are made from poles of conifers, also of beech,
oaks and other trees, several stumps of branches being
left at their tops to serve as forks and support the laden
branches. Props for drying clothes are similar.

Vine-stakes, which are placed in the ground close to vines,
and to which the latter are tied, consist usually of split oak or
coniferous wood, 6 to 8 feet long, and 1J to 3 inches square.
In Alsace, vine-stakes are split from s \veet chestnut and
robinia stool-shoots 10 to 12 feet long; they are far more
durable than oak-stakes. In France, vine-stakes are made
even of aspen and wTillows. Impregnated spruce poles are
replacing broadleaved wood, especially from Switzerland.

Wherever, as in parts of the Palatinate, the vines are grown
very low, and spread more horizontally than vertically, the
stakes are left in the ground over winter, and only oak, sweet
chestnut and robinia- wood are found serviceable. In this
case, horizontal pieces or bars of wood are nailed across from
one stake to another, the latter being placed into the ground
vertically. The stakes are thick split pieces 4 to 6 feet long,
and the bars split laths 10 to 14 feet long, which are split off
straight- grained stems by means of a wedge or divider.
Sometimes they are replaced by steel-wire.

Wooden Park Palings. — These are employed round gardens
and parks, and especially in Alpine pastures, and are made
by splitting round logs 4 to 6 feet long. Inferior kinds of
wood are used sawn and generally creosoted. They may be
driven directly into the ground side by side. [In Britain, they
are generally nailed to strong post-and-rail supports, and kept
entirely above ground, the lower part of the fence being formed
by a plank placed horizontally from post to post. Deer-
parks require the strongest fencing, and split oak and sweet
chestnut, or sawn larch or Scots pinewood are used chiefly.

616 INDUSTRIAL USES OF WOOD.

Cheap palings are made of chestnut laths bound together with
wire by a machine. — Tr.]

Withes for fastening faggots, bundles of corn, oak- bark,
hemp, etc., are made of coppice-shoots of hazels, willows, and
different shrubs ; sometimes oak and beech saplings are stolen
for the purpose.

Brooms are made usually of young shoots and twigs of birch
trees, and should be cut before the foliage has appeared.
Vigorous birch trees afford the best shoots for brooms.
Brooms are made also of broom, Genista, peeled osiers, etc.

[In India large quantities of prickly bushes are used
annually for making temporary dead fences round the crops
in the dry season, and are used for fuel, or left to rot, when
the cattle come into the fields to graze on the stubble after
the harvest in April. — Tr.]

SECTION XVII. — EEFUSE WOOD.

The refuse wood, after sawing or splitting has been effected,
and the bark, are cut by the circular saw into convenient
lengths, fastened into bundles and sold as kindling material.
Wood-shavings serve a similar purpose, but attempts have
been made to press them into briquets mixed with cement
to form Xylolith.

Sawdust has many uses, it is burned in specially-made
furnaces to supply heating-power to steam-engines. Saw-
dust and cellulose acted on by dilute nitric acid and boiling
solution of common salt are used for fodder (Wendenburg's
system). It is used as litter in stalls and wet places; to place
in layers between seeds in winter ; also between rows of
seedlings in forest nurseries as a protection against frost ; as a
packing for fragile goods; with cement, soluble glass and
gypsum, it is converted into xylolith or papyrolith ; mixed with
chromium gelatine and immersed in boiling oil it produces a
substance resembling gum. Sawdust is used for making
oxalic acid and methyl-alcohol ; when heated it is pressed into
briquets, nearly MS serviceable as coal, or if soaked and pressed
it is easily kindled (Hugendudel system) ; when steamed, it
may be pressed into permanent shapes,

FIREWOOD. 617

Sub-division II. — Firewood.

The material used for fuel consists of split billets of coniferous
wood, resinous pieces of spruce or pine, birch-bark, wood-
shavings, brushwood of any kind. Briquets of pressed peat
saturated by easily combustible substances may be substituted.
Firewood is burned directly for heating apartments, or for
cooking food, washing, drying, etc. Hardwoods, which give
out a more lasting, uniform heat than softwoods, are preferred to
the latter for the above household purposes. For boiling food
or heating boilers, as in kitchens, hard dense woods are
preferred ; for baking or roasting, when a quick intense heat
is required, porous softwood or charcoal is preferable. It is
not always possible, however, to obtain the best material, and
wood of all kinds is used for both purposes. The Danish
Forestry Society has constructed a permanent wood-furnace :
Beck's furnace at Copenhagen is the best ; 18 Ibs. of wood,
filled in three times, burns for 36 hours.

Firewood is still employed in factories, which may be
classified according as they require hardwoods, as in soap-
making, laundries, and all factories employing boilers ; or
softwoods, producing a quickly radiating, intense heat, as in
bakeries, potteries, brick-kilns, lime-kilns, etc. ; finally, char-
coal, the heat of which is not only quick and intense, but also
very enduring, as for the work of locksmiths, blacksmiths,
glass-makers, etc.

The utilization of dead firewood also may be considered
here. This consists of all dry branches and twigs lying on the
ground, that have been broken from the trees either by the
natural clearing process of the woods, or by wind or snow ;
its reduction into small pieces, without the use of implements,
can be effected by breaking it simply by hand or across the
knee. Such a strict definition of fallen firewood cannot,
however, be considered as universal ; its inexactness is
apparent for many localities where dry branchwood is included
that is still attached to the trees, from which it may be broken
by hand or dragged down by a hook : in other places are
included small pieces of wood and roots, that are still repro-
ductive and have not been dug up, as well as all refuse wood

618 INDUSTKIAL USES OF WOOD.

left unsold on the filling-areas ; finally, in still other districts
the collector of dead wood is permitted to cut down and
appropriate dead standing saplings and poles. [It is abso-
lutely necessary that for all forest-ranges a local definition
of the meaning of dead firewood should be made and enforced
strictly.— Tr.]

The collection of dead firewood is very simple : the wood is
picked up from the ground and wherever the dry branches of
standing trees are included, they are pulled down by iron
hooks at the end of long poles, or men climb the trees and cut
off the dead wood with an axe. The method of collection is
not an indifferent matter to the forester. So long as dead
wood lying on the ground only is collected, its removal is not
injurious, but its harmless character is gone when hooks are
used. Important as it is that trees should lose their dead
branches in order to improve the value of their wood, it is,
however, most hurtful to remove these branches in an injurious
manner. It has been stated already (p. 135), that at the
circular occlusion around the base of a dead branch a small
depression exists, in which water accumulates and moisture per-
sists for some time, so that at this place the branch rots quickly
and eventually breaks off by its own weight, which has the
greater effect the longer is the leverage of the branch. If such
a stage of decomposition has not been reached, as in the case
of all branches that have died only recently, the breakage of
the branch by the hook leaves a little stump, which only in
the course of years becomes occluded in the stem. The hook
should therefore be excluded from all woods that are not yet
mature ; it is certainly more injurious than the axe by which
occasionally a suppressed but still green sapling may be
cut. It would therefore be much better for the forest if the
hook were replaced by the pruning tree-saw.

The yield of dead wood varies in quantity according to the
definition of dead firewood. Whenever only refuse wood and
dead stems are taken, it amounts to 12 to 15 per cent, of the
volume of a crop. When the trees stand close together, it is
greater than when they are far apart, is greater on good than
on bad soil, it is greatest of all in pole-woods, when weaker
poles are being suppressed.

LIVING PLANTS. 619

The utilization of dead firewood is important in national
economy, for usually its collection and removal is left gratui-
tously to poor men, women and children ; in many forest
districts, it forms a servitude on the forest.

As all fallen wood, if it remains in the forest, is a manure to
the soil and renders it porous and well aerated, its utiliza-
tion should he abandoned on poor soils, or on heavy, wet ones ;
but the increased danger from fire, especially on sandy soil
in sunny, dry places, renders its removal there advisable.

Highly resinous pieces from the stumps of felled pines, and
other coniferous trees are used as torches in mountainous
countries, as in the Himalayas.

Sub -division III. — Utilization of living plants or of parts
of plants.

The sale of living plants or of parts of plants has become so
profitable to the forest-owner, especially near large towns, as
to deserve mention.

1. Plants with roots, for plantations or parks. They are
either reared in home-nurseries or purchased from pro-
fessional nurserymen. They are classified according to their
age and height, but it would be better if both age and height
were specified, as then the quality of the plants could be
estimated better. Exotic plants are expensive, partly owing
to the high cost of the seed, partly on account of their beauty,
and partly because the purchasers are unaware of the real cost
of producing them.

"2. Plants without roots. Christmas trees (sometimes rooted)
are almost exclusively conifers, usually of spruce or silver-fir.
In Franconia birches are used ; they are cut at the beginning
of September, placed in water, and kept in warm rooms, so
that they are green on Christmas Day.

The height of Christmas trees varies from 3 to 16 feet, and
their age from 5 to 20 years ; plants grown in the open have
the strongest branches and the best appearance. Mencke
recommends f dicing in areas near large towns for the growth of
Christmas trees, planting them at the rate of 160 plants an
acre, and selling them when twelve years old.

620 INDUSTRIAL USES OF WOOD.

Suppressed steins of evergreen conifers with flat, scanty
crowns are placed along the sides of roads in order to point
out the roadway in times of heavy snowfall.

3. Small branches of all species of trees, but especially of
conifers, serve as shelter to delicate plants against sun or frost,
or for decorative purposes. Near towns the sale of such material
that is pruned from open plantations is a productive source of
revenue. They are sold by weight, in bundles, or by the cart-
load. Holly, mistletoe, etc., are extensively used at Christmas.

Sub-division IV. — Woods arranged according to their

Uses.

In the following abstract of the technical uses to which wood
may be put, only its uses as timber are considered. The list
first contains the European woods, and then the most service-
able foreign woods.

1. Woods of Broadleared Trees.

Oakwood.— Used for superstructures, hydraulic works,
bridges, ship and boat-building, gate-posts, mill-wheels,
railway-sleepers, mining timber, joiners' work, cabinet-
making ; for wheelwrights' work, blocks, staves, bungs,
sieve-frames, shingles, trenails, wood-carving, pianoforte-
making, turnery, window-frames, park-palings, vine-stakes,
hurdles, rungs for ladders, etc.

It should be noted that the fine-zoned, easily worked, softer
wood of the sessile oak is preferred to that of pedunculate
oak for all purposes making less demands on size, hard-
ness, strength and durability. The latter is preferable for
construction of all kinds, for staves, wheelwrights' work,
split-wood, etc.

Ashwood. — For pillars, stamping hammers, wheelwrights'
work, joinery implements, tool- and whip-handles, billiard-
cues, racquets, hurdles, barrel-hoops, gymnastic apparatus,
lance-shafts, rudders and oars, thatchwood for stacks. Figured
ashwood is greatly in demand for furniture.

Elmwood. — Used by the furniture-maker, undertaker and
turner, greatly in demand by the wheelwright; For butchers'

BROADLEAVED WOODS. 621

blocks and the inner lining of ships. [Elmwood, being tough,
is used for boxes for tin-plates. — Tr.] Figured elm wood is much
esteemed ; the wood of the common elm is more valuable
generally than that of the mountain elm.

Sweet chestnut. — Used occasionally in superstructures, also
for furniture, gate-posts, park-palings, fences and hurdles,
staves ; makes excellent vine-stakes, hop-poles and hoops.

Sycamore and maple. — Preferred by the cabinet-maker for
solid and veneered articles, parquetry, etc. ; by the turner and
carver, in cotton and jute mills for rollers and spools ; for
churns, musical instruments, gun-stocks, and ornamental whip-
handles. Bird's-eye maple is very valuable.

Limewood. — For fine carving, founders' models ; used
under veneer, for wooden basket-work ; in pianos and organs,
wooden shoes, papier-mache, etc.

Beechwood. — Joinery, for floors and staircases, in mills and
mines (stamping-hammers), railway-sleepers, street-paving
blocks, cabinet-making; for furniture, pianos, carpenters'
benches, wheelwrights' work, slack barrels, agricultural
implements, packing-cases, measures, sieve-frames ; for coarse
carved work, maltsters' shovels, wooden shoes, horse-collars,
gun-stocks, broom-heads, brush-backs, plane-boxes, spigots, etc.

Hornbeam-wood. — Wheelwrights' work, in mills, machinery,
turnery, shoemakers' pegs and lasts, plane-boxes, carpenters'
benches, tool-handles, agricultural implements, skittles, etc.

Birchwood. — Joinery, furniture, wheelwrights' work, turnery,
spools, bobbins, wood-carving, brushes, clogs, shoe-pegs, coarse
carved wares, withes, brooms, etc. Figured birchwood much
prized by cabinet-maker and carriage-builder.

Alderwood. — Used underground in mines, for covering
damp places, water-conduits ; largely used for cigar-boxes,
clog-soles, broom-heads, toys ; also for gunpowder.

Poplar. — Rafters and rails, slips for cargo, joinery and
wheelwrights' work, packing-cases, coarse carving, matches,
cigar-boxes, and papier-mache. The white poplar, or Abele,
also for superior wood-carving and in organs. Aspen for
lucifer-matches and paper-pulp.

Willow. — Cricket-bats (Salix cdba-viridis),* basket-work,

* K. K. Trait, " Variations of AW//./- nUm."' Journal of Forestry, Oct., 1907.

INDUSTRIAL USES OF WOOD.

clothes-pegs, withes, fascines ; wood of tree-willows used in
furniture under veneer, for packing-cases, hurdles, papier-
mache. [Being soft and tenacious is used as well as poplar
for lining carts for carrying stones. — Tr.]

Kobinia (False acacia). — Wheelwrights' wood, especially
spokes, rungs, implements, joinery, trenails, vine-stakes, tool-
handles and turnery.

Service-wood (Pyrus tonninalis). — Used by turner and
cabinet-maker, and for wood-carving. [Pyrus Sorbits yields
very finely grained wood, used for set-squares, French curves,
etc.— Tr.]

Rowan-wood (Pyrus Aucnparia}. — Splendid wheelwrights'
wood, on account of its great toughness.

Wild pear (Pyrus comiininis). — Highly esteemed for cabinet-
making and turnery, for picture-frames, blocks for woodcuts.
Figured wood equally prized with that of the cultivated pear
and apple-tree for veneers.

Hazel. — Used for hoops, sieve-frames, also by the cabinet-
maker ; for holding chisels to cut iron plates.

Horse-chestnut. — Used by the turner and cabinet-maker
and for fine wood-carving.

Wild Cherry (Primus Cerasus, L.). — By the cabinet-
maker, turner, and wheelwright. P. Padus for holding
chisels.

Walnut. — Highly esteemed for furniture, veneer, gun-stocks,
and for frames, wood-carving and turnery.

Laburnum (Cytisns Laburnum and C. alpinum). — Splendid
wood for turning, or for furniture.

Boxwood, for wood-engraving and turnery, flutes, measures,
shuttles. This wood is becoming rare owing to the absence of
forestry in the Black Sea districts.

2. Coniferous Woods.

Spruce. — Superstructures of all kinds, in boats for fresh-
water traffic. Sawn timber used by the joiner and cabinet-maker,
by the wheelwright and shingle-maker, for boxes, packing-
cases, toys, violins, etc., piano-making and organ-building.
Poles and saplings used for agricultural purposes, ladders,

EXOTIC WOODS. 623

bars, telegraph-posts, fencing, vine-stakes, wooden baskets,
and paper-pulp.

Silver-fir. — Used for the same purposes as sprucewood, and
specially useful in buildings, for pillars, also in hydraulic works.

Scots pine, also termed red-deal. — Used for the same
purposes as spruce, except for musical instruments, shingles
and other split-ware ; superior to spruce or silver-fir for
hydraulic works (piles), bridges, railway-sleepers, or mining
timber ; used for all purposes requiring durability ; esteemed
for ships' masts and spars, spars for windmills, conduit-pipes,
street-paving, etc.

Larch. — Used for the same purposes as red-deal, and
wherever durability is demanded is more highly esteemed than
the latter. [In Britain for fishing-boats, barges and fences. — Tr.]

Black pine. — More used in hydraulic works and earthworks
than for superstructures, furniture, etc.

Weymouth pine, termed white deal in America. — Used in
superstructures, especially in roofs ; also in cabinet-making,
packing-cases, etc. Old wood is preferred.

Cembran pine. — Wood-carving, toys, and cabinet-making.

[Corsican pine. — Heartwood similar to red-deal. — Tr.]

Yew (Ta.rns baccata). — Esteemed for bows, cabinet-making,
wood-carving and turnery.

Mountain-pine (Pinus Montana). — Turnery and wood-
carving. [Erect variety yields good building timber. — Tr.]

Juniper (Jmiipcrus communix). — Fine wood for turnery and
wood-carving.

8. Exotic Woods.

Teak (Tcctona yrandis). — The best wood for shipbuilding,
superstructures ; largely used in railway-carriage-building, and
by the cabinet-maker, wheelwright and turner.

Mahogany (Sicii'tcnia Mahog<mi). — Highly-esteemed furni-
ture wood; also used for panels, picture-frames, cigar-boxes, etc.

Padauk (Pterocarpus dalbergioides) from Burmah and the
Andaman Islands. Highly esteemed for railway-carriages and
cabinet-making, also in saddle-making.

Hickory (Hicoria alba and other species). — Highly esteemed
in carriage-making, and for handles of implements.

62 1 INDUSTRIAL USES OF WOOD.

Ailanihus glandulosa. — Becommended for carriage-making,
on account of its strength, elasticity and non-liability to warp.
West Indian cedar (Ccdrcla odorata). — Best wood for cigar-
boxes and river-boats.

Ebony (Diospyros Ebc'iiuni, D. Melanoxylon, and other
species). — Turnery and wood-carving, pianoforte keys, knife-
handles, etc. [Stained holly and hornbeam used to imitate
ebony. — Tr.J

Lignum-vitse (Gnaiacum qfficinale). — Bowls, pulley-blocks,
policemen's batons; used in gunpowder-manufacture as
grinding- rollers.

Jacaranda (Jacaranda brasiliensis) . — Turnery, inlaid furni-
ture, etc.

Rosewood (wood of several species).* — Furniture, pianoforte-
making, etc.

Grenadillaf (West Indies and Honduras). — Used similarly
to rosewood, and for flutes.

Horseflesh-wood (Ccesalpinia sp. from Bahamas). — Violin-
bows, machinery.

Greenheart (Nectandria Rodicei, lauraceous tree from
Central America, South America, and West Indies). — Ship-
building.

Violet-wood (Acacia pcndula and A. nomolophylla, from
Queensland). — Inlaid furniture, boomerangs, etc.

Satinwood [wood of different species of trees, among others
Chloroxylon Sivietenia, from Ceylon. — Tr.] Used for furniture
and the backs of brushes.

Olive-wood (Olea europcea). — Wood-carving, etc.
Quebrache-wood (Aspidosperma Quebracho < -bianco, from
Argentina). — A good substitute for boxwood, for wood-
engraving, also for railway-sleepers. Quebracho-colorado,
for tanning.^;

American white (or poplar) wood (Liriodendron). — Used
for ebonised show-cases, furniture, carpenters' benches, etc.
Takes stains well, and does not warp. — Tr.]

Briar- wood (Erica arbor ea).— Boot-stock used for tobacco-
pipes.

[Lancewood (Duguetia quitarensis, Benth. of Guiana, and

* Vide p. 35. f p- i:>- J ]>- (;;}(i-

EXOTIC WOODS. 625

Gnaltcria rirf/ata, Brazil?) for fishing-rods, handles of golf-
clubs, etc. Heads of wooden golf- clubs are of beech, or
apple.— Tr.]

Pencil-cedar (Juniperus virginiana and J. bennudiana). — For
lead-pencils, pianoforte-hammers, pipe-stems, turnery and finer
cabinet-making.

Pitch pine (Pin us jwlustris, from the Southern States of
North America). — Splendid architectural wood, resembles the
best larch wood in durability ; ship-building, railway-carriages,
less used for furniture. [Pitch pine is the name given in
Europe to the timber of several pines in the S. States of
N. America. They are Longleaf-pine (P. palustris), Cuban-
pine (P. r///>r//.s/x), Shortleaf-pine (P. cchinata), and Loblolly-
pine (P. Taeda). The timber of /'. /W//x/V/x is called longleaf
pinewood in America, pitch pine being the name of Pinna
riifida, a tree yielding very inferior timber. — Tr.]

American cypress (Ta.codiinn dititicJnun).- Fsed for door
and wall-panelling, etc. Lawson's cypress wood is considered
durable in America.

Oregon or Douglas-fir (Psendotsuga tnucroiiata). — Excellent
for superstructures and ship-building ; also as scantling in
joinery, for school-benches, etc. [Used by Nansen for " The
Fram."— Tr.]

[The wood of many Australian gum-trees (Kiirali/jtttut sp.}
is highly esteemed: thus " Jarrah " (K. tnanjuuita}, ship-
building, railway-sleepers, wood-paving; and " Kari " (K.
dircrsicolor), wood-paving. — Tr.]

Californian red-wood (Sequoiti sempervirens), price in London
in 1898, Is. Sd. to Is. Wd. cubic foot.

Kauri pine (Dmumara ait straits), from New Zealand, used for
flooring, deck planks, etc. Dacn/dium cuprcsisiiurm also, is
much used in New Zealand.

Palmwood, for sticks and umbrella-handles.

Bamboos for sticks and furniture, basket-work, fishing-rods,
etc.

[In tropical countries, for buildings, masts, shafts for
carriages, lance-poles, milk-pails, etc. — Tr.]

F.U. s s

PAKT II.

THE PROPERTIES, UTILIZATION, VALUATION AND
DISPOSAL OF MINOR FOREST PRODUCE.

s s 2

CHAPTER I.

PROPERTIES, UTILIZATION, VALUATION, AND
DISPOSAL OF BARK AND ITS CONSTITUENTS.

SECTION I. — ANATOMY OF BARK.

THE bark on a yearling shoot of dicotyledonous and gyiuno-
spermous woody species, at the close of the annual growth, may
be distinguished as outer and inner bark. The outer bark
(cortex) includes the external coating, termed epidermis, the
cells of which are covered by a suberous and ligneous, waxy
layer, the cuticle. Through the epidermis there are openings
(stomata), by which an interchange of gases is effected between
the interior of the plant and the atmosphere. The epidermis
contains frequently a strengthening tissue, the hypoderma,
formed sometimes of collenchymatous cells, the walls of which
swell when moist. Under the epidermis lie the chlorophyll
cells, connected together somewhat loosely, so that there is
room between them for the circulation of air.

Usually in the first year of a shoot, the cells of the
epidermis or those of the subjacent cellular tissue, or even
of a deeper tissue, become divided ; the inner half form a cork
mother-tissue (Phellogen), whilst the outer half are brick-
shaped cork-cells. The latter lose their plasmic contents
rapidly and then contain only air, their walls become suberised
and are impermeable for air and water. Hence all tissues
outside the corky layer die. In order to replace the stomata,
a group of cells is formed beneath them, the walls of which
are rounded and suberised, so that the intercellular spaces
between them allow for the passage of air. These groups of
cells are named lenticels. In a few species, field-maple,
cork-elm, Phellodendron, and cork-oaks (Qucrcuis Saber, occi-
deutalis, coccifera, variabilis), etc., the cork thickens on the
stem and branches into ridges, or into continuous layers, when

630 UTILIZATION OF BARK AND ITS CONSTITUENTS.

it can be utilised commercially. In most species the forma-
tion of cork attains a thickness of only a few cells, whilst thin
layers of cork, with boundaries like oyster-shells, cut off parts
of the tissues from the deeper layers of bark, which turn red
or brown, and die. These flakes of bark contain scarcely any
cork, but are composed chiefly of the tissues of the inner bark.

The inner bark of the shoot consists chiefly of the bast,
named from the occurrence in it of bast-fibres, hard and
soft bast. The former consist of very thick-walled, elon-
gated cells, which are sometimes solitary, sometimes in zones,
that alternate with zones of soft bast (Tilia) ; they are rarely
absent from the inner bark. Most of the inner bark, how-
ever, consists of soft bast, composed chiefly of sieve-tubes and
bast-parenchyma. The sieve-tubes are organs analogous to
the vessels of the wood, but are filled always witli aqueous,
plasmic contents, which by slow movement supplies nutriment
to the tissues. The bast-parenchyma, partly in strands
parallel to the axis (longitudinal parenchyma), partly in
horizontal bundles (medullary parenchyma) being a continua-
tion of the medullary rays of the wood, serves as a reservoir
for starch, sugar, tannin or turpentine, but also passes over into
other tissues. Thus, in many parenchymatous cells, crystals
appear of oxalate, or more rarely, of carbonate of lime, whilst
the plasmic contents disappear and the cell dies and is termed
a crystal-sac. Tannin accumulates in other parenchymatous
cells (tannin-sacs), as a refractive solution ; in medullary
parenchyma, ethereal oils, such as turpentine, camphor,
increase continually in quantity, whilst the other contents of
the cell continually diminish (turpentine and camphor sacs).
Often parenchymatous cells become converted into scleren-
chymatous or stone cells, their contents becoming attached
to their walls as a thickening, while the cell becomes either
spindle-shaped, or stellate, only a small part of the lumen
remaining. Sometimes the medullary-ray cells become stony
when they emerge from the wood, supplying an internal union
between bark and wood (beech).

Elongated cells containing latex (fats and oil suspended in
water), also sometimes traverse the bark and are termed
laticiferous ducts (Finis) ; their contents are very important

PROPERTIES OF BARK. 631

commercially. In conifers, turpentine is elaborated, partly in
the interior of the parenchymatous cells, where it continually
increases (resin-cells), partly in spaces (resin-ducts) between
closely-packed parenchymatous cells. The outer bark possesses
only vertical resin-ducts, the inner bark only horizontal ones,
which are continuations of those in the medullary rays of the
wood.

The dead bark, or rhitidome, arises from the above cell-
forms by the scale-like formation of cork ; rapid growth in
thickness, warm localities, insolation, open crop of trees, tissue
tension at the base of branches, etc., favour the early forma-
tion of rhitidome and the scaling off of bark (*). At the
junction of the inner bark of the wood is the cambium,
which forms outwardly the organs of the inner bark. The
bark of monocotyledonous woody species, such as palms and
bamboos, is confined to a few layers of cells, under which,
without any canibium, lies the so-called wood, resembling pith,
but traversed by strands of wood. The superficial cells are
strongly silicified ; there is no formation of cork.

SECTION II. — CHEMICAL, PHYSICAL AND ECONOMIC PROPERTIES
OF BARK AND OF ITS CONSTITUENTS.

For the sake of brevity the above will be discussed together
with the utilization of the bark.

1. ProjH'rties, Utilization, Valuation and Disposal of Bark.

The young green bark of our woody species has little
durability ; as a rule, in the first or second year the green
colour is lost when cork is formed, so that reddish, yellow,
brown or grey tints prevail. In using saplings of oak, dog-
wood, hazel, etc., for walking-sticks or umbrella-handles, the
colour, lustre and scent of the bark are important. In species
of palms and bamboos, the external bark becomes in time
very durable owing to its gradual silicification. The rind of
bamboos is coloured most variously, according to the species
and variety of the plants ; it has yellow, brown or black specks
or stripes, which render bamboos attractive as fishing-rods,

* H. Mayr, "Die Sekretionsorgane der Fichte urid Liirche." Bot. Zentral-
blatt, 1884.

632 UTILIZATION OF BARK AND ITS CONSTITUENTS.

sticks, or for light fancy furniture. In particular a red colour
is prized, that affects the outer rind of a bamboo after
exposure to smoke in a chimney, or it has been kept in huts
without chimneys.

As soon as rhitidorue or dead bark is formed, and bark-
scales appear on the exterior of some of our trees such as
larch or pine, the tannin in them becomes oxidised and turns
red or brown, resembling the transformation of living sap wood
into drier heartwood, that is dead in conifers. In trees such
as beech, hornbeam, silver-fir, etc., where rhitidome is not
formed, or is formed only when the trees become old, the bark
is usually grey, owing to its incrustation by lichens ; in birches
the white betulin gleams through the cell-walls.

When the bark-scales become red the durability of the bark
is increased considerably, just as is the coloured heartwood ;
if the cortex is wounded the tissues exposed to the air redden
rapidly, a process of oxidation that protects the wound, the
protection afforded being increased by the subsequent provision
of a layer of cork. This explains the great durability of very
thick barks ; as, however, the thick barks of oaks, larch, old
pines and Douglas-firs, are separated with greater difficulty in
large, regular pieces from the sterns, than from those with
thin and small scales-; it is the latter, e.g., spruce and birch,
which are peeled during the life of the trees, and used for
covering roofs that are exposed to the rainy west wind. The
birch produces a scaly or stony bark only late in life, and
owes the great durability of its bark to the betulin in its cells.

The heating-power of the bark is less than that of the wood,
even in conifers, in which, according to Mayr's investigations,
there is more resin than in the wood ; the coarser the bark,
the better it is as a combustible. It is peeled off fallen trees
in summer in large flakes, about one meter long, or is hacked
or beaten off them in winter, and used as combustible bark.
This bark is piled in stacks and sold, or given unmeasured to
poor people, or to the wood-cutters. Owing to its greater
heating-power, birch-bark is used as kindling material, as is
ver}7 resinous pine wood.

Thick pieces of willow bark (Salix alba), which is very
light, serve as mrunmars for iishing-nets ; fresh spruce bark

TANNINCJ MATERIALS. 633

with a scent of turpentine, which may be increased by pouring
turpentine on it, is used for catching bark-beetles ; birch-bark,
owing to its white colour, toughness, durability and heating-
power, is used extensively in the north of Europe, America
and Asia ; small artistic articles, also useful boxes and vessels
are made of bark ; cherry bark is especially ornamental.

SECTION III. — PROPERTIES, ETC., OF THE CONSTITUENT
PARTS OF BARK.*

A. Tanning Materials.

Tanning materials in the form of weak acids of various
composition are widespread in all parts of plants throughout
the vegetable kingdom ; they contain less carbon and oxygen
than other carbo-hydrates. Gallic acid or true tannin comes
from the galls on our oaks, as well as on (jHcirn* in/cctoria,
and from other galls.

Tannin is an amorphous substance with an astringent
taste, soluble in alcohol and water ; according to their origin,
tannins from oak-bark, from oakwood, from spruce-bark, from
catechu, etc., may be distinguished : they form salts with
inorganic or organic bases (alkaloids) ; solutions containing
iron are coloured green or blue by these different tannins, so
that this serves as a test for the nature of the tannin. The
most important property of tannin is, that, when it acts on
gelatine, a substance contained in the skin of animals that
swells in water, it converts these skins into a connected,
strong, tough and durable material, leather.! When leather
is made by treating skins with tannin, the process is called
tanning.

Leather, however, may be formed in other ways from skins ;
viz., by salts of alumina, especially chloride of alumina with
common salt ; this process is termed tawing and produces
white kid for gloves, etc. Shamoying employs fats or oils
and produces soft wash-leather. Tanning also may be done
with salts of iron, of chromium (sulphate or chloride of
chromium), of nickel, or by utilizing the electric current.

* A. Mayer, " Lchrbucli der Agrikultur-Chimie." 5th ed., 11)01.
| Krn-yc. IJrit., Vol. X I V.. •• Leather."

634 UTILIZATION OF BARK AND ITS CONSTITUENTS.

In general it is true that tanning with hark produces the
best leather, but it is also the dearest.

Tannins are found in all plants ; many contain large
quantities in their bark, others in their wood or in their
leaves and fruits; many plants contain large quantities of
tannin. All insect-galls are specially rich in tannin ; galls on
plants, that otherwise possess plenty of tannin, exhibit the
maximum amount of this material. When parts of plants are
soaked in water and the latter evaporated, tanning- extracts
are obtained ; they are very rich in tannin and are mixed
with water and used for making leather.

The manufacture of tanning-extracts increases continually,
for in this way solutions of proper density are obtained
suitable for hides of different thickness and origin, and the
business is facilitated and cheapened. A stronger competition
in extracts from tropical countries may be expected, owing
to the quantity of suitable plants that these countries pro-
duce ; when better methods of extraction and purifying these
extracts have been attained, European tanning industries will
be beaten in the contest.

The most important tanning materials come from the
following plants, the percentage of tannin being given :

Extract of Quebracho wood, dry . . .63 per cent.
„ Khizophora Mangle . . . 58 „
,, Quebracho bark . . . . 50 ,,
,, Catechu wood (Acacia Catechu) . 45 to 50 „
,, Polygonum hymenosepalum (roots)

Canaigre . . . . 42 „
,, Pyingado wood (Xijlia dolabri-

formis) . . . . . 37 ,,
„ Uncaria Gambir . . . . 35 „
,, Sweet-chestnut wood* . . . 30 ,,
„ Hemlock-spruce wood . . . 30 „
,, Oakwood . . . . . 28 ,,

Natural Contents in Tannin.

[Indian Gum-kino. (Pterocarpu-x Mdnmjrium) 75 ,, — Tr.]
Chinese galls (Rhiis semiolata) . . .70 ,,

* von Srlm'idci1.

TANNING MATERIALS. 635

Bark of Rliizophora Manyle (German E. Africa) 46 per cent.
Trillo, husks of the cups of acorns of Qncrcns

A em/lops ...... 43 „

Knoppern, galls on the cups of acorns of Q.

pedunculate ...... 88 „

Yalonea, cups of acorns of oaks from Asia

Minor and Greece (Q. A ></ //(<>]>*, etc.) . 38

Dividivi, legumes of Ccesalpinia mriaria . 35 ,,

Ehizophora Mangle and /»'. inncroiiata, wood 30 „
Canaigre, roots of Hnine.i- liymenophyllum,

von Schroder ...... 30 ,,

Mvrobalans, fruits of Trnuiiuilia Chclnda, etc. 30 „
Quebracho Colorado ((JncltnicJiin L<>rent.:n,

Loxopterygium ..... -20 ,,

Oak silver-hark, hest quality ... 20 ,,

Bark of 40 years' old oak . . . . 18 ,,

Garobile, bark of (jiH'rcn* cocci/era . . 18 „

Babla, legumes of exotic acacias . . . 17 ,,
Bark of Qiiercti* (h'ttxijlura and Pn-fd Kit</<'I-

inainii ..... 16*5 ,,

,, Tsmjn Mcrti'itxiiDKi .... 15*1 ,,

,, (JllCI'Cll* lit'- 1' ..... 15 ,,

„ Alnus glutinosa .... 14*6 ..

,, Pseudotsuga niiimmutn . . . 13'4 ,,

,, Terminalia t<nm-ntoxa (India) . . 13 „

„ Spruce, 25 years old 15 ,,

„ 55 . . 11 „

,, Casuarina equitetifotia 11 „

,, tiharcd rolmstd (India) . . . 10

„ Willows and Tsmja canadensis . . 10 „

Old oaks 8

,, Old spruce ..... 8 „

„ Abuts incana ..... 6'7 ,,

,, Silver-fir . . . . . 6 ,,

,, QiK'rcnx Prinos, C«stanca americana . 6*2 ,,

,, (L>. alba ...... 6 ,,

„ V- I'ltl'i'a . . . 4*6 „

„ Elms . ..... 4'5 ,,

Sweet-chestnut 4

636 UTILIZATION OF BARK AND ITS CONSTITUENTS.

German galls (on leaves) .... 4 per cent.

Bark of Q. C err is . . . . . . 4 „

Birch 4

„ Horse-chestnut . . . . 3*5 ,,

Ash 3-3 „

Beech . . . . 2 „

„ Larch ...... 1*6 ,,

The contents of tannin in the bark of Pinus halepensis, that
is used for tanning, is unknown.

[Besides the above substances mentioned by Gayer, Mimosa
bark from various Australian acacias — chiefly (A. harpophylla)
from Queensland, the black wattle (A. mollissima), the gold
wattle (A Pycnantha), the Tasmanian silver wattle (.4. leuco-
phylla) and (A. cyanophylla) — is largely imported into the
United Kingdom. Sumach, powdered leaves of Rhus coriaria
from Mediterranean countries, used for Morocco leather.
At Cape Town, the bark of Acacia saligna, a naturalised
W. Australian species, is the mainstay of the tanneries. Hem-
lock bark (Tsuga canadensis) is the most important tanning
material in N. America. Mathey states that Quebracho wood
imported into Europe from Argentina tends to oust oak-bark.
The Director of the Kew Gardens says that Quebrachia Lorentzii,
Griseb. (Anacardiaceae) is " Quebracho Colorado," Quebracho
Blanco is Aspidosperuta Quebracho-bianco, Schlecht (Apocy-
naceae), but is not used for tanning. The decrease in the
annual export of oak-bark from France to the rest of Europe
has fallen off since 1893 from 55,000 tons to 40,000 tons, but
the extract of chestnut wood from Corsica and French factories
besides supplying French tanneries is sufficient to leave 38,000
tons over for annual export. — Tr.]

B. Tannin from Young Oak-Bark.*

Tans prepared from the bark of young oak-trees form the
best possible tanning materials. Extensive forest tracts

* 14 cwt. of Oak-bark, Containing 1 owt. <>)' tannin, are required to convert.
into leather 2 cwt. of fresh skins. 2 tons of spruce-bark will produce the same
effect. Boppe, »/>. fit. p. 101).

Kr. .Jentsch, " Dcr Deutsche Kirlienseh:il\vald u. seine Xukiint't."

<t>rALITY OF BARK. 637

stocked with oak-coppice are required for its production,
and both in quantity and quality far outvie the yield of
older oak-trees. For that reason, a separate account is
given here of the production of tan from young oak-trees,
as compared with that produced by old oaks and other species
of trees. By young oaks are meant both seedling and coppice
growth up to a limit of 25 years.

Before considering the mode of harvesting oak-bark, it will
be useful to give a short account of the various conditions
which affect its quality.

1. C<milit'n>ns d/cctuin (lie (Jualiti/ «f Bark.

(a) Species. — Oak coppice-woods in Central Europe are
stocked partly with the sessile oak and partly with the
pedunculate species. In the best localities for oak-bark, the
Odenwald, the Bavarian Palatinate, the Hundsriick, Taunus,
the valleys of the Neckar, and hills of the Middle and tipper
Ilhine-Valley, it is, with very few exceptions, the sessile oak ;
only in the lower lands, near the watercourses, does the
pedunculate oak take its part in these woods. In the North
German plain (as in British lowlands), the pedunculate
oak prevails ; also in the neighbourhood of the Harz and
Siegen, in Silesia and in most oak-bark coppices in Austria.
Each of these species yields the largest quantity and best
quality of bark in the locality that is best adapted for it.
In South and Central Germany, the bark of the sessile oak
is preferred ; in this region also it is much the easier of the
two oaks to peel.

(^urn-US ]mln'f><'<'nx, which thrives in the warm countries of
Hungary and Slavonia, yields as much tanning bark as the
above two oaks. (juercua Ilc.r in the south of France is
managed (Huffel) as coppice, and is rich in tannin. Boppe
states that (J. Tnzza is useful. The Turkey-oak (Q. Cerris)
is used here and there in Austria for the production of bark,
but on account of its forming, at an early age, a deeply-cracked
rhitiduiiH', or dead bark, and because its numerous bundles of
bast penetrate the sapwood deeply, and render peeling very
difficult, it is of little value. Of foreign oaks, the American

638 UTILIZATION OF BARK AND ITS CONSTITUENTS.

oak (J. nibra, contains only 4 per cent, of tannin, but in the
west of America, Q. densiftora, and in Japan, Q. dantata, are
the chief oaks that yield tannin.

(b) Climate. — Undoubtedly the chief factor in the produc-
tion of tannin is the climate. All tanning materials are the
richer in tannic acid, the hotter the country in which they
are produced; this is the case with galls and other substances,
and is equally true for oak-bark. All factors, therefore, which
heighten the temperature for the tree, southerly aspect, loose soil,
open crop, increase the amount of tannin in the bark of oak-trees.

The mild climate of the Khine-Valley and the adjoining
districts, especially the Moselle-Valley, Eheingau, the district
of the Saar and the Odenwald, affords the best oak-bark
coppices in Germany. Oak-bark is also produced commer-
cially in the Silesian hills, Saxony, the North German plain,
Brunswick, Mecklenburg, etc., but it cannot compete with
Ehenish bark. Many districts in Austria, Hungary and
France are situated more favourably for successful production
of bark, which is there produced in fairly large quantities.
Districts where the vine is cultivated in the open, or where
at any rate the better classes of fruit trees flourish, may be
cited as suitable for a remunerative yield of oak-bark.*

(c) Soil. — The more suitable the soil is for the growth of
oak, especially when the climate is suitable, the more quickly
the oak grows, the more and better tannin does its bark yield.
It is true that coarse bark comes earlier under such circum-
stances, so that the rotation must be shorter, the better the
soil ; on a good soil the crop may be denser, as a dense
crop retards the formation of rhitidome. A wet soil is pre-
judicial to oak-bark coppice. The mineral nature of the soil,
at least in good climatic localities, appears to be unimportant,
and provided the soil is deep, porous and moist, it is indifferent
whether the subjacent rock is sandstone, granite, schist,
porphyry, limestone or diluvium.

(d) Age. — Besides the parenchyma of the cortex, it is espe-
cially the longitudinal parenchyma of the bast, in which chiefly

* From the above, it is eviden* that oak-hark coppice prove* moiv remunera-
tive in the south of England, Wales and in heland, than in Scotland. Unfor-
tunately the, price is now so low that the production of oak coppice is being
abandoned in Mritain.

QUALITY OF BARK. 639

tannic acid is accumulated. As every year the cambium
produces a new layer of longitudinal parenchyma and sieve-
tubes, the quantity of tannin increases until the rhitidome
forms, when the external cortex is killed by the formation of
cork, so that much of the tannin is lost. When coarse bark
begins to form, the mass of bast and consequently of tannin
remains uniform, as just as much new bast as the cambium
forms is lost externally in dry bark. At this period it is best
to utilize the bark, for then worthless rhitidome continues
to increase. Kegarding the factors, which expedite the forma-
tion of rhitidome, Mayr's observations (cf. p. 629) have given
the most important, which are : rapid growth (favourable
climate and soil) ; action of sunlight (open crop, especially on
poor soil) ; tissue-tension at the base of branches (production
in open, branchy crops), von Schroder, Neubrancl and others
have proved the following production of tannin :

25 years best oak-bark give up to 25*0 per cent.
40 „ „ „ 18-0

80 „ „ „ 5-0

/ 18 ,, spruce-bark ,, 5*0 ,,

In crops

J 35 „ „ „ 15-0 „

I 55 ,, ,, ,, 8'8 ,,

55 „ „ „ 11-0

Suppressed 55 ,, ,, 8'0

(e) Influence of Light. — The effects of exposure to light
are seen clearly from the above ; too dense a crop, mixture
with shadebearing trees, overshading by standards, etc., reduce
the amount of tannin in the bark. Schuberg states that the
loss by overshading may be 35 per cent. Neubrand, there-
fore, recommends that oak timber should be grown on areas
not devoted to the production of bark.

(f) System of Management. — Coppice, with such a rotation
as may be determined from the preceding paragraphs, is the
system under which oak is grown to produce tanning bark.
If the maximum yield of the best quality of bark is desired,
the shoots are felled before rhitidome appears ; the rotation
is shorter the warmer the climate, it varies from 12 years to

640 UTILIZATION OF J5AI5K VXD ITS CONSTITUENTS.

20 in cooler districts ; fertile soil has a similar influence in
shortening the rotation. If, however, some timber also must
be produced, as in many communal and private forests of
Franconia and Wurtemberg, the rotation is raised to 25 to 30
years, obviously at the expense of the bark. The shoots are
felled close to the ground, the area being left clean -felled, and
new shoots spring from the stools. If a few standards are
left, or if some of the coppice-shoots (stannels) are left to grow
for two or more rotations of the underwood, the shoots under
their shade produce little tannin, so that such a system is not
calculated to yield a profitable return.

(g) Condition of Crop.— A pure crop of oak gives the best
quality and greatest quantity of bark ; all other species,
especially rapidly growing ones, such as poplar, birch, pine,
larch, certainly yield valuable timber, but they prejudice the
quantity and quality of the bark. Grass or broom denote
either a poor soil, that should be devoted to a more profitable
crop, or bad management. Preference should be given not to
a very dense crop, nor to a very open one ; 1,600 to 1,800
stools per acre form the ordinary crop. After two-thirds of
the rotation are over, cleanings should be made to remove all
other species except oak, also bent, poor oak-shoots that
contain little tannin, as well as the weaker shoots in the
stronger clumps. The evils of the removal of litter is not
exhibited so readily in other forest systems as in oak coppice ;
even without this disastrous practice, many oak coppices on
bad soil are soon exhausted by the repeated fellings, and by
intermediate agricultural crops ( Jhumes) . Pasture also injures
the crop, but the lopping of leaves for fodder, practised in a
few districts in the Upper Ehine, is worse.

From numerous data it appears that the bark of the best
oak coppices in South Germany and Austro-Hungary yield
15 to 20 per cent, of tannin, second-class coppices 10 to 15 per
cent., and third-class ones 8 to 10 per cent. In North Germany
the yield is 6 to 10 per cent, of tannin.

2. Ilttrrt'titiiuj the

The work of harvesting the bark may be divided into three,
parts, preparatory work, peeling and drying.

HARVESTING BARK. 641

(a) Preparatory work. — As has been stated already, in most
oak-bark woods there is a mixture of other species with the
oak. Partly in order to obtain more room and time for the
business of peeling the bark, partly to avoid deterioration in
value of the wood of the mixed species if it is cut during the
season of growth, but chiefly in order to expedite the peeling
operations, all the mixed wood in an oak-bark coppice is
felled at a sufficiently early date so that it may be removed
from the felling-area before the peeling commences. This
is usually during the winter before the peeling. At the
same time, in many places, all oakwood that cannot be
stripped, epicormic branches, and shoots growing more or less
horizontally along the ground, are removed. In the Oden-
wald, the side-branches are removed from the oak-shoots, as
far as the woodcutter can reach with his billhook.

When also cereal crops are cultivated, as soon as the mixed
wood has been felled and the soil is no longer frozen, the first
cultivation of the ground around the oak-stools is effected. The
sods of grass or heather thus loosened dry better than if the
work was undertaken only at the end of the peeling, when the
time for sowing is approaching. Whenever there are standards
over the underwood, those intended to be felled are marked as
soon as the mixed wood has been felled. The felling of these
standards, if they are at all large, naturally stands over until
the oak-coppice has been felled.

(b) Season for Peeling. — Oak can be peeled at any time from
May till the middle of July, but peeling should be effected as
soon as the buds begin to shoot, which, according to locality,
is from the end of April till the middle of May,* and at the
first appearance of the foliage, the bark is peeled most easily.
In extensive woods, as a rule, the work is commenced after the
first flow of sap, as soon as the bark is removable, and is then
conducted as rapidly as possible : firstly, on account of the
comparative ease with which peeling can be done early in the
season ; secondly, so that the young shoots may mature their
wood before they become endangered by autumn-frosts, and
finally, because it is probable that there is more tannin in the

* In England this is from the third week in April till about the third week
(»f May, in Scotland nl»ont, a. mouth later. A. D. Webster. " Practical Forestry."
F.U. T T

64-2 UTILIZATION OF BARK AND ITS CONSTITUENTS.

bark in spring than in summer, after much of it has passed
into the foliage and young twigs of the coppice. Theodore
Hartig states that tannic acid is transformed into sugar soon
after the foliage has appeared, this begins in the buds and
continues with the leaf-development. This fact is evidently in
favour of early peeling.

The state of the weather has considerable influence on the
peeling. In damp, calm weather, especially when accompanied
by light and warm showers of rain, the bark is peeled most
easily early in the morning and late in the afternoon ; this is
also the case when the soil is moist, rather than when it is
dry : in windy, dry or cold weather and at midday during hot
weather, peeling is difficult. The sessile oak is always peeled
more easily than the pedunculate oak, but the latter may be
peeled about ten days earlier than the former. Larger stems
are peeled more easily at the commencement of the season,
smaller stems at the middle and end of the season.

In unfavourable localities, where damage by autumn-frosts
is inevitable, the forester is obliged to abandon the whole first
year's crop of shoots. Then the injured shoots are either cut-
back in the following March, making way for a stronger growth
which repays the loss of the first year's wood, or the peeled
oak-stems are left standing till the succeeding winter ; then
they are felled, and the succeeding crop shoots up early in the
spring. This custom is followed in some valleys in the
western Schwarzwald.

[In order to be independent of the natural movement of the
sap, H. Maitre, in France, in 1864, adopted with good results
a system of peeling oakwood after steaming it, the wood being
removed in billets with bark to the factory and there steamed
in closed retorts, when bark is easily removed. This system
was improved in 1871, by de Normaison, an engineer, who
used for the purpose an apparatus weighing only 5 cwt., which
supplies a blast of superheated steam. This is used on the
felling-area, and by the help of three men and a boy, 15 to 18
stacked cubic meters (10 to 12 loads) can be peeled in a day,
and yield a ton of bark. A load of wood and 130 gallons of
water are used, and the cost is about <£2. The advantages of
this method are, that the wood may be felled in winter when

METHODS OF PEELING. 64-3

labour is cheap, and that the hark can be removed and stacked
in dry sheds instead of being exposed to the weather on the
felling-area. Pieces of wood also may be utilised which could
not otherwise be peeled. The increased cost of carriage of the
wood with the bark on has, however, to be considered.*
Experience in Paris has proved that there is hardly any loss
of tannin due to this method, and that the leather produced
by tan from steamed bark is soft and fine, and excellent for
saddlery, but not so good for the soles of boots. — Tr.]

(c) Method of Peeling Bark. — The bark is peeled either
after the stems have been felled, half severed or knicked, or
from standing stems.

Peeling felled wood is the method prevailing in Germany ;
it is followed in the Odenwald, Franconia, the Palatinate,
Baden, Wtirttemberg and many other districts. The work-
men, divided into small parties, commence felling the coppice-
shoots, and should be careful to cut them smoothly and close
to the ground. All the crop should not be felled at once, but
only as much as can be peeled immediately. It is reckoned
that a skilful woodcutter can keep two men employed in
peeling. It should be a rule, that every evening not a piece
of felled wood remains unpeeled ; for only from wood which
has just been felled can the bark be peeled readily, whilst
from poles which have been lying felled for 24 hours, the
bark can be removed only by knocking it with a mallet. As
soon as a lot of oak coppice-shoots has been felled, freed from
tops and side-branches, and the parts to be barked set aside,
the operation of peeling is commenced. This is done differently
in different countries. In the Odenwald, the Palatinate,
Wurtemberg, etc., the coppice-shoots and all other wood fit to
be peeled are cut into round billets of the length customary in
the district ; the workman then takes each billet and removes
the bark, as far as possible, without tearing it. In order to
do this, he lays each billet on a stone or log, beats it with the
back of a small hatchet along a certain line, so that the bark
opens-out and separates from the wood along this line. In
case the shoots are to be used in their full length, as stakes,
for hurdle- wood, etc., they are supported at one end on a

, op. ci(. p. 105.

T T 2

644 UTILIZATION OF BARK AND ITS CONSTITUENTS.

trestle made of forked sticks. In both cases, the bark is
stripped-off, either in meter-lengths or of the length of the
billets. Only when the shoots are smooth and the bark easily
removable, can beating be dispensed with ; the workman then
severs the bark in a line along the piece of wood and peels
the latter with his hands and with the peeling-iron.

In Franconia, felled wood is barked differently, being cut
into lengths as billets, after being peeled. The shoots having
been topped are arranged horizontally on trestles to facilitate
the peeling, and the bark is peeled with an ordinary knife in

Fig. 346. Fig. 347. Fig. 348. Fig. 349. Fig. 350. Fig. 351.

(After Boppe.) Implements for peeling bark.

longitudinal pieces, the full length of the shoots, without first
being beaten. These strips of bark are then rolled together
into bundles 60 centimeters (2 feet) long and 30 centimeters
in girth, and dried.

In the lower Main valley the shoots are peeled also before
being cut into billets, the bark being removed in pieces of the
length of the billet, with the peeling-iron. Then all shoots
over 8 centimeters (3 inches) thick are sawn into billets,
whilst smaller pieces are cut into lengths with a hatchet and
their bark beaten with the back of the hatchet. The use of a
saw, instead of the hatchet, saves much bark.

The instruments used in peeling bark vary greatly in

METHODS OF PEELING.

645

different districts, but are of an extremely simple character.
The most important instrument is the peeling-scalpel (Fig. 346),
a piece of wood, or bone, shaped like a chisel at one end, and
about 20 to 30 centimeters (8 inches to 1 foot) long. [In
France this is made from the tibia of an ass or horse, with a
sharp steel blade attached to its upper extremity (Fig. 346). — Tr.]
This simple implement is preferable to those made of iron,
the best of which are : (Fig. 347) a peeling-iron used near the
river Saar, (Fig. 348) one used near the river Lahn, (Fig. 349)
Wohmann's peeling-iron. For felling and removing the
branches of the shoots, the hatchet (Fig. 350) is used in the
Odenwald, its back being also used in beating the bark ;
Wohmann's billhook (Fig. 351) is also an excellent instrument,

Fi'-r. :?.">:>.— Xiokrd shoot for

especially for peeling bark from standing stems. The shock,
owing to the beating, loosens the bark from the wood at other
points besides those beaten, but the peeling is not always so
easy that the bark can be removed in one piece from the wood
merely after beating it on one side ; in that case, the billet
must be turned and beaten all round, and the peeling-knife
brought into play. In every case, however, beating the bark
is a rough operation, always causing a loss of tannin, for the
cambium-zone which holds the most tannin, is crushed easily,
and if rain should fall, much tannin is washed away ; besides
this, the beaten places soon turn brown and become much
sooner mildewed than when the bark is not beaten. Consider-
ing that the loss of tannin, owing to beating, has been estimated
at about 20 per cent., it is desirable that beating should be
abandoned as much as possible, and wherever it is obligatory,
that it should be done with wooden mallets, and the shoot,

646 UTILIZATION OF BARK AND ITS CONSTITUENTS.

which is being barked, supported on a broad log or stone, as
is done in places along the river Moselle. The smaller and
knotty shoots always must be beaten, as well as all the thinner
branches, which in the Odenwald are peeled down to
1 centimeter in thickness (*4 inch).

Peeling nicked shoots is customary near Burgen, Aschaf-
fenburg and the Hundsriick ; it consists, as is shown in Fig. 352,
in cutting the stem (b) half-through and peeling it, after its
base (a) has been peeled standing.

A considerable advantage results from this method as only
a little beating is necessary. Then the bark is peeled, usually
in long strips, as in the following method.

Peeling standing shoots is employed at Lorch on the river
Taunus, in some of the Schwarzwald valleys, many oak-bark
districts of Austria, and in France almost universally.
The branches are lopped from the stem as high as
the men can reach, and a strip of bark 2 to 4 centi-
meters (about an inch) broad is peeled either with
the bill-hook (Fig. 351), or the peeling- scalpel
(Fig. 346). These strips are rolled into loose
bundles and hung from the trees to dry. The rest
of the bark is peeled with a scalpel, without
girdling the tree, and is left hanging on the stem
153 to dry. Generally a ladder is used in order to peel
the upper part of the stem. Thus the bark is not
beaten, but that on the branches is not utilized.

In many districts in Austria, all the bark on standing stems
is cut longitudinally in strips, and these are then peeled.
It would be supposed that in peeling standing shoots they
should first be girdled close to the ground in order to protect
the roots from being peeled. Often this precaution is omitted,
not without prejudice, as may be imagined, to the reproduction
of shoots from the stools.

[It is now customary nearly all over France in peeling
oak-bark, to make a circular cut through the bark of the stem
at a suitable height (say 3J feet) from the ground and a
similar one level with the ground (Fig. 352) ; a longitudinal
cut is then made between these two marks and the bark
removed by means of the bone-scalpel (Fig. 346) in a single

METHODS OF PEELING.

647

piece, forming a roll of bark, which can then be dried.
Another strip is removed, as high as a man can reach, and
then the stem is felled, and peeled in a similar manner, as
it lies on the ground. — Tr.] *

It is not decided yet whether peeling felled or unfelled
stems is preferable, although most foresters prefer the former
method ; much may be said for and against either. It is
contended against peeling standing stems, that it is not
possible to use the bark on
all branches down to the
thickness of a finger, for fre-
quently the upper part of the
shoots in this method is left
unpeeled.f At the same time,
to peel standing stems is ad-
vantageous in economising
labour ; in better drying the
bark, which remains hanging
on the stems, and because
beating is then unnecessary.
The chief disadvantage of
peeling felled stems consists
in the fact that beating can-
not be avoided ; in conse-
quence, the bark depreciates
in quality and mildews, the
work is done more slowly, and
there is a considerable loss
of bark (about 2J per cent.)

when the axe is used to shorten the billets ; whilst by peeling
standing stems, the undamaged bark is obtained in a closed
roll.

As regards economy of labour, Neubrand states that a work-
man at Lorch will peel daily from standing stems 2J to 4 cwts.
of bark ; by beating, however, with difficulty, 1J cwt. Neub-
rand considers beating the worst method, the best being that
in force in the forest-range of Insbach, near Donnersberg.

\;

^

Fig. :$."H. — Peeling standing stems.
(After Boppe.)

* P>op])0, <>/>. rif. p. 103.

f [This is not the case with this method in France. — Tr.]

648 UTILIZATION OF BARK AND ITS CONSTITUENTS.

Here, the lowest part of the bark up to 1J meters (4 feet
10 inches) is removed from standing stems, which are then
felled level with the ground, but the stumps not completely
severed ; the top is removed and peeled by beating, whilst the
bark from the rest of the stem is removed by the scalpel.
Such a method is preferable to felling the whole stem before
peeling, for the quality of the bark is not impaired, and the
'valuable upper bark can be utilised as well as in the other
method.

(d) Drying the Bark. — No part of the business of harvesting
bark has such influence on its value as the way in which it is
dried. Any neglect here may cause considerable loss. The
less rain falls on the peeled bark, and the more quickly the
drying process is conducted, the better. Observations made
by Gantter * show that rain may deprive the bark of 70 per
cent, of its tannin, the relative loss being more considerable
with rich bark than with inferior material. If the rain falls
at the commencement of the drying process, it is chiefly the
tannin which is washed away; later-on, other soluble sub-
stances in the bark. Undoubtedly rain is more disastrous on
freshly-peeled bark than on bark nearly dried ; but the effect
depends also on the persistence of the rain. Tanners fear
the effects of rain most on dried bark, but probably only on
account of its consequent loss in weight. The chief point in
this work is, therefore, to effect the drying of the peeled bark
in such a way that the almost certain spring- showers may
cause it to lose as little tannin as possible, and mildew may
not ensue. The best conditions for drying are to isolate the
bark from the moisture of the ground, to expose it fully to air
currents and protect it from spring-showers. It would have
the best effect on the quality of the bark if light sheds were
erected in the felling-areas to keep-off the rain. In Hungary,
Transylvania, etc., bark is heaped on well-ventilated stages
and protected from the rain and dew by large tarpaulins,
mats made of reeds, corrugated iron sheets, etc. These
coverings are supplied, not only in rainy weather, but regu-
larly every night to keep off the dew. In many places the
pieces of bark are piled like a roof, or in a pyramidal shape,

* Ilandclslilatt fill1 \Valtlri y-ru!_r!iissc. XV. Year, No. !<".

DRYING THE BARK.

649

being placed, as in Fig. 355, against a horizontal pole sup-
ported by two forked stakes, the rough bark outside. At
Lorch, several poles are placed parallel to one another, with
one end on the ground and the other on a pole supported by

Fig. H .").">. — Drying bark on trestles.

two forked stakes, thus forming a gently sloping stage, usually
towards the south, and on this the rolls of bark are placed to
dry ; or the stages may be horizontal, the poles being sup-
ported by pairs of forked stakes, and the bark placed on it.

Fig. 356.— Method of drying bark.

In the Rhine- valley, drying on trestles is most usual, the
bark being supported on stakes driven crosswise into the
ground (Fig. 356). In this case it is necessary to place the
rolls of bark so that they overlap one another, and with the
outside uppermost. The looser they are placed, and the fewer

650 UTILIZATION OF BARK AND ITS CONSTITUENTS.

pieces there are on a trestle, the quicker they dry. This is
undoubtedly a good method of drying bark, as it nowhere
touches the ground.

Whenever the bark is allowed to form rolls, the drying
process is very simple, for generally the rolls are removed as
soon as they are prepared, and left to dry in well-ventilated
sheds. If the rolls of bark are not removed till the end of
the felling, they should be piled in pyramids of five to ten on
the felling-area. The rolls should be tied loosely together so
as to admit the air, but the middle of the rolls, enlaced by
the withes, frequently becomes mouldy.

When standing shoots are peeled, drying the bark does not
give any trouble ; the strips of bark remain hanging on the
trees, and roll-up to such a degree in drying that the inner
surface of the bast is thoroughly protected against rain. The
loose pieces are hung-up to dry on the top of the stems.

Evidently the degree of dryness attained may vary con-
siderably. Practically, besides the green bark, freshly stripped
from the tree, traders distinguish air-dried from meal-dried
bark. Bark is said to be air-dried, when, on bending, it breaks
easily ; meal-dried, when it has lost all flexibility and become
brittle. According to Baur, bark, in passing from the green
to the air-dried condition, loses considerably in weight ; it loses
from 32 to 49 per cent., according to quality, that from the
branches losing most weight, and coarser stem-bark the least.
The loss in weight, therefore, increases with the age of the
wood, i.e., from the foot of a shoot to its top. In a similar
way shrinkage of volume takes place, from 21 to 41 per cent.,
according to the part from which the bark is taken.

In passing from the air-dried to the meal-dried condition,
the bark loses in weight only 4 to 5 per cent., whilst it shrinks
in volume 11 to 20 per cent. Schuberg found a loss of weight
of 35 per cent, for bark passing from the green to the
air-dried condition, and a further loss of 14 per cent, in
becoming meal-dried.

3. Assortments of Bark and formation of Hale-Lots.

In estimating the yield of bark, greater care than is usually
bestowed should be given to the business of assorting the bark

ASSORTMENTS OF BARK. 651

according to quality; the forest-manager should go beyond
customary limits of assortment, and have at any rate two
classes of silver-bark, for these are the lots which determine
the value of the produce. This is both in the interest of the
forest-owner and of the purchaser, and will materially decide
the results of the sale.

Dry bark is sold differently in different places. Usually
larger or smaller bales of it are prepared; or, as in Franconia,
it is made into round bundles.

In the Rhine-valley, three sorts of bark are recognised :
silver-bark, seconds and coarse bark. Silver-bark (Glanzrimle,
Spicy druide} is the bark cut from shoots up to 8 centimeters
(3 in.) diameter, in Wurtemberg, 12 centimeters (4^ in.), when
measured unpeeled ; seconds (Kaitelrinde) is from stems 8 to 25
centimeters (3 to 10 in.) in diameter, in Wurtemberg (4j to
10 in.), also the smooth bark from the branches of these
stems ; coarse bark (Grolrindc) is from branches and stems
exceeding 25 centimeters (10 in.) in diameter. Silver-bark is
also subdivided into three classes, No. 1, that from the lower
part of the stem, No. 2, from its upper part and No. 3, from
branches. The third class is, however, the richest in tannin,
sometimes thrice as rich as the first class, although traders
value them in the inverse order.

The bales of bark are of various dimensions, according to
locality. In some of the Bhineland districts large bales
weighing 30 to 35 kilos (say 70 to 80 Ibs.) are usual, which
hardly can be carried by a man. Tanners prefer the bales to be
about one meter long and of the same girth ; these dimensions
are obligatory in parts of South Germany, and each bale then
weighs about 15 kilos (34 Ibs.).

As soon as the bark is dry, it is made into bales ; this is
done either by hand or in presses. The important points in
both cases are to give the bale its proper dimensions and fasten
it securely so that it may withstand the shocks of ordinary
transport without opening, or the loss of any bark. Whenever
the bark is dried on trestles (Fig. 356), the bale is tied as it
lies on the trestle. The presses used in the Odenwald are
made as follows : — four stout peeled stakes are driven in pairs
into the ground at distances somewhat less apart than the

652 UTILIZATION OF BARK AND ITS CONSTITUENTS.

proposed length of the hale. Between these pairs of stakes
the withes and the bark are laid on the ground. Large rolls
of bark are placed first and piled on either side between the
stakes. As many smaller pieces of bark as a man can take
in both arms are then placed in the press between the large
rolls of bark, until the bale has become about the right size,
when large rolls of bark are placed on the top and then the
bale is fastened by means of withes, iron wire, or manilla
hemp. The whole exterior of the bale consists of the larger
rolls of bark, the smaller pieces being inside. The fastenings
should hot be too tight, or the bark may crack and break into
pieces, and the bale become loose ; this is important, con-
sidering the distance to which bark is sometimes transported.
Generally the large external rolls will stand fairly tight
fastening.

The peeled wood is stacked in the usual manner.

4. Sale of Barli.

No forest produce is sold so variably as tanning-bark.
Taking into consideration whether the sale is left chiefly to
the purchaser, or conducted by the forest-owner ; the chief
kinds of sale are : — of the coppice, by area or unit of produce ;
and of the converted material, by weight or volume. As
regards the public or private nature of the sale, sale to the
highest bidder is the rule ; but although to the apparent
prejudice of the forest- owner, sales by private contract are
not unusual, often before the market-prices of the previous
year's bark are known.

(a) Sale by Area. — The mature coppice is subdivided into
larger or smaller lots, and each lot, both wood and bark [or
these separately. — Tr.], is sold to the highest bidder. The
purchaser of a lot converts both wood and bark at his own
risk, subject to certain silvicultural conditions imposed on him
at the sale, and endeavours to dispose of the produce to the
best advantage.

As by this method it is impossible to form any correct
estimate of the value of the crop, it should be absolutely
abandoned. At Hirschhorn, a sale-condition is enforced on

SALE OF BARK. 653

the purchaser of the lots of coppice, that he should sell the
bark at a fixed price per cwt. to the tanners.

Similarly, some sales are conducted which provide that the
forest-owner shall have the converted wood and the purchaser
the bark, after the latter has converted both the bark and the
wood at his own cost. This is one of the most usual modes of
sale and is very convenient, though not always most profitable
for the forest-owner : for, although the felling and conversion
is effected under the supervision of the forest staff, and the
purchaser's workmen must submit to silvicultural rules, yet
they study the interest of the purchaser rather than that of
the owner. Good supervision may, however, remedy matters
in this respect.

(b) Sale by unit of Produce. — In this mode of sale also, the
price of the bark is arranged before it is harvested, but the
felling and peeling is undertaken and paid for by the forest-
owner. This mode of sale is far preferable to those described
under (a), and is generally the best to adopt ; the workmen
are engaged by the forest-owner and will see to his interests,
and the conversion of the wood will be arranged more
profitably, as firewood, or timber for agricultural purposes,
according to the requirements of the case. There is here
nothing to interfere with the best possible harvesting of
the bark, and the maintenance of its quality ; for if the
workmen are paid by piecework, according to the weight
and quality of the bark, their interest in the matter will be
enlisted.

This mode of sale has been adopted recently in several
places in Baden, Wurtemberg and the Palatinate, and in parts
of Prussia.

(c) Sale of Converted Material. — Another possible mode of
sale is when the forest-owner converts both wood and bark at
his own expense and sells the produce afterwards. This
method is adopted rarely ; it is mentioned here only in order
to show how necessary it is to arrange for a purchaser of the
bark before the felling. If, however, forest-owners were to
provide large sheds for drying and keeping the bark, the trade
would benefit, and this would lead to the whole bark-harvest
being conducted by the forest-owners.

654 UTILIZATION OF BARK AND ITS CONSTITUENTS.

5. Measures for Bark.

In selling bark-coppice by area, it is important to know how
to estimate the quantity of bark that has been harvested.
This may be done by measuring its rough volume ; by weight ;
or indirectly, by measuring the volume of the barked wood,
from which the yield of bark may be determined by means of
experimental ratios.

Measurement by rough volume is done by the bale.
Although this method has the advantage, that the bark can
be removed as soon as it is sufficiently dry, and there is thus
little danger of any loss of tannin, yet it affords for both
purchaser and seller such an uncertain measure of the yield,
that it is employed only to a limited extent. If measurements
are to be made by bales, not only the length and girth of the
bales must be nearly uniform, but also the bark must be packed
uniformly in each bale.

The best, and at present, the most usual sale-measurement
is the weight. As soon as the bark is dry it is packed in bales
and weighed in the forest by means of a steel-yard or spring-
balance. Everything then depends on the degree of dryness
of the bark, for green bark must lose 40 to 50 per cent, of
water to become air-dry. In the interest of the purchaser,
however, the bark must not be kept in the forest a day longer
than is necessary, owing to the danger of a loss of tannin.
Although one might anticipate disputes between seller and
purchaser as to the proper date for measuring bark, yet
experience proves that this seldom happens. A prudent
tanner will allow the bark to remain in the forest no longer
than is absolutely necessary ; he knows that it is more to his
interest to pay for the bark when somewhat moist than to risk
its being washed badly by rain.

The third mode of measuring bark consists in measuring
the peeled wood, and assuming that its volume will bear a
fixed ratio to that of the bark which has been harvested. This
custom is followed always in Franconia. It cannot be denies
that this method has certain advantages, as it saves labour
and avoids inconvenience, but to it is attached the great
disadvantage that the ratio between wood and bark varied

MEASURES FOR BARK.

655

every season, and neither purchaser nor seller can be certain
how much bark has been bought or sold. It may be suggested
that an average yield being maintained matters will adjust
themselves in a few years' time ; but on the whole the forest-
owner will lose, for generally as long as a purchaser is
uncertain of the amount of bark he will obtain, he will bid
below its proper value. This is, therefore, the most rough
and ready of all measurements.

According to Baur, the average ratio of the bark in cwts. to
the peeled wood is as follows : — One stacked cubic meter
(35 st. cub. ft.) of peeled wood will yield —

Silver-bark 0'91 cwt.

Seconds T69 „

16 years old stem bark . . . 1*45 „

25 ,, ,, ,, .« 1*95 „

6. Yield of Bark-Coppice.

Jentsch * has calculated the average yield per acre of bark-
coppice in West Germany for various rotations and qualities
of soil as follows in cwts. of bark : —

Halation in Y«-;us

15.

IS.

20.

• )

3

60

4(1
83

7-2
58

H()

80
62

44

1
o ...

22
12

26

14

2!)
1(5

A. Bernhardt gives the following quantities of wood in solid
cubic feet per acre :—

Quality of Crop.

Cub. Feet.

1 ...

98

2

84

:•$

70

4 and .") ...

56

* .Jcnlsch '• I)<T I )<>u(,srlir Kichcnsli-ihvald u. seine Zukunft. Berlin, 1899.

656 UTILIZATION OF BARK AND ITS CONSTITUENTS.

7. Present Condition of Revenue from Bark-Coppice.

During the last ten years complaints about the depressed
condition of bark-coppices in Germany have increased. The
monopoly of the market, which, according to Jentsch, it
claimed formerly, has gone ; the tanners now dictate the price
of bark. This revolution is due to the combined action of
many unfavourable causes, of which the following are the
most important : — An enormous increase in the leather
industry, now amounting to about ten million hundredweights
of hides, requires far more tan than Germany can produce.
Hence there has been a great import of tanning products, viz.,
oak-bark from France, Austro-Hungary, Belgium and Holland,
as well as of tanning materials from other countries. As a
result the price of oak-bark has gone down, so that practically
the revenue of badly situated or badly managed bark-coppices
has disappeared. The imported materials are either better
or cheaper, or they are extracts that allowed tanners to give
up tan-pits, and shorten considerably the period required
for tanning leather. Besides this, several kinds of chemicals
have rendered tannin no longer essential for leather-manu-
facture. The cost of working the bark-coppices has steadily
increased.

Jentsch* states that at a price of 4s. 6d. per cwt., with
15 years' rotation, interest being reckoned at 3^ per cent.,
the annual revenue of an acre of bark-coppices varies from
10s. 5d. for first quality, to Is. 4d. for fourth quality, while at
a price of 3s. 6d. per cwt., they are 7s. 2d., to zero.

Taking one agricultural crop off the land after cutting the
coppice does not improve the revenue, taking two crops yields
from 5d. to 2s. per acre ; but on the other hand those crops
deteriorate the soil, and it is uncertain whether the loosening
of the soil and the consequent improvement of the shoots
compensate for this, or not. Jentsch asserts that on a good
soil and by good management (Mayr adds, with a suitable
climate) oak-coppice is still a paying concern, and that bad
returns are due to bad management. [In 850 acres of oak-
coppice, near Tavistock, where climate and soil are suitable

* Jentsch, " Der Deutsche Eichenschalvvuld u. seinr /ukunl't. I'.crlin, 1S<M).

THE BARK OF OLD OAKS. 657

and the management good, only 2s. 6^. per acre is obtained
for 25 years' growth of bark-coppice, wood and bark, the latter
selling at £3 15s. Od. a ton, say 3s. 9d. per cwt. — Tr.]

In Germany it is impossible to put such a heavy duty on
imported tanning materials, that the indigenous production of
oak-bark, worth annually £4, 500,000, can be aided ; for the
value of the annual production of leather is about £30,000,000.
Hence the future of the oak-coppice depends solely on improved
management. This can be effected in two ways : Improve-
ment in the condition of the coppices, so that more bark of
better quality should be produced ; also by improving the
methods of harvesting and selling the bark.

As most of these coppices belong to communes and private
owners of small estates, it is difficult to improve them, for
this cannot be done unless the managers have the requisite
technical knowledge. If the owners of oak-coppice would
co-operate in the management of large areas, and would intro-
duce cleanings, thinnings and soil-improvement, while the
bark is harvested and dried properly and the middleman
abolished, some improvement might be effected.

On inferior soil, in localities with cool climates, or on cold
aspects, oak-coppice is doomed; it must be abandoned in such
places, and more remunerative systems of culture introduced,
either by means of agriculture, or by growing trees for wood
and not for. bark. High forest of broadleaved trees, or of
conifers, [coppice-with-standards of ash or chestnut under-
wood, and larch, poplar, oak and ash standards. — TR.] are
suggested. It is not within the range of forest utilisation to
propose here any general measures of national forest-economy.

SECTION IV. — THE BARK OF OLD OAKS.

As the tanner will pay only a very moderate price for the
bark from young oak-trees, he cannot be induced easily to
utilise the inner bark of old oaks or other trees ; considering
that their cortex and bast are relatively poorer* in tannin than
that of oak coppice-shoots.

* The cortex and bast of oaks, 40 to 50 years old, according to Wolff, is as rich
in tannic a<-id us that of oak-coppice, provided all corky substance is excluded.

F.U. U U

658 UTILIZATION OF BARK AND ITS CONSTITUENTS.

In some districts in Hesse and Hanover, old oaks are peeled
standing in the spring, left standing till winter and then felled.
This method [also employed in the Forest of Dean. — Tr.] gives
superior timber to that felled in the spring. As a rule, in
Germany, bark is peeled from old oak trees after they are
felled, and here also only as many trees should be felled as
can be peeled in a day. The men engaged in
peeling, who are employed usually by tanners, or
merchants, follow close on the woodcutters. [In
Britain, the trees are peeled partly before being
felled, and the woodcutters, who do all the work,
are paid for both operations according to the
quantity of bark they obtain. — Tr.]

The workman makes a cut down the stem and
through the bark with the barking-iron (Fig. 357).
The bark is then peeled in large flat pieces by
means of the iron and the workman's hands. It
can be removed rarely without constant beating.
Wherever the bark is sold stacked, the pieces
are cut to the required length (say one meter).
The less common method, of peeling standing
trees, is easier to effect, although ladders are
required.

The most troublesome part of the work is to peel
the crooked knotty branches, which always must
be beaten. Sometimes, instead of the barking-
iron, the common felling-axe alone is used. If
^e wea^ner is favourable an experienced workman
Barking-iron. wn"l Peel 4 or 5 large oak trees in a day. Trimming
the bark, however expensive it may be, increases
its value greatly. The more thoroughly the cracked and
dead outer bark, or rhitidome, which in old trees forms 50 to
60 per cent, of the bark, is removed from the inner and more
sappy bark, the more valuable will be the produce ; the per-
centage of tannic acid in old bark would not be so low as
compared with young bark, were all the hard outer bark
removed. Wherever trimming is done it should precede peeling,
and is effected best on standing trees.

The peeled bark is carried to a neighbouring blank to

Fi 357 —

SPRUCE-BAKK. 659

be dried. For this purpose usually it is placed horizontally
on a stage made of poles, with the cambium side downwards
to protect it against rain. As soon as it is dry it is piled like
firewood between stakes, being well trodden down in the
stacks. If, as is usually and most conveniently the case, the
bark is sold in stacks, they should be made by an employee of
the forest-owner ; in Wurtemberg, bark is packed in bales for
transport. The bark may be sold also at so much a tree.

A stacked cubic meter of old oak-bark weighs 130 to 200
kilos (4 to 6 cwt. per load of 50 cubic feet) and more, according
to the amount of moisture it contains. More fresh bark than
dry bark goes to a stack, for it is easier and softer to pack in
the former case.

Sale by the amount of peeled wood is more uncertain than
in the case of young bark, owing to great variability in the
proportion of bark to peeled wood. There is nearly as much
tannin in the branches of trees as in coppice-shoots.

[In England it is considered that 1 ton of bark comes from
120 cubic feet of wood, and at £3 a ton, the value of the bark
pays for the felling and leaves some margin of profit over.
Kailway-companies also charge for the bark that is on the
logs they transport, so that peeling reduces the freight. In
France, only standards over coppice are peeled, not high forest
oaks.— Tr.]

SECTION V. — SPRUCE-BARK.

Spruce-bark is harvested much more extensively than old
oak-bark, and in eastern and southern Germany and the
adjoining Austrian districts, when mixed with Knoppern galls,
valonea and silver-bark, it is used largely for tanning. It can,
however, be used only in the preliminary stages of tanning, or
for tanning thin skins ; thick skins are tanned with spruce-
bark only when largely mixed with other tanning materials.
As most spruce forests are in mountainous regions, where, on
account of the climate, summer-felling prevails, and the wood
must be peeled, owing to the danger of insect-attacks and the
necessities of transport, many of the difficulties which occur in
utilising oak-bark are avoided.

In order to obtain spruce-bark, the felled stems, after being

u u 2

660 UTILIZATION OF BARK AND ITS CONSTITUENTS.

cut into saw-mill butts, are peeled with the harking-iron or the
axe, so as, if possible, whenever the log is not too thick, to
remove the bark in one piece. The men, however, prefer
peeling firewood blocks a meter long, to peeling heavy logs
and butts. The bark is spread out on poles or placed on an
incline to dry, or arranged as in Fig. 358, the roof-like
structure thus formed being covered with numerous other
pieces of bark, and thus secured against the rain. In setting-
out the pieces of bark to dry, they are bent outwards so as
almost to break along their middle line, in order to prevent
them from rolling up, otherwise they would not dry thoroughly.
As in all trees, the bark of young spruce contains more

Fig. 358. — Drying spruce-bark.

tannic acid tl:an that from old trees; and the bark of trees
grown wide apart, or in the open, and of trees exposed to the
south or along the borders of a forest, is richer in tannic acid
than those under opposite conditions.

In most countries dried spruce-bark is stacked like ordinary
firewood and sold by the stack ; a stacked cubic meter (35 cubic
feet) contains 0'3 cubic meters (10 cubic feet) of solid bark.
Well-stacked, smooth, middle-aged spruce-bark, when air-
dried, weighs from 150 to 175 kilos per stacked cubic meter
(4J to 5 cwt. per load of 50 cubic feet). It is sold also by the
tree, by the hundred rolls, by the volume of the barked wood,
or by the drying stack (Fig. 358) containing 12 to 15 pieces
of bark. Selling by the amount of peeled wood is the simplest
method, provided sufficiently accurate ratios between the wood
and bark have been ascertained ; for wood 80 to 100 years old,

BIRCH, LARCH AND WILLOW BARK. 661

this ratio is as 1 to 8 or 12, averaging 1 to 10. In younger
wood the ratio is more in favour of the bark.

SECTION YI. — BIRCH -BARK.

Birch-bark is more in use for tanning in the North of
Europe, especially in Kussia ; in Germany, hitherto, it has
been used only experimentally. It contains much less tannic
acid than oak-bark, and even than that of spruce, but in the
north repays harvesting owing to the absence of oak. In
Germany, it is not used for tanning, but for macerating sole-
leather, with the object of opening the pores of the leather
and preparing it to receive tannin. Leather tanned with
birch-bark is softer and less water-tight than that tanned with
oak-bark, but it has a lighter colour and a better appearance.

Birch-bark is harvested in the same way as oak-bark, it can
be peeled only about a fortnight later than the latter, though
the birch shoots first. It is easier to peel old birch trees than
young stems and branches, but they are not nearly so easy to
peel as are oaks. The few data regarding birch-bark give 65
to 80 kilos of air-dried bark for a stacked cubic meter of peeled
birch billets, from trees 20 years old (say 2 cwt. of bark per
load of 50 cubic feet of wood).

SECTION VII. — LARCH-BARK.

Larch-bark is harvested seldom in Germany, but is used
extensively in Russia, Hungary, and Austria for tanning.
Accordingly to Wessely, in the Carpathian Mountains and the
Alps, it is preferred to the bark of spruce and birch. Probably
it is unsuitable for tanning sole-leather, but deserves con-
sideration for tanning calf-skin and when added to other
tanning materials. Owing to the straightness and freedom
from branches of the larch, it is peeled more easily than oak.

SECTION VIII. — WILLOW-BARK, ETC.

Willow-bark contains a considerable amount of tannic acid.
Besides Salix Caprea and 3. alba, the so-called osier-willows
are best in this respect. According to data furnished by the

662 UTILIZATION OF BARK AND ITS CONSTITUENTS.

Moscow Academy, the quantity of tannic acid in willows varies
between 8 and 12 per cent. In Russia, it has for a long time
been customary to use willow-bark for tanning, especially in
preparing that flexible, water-tight, shining upper leather, for
which Russia is so famous. The pleasant scent of Russian
leather is due to soaking it with birch oil, distilled from the
white bark of birch. The well known Danish glove-leather
is also tanned with willow-bark. In Germany, little use has
hitherto been made of willow-bark, probably on account of the
small quantity grown.

Peelings from osiers are dried in loose heaps and used for
tanning, or as litter for cattle.

Even the bark of the black alder is used for tanning, its con-
tents in tannin varying from 8 to 20 per cent. (Eitner, Post,
Councler). In spite of its high percentage in tannin, the use of
alder-bark is but limited ; the tanning liquid decomposes rapidly,
and the leather is hard and brittle, and of a dark colour.

Of foreign barks, that of the American red oak (Quercus
rtibra) is so poor in tannin that it is unsuited for bark coppice.
The barks of Douglas-fir and hemlock-spruce are, however,
very rich in tannin, so that even on this account their
introduction to Europe is valuable.

SECTION IX. — CELLULOSE.

Cellulose from bark, either rhitidome or bast, resembles wood-
cellulose in its constituents. Bast-cellulose is characterised by
greater durability than the other cell-formations in bark, so that
the bast-fibres may be separated by maceration. When they
occur in clusters, owing to their toughness, they may be obtained
almost pure by beating the bark. By twisting these bundles,
they make excellent binding-material (hemp, flax). Even the
fine fibres of the pod of the cotton-plant (Gon&ypium) consist of
pure cellulose. These forms of cellulose are made into paper.

Among trees and shrubs, which contain utilisable cellulose
in their bark, the following East Asiatic paper-shrubs may
be cited: Edgeicorthia, JinHtaxom'tia, \\ri<-kstri>inint Daphne,
Skimmia, etc. The first two are cultivated like osiers, and the
cellulose in their bark made into paper.

CORK. 663

For this purpose, the shoots are steamed, and the bark
stripped from them and placed in water-tanks till all tissues
except the bast-fibres have rotted. The cellulose is washed in
water, finely divided and separated by fine sieves made of
split bamboos, so that it forms a thin layer on the sieve.
After the water has drained away, the thin sheets of paper
are taken off the sieves and laid on planks to dry. Owing to
this method of preparation, the cellulose fibres lie alongside of
one another in the direction of the lines of meshes in the
sieve, so that Japanese paper can be torn straight only in one
direction and differs thus from paper made of wood or rags.
The manufacture of this bark-paper is very important, for in
Japan, paper is employed frequently in place of woven materials.

Species of limes contain useful cellulose in their bark, for
the hard bast-bundles are grouped there tangentially, and
a zone of bundles is formed yearly. As the soft bast lies
between these bundles, they can be torn in strips from the
bark. In order to obtain pure lime-bast, the bark must be
macerated in water, till the softer tissues rot and the bast-
bundles alone remain.

In central France, especially in Chantilly, there are lime-
coppices for supplying bast, with rotations of 15 to 25 years.
Also, in Russia, the lime is utilised for bast, which is stripped
from the trees. It is made into coarsely woven material, into
sacks, mats, protection coverings, etc., and is used also for
binding, but for this purpose raffia-fibre is more suitable.

Species of elms also contain utilisable fibre.

SECTION X. — CORK.*

It has been stated already that cork is formed by a meristem,
the cork-cambium or phellogen, but that for most woody
species the cork is very thin and is soon displaced by rough
bark, rhitidome. Only in very few species does cork attain
a considerable thickness, by annual formations, resembling
annual zones of wood. Where cork is only in ridges or
prominences on the shoots or stem of a plant, its only use is
ornamental (cork -elm, field-maple, Xanthoxylon, etc). When it

* Boppe, "Cours de technologic forestiere," 1887. Mathey, "Exploitation
oommerciale dcs hois."

664 UTILIZATION OF BARK AND ITS CONSTITUENTS.

surrounds the whole stem and is not replaced by rhitidome,
as in the cork-oaks of the westerly Mediterranean countries
(south France, south Spain, Portugal, north Africa (including
Tunis), Corsica, Italy, Sicily and Greece), a material is pro-
duced, which in its special qualities, elasticity, lightness,
softness, durability, impenetrability by gases and spirituous
liquids, can be replaced by nothing else.

Cork (suberin) is distinguished from wood by its higher
contents of carbon and hydrogen ; its chemical composition is :

C ... 66 per cent.

H ... 8-5 „

0 ... 22-8 „
N 1-9 „

The thin-walled cells of cork do not consist entirely of
suberin, but this substance is stored in large quantities in the
fine skeleton of lignin and cellulose of their walls. Every wall
common to two cells contains a lignified medial lamella, on
both sides of which is a purely suberous layer, and on this,
forming the innermost coating of the cell, is a thin lamella of
cellulose. The layer of cork is the thickest of the three
lamellae ; only in thick-walled cork-cells (resembling late-wood
and formed as late-cork in autumn), does lignin preponderate.

The two oaks (Qucrcus Suber and Q. occidentalis) , in the
countries already referred to, are subject to a regular system
of management : the first layer of cork (male cork) is full of
cracks, unevenness, impurities and stone-cells, and is therefore
of little use. When the trees are about 20 years old this cork
is removed by means of a sharp trimming-axe, so that the
phellogen below is uninjured. Then the phellogen produces
annually fresh fine layers of cork with visible annual rings.
This useful, female cork is cut off in layers surrounding the
stem and a meter long, every 8 to 10 years. In a young tree
only the lowest section is removed, next time another higher
section as well, and so on, till the boughs are reached and are
also stripped of cork. In order not to endanger the life of a
tree, eventually only one section is stripped in a year. The
strips of cork are pressed flat and sold. Corks are cut from
these strips, parallel to their length. Thin strips of cork are

CORK.

665

used in collections of insects, for lining boots, etc. ; the male
cork is used for floating nets, for decorative purposes, and
ground cork is used in the manufacture of linoleum.

There are about 48 trees per acre, yielding yearly about
1 cwt. of cork ; as the price is about 4rf. a pound, 37s. an acre
gross-revenue is obtained from cork-oak forest.

[According to Mathey, there are 425,000 acres of cork forests
in France, a million acres in Algeria and about 200,000 acres
in Tunis. There are also important cork-woods in Morocco.
Portugal produces the most cork ; there are cork-oaks also in
Corsica, Italy, Sardinia, Sicily and Greece. — Tr.]

It remains to be seen whether useful cork can be obtained
from Phellodendron muurcnxc and (Jnerciis ruridbilis, from
eastern Asia.

Fig. 3~>9. — Cork oak, Bayonnc. Male cork above, female cork
below. (A. Henry.)

CHAPTEK II.

UTILIZATION OP THE FRUITS OF FOREST TREES.

OWING to the present great development of the artificial
reproduction of trees, the harvesting and preparation of seeds
is of special importance. This business is carried on exten-
sively by seedsmen, whose enterprise is occupied chiefly in
the collection and preparation of coniferous seeds.

It is proposed here to deal first with the characteristics of
seeds, then with the conditions under which our most impor-
tant forest-trees fructify. A number of factors determine the
fertility of the trees, or the non-production of seed, and these
require our careful consideration : such are the seasons of
ripening and of the fall of seeds ; methods of harvesting seeds
and their subsequent preparation ; storing seeds, estimating
their value and selling them, for sowing, fodder, for making
oil, etc.

SECTION L— CHARACTERISTICS OF SEEDS.

The fruits of Oaks (Quercus), acorns, are borne on a cupula, or
cup, that is composed of scale-leaves ; the ripe acorn separates
from its cup. In white oaks (Q. peduncnlata, Q. sessilijiora,
etc.), the acorn ripens in the year of flowering ; with dark oaks
(Q. rubra, Q. Cerris, etc.), in the year following the flowering;
the seed is not fugitive.* The seed of Beech (Fag us) is
triangular in section, with a leathery brown shell ; there are
usually two seeds, rarely only one, entirely enclosed in a
cupula, which opens in four lappets ; the husk of the fruit,
when ripe, bursts in dry weather, so that the unfugitive seeds
fall to the ground. The seed of the Ash (Fnu-iniia) is long

* The word seed is used here indifferently for seed or fruit, in accordance
with economic iisa.^c. Winded M6dB, or Fruits, arc blown by (lie wind, as is a
parachute; they thus may reach a considerable distance from the parent, trees ;
such seeds are termed fugitive, Jl lujfaltitj. while heavy seeds arc unfurl live,
wnflugf&hig.

CHARACTERISTICS OF SEEDS. 667

and flat ; it broadens out at one end into a spatula-like wing ;
it is a fugitive samara, and may be blown off by dry east
winds immediately after ripening, or later, in winter, by
westerly winds. The seed of Maples (Acer) is a nut with a
long stiff wing at one end ; the seeds are united at their
bases ; they are blown from the trees by dry winds. The
seed of Hornbeams (Carpinus) is a hard nut, surrounded
by a tri-partite scale, and therefore winged ; at first the seeds
are removed from trees by the wind, later on by their own
weight. The seeds of Limes (Til in) are nuts, their stalks
being united to a stiff, scale- leaf, which renders them fugitive,
when the wind is strong.

In Birches (Betula), the little seeds with winged borders
are samaras, attached with alternate tri-partite scales in cat-
kins or cones, the segments of which fall (white birches), or
the cones open (yellow birches), so that the seeds are released.
They are blown to great distances by the wind. In Alders
(Alnus), the scales of the cones are lignified and hard; they
split when dry, and the small flat and scarcely fugitive seeds
fall out.

In Willows (Salir) and Poplars (frqmlus), the hairy seeds
are formed in a capsule, which bursts when ripe, so that the
very fugitive seeds escape. In Cherry-trees (Priuius), species
of Pyrus [such as /'. Aria, whitebeam ; P. torinin(ilist wild
service-tree ; P. AncujHiria, rowan ; P. S<>r1>u-s, the true service-
tree, and the wild pear, medlar, and crab-apple tree. — Tr.] ,
the seeds are surrounded by a fleshy fruit ; after the fruit has
fallen, it decays and sets free the seed. The same is true for
hawthorn seed (Crata<'<jns).

Sweet- chestnut (Castanea) has a large seed, that is sur-
rounded by a spiny cupula ; either the entire fruit falls when
ripe, or the seeds fall from the husk ; the nuts of species of
Walnut and Hickory (Juylans and Ilicoria) are surrounded
by green husks, which open on ripening.

The seeds of Papilionaceae (Itolinia, Glcditsia, etc.) are
enclosed in a pod ; when this opens, the seeds fall to the
ground, or the pods may fall with the seeds in them.
. The seeds of Spruces (Picea) are formed in the axils of the
scales of pendent cones ; a few months after ripening the

668 UTILIZATION OF THE FRUITS OF FOREST TREES.

scales open in dry weather, and the small brown seeds escape ;
the seed lying in a spoon-like depression of the wing is fugitive.
The seeds of Silver-firs (Abies) and of Cedars (Cedrus) are
free, as the upright cone breaks in pieces when ripe ; the seed
has a wing that is fixed to it firmly.

The seed of Douglas fir (Pseudotsugd) resembles that of
spruce in its mode of formation and escape from the cone ;
it is fixed firmly to the wing, as in silver-fir. Larch seed
(Larix) is formed in upright cones, so that when the latter
are dry and open, the seed cannot escape by its own weight ;
a continued exposure to wind and rain, as well as to strong

Winsred seeds.

1. Silver-fir.

Seeds prepared for sale.
Fig. 360.

2. Scotch pine. 3. Larch.

(Drawn by R. S. Troup.)

4. Spruce.

gales, is required, in order to set it free from the cone
(Weise), the little seed is attached firmly to its wing. In
Pines (Pinus), cones of the section Pinaster open their scales
a few months after ripening, in order to set free the seeds,
which are encircled loosely by the lower ends of their wings.
Pines of the section Strobus, Weymouth pines, possess a seed
that is attached to the wing on one side only ; Cembran Pines
have only a stump of a wing on their seeds, which therefore
is not fugitive; [the seeds of Pinus Pinea, Gemtooides, eduUs,
Monopliylla and Gerardiana are large and edible. — Tr.] ; in
all pines the seed ripens in the year after the flowering.

DATES OF SEEDBEARING. 669

Cypresses, as well as Thuya and Chamaecyparis, form their
small, slightly-winged seeds in little cones, or strobiles, the
scales of which open soon after they ripen ; in Junipers the
scales have grown together into a berry ; in Yews (Taxu-s) the
nut-like seed is surrounded by a red, fleshy aril.

SECTION II. — DATES OF SEEDBEARING AND ITS REPETITION.

Usually woody species that have the lightest seeds are the
earliest seedbearers : thus willows, poplars, birches, alders
and elms are earliest, while oaks and beech are latest ; between
these extremes come the other broadleaved species. The larch
among conifers has the earliest seeds, and has also the lightest
of our coniferous seeds. Where Thuya and Chamaecyparis
grow, they have the lightest of coniferous seeds, and normally
produce seed from very young trees ; silver-fir and Cembran
pine have heavy seeds, and produce seed later in life. When
the seeds of two or more species are of about equal weight,
that which is light-demanding bears seed earliest ; thus pines
produce seed earlier than spruces, and oaks before beech.

Exposure to light also determines early seed-bearing ;
trees in the open bear seed 20 to 30 years earlier than the
same species in a dense crop, the crowns of which are illu-
minated only at the top. Interruption of cover is therefore the
best way of inducing a tree in a wood to bear seed. Heat is
next to light the most important factor ; in warm localities the
same species bears seed earlier than in cool localities. A good
soil, on which a tree grows rapidly, delays the production of
seed, whilst bad soil, where the trees grow slowly, accelerates
seed-bearing.

The grower of fruit-trees makes use of this latter property,
by pruning the trees or by altering the conditions of the soil,
in order to compel a tree to bear fruit early.

When the formation of fruit has commenced, it does not
recur every year, but after definite intervals. E. Hartig has
explained this periodicity of seed-bearing by the fact, that at
the commencement of a seed-year, much of the reserve-material
(starch) of the sapwood is dissolved, so that a number of
years is required for replacing the starch ; as soon as sufficient

670 UTILIZATION OF THE FRUITS OF FOREST TREES.

starch has accumulated, another seed-year occurs. This
apparently explains a number of phenomena in seedbearing.
Thus the period of rest is shorter, the more favourable are
the conditions of illumination for a tree ; the more the crown
is crowded and shaded, the longer is seedbearing delayed.

Increased exposure to heat expedites fructification ; nume-
rous prolonged observations in Prussia have proved this well-
known law ; Bernhardt, Weise, Hellwig, v. Alten and
Schwappach* have shown this to be true.

Thus, in the warm Ehine provinces, there are good crops of
acorns every two years, while in E. Prussia, only every six
years. But for Scots pine, in Brandenburg every two years
there is a good crop of seed, while in Khenish Prussia and
Silesia, only every ten years, so that the law is not true
always, for age, soil, condition of crops, etc., must be con-
sidered as well as the effects of heat.

The following figures are generally true as 'regards the
recurrence of seed-years for the same individual tree :—

Recurrence of seed-years.

Species.

Willow, poplar, birch, alder, cypress, elm, common

pine, larch.
Hornbeam, ash, maple, lime, spruce,

Silver-fir, Cembran pine, sweet-chestnut.

Every 2 years ...
., 2 to 4 years
„ 4 to 6 „

„ 6 to 10 „

Oak, beech.

According to this statement the lightest seeds are produced
the most frequently, and this is a support of the truth of
Har tig's theory. But it must be proved also how much
reserve material is taken from the wood by a mast, and how
much seed-albumen is formed in the particular seed-year.
The weather during the seed-year decides also whether or not
fruit is formed from the flower.

Acorn years are distinguished by great heat and drought
(vintage-years) ; should two successive, dry, hot years occur,

* Schwappach, "Die SaimMiproiluciioM <ler wiclit listen \Vnl<llu>l/;irt<>ii in
I'l'cusscii.'1 /(Mtseh.f. F. u .l;i;_M\vrsrn. 1S'J5. Airxt(nn:ut 20 yours' observations.

DATES OF RIPENING AND FALL OF SEEDS.

671

oaks and other trees may fructify in both years, so that in the
first year the reserve material is exhausted, but is replaced in
the second year sufficiently for the tree to bear fruit. When
late frost occurs in a year while the trees are blossoming,
damp cold weather, or violent gales during pollination, the
flowers may not fructify.

Good soil does not accelerate fruit-bearing, until the tree has
attained the age of fertility ; before this period it is poor soil,
unsuitable for the species, that determines precocious and
frequent fructification. All sickly individuals produce abund-
ance of seed, although frequently this premature seed does not
germinate.

As regards the number of fertile seeds, the light seeds
come first, and the heavy seeds last, though often the eye
of the forester is deceived about this when there is a good
mast-year of oak or beech.

SECTION III. — DATES OF ]III'KNIN<I AND FALL OF SEEDS.

The dates of ripening and fall of seeds depend chiefly on the
heat of the locality, which expedites both of these operations ;
dry air also expedites them, but in general the following
calendar is correct : —

Kii'KXix<; i IF SI;I;D.

May.

Jlllic.

July.

August.

.Si-pteiiiber.

October.

First Half

Kim.

Willow.

Bircli.

Oak.

of Month.

Poplar.

Beech.

Hornbeam.

Alder.

Ash.

Maple.

Larch.

Pine.

Thuya.

Cypress.

Douglas-fir.

I
Second

Elm.

Birch.

Oak.

Half of

-

Maple.

Month.

Silver-fir.

672 UTILIZATION OF THE FKUITS OF FOREST TREES.

FALL OF SKI:D.

Feb.

March.

April.

May.

June.

July.

Aug.

Oct.

Nov.

Dec.

First
Half of

Alder.
Ash.

Alder.
Ash.

Spruce.
Pine.

Larch.

Elm.
Larch.

Willow.
Poplar.

Bircli.

Oak.
Beech.

Maple.
Lime.

Ash.
Horn-

Month.

Spruce.

Larch.

Silver-fir.

Ash.

beam.

Pine.

Horn-

Maple.

beam.

Lime.

Second

Alder.

Spruce.

Larch.

Larch.

Elm.

Birch.

Biich.

Oak.

Maple.

Ash.

Half of

Ash.

Pine.

Elm.

Larch.

Beech.

Lime.

Alder.

Month.

Larch.

Silver-fir.

Ash.

Thuya.

Horn-

Cypress.

beam.

Chestnut.

Walnut.

Douglas-

Si.

SECTION IV. — HARVESTING SEED.

The season for harvesting seed may be seen from the
above tables, from which it is evident that certain seeds fall as
soon as they ripen ; fugitive seeds, such as birch, elm, and
silver-fir, therefore, must be collected immediately before they
ripen ; this somewhat affects the quality of the seed, for
ripening after collection is effected only in the larger seeds, or
in seeds which remain in their fruit-husks (cones, cupulse).
The cones of spruce, pines and larch may be collected during
several months.

The methods of harvesting may be understood from a
consideration of the morphology of seed-production. By
climbing trees with the help of climbing-irons, ladders, etc., and

Fig. 361.— Net ami saw for collecting fruits. (After Fernando/.)

plucking the fruits by hand, or with shears, [or with a fruit
net and saw (Fig. 361) which is used in India. — Tr.] the
seeds of the following species should be gathered before they

SEED-KILNS. 678

fall : Birch, elm, ash, maple, hornbeam ; also the cones of
spruce, pine, silver-fir, larch, Douglas-fir, thuya, cypress and
alder. By sweeping off the ground, after they have fallen,
acorns, beech-mast, lime-seeds, cherries, species of Pyrus,
chestnuts, walnuts, may be collected, and wherever fugitive
seeds are heaped together by wind, or water (alder), they may
be swept up and collected. It is a destructive measure to beat
trees in order to cause the seeds to fall ; the worst way is to
collect seed from trees felled for the purpose, as is done in
countries which have too much forest, or where economic
forestry is not practised. The whole harvest is either leased,
or given in contract by the forest-owner for his own require-
ments, or permits to collect seed given to poor people. It
is for the manager to determine which method is the best
financially and does least damage to the forest.

Fruits, seeds and twigs with the fruits attached to them,
taken moist from the forest, must be dried superficially in
places in the forest that are sheltered from rain, or under a
roof. By sifting and picking over, the most obvious
impurities are removed. The seeds of lime, hornbeam and
birch are placed in sacks ; by beating and shaking the sacks,
the seeds are freed from their husks, and by winnowing,
sieves, etc., they are separated from them. For heavy seeds,
cleaning consists in the removal of all imparities and of fruits
that are recognised as useless (shrivelled, perforated by insects,
etc.)

Coniferous seeds require different treatment, for which a
special industry, termed seed-husking, has been established.

SECTION V. — SEED-HUSKING ESTABLISHMENTS.
1. Drying by Solar Heat.

The cones of spruce and pines are dried by the sun in wire
sieves placed in echelon one above the other, so that they all
receive the full heat of the sun ; portable boxes with wire
sieve tops also are used. By shaking the sieves the seed falls
on to cloths, or into boxes, placed below them, or in the latter
case, into the boxes themselves.

F.U. x x

674 UTILIZATION OF THE FRUITS OF FOREST TRUKS.

The simplest method of employing solar heat is when the
cones are placed on large cloths, laid on dry ground in full
sun-light. Or sieves with double bottoms are used, that may
be brought under cover in rainy weather. The seeds then
can be separated easily from the cones by sieves, and this
method yields the most germinative seeds. [In India and
other hot countries, solar heat suffices for seed-husking.

— Tr.]

j

r

2. Seed-kilns. ^JLJL>

The essential conditions for all seed-kilns is, that the cones
are exposed in them to artificial heat of 95°, 112°, or 140° F.,
and to air as dry as possible until all the cones are opened.
The air is heated partly by stoves in the drying-chamber, or
in a special heating-chamber from which it circulates into the
former. Most of the German seed-husking establishments
employ kilns.

Objection has been raised to kilns, that the seeds become
too dry and lose their germinating power because they remain
too long exposed to temperatures of 90° F. and more. This
objection was justified by the defective construction of the
earlier kilns, and by careless husking. The important im-
provements, that have more recently been introduced in
seed-husking, have removed these objections completely.

In any kiln, that aspires to excellency, the seeds should not
remain any longer exposed to the heat of the stove than is
absolutely necessary for their removal from the cones.

Whenever the quantity of cones to be opened annually is
not very considerable, and sufficient capital is not available for
a large establishment, the simplest kind of seed-kiln will
suffice. A spacious chamber, which can be suitably closed,
containing a tiled Dutch stove, is then sufficient. Bound the
stove are stands, the upper portions of which support easily
accessible wire- trays, or the cones are hung in nets from the
ceiling. If the floor is paved, ventilators supplied at the four
corners of the ceiling for the escape of the vapour from the
cones and the heat regulated, good results may be expected.

If there is sufficient space, the stove may be enlarged into a

SEED -KILNS. 675

horse-shoe shaped heating-apparatus round the interior of the
chamber and sometimes sunk partly into the floor. The stove
must he made of brick-work, or trachite (Bachstein) ; otherwise
a steady temperature is not obtainable.

When, however, hot air is admitted into the seed-kiln, an
iron stove and hot-air pipes are placed in a heating-chamber,
from which the hot air passes, as required, into the drying-
chamber, being replaced by the admission of cool air. Most
large seed-kilns are made on this principle. As the heating is
effected more rapidly the more directly the stove communicates
with the air, the apparatus is arranged generally so that the
drying-chamber is traversed by a long series of hot-air pipes,
which only after many convolutions communicate with the
chimney of the stove.

Although all seed-husking establishments more or less
follow the above plan, they differ from one another in their
heating apparatus, arrangement of the gratings, etc., so that
hardly any two of them are alike. They may, however, be
arranged in groups, according as the wire-trays are moveable,
fixed or cylindrical.

(a) Moveable Trays. — In this case, the light wooden frames
of the trays are moveable and not too heavy for a man to lift
easily : they are placed pretty close one above the other,
generally on supports above the hot chamber. Thus they can
be removed and replaced easily for changing the cones.
Hundreds of these frames are used in large establishments.

Mr. Schott, a seed-merchant, of Aschaffenburg, has an
establishment somewhat similar to that just described
(Figs. 362, 363). A is the heating-chamber containing the
convoluted iron pipes and surrounded by a thick masonry
wall, which is pierced on two opposite sides by doors opening
into the drying-chamber B through which the trays can be
removed and fresh ones supplied. As both the heating- and
drying- chambers are surrounded by the moderately cool air of
the building, the heat is concentrated as much as possible.
The stove is at (a), the smoke escaping through (m). The
wooden trays (//, h, h) are provided with a base of thin wooden
bars, except the lowest of them, which have fine wire-bottoms
to prevent the seed from falling into the heating chamber.

x x 2

676 UTILIZATION OF THE FRUITS OF FOREST TREES.

Only a very inconsiderable portion of the seed, however, ever
reaches these lowest trays ; most of it remains on the upper
trays, which are not shaken or disturbed in any way, until

Fig. 362.— Section of seed-kiln.

they are removed. When once the cones are opened, the trays
on which they lie are removed, and the cones shaken on to a

Fiir. iW3. — Ground-plan of lain.

floor of wire-grating immediately above the revolving hollow
sieve (b). The cones are raked up and down over this floor
BO that all the seed may be removed. The vapour from
the cones escapes by means of shafts (d, d), which can be

SEED-KILNS.

677

closed if required ; fresh air is supplied by the vent-holes
(o, o, o).

This simple apparatus may be taken as a type of numerous
private seed-husking establishments, as those of Geigle at
Nagold, Keller and Appel at Darmstadt, Steiner's in Wiener-
Neustadt, etc. The frames supporting the trays are made of

Fi.tr. 364.— Seed-kiln with fixed trays.

iron ; four large stoves in the lower story supply the hot air.
Numerous openings with valves regulate the temperature.

(b) Fixed Trays. — Fixed trays are used in buildings with
several storeys ; the heating-apparatus being on the ground-
floor, above which are two or more drying-chambers. The
floor of each of these is of grating (in the newest establish-
ments of the kind, of thick iron wire, in the older ones of
wooden bars), but close enough to allow only the seed and not

678 UTILIZATION OF THE FRUITS OF FOREST TREES.

(Elevation.)

(I'hm.)
Fi.ir. ;i<i."). — Sec< l-husK.ii i,1.:' establishment with drum-sieves.

SEED-KILNS.

679

the cones to pass. The cones are piled a foot deep on the
gratings and are stirred constantly so that they part with all
their seeds. The seed falls into the seed-chamber on to a
paved floor kept cool by the admission of cold air, and from
this it is removed.

This method is adopted by (Fig. 364) Steingasser at Milten-
berg, Schultze and Pfeil in Kathenoer, etc. The stove (a) in
an underground room, M, the upper part of which leads into
a system of pipes (/>, b) and is sur-
rounded by a cupolaed frame of trachyte
which passes into the seed-room .1, and
allows the contained hot air to escape
through several long tubes (/.-, k) and
numerous openings. The channel (m)
admits cool air and (<>, <>) are ventilating
tubes arranged so as to keep the paved
floor cool. B, C, and D are drying-
chambers.

(c) Drum-sieves. — Apparatus with
drum-sieves differ completely from
those described above, and are used
in many places in Silesia, Hanover,
Mecklenburg, etc. (Fig. 365).

Then the hot air is supplied by
means of closed pipes (m, m, in) made
of trachyte and closed with iron valves,
which are situated beneath the drying-
chamber. The heating is by stoves

(o, o, o), that opens into (m, m) ; the vapour escapes by the
chimney (k). The cones are supplied from the floor of a
loft B, passing through the funnels (a, a) into the drums
(/>, I), which revolve in pairs on a common axle; they are
turned by handles in the room C so that the seeds may fall
through as soon as the cones have opened. The drum-sieves
are of wood, or iron, in the former case with wooden gratings
secured by several iron hoops. Each drum can be opened
(Fig. 366) in order to insert and remove the cones ; under
each pair of drum-sieves is a masonry or concrete trench (p)
into which the seed falls, and from which it is removed by

6SO UTILIZATION OF THE FKUITS OF FOREST TREES.

wooden scrapers to the chamber C, into which the trenches
lead. After all the seeds have been removed, the drums are
opened downwards and the empty cones removed by the same
means as the seed. The drums are turned at intervals of a
quarter of an hour, so that the seed soon falls into the cool
trenches and being at once removed is not exposed to the hot
air longer than is absolutely necessary. This rapid action
allows much greater heat to be applied to the cones than in
other establishments ; recent experience, however, shows that
they are not more effective than the latter, which on the
whole are preferable. Drum-sieves are used in Blankenburg
by Conrad Trumpf, and at Carolath in Silesia.

3. Separation of Seed from the Cones by Steam.

Cones are opened by steam, when the air round the trays in
which they are placed is heated by means of condensed steam.
Steam from a boiler outside the seed-kiln is supplied in pipes
running under the trays, it then becomes condensed owing to
the comparative coolness of the chamber containing the trays.
The steam-pressure being then considerably increased, the
heat acquired in the boiler is radiated into the drying-chamber
by the pipes. In order to increase the heating effect of the
pipes, their surface is considerably increased by conducting
them repeatedly up and down the drying-chamber.

The three well-known wholesale seed-establishments of
Keller, Appel and Le Coq at Darmstadt, have been working
successfully on this system for many years. The first of these
seed-kilns was burnt in 1865, and up to that time there were
three tiers of piping under all the trays. This, however, did
not heat the air sufficiently ; in the new works erected there-
fore, two tiers of piping were placed under the trays, and the
other tier moved higher up between them. This gives
excellent results. The pipes are of wrought iron and are 200
meters long, with an exposed surface of 87 square meters.
The boiler is in a detached house, and also serves to drive
machinery used in separating seed from larch-cones ; it sup-
plies steam for heating the pipes and the resulting condensed
water flows back into the boiler.

SEED-KILNS. 681

The advantages of steam drying over hot air drying are, as
follows :—

There is no fear of a conflagration in the seed-kiln ; by
means of in and out draughts, heat can he supplied according
to requirements, and the amount necessary for opening the
cones is attained in one-quarter of the time required by the
hot air apparatus, whilst the whole time occupied by the
process is shortened by one-quarter ; the temperature cannot
exceed 133° F., so that there is no danger of over-heating the
seed. Keller's process gives from 87 to 97 per cent, of
germinating seeds, which, according to Braun, are not only
considerably superior in germinative power to seeds from hot
air kilns, but also can be kept longer.

4. Management of Seed-husking Works.

The system followed in the different seed-husking estab-
lishments is of a simple nature. The cones from the store-
house are placed in sacks or otherwise brought to the seed-
kiln and placed on the trays. After the heat has been applied
and the cones begin to steam, all vent-holes must be opened.
As soon as the air becomes drier and the cones have been
exposed for some time to the heat, they begin to open. Gene-
rally this does not happen simultaneously on all the trays ;
the current of hot air is then turned in the direction of the
backward trays by opening certain vent-holes, or changing the
places of those trays with those where the cones have opened
and thus exposing them to the hottest blast.

Management of the heat is the most important point in the
kilns. The heat should rise as uniformly and quickly as
possible to the temperature most suitable for the apparatus and
cone in question. Scots pine cones require the greatest heat,
usually 90° to 125° F. ; spruce 80° to 90° F. ; Weymouth-pine
and alder, 60° to 70° F.

In order to guard against over-heating by the workmen, Keller,
in Darmstadt, has an electric bell in his office communicating
with a metallic maximum thermometer in the kiln.

The cones on removal from the trays are thrown usually on
to a grating so that the seeds may be separated from them ;

682 UTILIZATION OF THE FRUITS OF FOREST TREES.

they then always retain a few seeds and in order to secure
these, they are placed in a drum-sieve (Fig. 366, />), which is
made to rotate.

This consists of a cylinder with wire sides, open at both ends,
and there are often projecting bars fastened here and there to
its axle inside the cylinder which assist in shaking the cones.
It is turned slowly by means of a pulley and belt. The cones
are poured into the drum- sieve through a hopper and are so
thoroughly shaken within it, as to part with all their seeds.
The seeds fall on to the floor and the empty cones pass out at
one end of the drum-sieve, which is slightly inclined in that
direction, through a second funnel, into the store-room for
empty cones.

Removal of the wings of Scots pine and spruce seed may
be effected in various ways. On a small scale, and if it is con-
sidered sufficient to remove the greater part of the wing,
leaving a small fragment attached to the seed, the dry pro-
cess is employed. In this case linen sacks are half filled
with seed (the mouth of each sack being tied) and beaten with
light flails, being turned and shaken and rubbed until the
wings are removed. In wholesale establishments a different
method is usually employed, termed the wet process, which
gives quicker results. The seed is then piled 6 to 8 inches
high on a paved or planked floor, sprinkled lightly with water
from the rose of a watering-pot and then beaten energetically
with leather flails. In many seed-depots hardly any water
is used and yet the wings are removed completely. Newer
methods are ; to pass the seeds between two rotating stones, or
to place them in a drum with revolving brushes (detacheur).

In order to obtain clean silver-fir seed, more trouble
must be taken. The moistened seed then generally must
be heated, so that very clean silver-fir seed is regarded with
suspicion.

Frequently objection is made to the wet process, that it
prejudices the germinative power of the seed. This objection
is justified, if the damp seed is kept in heaps and allowed to
ferment, so that the wings may separate from the seed without
any further mechanical treatment. If, however, the method
already described is followed and no fermentation allowed, the

HUSKING LARCH CONES. 683

damping being merely auxiliary to the threshing, clean seed
with good germinative power is obtained.

Once the wings have been severed from the seed, they must
be removed in order to obtain clean seed. This is effected
either by swinging the seed on a wooden tray, or tossing it
with a wooden winnowing-shovel, which removes both the
wings and light worthless seeds. As a rule, however, the
seeds are placed in a modern corn-sifter, provided with several
graduated fine wire-sieves. This separates all impurities
and the worthless seeds completely from the good seed, the
workman being careful to turn the machine slowly. Special
cleaning machines worked by motor-power are the bast.

5. Si'jHtrution <>>' /S'm/s j'rtnn Lurch Cones.

The method described in 2, refers only to Scots pine and
spruce ; it is not applicable to larch cones, which cannot be
completely freed of seed by artificial heat without damaging
its germinative power. Only the upper part of larch cones
opens when subjected to heat, the base of the cones, which con-
tains most of the seeds, remaining closed. Larch cones must
therefore be torn open in machines, clean seed being obtained
only after much troublesome manipulation.

Much larch seed is exported regularly from the Tyrol. In
order to remove the seed, little water- wheels are suspended in
the rapid torrents, on the axles of which are rapidly rotating
tin cylinders. The cones enclosed in these cylinders are
rubbed violently against one another, and the seed set free.
In order to remove the last seeds from the cones, the latter
are pounded. One of the best stores for Tyrolese larch seed
is that of Jennewein, at Innsbruck.

[In French Savoy and Dauphiny, larch seed is collected by
peasants between December and February ; during the preva-
lence of the comparatively warm south wind, the cones drop
their seeds on to cloths spread under the trees on the snow.
This seed is said to germinate much better than that purchased
from seed-establishments. — Boppe.]

The apparatus employed by Appel, at Darmstadt, which
resembles that used by the Tyrolese, consists of wooden

6S4< UTILIZATION OF THE FRUITS OF FOREST TREES.

drums, which are driven by steam and made to rotate rapidly
on their axles. Their internal surface, as shown in Fig. 367,
is covered with little sharp, projecting cones, against which the
larch cones are rubbed, but the mutual friction between the
cones is more effective than the action of the internal surface
of the drums.

Apparatus worked by steam for opening larch cones is
based generally on a continual friction between their scales,
and consequent removal of the seed without injuring it. That
used by Keller at Darmstadt consists of a hollow wooden
drum (Fig. 367), which is fixed firmly in a vertical position,

Fig. 3H7. — Drums for husking larch-cones.

and at its axis is an iron rod provided with four arms a,
which support four closely-toothed iron rakes I, parallel to
the internal surface of the drum. This revolves rapidly on
its axle m n, larch cones supplied from above are rubbed
together so thoroughly and to a certain extent torn to pieces,
that they part with all their seed that collects at the bottom
of the drum, from which it is then removed.

The sides of this drum are composed of plates of iron, which
are not quite juxtaposed, finer refuse therefore escapes through
the slits between them. Under the drum large sieves are kept
in constant motion backwards and forwards. This apparatus
of Keller's is preferable to all others yet invented, as it removes
the seed in less than half the time taken, for instance, by the
Tyrolese method.

YIELD OF SEED. 685

Larch-seed, when freed from the cones, is mixed with
pieces of wood and scales of various sizes, and any amount
of dust, from which it must be cleaned. The sifting process
is therefore tedious and the workmen must show much
patience. The seed is separated from refuse either hy
means of hand-sieves, or by fly-wheels, or by placing it on
water in a tub; the pieces of wood and scales sink to the
bottom, whilst the seeds float on the surface and are then
scooped off and dried, the dried seeds finally passing through
a corn-sifter.

In Keller's seed-depot a small mill is used for removing the
wings from larch-seed, the grinders being made of vulcanised
caoutchouc and as far apart as the length of the seeds ; thus
the wings are removed by friction. A fly-wheel working
under the exit-funnel separates thoroughly the wings, dust
and worthless seed, from the good seed.

6. Ifmfkiiiii Stlrrr-lir ('<>n<'S, <'tc.

The cones of silver-fir usually fall to pieces on their way to
the seed-husking establishment ; the seeds are separated from
the large cone-scales by sieves. The wings are united to the
seeds and are removed by friction, or by trampling or beating
them in sacks. Similarly the seeds of Douglas-fir, Douglas
and Weymouth pines are cleaned. The cones of thuyas and
cypresses open readily when exposed to the sun, and the little
seeds are sifted free from the scales.

7. Net Yield of Seed.

The net yield of seed obtained from a certain quantity of
cones depends on several circumstances. The system of
husking followed is most decisive in this respect ; then the
condition of the cones (whether harvested in autumn, mid-
winter, or in dry, spring weather, after some of the seeds have
left the cones). The size of the cones and the number of
seeds they contain vary in different years, for in really
good seed-years cones are often smaller than usual and yet
contain more than the usual number of seeds. Lastly, the

686 UTILIZATION OF THE FRUITS OF FOREST TREES.

method employed for removing the wings, and the comparative
thoroughness with which this is done, affects the yield greatly.
It is not, therefore, surprising that the yield of different
seed establishments in different years should vary considerably.
The following table gives the average weight of different
quantities of cones and seed: —

Weight of fresh
cones.

Weight of sifted seed
from —

Weight of sifted seed.

100
liters.

One
bushel.

100 liters of
cones.

1 bushel of
cones.

1 liter.

1 quart.

kg-

Ib.

kg.

Ib.

grams.

lh.

Scots pine

50 to 55

40 to 44

0'75 to 0-90

•60to '72

500 to 5 10

•9(5 to '98

Spruce ...

25lo30

20 to 24

1-23 to 1-70

•98 to 1-36

560 to 570

1-08 to 1-09

Larch ...

36

29

1-80 to 2-70

1-44 to 2-16

500 to 510

•JIG to '98

Silver-fir

25 to 30

20 to 24

1-50 to 2-25

1-20 to 1'80

300 to 410

•58 to -79

The concluding table gives the weight of sifted seed, without
wings, of the different species obtained from a certain weight of
winged seed, and the number of seeds in a fixed weight of
sifted seed.

Species.

Weight of sifted seeds.

Average number of seeds.*

from
1 kilog. of
winged seed.

from
1 Ib. of
winged seed.

in

] kilog.

in.
lib.

Spruce
Silver-fir .
Larch
Scots pine .
Black pine .
Mountain pine
Weymouth pine

kg.
0-56

0-80
0-70
0-80
9-75

0-50

o/.
9-6

12'8

11-2
12-8
12-0

8-0

120,000
22,000
165,000
150,000
48,500
125,000
61,000

54,500

10,000
75,(i()d
68,000
22,000
56,700
27,700

The size of the cones, and the consequent size of the seeds,
as well as the number of seeds in each cone, vary with the
climate, for greater heat implies larger cones and seeds ; thus
Cieslar found :

In Finland, 1000 seeds of spruce weigh 3'96— 4'569.

In S. Sweden, „ „ „ 5'00— 5'60.

In Germany, „ „ „ 7*59 — 8*60.

* [Figures for Scots pine, spruce and silver-fir from Gayer, the other pines
from Mr. Appel of Darmstadt, larch fioin Dr. Schlich.— Tr. ]

STORING REED. 687

Good soil has a similar influence on the seed : seeds from
trees grown in gardens usually are larger than those from
forest trees ; at the commencement of fertility also the seeds
are larger than those from old trees, and the power of pro-
ducing seed is lost gradually by the latter. There are also
variations in the size of seeds in individual trees, even the
seeds in any cone vary in size and weight.

SECTION VI. — STORING THE SEEDS OF FOREST TREES.
1. General Account.

Silviculture shows that it is often advantageous to delay
sowing seed until the spring of the year after it has ripened.
Seed must therefore be stored for this purpose, and if this can
be done without impairing its germinative power seriously, the
forester becomes to a certain extent independent of the
occurrence of seed-years.

In general, seeds with an embryo or albumen rich in starch
do not preserve their germinative power so well as those which
contain much oil or turpentine. For under their closed
husks, provided water is excluded, oxidation of oil is much
slower than conversion of starch into gum, dextrin and sugar.

Germinative power is lost quickly in acorns*, chestnuts and
beech-nuts, so that these fruits very rarely can be kept for
more than one winter. The same rule applies to seeds of
birch, elms, silver-fir and alder, which soon become mouldy
unless stored very carefully. Seed of ash, hornbeam, lime
and Cembran pine, most of which germinates only in the
second spring, can be stored easily. [In the case of Wey-
mouth-pine also, much seed does not germinate till the
second spring. — Tr.] Lime-seed can be kept good for 2 or 3
years, but owing to the abundance of seed produced almost
every year there is no necessity to store it. Germinative
power is longest preserved in the seed of larch, Scots pine
and spruce, and experience has shown that if carefully stored,
larch-seed may preserve its germinative power 2 to 3 years ;
Scots pine seed 3 to 4 years, and spruce-seed 4 to 6 years.

As during winter, slow chemical changes preparatory to

* More quickly in sessile than in pedunculate acorns.

638 UTILIZATION OF THE FRUITS OF FOREST TREES.

germination proceed in seeds, the temperature must be kept
down, provided it does not descend much below freezing point,
so that by over-heating, seeds may not germinate or be killed.
Too much moisture involves danger from fungi and rot,
too much desiccation causes loss of the power of germina-
tion. Seeds also must be preserved against injuries of every
kind, by mice, insects, &c.

The usual methods of storing seed will now be described :

2. Storing in heaps in the Open Air.

This method is applicable for beech-nuts, acorns, and chest-
nuts. A dry site near a forester's house, with loose, sandy
soil for choice, is cleared completely of all vegetable matter,
and the fruits are mixed with plenty of sand and placed in
heaps on the ground. The more delicate the fruit, the lower
the heaps. The heaps are covered with dead leaves or straw,
at first only moderately thick, and some bundles of straw are
stuck through the covering to afford ventilation. As the
weather becomes colder, earth may be thrown on the covering,
but it should be remembered always that seeds are less
sensitive to cold than to heat. At the close of winter the
covering should be removed gradually in the same way as it
was supplied, for it is extremely probable that the destruction
of seeds kept over winter is often due to delay in removing
their covering.

3. Storing in Trenches.

Acorns, beech-nuts, chestnuts and the fruits of ash and
hornbeam may be stored in trenches in the open air. The
trenches for acorns should be about half a meter (If feet)
deep, with vertical walls and in long rows ; beech-nuts are
placed in wider, but shallow, trenches not deeper than 30
centimeters (1 foot) ; ash, hornbeam and sycamore seed in
narrow trenches like drills ; these seeds should remain for
two winters in the trenches, and be sown only in the second
spring. When there is only a small quantity of slowly
germinating seed, such as nuts of the black walnut, it may be
mixed with sand in earthenware pots, which are placed in the

STORING SEED. 689

ground. It has also proved useful to mix ashes with sycamore,
ash and other seed, in a cask placed in a dry, well- ventilated
locality.

4. Storing on Ridges under Thatch.

In this method after the seed has been fairly dried, it is
placed on long ridges raised about 8 inches or a foot (20 to 30
centimeters) above the ground under a light thatch of straw or
dead leaves. Or a flat place may be slightly excavated in the
ground and covered by a thatched roof high enough to allow
a man to inspect the seed. Then the seed can be turned, and
its covering modified according to changes of temperature,
which is a great advantage.

This method is applicable to acorns of both species of oak,
and beech -nuts, the seed being mixed with sand as before. By
altering the thickness of the thatch and turning the acorns,
they are protected against frost and over-heating. Beech-nuts
require a cool, damp place, and the ground should be watered
for them during very dry weather : they are fairly hardy against
frost, and well- ventilated places suit them, which may be
paved with stones. When thus kept, however, they must be
turned and watered regularly.

5. Stori)i<i in Itoonis.

Sacks of acorns and chestnuts may be kept in cellars, only
when the latter are sufficiently dry and well-ventilated.

Several other kinds of seed, such as that of silver-fir, may be
kept in rooms. In a room free from frost, or at any rate,
from low degrees of temperature, silver-fir seed mixed with
the scales of the cones may be placed on shelves, either alone,
or with saw-dust. The windows must at first be kept open in
order to dry the seed, and the latter turned from time to time.
This is absolutely necessary for silver-fir seed, which is very
liable to become mouldy. It is best kept in the cones, but
they can only with great difficulty be kept entire through the
winter.

Dried seed of the birch or alder may be placed in sacks and
these suspended in dry rooms. If twigs have been cut with
the fruit, they may be tied in small bundles and suspended as

F.U. Y Y

690 UTILIZATION OF THE FRUITS OF FOREST TREES.

before. Ash, maple, and hornbeam seed may be similarly
treated during the first winter before being put into trenches
to hasten germination.

Much birch and alder seed, however carefully treated, will
become mouldy ; it is generally better to sow these seeds as
soon as they ripen.

6. Storing in Perforated Bins.

Scots pine, spruce and larch seed separated from the cones
is best preserved in perforated bins ; the same plan is suitable
for any small seeds after they have been thoroughly aerated
by turning them over for several days.

The bins used for coniferous seeds resemble ordinary flour-
bins, with well-fitting lids. In order to exclude mice they are
lined completely with tin or zinc, which is perforated as well
as its wooden casing. The seeds are placed in the bins with
their wings and other impurities, and are stirred periodically.
Spruce-seed is sometimes kept in the cones.

7. Storing Seed under Water.

Experiments often have been made of storing beech-nuts and
acorns in large baskets under water, but although they remain
sound, Cieslar says, that germination is retarded if spring-
water is used.

SECTION VII. — AVEEAGE QUALITY OF SEEDS.

In spite of every care in harvesting, preparing and storing
seed, it is impossible to obtain seed, every grain of which will
germinate. Many bad seeds are harvested, many others lose
the power of germination during the subsequent treatment, so
that it is considered satisfactory, when the following per-
centages of good seed are obtained : —

Kobinia ...... 75

Oak 69

Black alder 38

Beech 27

Elms 26

Birch 25

QUALITY OF SEEDS. 691

The best German firms sell seed with the following per-
centages of germinating power :—

Acorns
Beech-nuts

Chestnuts

ivr i f . . . . 55 to 65

Maples

Limes
Robinia

Elm 40 to 50

Alder 30 to 40

Birch 20 to 30

Willow and poplar . . . 5 to 10

For coniferous seeds, the Swiss Control Station gave the
following results : —

Cembran pine .... 85 per cent.

Spruce . . . . . 68 ,,

Scots pine . . . . 65 ,,

Black „ .... 63 „

Weyniouth pine . . . 55 ,,

Douglas-fir .... 48 ,,

Larch 38

Silver-fir . . . . 27 „

Seed-dealers supply seed, the quality of which varies in
different years : —

Spruce . . 75 to 80 per cent.

Scots pine . . . 70 to 75 ,,

Weymouth and black pine 65 to 70 ,,

Silver-fir . . . 55 to 65 ,,

Cembran pine . . 40 to 50 ,,

Larch 30 to 40

SECTION VIII. — SALE AND DISPOSAL OF SEEDS.

Seeds are sold partly by weight and partly by volume ; it is
desirable that both these measures should be used, but they
imply no guarantee that the seed is fresh or possesses good

Y Y 2

692 UTILIZATION OF THE FRUITS OF FOREST TREES.

germinating power. The following statement compares the
measures and weight of seeds in litres and kilograms. [1
bushel contains 36^ litres and 1 kilo = 2*2 Ibs.— Tr.]

Acorns ... ... (1 1.) we
Beechnuts

igh 0-75 k.
0-45 „
0-15 „

0-18 I!
0-05 ,.

1 k. contains 270 to 300 seed
„ ., 4 „ 4£ tbon
13 „ 14
11 ,, 12
100 . 140

s.
sand se

? i

eds.

5

J

1

Ash
Sycamore
Elm

Cembran pine . . .
Weymouth pine
Scots pine
Spruce ...
Larch ...
Silver-fir
Douglas-fir
Lawson's Cypress

,

0-50 ..
0-40 ..
0-50 ..
0 45 .,
0-45 ..
0-40 ..
0-40 „
0-23 !.

»* ,
55 .

„ -, 150 ,
120 ,
140 ,

20 .
8
., 5<

5
65

170

150
170
24
7
0 seeds.

Seeds are transported in sacks, or bags ; recently in sheet-
iron cylindrical boxes.

As regards the price of seeds, the following statement
was prepared by Laspeyres for Prussia, from 1880-
1895 :-

Marks.

1 hectolitre of acorns ..... 15*76

1 „ beechnuts .... 21'36

1 kilo black alder 0'86

1-62

0-60

4*45

1-73

2*43

0-75

The price of Scots pine seed varied between 3'05 and 8' 10
marks.

Marks.

Spruce 1-05 and 3'40

Larch 1-18 „ 6'37

Silver-fir 0'38 „ 1-67

[A hectolitre is about 3 bushels and a mark is equivalent to
a shilling.— Tr.]

There were no beechnuts and no sessile acorns for 6 years,
the other seeds were procurable every year.

1
1
1
1
1
1

55
5>
>5

55
5)
55

white alder
birch .
Scots pine
spruce .
larch
silver-fir

DISPOSAL OF SEEDS. 693

Forest seeds are used almost exclusively for raising plants ;
for other commercial purposes, only a fraction of the seeds
are employed. Beechnuts are used for preparing salad oil.

Thus in the Foret de Ketz, in 1898, salad oil valued at
£6,000 was obtained from beechnuts, besides 300 bushels of
seed being sent to other State forests and sufficient seed
reserved to restock the felling- areas. An acre of beech 100
years old produces about 20 bushels of clean nuts, worth 2s. a
bushel, from which 100 Ibs. of oil can be made, the nuts
containing 15 to 17 per cent, of oil. The nuts are swept up
from under the trees, sifted, sorted, dusted and dried slowly ;
cold pressure is applied to extract the oil. — Tr.]

In forests, where chestnuts, walnuts, hazelnuts are pro-
duced, the production of the nuts may surpass in value that
of the timber,

Formerly pannage, in which acorns, beech and other seeds
were eaten in the forest by pigs, was carried on extensively in
European forests, This mast of fruits was distinguished from
earth-mast, in which worms, larvre and pup% of insects,
fungi, roots of weeds, etc, were utilised. Full-mast gave
enough acorns, etc., to fatten the pigs ; this required 66 days
feeding, when every pig ate daily 12 litres of acorns or 16
litres of beechnuts. Half-mast sufficed to feed the pigs,
without fattening them. Owing to the rarity of seed-years
and the damage done to young crops by the pigs, also to
danger from swine fever, when pigs are admitted promiscuously
into a forest, pannage has now become rare. When there is a
plentiful seed-year, it may be leased, or given as a privilege to
poor people. The question, whether the admission of pigs
may be silviculturally beneficial, by breaking up too dense a
layer of dead leaves and moss and exposing the mineral soil
in woods ready for natural regeneration, also for destroying
mice and insect-larva, can be decided only for certain localities.
[In the New Forest, in a good mast year about 5,000 swine
are admitted. Near Windsor acorns are collected in baskets
and sold at Is. per bushel to farmers for feeding pigs. — Tr.]

69*

CHAPTEB III.

UTILIZATION OP LEAVES, TWIGS AND ROOTS OP

TREES.

ACCORDING to Ebermayer, Weber, Eamann, Councler, Emeis
and others, leaves and twigs contain large quantities of
nitrogenous compounds, carbohydrates and mineral salts. In
using twigs and leaves for fodder* the above represent the
actual nutritive value of these plant-parts, for the cell-walls
are usually indigestible. These substances are most abundant
at the season when the buds are opening and the leaves un-
folding; at the close of the growing-season, most of them
return into the permanent shoots, as reserve-material. The
nutritive value of leaves and twigs, therefore, depends chiefly
on the season at which they are utilised ; fallen leaves are so
unnutritious, as to be .fit only for litter. [At the same time,
in evergreen broadleaved trees, nutriment is stored during
winter in the foliage and twigs, as such trees as Qnercus dilatata,
Pnums Piiddum, etc., are lopped regularly in the Himalayas,
for winter-fodder. — Tr.] In leafless trees, the yearling shoots
are most nutritive ; branches become less nutritive, the thicker
they are ; those 1 to 2 c.m. thick have hardly any value as
fodder. Species that are most exposed in forest-pasture to the
bite of cattle, supply the best fodder ; ash, poplars, willows
(especially Salix alba, Caprea, riteUina, peiitandra), limes,
maples and oaks, are good; beech and elms yield good
fodder, as long as the leaves are young ; the Canadian poplar
is said to yield the best fodder. Among conifers, the silver-
fir is best, but the spruce also is lopped for fodder, the larch
least of all. The species of cattle should be considered also ;
for sheep and goats eat all leaves, while horned cattle are
more particular.

* Dimitz, " Futtcrlaub u. KutkTrdsitr." /entralblatt f. d. i?o*. Korstwrsi'ii.
1894.

LEAVES AND TWIGS. 695

It is calculated, that 150 Ibs. of leaf-fodder without twigs,
125 Ibs. with twigs, are equivalent to 100 Ibs. of moderately
good hay. Grandeau found that the dry substance of year-
ling twigs without leaves, and of hay, had the following
composition :

Beech. Oak. Hay.

Protein .... 11-08 14'40 11-10

Oil 1-30 2-97 2*70

Fibres .... 34'15 30'14 3*60

Extract without nitrogen . 49'32 47*64 47'20

Ashes .... 1-15 4-85 7.40

According to the researches of the Agricultural Academy at
Bonn, twig-fodder is useless for farm-horses; ruminants
tli rive better on it, sheep best of all. Birch twigs are best,
then beech ; hornbeam is worst. Green twigs are always
better than dry twigs : the valuable parts of the twigs for
fodder are their bark and buds ; only in years when fodder
is scarce, can twigs be considered as a substitute for hay or
straw. Raivmini and Lawe's experiments to chop up twigs by
machinery for fodder has proved unsuccessful.

In evergreen conifers the twigs are more valuable as litter
than as fodder. The toughness of roots prevents their use as
fodder. The injurious utilization of leaves and twigs is
secured in various ways ; there are country districts, espe-
cially in warm countries outside Germany, in which regular
coppices of broadleaved species, similar to osier-beds, with
1 to 2 years' rotation, are maintained expressly for fodder ; in
others, pollards are used, or trees are lopped for the purpose.
The most harmful form of this usage is when young saplings
in coppice, coppice-with-standards and high forest, are
lopped; the utilisation of leaves and twigs from trees felled
in the ordinary way alone can be recommended (Neurneister) .
The instruments used are knives, billhooks, hatchets, or
shears for small pieces.

Leaves and twigs serve for feeding domestic animals, more
rarely for deer; sheep and goats, less frequently cattle and
horses, are fed with either green or dried material. Only in

696 UTILIZATION OF LEAVES, TWIGS AND ROOTS.

countries where meadows are scarce, as in those adjoining the
Mediterranean Sea, or where the peasantry is poor, and land
much subdivided, is leaf-fodder important ; also in years of
general scarcity of fodder, as in 1893. Except in such cases,
the usage of leaf-fodder should be banished from forests. In
countries where rice is cultivated, young leaves and twigs are
stamped into the inundated fields to serve as manure (Japan).
[Also in India, for rice-nurseries, under the well-known name
of rab. — Tr.] Twigs of both broadleaved and coniferous trees
are used, in the cultivation of flowers and vegetables, as a
shelter against insolation and frost, also in forest-nurseries.
Branches, with autumnal coloured foliage, or with coloured
fruits, or coniferous branches with cones, are used for
decorative purposes.

From the needles of pines, spruce and silver-fir, oil is
distilled ; wood-wool, said to be made from pine-needles, is
made of sea-grass (see Part III).

The branches of conifers are employed extensively as litter.

Green litter is obtained from standing trees, either from the
ground bv dragging down the branches, or by climbing the
trees and lopping them ; or by using the litter from felled
trees.

The most destructive method is practised in the Tyrolese
and Swiss Alps. Iron hooks on long poles are used for
pulling down and breaking off the branches. In other
countries the men climb the trees with the help of climbing-
irons and lop the branches with a hatchet. Where the future
of the forest is cared for, only stems that will soon be felled
according to a working- plan are lopped from the base up-
wards, in the course of a few years. If no care is taken of the
forest, trees are lopped frequently of all their branches up to
the leader. The simplest and least harmful practice is to lop
the branches from felled trees in the regular felling-areas.

The branches thus obtained usually are carted to the farm-
yards, and cut into small pieces on a block with a sharp hatchet ;
all the wood that is more than a finger thick is set aside for fire-
wood and the remainder used for litter. If the branches from
a regular felling-area are to be used for litter, the workman
takes each branch and cuts off the twigs covered with needles,

LEAVES AND TWIGS. 697

before he cuts the wood into lengths with a billhook or an old
sabre, and binds them up into faggots.

The quantity of utilisable needle-litter depends on the
species of tree, the system of management, the method of
utilisation and age of the tree. Silver-fir and spruce yield
more litter than do pines. Pines subdivide their crowns into
boughs, while silver-fir and spruce have only one subdivision of
their branches, so that besides possessing fewer needles, there
are many branches in pines that are too thick for litter.

Silver-firs and spruces also have many little branches on
their boles, that are absent in pines. As regards the system
of management, the more open selection forest produces more
litter than does even-aged high forest. The use of branch-litter
is practised usually wherever selection forests prevail, as in the
Tyrolese and Swiss Alps, private forests in the Fichtelgebirge,
the Franconian Forest and Schwarzwald in Wurtemberg, etc.

Many Alpine forests are so impoverished by the utilisation
of branch litter, that they are no longer able to satisfy
moderate demands for this material. In the forests of
Franconia and the Fichtelgebirge, and in many parts of the
Schwarzwald, every woodcutter by moderate lopping has
obtained for generations about 1 to 1J \vaggon-loads of branch-
litter per acre annually, from the selection forests, without
any fear of the supply being reduced.

As regards the age of the Irees that are lopped, it is evident
that in pole-woods, the power of reproducing branches after
lopping is the greatest, and that the older the trees, the fewer
small branches are available.

Reduction in the yield of a forest occurs only when the
trees are lopped extensively up to their crowns ; it is how-
ever certain, that, owing to the formation of occluding lumps
on the boles of trees, their use for timber and especially for
planks is prejudiced.

Utilisation of the finer roots of conifers, especially of the
spruce, involves great injury to all trees, except for those
which are to be felled very soon. The practice is confined chiefly
to stray shoots of hazel, Viburnum Lantana, etc., which are
removed by trespassers. Roots and shoots are heated (baked),
twisted on their axes, and used as tough, coarse withes.

698 UTILIZATION OF LEAVES, TWIGS AND ROOTS.

[In India and other hot countries, where scarcely any
fodder-crops are raised, and where the crowding is lost in forest-
pasture, used for fuel, or only for manuring valuable crops of
sugar-cane or tobacco, the importance of a supply of branch-
litter (rab) as manure, as well as of leaf -fodder for feeding
cattle in winter, is so great, that a regular system of lopping
trees for the purpose is at present inevitable. The rules under
which this is permissible, in order to perpetuate the supply,
are given on p. 85, Vol. IV. of this manual. — Tr.]

Fig. 3<>H.— -Cup mid gutters used in collecting crude turpentine.
(U. S. l)q>. of A-ri. Bull. XL., 11)03.)

699

CHAPTER IV.

PROPERTIES, HARVESTING, SELLING AND
DISPOSAL OF RESIN.

SECTION I. ANATOMY.*

TURPENTINE is elaborated naturally either in intercellular
spaces surrounded by cells, or in certain cells. A distinction
therefore is made between resin-ducts and resin-cells. The
latter are parenchymatous cells in which turpentine occurs in
drops, so that a cell contains more turpentine as it becomes
older ; as soon as the plasma leaves the cell, no more turpen-
tine is formed in it. The plasma leaves the cells, when the
sapwood, which contains them, is converted into heartwood,
or when the bark, in which also they occur, is cut off from
living cortex by the formation of layers of cork, or of rhiti-
dome. All the transverse parenchyma in the medullary rays,
both in the wood and cortex of conifers, contain resin-cells ;
in the longitudinal parenchyma, only the resin-cells that
surround the resin-ducts contain turpentine ; so do frequently
the last cells of the annual zones of wood in silver-iirs and
tsugas. In the cortex, besides the cells of the medullary rays,
the phelloderm, hypoderm and the gate-cells of stomata,
contain turpentine.

Resin-ducts are formed only at the time of the formation of
the plant-part, which contains them ; there is not, in conifers,
any subsequent formation of intercellular spaces by the dis-
solution of tissues. The partition of the walls of a cell in
order to form a duct and the flow of turpentine into the duct
are simultaneous. The diameter of a duct increases by the
division of the cells that surround it, and as each new cell is
formed, more turpentine flows into the duct. In the wood,
there is no increase in the breadth of a duct after the year of

* H. Mayr, " Die Secretionsorgaiie der Fichte und Larche." Bot. Zentralbl.
IKS:,. Also, " Das Harz der Nadelholzer." Berlin, IS'.M.

700 PROPERTIES, HARVESTING AND DISPOSAL OF RESIN.

its formation ; in the bark, the growth in the diameter of the
tree increases by tension the diameter of the resin-cells till
rhitidome is formed.

The course of the horizontal and vertical resin-ducts in the
wood is described on p. 37 ; Mayr has proved that each
horizontal duct arises from a vertical duct, so that there is
always a connection between these two systems of ducts.
(Fig. 869). There is also a connection between horizonal and

—-G,

Fig. 369.— Border of two
annual zones in spruce.
ft Commencement of
last year's resin-duct,
ft Interruption of the
pith, c End of present
year's resin-duct ; the
horizontal ducts (e and
f) spring from the ver-
tical duct <l.

Fig. 370.- — The intercellular spaces of the vertical
duct ft and of the horizontal duct ft, showing
the connection between them.

vertical ducts, wherever these ducts meet accidentally, as
between (/) and (d). (Fig. 369), when both canals show
large intercellular spaces (dotted lines in Fig. 369).

In pines, after the year of their formation, the cells of the
ducts remain thin-walled ; in spruces, larches and Douglas-firs,
more and more of these thin- walled cells are converted
gradually into thick-walled, normal parenchymatous cells.
Shortly before the transition of sapwood into heartwood, all
the thin- walled cells that contain plasma form tyl loses,
which block the ducts (Fig. 370).

ANATOMY.

701

This closure of resin-ducts, when the wood becomes con-
verted into heartwood, is of special importance for fixing the
quantity of resin that is removed from a tree by resin-
tapping, and for adjudging the effects of this practice on the
quality of the wood.

Vertical resin-ducts do not exhibit, as has been maintained
frequently, an uninterrupted course through the stem ;
according to Mayr, the longest resin-duct in spruce does not
exceed 0*7 m. in length at the base of the tree, nor 0*4 m. in
its upper portion. For larch,
the corresponding figures are
0-3 m. and 0'15 m. The
shortest ducts are near the
branches ; the central course
of a duct is deeper than its
two ends, in the annual zone,
the ends being formed later
than the central part of the
duct. Many ducts end with
the annual zone close to the
cambium, but without continu-
ing in the following year in
the new zone of wood. Verti-
cal ducts, that adjoin one
another, place their lumina in
communication by means of a
group of parenchymatous cells,
with adjoining thin walls. The
number of vertical ducts in-
creases slowly with age, on certain cross-sections of the
wood; the south side of a tree contains more ducts than
the north side.

Horizontal resin-ducts are always narrower than vertical
ducts ; they lie in the middle of medullary rays and continue
in them into the bast, where they end abruptly. Their
number is considerable ; in spruce, there are 50 to 110 ducts
on a square centimeter, but there are fewer ducts in the
central parts of a stem than above or below it. During the
season of rest, a horizonal duct is separated by the compact

Kijr. :*71.— Cross-section through a
vertic.il duct, which is sur-
rounded by the expansion of a
cell (a), b Thick-walled paivn-
chymatous cells, c c Cells of
medullary rays containing
starch and drops of turpentine.

702 PROPERTIES, HARVESTING AND DISPOSAL OF RESIN.

cambium into two parts, one in the wood and the other in
the bast, so that turpentine cannot pass from one to the other ;
only with the new year's growth is the connection between
them restored.

All wound-parenchyma (occlusion-tissue) in wood is an
abnormal holder of turpentine (p. 1'29) ; such a tissue con-
tains certain wounds that are externally invisible, as are some
frost wounds, while others are externally visible and cause an
exudation of resin between the new and dead tissues, so that the
swelling is more or less encrusted with resin. Abnormal resin-
ducts occur also in genera which have also normal ducts (spruce,
larch, pines and Douglas-firs), as well as in the other conifers.
They are of pathological origin, as Tschich showed in Berne
that pathological conditions, especially those due to root-fungi,
also cause excessive formation of resin-blisters in the bark of
silver-fir and Douglas-fir, as was proved by Mayr, in 1893.

The course of resin-ducts in the bark and needles varies in
different species ; in spruces and Douglas-firs, both the ducts
of the needles pass into the cortex and there unite with the
vertical ducts that are 8, 13, 21, 26, etc. in number. The
cortical ducts of two years shoots form two exclusive systems
without any connection (Fig. 369 a. c.).

If a vertical cortical duct is cut, only a small quantity of
resin exudes. When rhitidome is formed, on the south side
of a tree, in the seventh year, on the north side in the tenth
year and in a dense wood in the fifteenth year of the tree, the
first cortical resin-ducts are cut off, so that spruce and
Douglas-firs exhibit longitudinal ducts only up to the thirtieth
year ; the bast under the rhitidome is, however, rich in hori-
zontal ducts. In silver-firs and hemlock-spruces, the course
of the vertical ducts in the cortex is the same as in the spruce ;
but parts of the cortex of both these genera, as well as
Douglas-fir, swell into blisters which may be tapped for resin
commercially. The ducts remain active for a number of
years, in silver-fir for eighty years ; the bast contains no
resin-ducts. In pines, only one and two years old plants,
that bear simple needles, are constructed after the pattern of
the above genera, the clusters of needles (2, 3 and 5), which
appear later, bear two resin-ducts in the two edges of each

CHEMICAL AND PHYSICAL PKOPEKTIES. 703

needle and one in its curved side. None of these ducts
are continued into the cortex, but there is a connection
between the vertical ducts of the cortex of different years'
shoots, that is formed early owing to the growth in thickness
of the verticilary branches ; cork begins to form in ten years.
In larches, there is no connection between the ducts in the
needles and in the cortex, only the short ducts in the brachy-
blasts represent the vertical cortical ducts of the other coni-
ferous genera ; the ducts in the hypoderma of the longitudinal
shoots die in the first year, when cork is formed ; the bast
contains horizontal ducts, as in spruces, pines, and Douglas-
firs.

SECTION II. — CHEMICAL AND .PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF TUR-
PKNTINE, OR KESIN.

Turpentine is a mixture of lixed and etherial carbohydrates ;
by its distillation, oil of turpentine is obtained, with the
formula Cio Hi6. Usually the mixture is spoken of as resin,
and oil of turpentine, as turpentine.

Owing to the evaporation of etherial turpentine and its
oxidation, resin usually solidifies into rosin or colophany,
which is partly crystalline and partly amorphous. If fresh
resin is taken from a tree and dried, the rosin forms a trans-
lucid, solid mass. The rosin increases in bulk with the age of
a tree, as more and more of the etherial oil becomes oxidised.
The following table shows clearly this transformation for
spruce and common pine, the figures representing the per-
centage of rosin in the resin that exudes : —

Sapwood of spruce . . . 74*87 per cent.

Resin galls „ 80*90 ,,

Sapwood of pine . . . . 69*48 ,, ,,

Heartwood .„ ... 75*59 „

Sapwood of Weymouth pine . 61*70 ,, ,,

Heartwood of larch . . . 79*33 „ ,,

Bark of silver-fir . . . 62*85 „

Sapwood of Pin it-it riy-ida . . 64*15 ,, ,,

704 PROPERTIES, HARVESTING AND DISPOSAL OF RESIN.

SECTION III. — DISTRIBUTION OF RESIN IN TREES.

According to Mayr's investigations, normally the root-wood
is the richest part of a tree in resin, then in the order given :
the base of the stem up to two meters, branchwood, the upper
part of the stem in the crown of the tree, the clean bole and
the bark. The part of a tree that is most valuable as timber,
the bole, is therefore the poorest in resin, the southern half of
the bole contains more resin than the northern half; the sap-
wood, in spite of general opinion due to the flow from it of
liquid turpentine, is always poorer in resin than the heart-
wood. In the branches, contrary to the laws of gravitation,
the upper side is more resinous than the lower side. The
quantity of resin increases with the age of the tree, but
decreases again when the tree is over 200 years old or there-
abouts, so that the central zones of heartwood contain less
resin than its outer zones. All conifers produce more resin
in hot than in cold localities ; so that border trees, trees in
heavily thinned woods, on southerly aspects, in low latitudes,
(altitude being equal), or on sandy soil, produce more resin
than under opposite conditions. The ascent and descent of
resin in a tree is independent of the specific weight of its
parts.

The following data regarding the amount of resin found in
living trees is taken from Mayr's own observations (2*2 Ibs. in
a kilo.) : —

Age of tree in
years.

Species.

Locality.

Contents of resin in 1 cub. in.
(35 cub. ft.)

100

Silver-fir .

Bavarian plateau

Sapwoori, 3-18 kilos.

100

Spruce

.,

,., !>-!>2 .

45

Common pine

Donautal .

13-89

113

55 55

ii

24-2:;

118

55 55

11

Heartwood, 33-95

235

55 55

55

Sap wood, L'O-s;,

2:55

55 55

M

I lr:irt wood. 37-L'.;

80

Larch

Bayarian p ii<-:n

34-OS

188

Weymouth pine

Wisconsin

Sap wood, 29-47 .

85

55 5>

Anspach

18-82 ,

DISTRIBUTION OF EEHIN. 705

In order to compare the contents in resin of foreign trees
with that of German trees, the percentage of resin in
absolutely dry wood is given below :

Grammes.

Norway spruce 0'896

Bavarian silver-fir . . . . . 1'213

„ spruce ..... 1'498

N. American Douglas-fir . 1*934

Tyrolese larch 2*340

Norway pine ...... 2*426

Alpine mountain-pine .... 3*040

Hamburg Douglas-fir .... 3*892

Bavarian plateau larch .... 4*588

Danube valley pine ..... 5'240

Bavarian Weymouth pine . . . 6*704

N. American ,, „ . . . . 7*876

,, Pitch-pine (Pimis paliistris) . 8*278

The above table shows that Weymouth pine is richest in
resin of all German conifers, then in succession, common pine,
larch, spruce and silver-fir. Douglas-fir is intermediate
between spruce and larch, while pitch pine is more resinous
than all the other conifers. Absolutely dry branchwood and
rootwood also contain the following percentage of resin:—

Branchwood of spruce .... 5*909

Kootwood „ .... 9'857

Branchwood ,, larch .... 4*400

Eootwood „ „ .... 5*835

Every exposed wound in a tree causes an abnormal local
amount of resin, as the tension of_the internal tissues presses
the resin over the wound, and after the water in the sap has
evaporated, the resin flows into the cell-walls and cell-
lumina. This resinosis does not occur in wounds of the
heartwood, for there is no flow of resin from heartwood.
Fungi, such as Armillarea mellea, Fomes annosus (Trametes
radiciperda), Dasyscypha calycina (Peziza), Pestalozzia, Perider-
ni i urn, etc., also cause a flow of resin, and resinosis; at the
rootstock, especially of pines, by decay, the resin is driven

P.U. Z Z

706 PROPERTIES, HARVESTING AND DISPOSAL OF RESIN.

gradually to the interior of the wood, which becomes charged
with resin. Eesinised wood, owing to its easy combustibility,
is excellent for kindling purposes, and in mountain districts
abroad is still employed for torches. For this purpose stems
were peeled of bark in order to induce resinosis. [Brandis
states (Forest Flora of N.W. and Central India, 1874) that
" the wood of stumps of trees of Pinus longifolia, in the
Himalayas, which have been notched and mutilated, is often so
full of resin as to be translucent, and such wood is used for
torches, and in place of candles, in houses and mines." — Tr.]
Nowadays resinous wood is produced by the fungi mentioned
above, or as a bye-product of resin-tapping.

SECTION IV. — KESIN-TAPPING OF STANDING TREES.

The method employed for resin-tapping depends on the
species of tree and on the part of the tree from which the
resin is taken. In order to avoid repetition, the reader is
referred to the anatomical discussion that has preceded.

* Among European species, the maritime or cluster pine
(Pinus Pinaster, Soland.) may be tapped most advantageously
for resin ; this pine yields resin most abundantly near the
sea-coast between Bayonne and the mouth of Charente, chiefly
among the sand-dunes and landes (waste, sandy tracts) of
Gascony. In other parts of France, where the maritime pine
grows either naturally or artificially, resin- tapping is not
sufficiently remunerative to be practised.

Although other European conifers also yield resin, they do
not furnish it in sufficient quantities for resin-tapping in
their case to become a regular industi\y. In France, at any
rate, their wood is too valuable to be exposed to the damage
which the operation causes. However, as the silver-fir, spruce,
larch, black pine and Aleppo-pine are sometimes tapped, it is
useful to know how this is done. The Scots, mountain and
Cembran pines are not tapped.

According to Sargent, the principal world-supply of oleo-
resin comes from the long-leaved pine (Pinus palnstris) and

* The rot of this >ceti<>n is taken rhiclly from Uoppc's
forestifere."

RESIN-TAPPING. 707

the marsh pine (P. serotina) of the North American States,
North and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi,
and Louisiana. Dr. Mohr states that 2,000,000 acres of these
pines were being worked for resin in 1890, and that about
500,000 acres of new forest were taken up annually. In five
or six years after these forests have been invaded, they present
a picture of ruin and desolation painful to behold, the seedlings
and poles being burned and all hope for the restoration of
the forests excluded. At present, attempts are being made
successfully to introduce a conservative system of resin-tapping
into these forests* (Fig. 368).

In India, resin-tapping has been introduced by Government
agency in certain forests of Pinus lonyifolia in the North-West
of India, and is practised on a careful plan based on that
employed in Gascony. Kesin also may be obtained in India
from Pinus excelsa; from P. Khasya and P. Mcrkusii, in Burma
and the Malay States, also from Pinus Thunbergii in Japan.

A. — SUPPLY OF EESIN FROM THE MARITIME PINE IN THE
LANDES OF GASCONY.

1. Mode of T

The maritime pine contains very large and numerous resin-
ducts, and the flow of resin being much more active in the
sapwood than the heartwood, superficial cuts into the former,
which pass through these canals, cause the resin to flow into
receptacles placed to receive it.

Towards the end of February or the beginning of March, in
order to prevent pieces of the coarse external bark from
mingling with the resin, the rough bark or rhytidome of the
maritime pine is trimmed off as a preparatory measure, so
that only a few inner cortical layers are left outside the sap-
wood; they then present a smooth reddish surface. Only
portions of the trunk that are to be tapped during the ensuing
season are thus prepared.

From the 1st to the 10th of March (according to the
weather), the resin-tapper makes an incision with a special
implement in the trunk of suitable trees. This is in the shape

* "A New M<-tl)od of Turpentine Orcharding,11 by Dr. C. H. Hertz, U.S.
Department of Agriculture, Bull, xl., 11)03.

z z 2

708 PROPERTIES, HARVESTING AND DISPOSAL OF RESIN.

of a groove (carrc) near the base of the tree and where the
bark has already been trimmed, about 10 centimeters wide,
3 centimeters high, and 1 centimeter deep (4 inches by 1 inch
by f inch). From this groove the resin flows in viscous trans-
parent drops, which thicken on contact with the air : part of
the resin solidifies, becoming attached to the surface of the
groove ; the remainder, being more liquid, flows into a recep-
tacle which has been placed on the ground to receive it. Kain-
water, which may fill the pots, always remains above the resin,
the specific gravity of which is slightly higher than that of water.

Once a week, and once every five days during the season
when most resin flows, the groove is cut by slicing off a thin
shaving of the wood at its upper extremity. The groove thus
becomes gradually longer, its breadth remaining constant or
being gradually reduced. As the groove becomes older, the
resin ceases to flow ; in freshly cutting it, the resin-tapper
slices the surface of the top of the groove for a length of 10 to
12 centimeters (4 to 4f inches), his chief skill being shown in
removing only a very fine shaving of the sapwood, so that the
operation may be resumed several times without cutting
deeper than 1 centimeter. This operation is effected forty to
forty-five times during a season, but ceases after the 15th of
October. The groove is cut in successive years up to a height
of 3 or 4 meters (9| to 13 feet).

Formerly, the resin which ran from a groove was collected
in a hole dug in the sand at the foot of the tapped tree. This
method, which now is abandoned nearly everywhere, had many
disadvantages. The sand in which the hole was dug absorbed
much resin ; besides this, when the groove became elongated,
the resin had to traverse its whole length before reaching the
ground. In flowing over the groove, therefore, the resin lost
much volatile matter, and became hard ; needles, pieces of
bark and particles of sand were blown on to it by the wind,
and water or other impurities mingled with it.

In order to prevent the consequent waste of resin, Hugues,
in 1860, devised a method for catching the resin immediately
below the points of exudation by means of a little zinc collar
which was fixed across the groove, and for collecting it in a
glazed, conically-shaped pot, 14 centimeters wide at the top,

TAPPING MARITIME PINES.

709

8 centimeters at the base (5^ and 3 inches) and 14 centimeters
deep. Then, after cutting a groove, the collar is fixed below
it, and the pot placed on the sand under the collar and gradu-
ally raised with the cut, as explained below. Every spring,
the whole apparatus is raised above the sterile portion of the
groove, where the former year's tapping had stopped (Fig. 372).

In order to fix the collar, an incision is made with a sharp,
curved, steel implement, and the collar fixed in the incision.
The pot is supported between the collar and a nail driven into
the tree below the pot. The pots also are bored with a hole
near their rim, so that they can be suspended, if necessary,
and this hole allows any
rain-water, which is in
the pot, to drain away.
Frequently, evaporation of
the turpentine is prevented
by covering the pot with
a thin piece of pinewood.
This improved system has '
increased the yield of resin
by from 3 to 4J per cent.,
and yields a much purer
resin than before, selling
at 10 francs a cask more
than that collected in the
sand.

Only the more liquid parts of the resin reach the pot, the
rest solidifies on the way and remains attached to the groove.
The upper part of this solid crust is removed easily by hand ;
it is thus collected by the resin-tapper, and is termed galipot.
The resin in contact with the wood is much harder, and can
be removed only by a scraping implement. This substance,
mixed with chips of wood, is termed barms. When collected
according to Hugues' method, hardly any galipot is produced,
the residue being chiefly barnts.

After the pot has become filled sufficiently with crude resin,
the collector empties it into a kind of basket (escon-arte), holding

* This, and all plates used in this section (except Fig. 384) are taken from
Moppfi's u Technologic forostiere."

Fig. 372.* — Hugues' collar and pot.

710 PROPERTIES, HARVESTING AND DISPOSAL OF RESIN.

about 20 litres (4f gal.) and made of rough cork, with wooden
hoops, an osier handle and a round piece of wood for its base ;
at the same time he scrapes off the barras, which falls on to a
cloth spread below the tree to receive it. Then the resin is
conveyed to reservoirs (barcous), formed of half -casks let into
the ground alongside the forest roads, with removable, sloping
wooden covers, which keep out the rain and impurities. The
barras is either mixed with the crude resin in the barcous, or
packed separately in palm-leaf baskets, imported for the
purpose from Algiers or Egypt. From the reservoirs the resin
is ladled into casks, and carried to the factories in carts with
very broad wheels, on account of the sandy nature of the
roads. It is, however, proposed to improve transport of both
resin and timber in the Forest of La Teste, by constructing a
tramway to Arcachon, about 12 miles distant.

2. Implements used.

Various implements are used for cutting grooves, removing
the crust of resin from the trees and conveying the produce to
the factories.

An ordinary axe is used for trimming the bark before the
grooves are cut.

A curved axe (abschot), with a short handle (Fig. 373), is
used for cutting and freshening the surface of the groove.
The blade should be sharp as that of a razor, so that the resin-
ducts may be cut cleanly. Its irregular shape renders it an
instrument difficult to construct and use ; it can be used skil-
fully only after long practice, and experience in India shows
that better work can be done there with an ordinary adze.

The scraper (pelle) (Fig. 374) is made of iron, topped with
steel ; it is fixed to the end of a wooden handle a yard long.
It is used for scraping the lower portion of the grooves, and
under the old method, for digging holes in the sand and
removing the resin from them.

Another scraper (barrasqiiitc) (Fig. 375) has a curved, sharp
blade with a handle 1J metres (4 feet 10 inches) long. It is
used for removing bark which cannot be reached by the axe
and also for collecting the barras from the same places.

TAPPING MARITIME PINES.

711

Another implement, termed rasclet (Fig. 376), has a handle
1*80 metres (5 feet 10 inches) long ; it has also a step, and is
used sometimes to raise the height of the grooves when above
the reach of the workman's abschot. The workman, however,

Fig. 374.— Pelle.

:173.— Abschot.

frequently stands on the step of the rasclet and uses his
curved axe.

Fig. 377 shows another scraper (pousse), with a handle
2 meters 40 centimeters (7 feet 9 inches) long, and used, like
the bairawiuitc, for the higher portions
of the groove. The pnlot (Fig. 378)
resembles the pousse, but its handle is
only 90 centimeters (1 yard) long; it
replaces the pdle, when the Hugues'
method is adopted, and may be employed
also as a dibble for sowing acorns or
pine seeds.

The resin-tapper also uses a kind of
ladder (Fig. 381) made of a small pine, Fjg ~5>_Barrasquite.
into which steps are cut 30 centimeters
(1 foot) apart. Each step is strengthened by a nail to pre-
vent breakage. Considerable practice is required for 'a man
to remain perched on this ladder whilst using the abschote
with both hands.

The spatula (Fig. 379) is used for scraping off the resin
which adheres to the pots, or to the cscouarte.

712 PllOl'EUTIHH, HARVESTING AND DISPOSAL OF RESIN.

The workmen make their own ladders and escouarte, and
buy the other implements at the following prices :—

The axe, or abschot, I franc 50 centimes the kilogram (say

-tm so

Fig. 376. — Rasclet.

Qd. a pound), or 6 or 7 francs each ; the barrasquite, 2 francs ;
the pousse, 2 francs 50 centimes ; thepalot, 1 franc 50 centimes ;
the pelle, 2 francs.

3. Method of Cutting the Grooves.

Commencing at the ground-level, the grooves ascend the
stem as follows : —

End of—

M. C.

Feet Indies

First year .

0 55

1 9

Second ,,

1 30

4 2

Third Year .

2 or,

6 8

Fourth „ .

2 80

9 1

Fifth „ .

3 80

12 4

Thus in the first year the

length of the cut is —

0 55

1 9

Second year .

0 75

2 5

Third „ .

0 75

2 5

Fourth „ .

0 75

2 5

Fifth „ .

1 00

3 3

The width of the groove is 9 centimeters (3 inches) for the
first four years, and 8 centimeters (2J inches) in the last year.
its depth never must exceed 1 centimeter (£ inch) when
measured below a string stretched across the groove, from the
base of the bark.

The number of grooves cut at tin; same time in a tree vary

TAPPING MA1UTIMK PINES.

713

according as the tree is tapped without killing it, or tapped
to death.

Pines that are intended to be removed in thinnings and

Fig. 378.— Palot.

Fig. 37H. Fspatule.

Til

those which are considered mature are tapped to death.

Such pines should remain standing for only a few years,

and therefore the greatest

possible amount of resin

should be extracted from

them. With this object,

two, three, four, five and

sometimes six grooves,

according to its size, are

cut in the same tree

(Fig. 380).

Pines are tapped with-
out being killed, when
they are intended to re-
main for some time stand-
ing in a wood. They
must be tapped so that
their existence is not
compromised, nor their
vigour seriously diminished. It is therefore best, in this
case, to make only one groove in a tree at a time. When,
after five years, this groove is 3 meters 80 centimeters
(about 12J feet) high, it is left untapped for several years,
and then another groove commenced at 15 or 20 centimeters

Fi.tr. 3so.

Roman figures refer to successive years'
tappings.

714 PROPERTIES, HARVESTING AND DISPOSAL OF RESIN.

Fig. 3H1.— Forest of L.a Tcste.

An old |>iii(! is shown with a swollen b:isc, ;iml more than .">(> grooves, it
probably :it Icust L'dO years old.

TAPPING MARITIME PINES.

715

(5 to 6 inches) distant from the former, or on the other
side of the tree exactly opposite to it. Thus, in time,
grooves are made all round a tree, and then fresh ones are
made between them. By this procedure, resin is extracted

3S2. — Cross-section of a pine which has been tapped "alive repeatedly."

1. Groove cat when li> years oM.

2- „ 22 " „

3- » 27 „

4. „ 31 „ 8.

The last grove still in use.

5. Groove cut when 34 years old.

6. „ 38 „

7. „ 42

whilst the pines are kept alive for a long period (Figs. 382,
383).

When, owing to a tree being exceptionally vigorous, or to bad
treatment, two grooves are made at the same time, which* is
generally the case in private forests, they should be worked
simultaneously at different heights.

7J6 PROPERTIES, HARVESTING AND DISPOSAL OF RESIN.

4. Treatment of Forests where Resin-tapping is Practised.*

One of the best examples of a maritime pine forest in
which resin-tapping is practised is the State Forest of La
Teste, in latitude 45°, near Arcachon, bordering the Bay of
Biscay. It is situated on a sandy soil, with layers of iron-
pan, termed alios. The rainfall is 3'2 inches and the mean
temperature 56° F. With the exception, along the coast,

vi

Fig. 383. — Cross-section of a pine first tapped " alive, "and then tapped

to death.

Grooves 1 to 7 made from age of 21 every 4 years to 45. Grooves f. to IX.
made at the age of 51 years and have killed the tree.

of 1,580 acres of protection-forest which is very scrubby
owing to the violence of the westerly winds and serves to
protect the better portion of the forest from wind and shifting
sand, the remaining area (4,500 acres) is worked chiefly for
resin. It is divided into 12 compartments, averaging 375
acres each, which are regenerated successively when from 55

* Tin's account is Uic result of ;i visit made by tin; translator to the forest ol'
La Teste, in 1894, with Mi'. Hearle, when Mr. (Jraiuljean, the local forest-oil k-er,
kindly afforded full information regard ing the management of the forest.

TAPPING MAEITIME PINES.

717

to 60 years old, there being then from 80 to 100 trees per
acre which are all tapped to death in the course of five years.
The trees in a compartment 55 years old are for this purpose
sold standing and must be felled within the five years, being
meanwhile made to yield all their available resin. The under-
growth of pine seedlings, tree-heather (Erica arbor ea), arbutus,
gorse, etc., is cleared away, and the area sown naturally by
seed which blows on it from adjoining areas, artificial sowing
being effected, if necessary, to complete the regeneration.

Thinnings are commenced when the saplings are about
five years old, maritime pine requiring more exposure to light
than almost any species, especially if it is to yield resin as
well as timber. These thinnings are repeated every five
years, the trees being about 10 feet apart when 20 years old ;
the material is not saleable in the Forest of Teste till it is 30
years old, being often given away gratis for fuel, or left to rot
on the area, which it does rapidly. In older thinnings, trees
over 1 meter 10 centimeters (3J feet) in girth which are to be
removed are tapped to death in five years, whilst the other
trees over this girth are tapped alive, as already described.
Trees of less girth are not tapped.

A workman and his wife* can fill 60 casks of crude resin
(each containing 50 gallons) from 5,000 to 6,000 grooves,
representing double the number of trees ; half the value of
the resin collected (about 900 francs = £36) is paid him in
return for his labour. One groove yields 2J quarts in a year.

The estimated t outturn per acre of the fellings sold in
1894 was :—

-

Age.

No. of trees tapped.

Timber.

Fuel.

Resin;

Years.

Alive.

To death.

C. feet.

C. feet.

Gallons.

Final felling .
Last thinning .

:><; to 60

51 to 55

63

94
11

1,925

148

1,090
172

430
210

* M. Grandjean kindly has supplied the following figures : («) A groove on
the average, according to the size of the tree, yields 1 kilo. 880 gr. (1 litre
weighing about 1 kilo.) ; (&) A man can look after about 5,000 grooves in a
•ii ;md collect 40 casks of 23.") litres each.

1 1'rom account by N. Hearle, " Indian Forester," July, 1895.

718 PROPERTIES, HARVESTING AND DISPOSAL OF RESIN.

The timber is cut mainly into railway-sleepers and pit-props,
which latter are exported chiefly to England.

The French forest officials do not consider that 60 years is a
long enough rotation to get the full benefit from the forest,
especially in timber, and it is proposed to lengthen it to 75
years, with 15 compartments.

Private forests of maritime pine near Arcachon are managed
chiefly for the yield of resin, and consequently are tapped
younger and more severely than are the State forests.

Boppe estimates that in a private maritime pine forest, 45
years old, each tree will yield 6J to 10 pounds of crude resin
per annum. The yield per acre varies greatly, according to the
nature of the soil and the management ; 250 to 450 pounds
per acre per annum are given as the extremes. The value
of the casks of resin containing 235 kilogram (625 pounds)
was 40 to 45 francs in 1885, but only 30 to 35 francs in 1894.

One of the reasons for the variation in price is that the
spring-crop of resin is much lighter-coloured and freer from
impurities than the autumn-crop, in which barras is added by
the workman to the extent of 50 kilograms per cask.

The chief dangers in the forests of maritime pine are fires
and invasions of shifting sand, the protective measures
against which are described in Vols. II. and IV. of this
manual.

B. — TAPPING OTHER SPECIES FOB KESIN.
1. Silver-fir.

Most of the crude resin in the silver-fir is contained in its
bark, where a few drops of resin accumulate in little project-
ing blisters. It is collected by pressing these blisters with
the sharp nozzle of a small tin vessel. This practice, which
yields little and is being abandoned gradually, produces
Strasburg resin.

2. Spruce.*

The spruce is tapped for resin by cutting long narrow
grooves (3 to 6 centimeters broad and 1 to 1*5 meter long)

* [This account is taken from Gayer.— Tr.]

TAPPING SPRUCE AND LARCH.

719

i*Afiw

through the bark of the trees down to the cambium-zone. As
a rule, two grooves are thus cut on opposite sides of a tree,
and when the supply of resin from them falls off, two more
are opened between them (Fig. 384). The
crude resin pours over these grooves from
the large radial resin-ducts and gradually
covers them with a hard crust of resin.
About a year after tapping, in the second
summer, the workman removes this crust
with a special iron implement, scraping it
into a conical basket, made of spruce-
bark, placed below the groove ; he after-
wards empties the basket into a larger
one, in which the resin is well pressed
down.

The callus, which forms over the wound,
is cut about every four years to expedite
the exudation of resin.

The process of resin- tapping causes
decay in spruce trees, and by depriving
the wood* of its resin reduces the quality
of both timber and firewood. If, how-
ever, the usage be restricted to the last
10 years before the trees are felled no
damage is apparently caused, except the reduction in size of
the logs, due to the grooves cut in the stem.

The annual yield of resin from spruce trees in Thuringia
80 to 100 years old, when tapped during the last 10 years
before they are felled, is 30 pounds of galipot and 43 pounds
of crude resin per acre.

3. Larch.

Most commercial larch-resin comes from Austria, where
two methods for its extraction are employed, as reported by
Marchand.f

(a) The Styrian Method. — A hole, 2J centimeters (1 inch)

* The wood of the black and maritime pines, on the contrary, becomes more

aa when tapped,
t "Mission forustii-re en Autriche." Arbois-Jarel, 1869.

Fig. 384.— llesin-
in spruce.

720 PROPERTIES, HARVESTING AND DISPOSAL OF RESIN.

in diameter and 80 to 120 centimeters (2J to 4 feet) long, is
bored with an auger into the trunk of a tree as near the
ground as possible, sloping upwards and passing across the
axis of the tree. Crude resin exudes through this hole into a
pot placed at its entrance, from which it is guided to the pot
by a piece of spruce bark. Impurities are kept out by cover-
ing the pot with a leafy branch of spruce or a piece of bark
(Fig. 378).

Eesin-tapping exhausts the larch, so that the resin is

Fig. 385. — Styrian method of tapping larch.

collected for a season only at a time, the hole being then
stopped with a piece of wood which is removed after a rest of
from two to six years, when the flow of resin recommences.
By means of this precaution the tree may be tapped for 30
years, or more.

(b) Tyrolese Method.— In this case (Fig. 386) the hole in
the larch tree is somewhat larger than the preceding one
(3 centimeters) and is either bored horizontally or at an angle
towards the axis of the tree, being", then closed by a plug.
The resin which accumulates in this hole is removed in
autumn by means of a specially made spoon.

The process is carried on only at intervals, as in the pre-
ceding case; but, though it yields more resin at first, it

TAPPING BLACK PINE. 721

weakens the tree more than the Styrian method and cannot
be applied for more than 15 to 20 years.

Tapping the larch for resin yields very little profit to the
owner of the trees — viz., about %d. per tree annually. This
is as nothing when compared with the damage caused to the
wood ; only trees 150 to 200 years old can be tapped.

4. Black Vim:

The black pine (Pinns La-rido, dustnaca] is tapped in the
Wienerwald by removing the bark from the base of the tree

Fig. 386. — Tyrolese method of tapping larch,

over about one-third (Gayer says two-thirds) of its circumfer-
ence to a height of 40 centimeters (15 inches). A V-shaped
niche, which serves as a reservoir for the resin, is then cut
into the base of the tree, below this blaze. The blaze is
trimmed several times in a season by cutting into the sapwood,
and in succeeding years it is heightened annually by 40 centi-
meters, small pieces of wood being inserted in cuts made in
the blaze, so that the resin may not form too thick a crust,
but may fall into the niche. The crude resin is removed from
the niche once a fortnight, and the crust and dry resin in
autumn. Thus, at the end of 10 years, the blaze will be 4
meters (13 feet) high.

These broad blazes are never occluded by new wood; the
F.U. 3 A

722 PROPERTIES, HARVESTING AND DISPOSAL OF RESIN.

stem, however, becomes saturated with resin and does not decay.
There is a considerable loss of timber, owing to the grooving.

The black pine yields from 2J to 4^ kilos (5J to 10 pounds)
of crude resin per tree annually ; 50 pounds of the crude resin
yield 7 to 10 pounds of oil of turpentine, and about 30 pounds
of colophany.

SECTION V. — YIELD OF KESIN AND EFFECTS ON THE TREES OF
EESIN-TAPPING.

Practical experience in resin-tapping gives the following
annual yield of crude resin per tree, for the various species,
the reduction in resin is approximately proportional to the
coolness of the climate :—

Pinus Khasiana . . . 15 Ibs.
,, Merkusii . . . 13 ,,
,, palustris . . . 9*25 „
,, Pinaster . . . 6 -6 ,,
,, longifolia . . . 5*5 ,,
„ austriaca . . . 4'6 ,,
„ Do (old trees) . . 8'36 „
„ excelsa .... 2'64 ,,
Picea excelsa . . . . 1*1 „
The usage is leased on a definite area, or at so much a tree
annually. In the latter case the height of the groove is
limited. The resin may be harvested also by the forest
manager and the resin sold.

The effect on the trees of resin-tapping, according to Mayr,
does not involve a deterioration of the heartwood, either in
specific weight, strength or durability. This has been proved
by experiments made by Gomberg* in the strength of tapped
and untapped trees. The sapwood is said to become less
durable, its durability is little enough in any case. Never-
theless the consequent deterioration in the utility of the
timber is considerable. That resinous wood is formed around
the grooves is not unimportant. Stoger and Seyffertt have
proved that cones and seeds of tapped pines are small and that
the seedlings are weak, though no degeneration of the trees

* United States Department of Agriculture. " Forestry Bull." 8, 1893.

t ••/entralblatt f. das gcs. Korstwesen." 1*7S, 1SS.V

YIELD OF RESIN AND TURPENTINE. 728

owing to tapping has been proved. Nordlinger showed* that
during the tapping, narrow-zoned and heavy wood is produced,
but that this wood is weak owing to the waviness of the fibres.

The most valuable part of the resin is the oil of turpentine,
which is obtained from crude resin by distillation and is
collected in a cooling tank filled with water. The process is
explained in the next section.

The percentage of oil of turpentine in the resin of different
trees is given below : —

Spruce, German turpentine . 20 per cent.

[Pinus longifolia, Indian „ . 32 „ „ — Tr.]

Maritime pine, French ,, . 25 ,, ,,

Austrian „ Austrian ,, . 25 ,, ,,

Longleaved „ American ,, . 17 ,, ,,

Larch, Venetian „ . 25 „ ,,

Silver-fir, Strassburg ,, . 33 ,, ,,

Tsuga, Canadian ,, . 18 ,, „

The distillation of turpentine from the wood of felled trees
yields only impure turpentine mixed with resin and tar. Tar
is made from resinous wood by dry distillation in pits or in
closed retorts in remote forests. [This is described at length
by Mathey (" Exploitation commerciale des bois.") Ordinary
charcoal-kilns are erected in the Landes, and the tar runs out
below and is collected by a channel leading into a reservoir
from which it can be ladled out after 60 hours burning of the
kiln ; it is then removed every 6 hours, the resulting charcoal
is light.— Tr,]

SECTION VI. — EXTRACTION OF OIL OF TURPENTINE AND
EOSIN FROM CRUDE EESIN. t

Casks of crude resin continue to reach the factories at La
Teste from March to October, the last consignments being

* Nordlinger, " Einflosfl dcr Haming auf Wachstum u. TTolz dor Schwartz

full Hi." IS.sl.

f [This account is taken mainly from papers by N. Hearle and E. McA. Moir
in the " Indian Forester," June and July, 1895. Both these gentlemen, as well as
the translator, in 1894, visited a resin-factory at La Teste, near Arcachon-
belonging to Mr. Lesca, and all the information given in this chapter has been
supplied through his kindness. Mathey, op. cit., gives a more detailed ami well
illustrated account of the process, — Tr.

3A 2

724 PROPERTIES, HARVESTING AND DISPOSAL OF RESIN.

dark-coloured and inferior in quality. From it, oil of turpen-
tine, the chemical formula for which is CioHi6, is distilled,
leaving deposited an oxidised suhstance which is solid at
ordinary temperatures, and is termed rosin, or colophany.

These substances are separated from one another in the
following way :

i. By melting and filtering the crude resin, so that the water,
sand, pieces of bark and other impurities* are separated from it.

ii. By distilling the crude resin, the oil of turpentine and
colophany are separated from one another, as these substances
have different boiling-points.

The crude resin, after being passed through straw filters, if

Siphon

Vat No. 1.

Turpentine
tank.

Straining tank.
Fig. 387.— (After Hearle.)

sufficiently fluid for this to be done, is placed in an uncovered
vat (Fig. 387, No. 1) and heated until it is completely liquefied.
This allows heavy substances, such as sand, etc., to fall to the
bottom of the vat, while light impurities, chips of wood, bark,
etc., float on the surface of the melted resin. This is a very
delicate operation, as if heated unequally, the resin is liable to
catch fire.

The impurities are separated from the resin, either by
ladling it through straw-sieves, or passing it through a grating
into a second vat. The operation of heating and filtering goes
on a day in advance of the distillation, so that three vats are
required, No. 1 vat being always used for boiling and the other
two vats, alternately, as reservoirs from which the resin is
ladled into a small tank from which it is passed through a
tap to the retort shown in Fig. 387.

This is the method employed late in the autumn, when the

* Chiefly larvse of insects. This accounts for the flies in ambrr. fossil resin.

EXTRACTION OP OIL OF TURPENTINE. 725

resin contains many impurities. Earlier in the year, it is passed
directly from vat No. 1 to No. 2, a retort in which it is distilled,
the arrangement of the vats then being as shown in Fig. 887.

The resin in the retort is heated to a temperature of about
185° F., steam (by the use of which 30 per cent, more turpen-
tine is obtained) being admitted through a pipe. From this
retort, vapour of the oil of turpentine and water-vapour pass
through a coil of tubing into a cooling tank, where they are
condensed ; then they are drawn off into a smaller tank, the
water remaining below with the turpentine floating on it, owing
to the lower specific gravity of the latter. The oil of turpentine
is run through an overflow pipe into a zinc vessel mounted 011
a truck, and conveyed by means of a tramway to the turpen-
tine shed, where it is pumped into large metal tanks, measuring
10 feet by 6 feet by 6 feet, from which it is drawn, as required
for sale, into old Spanish wine-casks. No system of purifying
is in practice, and it is sold just as it issues from the still.

The water, which is removed by a syphon from bulnw the
turpentine, passes after use through a series of shallow open
tanks in a court-yard, from which it is pumped by a small
steam engine into an elevated reservoir ; it is then used again
for cooling the turpentine. The engine also drives steam into
the distilling retort.

The liquid coloprmny, after distillation of the turpentine, is
allowed to flow from the base of the retort by removing a
wooden plug stamped with clay. It runs into a straining tank,
passing over a very fine copper wire sieve, which catches most
of the impurities it has still retained ; the rest falls to the
base of the straining tank, in the form of a black deposit
resembling pitch. The straining tank has a tap placed about
half-way down, through which the liquid colophany passes
during autumn into another vat, from which it is ladled into
large casks containing about 800 Ibs.

During summer, however, after a sample has been taken
out in a tin mould, the rest of the colophany is at once ladled
from the straining tank into buckets, then it is carried to an
open court-yard, where it is poured into open shallow metal
pans about two inches deep and slightly smaller in diameter
than the casks in which it is packed finally for sale. It there

726 PROPERTIES, HARVESTING AND DISPOSAL OF RESIN.

cools into cakes which are exposed to the sun till sufficiently
bleached ; they are then placed, one above the other, in the
casks and eventually unite into a single mass.

Great attention is paid to uniformity of colour in each cask,
the sample shown to the purchaser being the worst coloured
in the cask. The colophany goes into four main classes, for
spring, summer, autumn and winter, the first being lightest
coloured and most transparent ; and the last, made chiefly of
barms, being darkest. The tints vary from very pale trans-
parent yellow to dark amber. When nearly black it is termed
brais. Great stress is laid on transparency, denoting purity of
the samples, as well as on their light colour. The dark amber-
coloured colophany is worth only one-third the value of the
palest brand, the prices varying from 4s. to 12s. 9d. per 100 Ibs.

Besides the main classes of colophany, the commercial
grades range from A. the darkest, to N. extra pale, superior to
which are W. window-glass and W. W. water-white. These
are American brands, which have been adopted in France.

A barrel of 520 Ibs. of crude turpentine yields 364 Ibs.
colophany, 110 Ibs. oil of turpentine and 46 Ibs. refuse. The
oil of turpentine sells at about 25s. per 100 Ibs. Most of. the
manufactured produce goes to Bordeaux, whence it is shipped
to the principal European countries, or used in France. The
chief British supply of rosin at present comes from the United
States of America, being 1,320,852 cwt. in 1906, while 235,864
cwt. came from France, 72,748 cwt. from Spain, and 21,263
cwt. from other countries, the whole being valued at £819,349.

The quantity of oil of turpentine imported into the United
Kingdom in 1906, was 512,836 cwt. valued at £1,076,870,
chiefly from the United States of America (396,332 cwt.) and
Eussia (78,334 cwt.)

SECTION VII. — COMMERCIAL PRODUCTS FROM THE CRUDE RESIN
OF THE MARITIME PINE.*

The different products of crude resin are :—

Galipot. Brais.

Oil of turpentine, Turpentine paste,

Colophany. Pitch.

* From I>(>>>i' o>. df.

COMMERCIAL PRODUCTS FROM RESIN. 727

Galipot is dried resin picked from the tapped trees, and is
used in certain varnishes, also in naval construction, especially
in Holland, for painting ships and masts.

Oil of turpentine is distilled from crude resin ; it is used
chiefly in oil-colours, varnishes, and medicine.

Colophany is the best part of the residue after distillation
of crude resin, and is used for soap, papier-mache, sealing-
wax, etc.

Brais is obtained by heating in a retort the straw sieves used
in filtering the resin, and also pine-roots. It is used in making
torches, and is run into small square boxes round four or five
wicks, and these are lighted on frosty nights, burning with a
dense smoke, which protects vineyards from frost ; it is used
also for soldering metals, or may be made into pitch.

Turpentine paste is used for varnish, sealing-wax, litho-
graphic ink, etc. There are three kinds : — The ordinary quality
is obtained after crude resin has been filtered but not distilled.
Pdtc an soldi is obtained when crude resin is exposed to the
sun's heat in vessels filled with holes, through which the more
fusible portions exude, forming the paste in question. When
casks full of crude resin are exposed to the sun, the portion
exuding through the staves is termed Pate dc Vculse. The
comparative values of these three kinds are as 37 : 40 : 250,
these numbers in francs representing the value in each case of
100 kilograms.

By burning the roots and stumps, and the residue from the
factory, in closed masonry chambers separated by metallic
walls, lamp-black is obtained. Finally, by distilling pine-
wood, pine oil is obtained, which may be used for lighting
purposes, or as an antiseptic for preserving wood that is used
in the open.

[Fig. 368 (p. 098) gives the latest American method of tapping Pi mix
/^/Z«.yi!r/.s', which, and P. lieteroph i/ll<(, the Cuban pine, is borrowed from Mayr's
suggestions, given in " Harz der Nadelholzer," Berlin, 1894, but does not appear
to be so good as the French method already described, p. 707.— Tr.]

728

CHAPTER Y.

OTHER MINOR PRODUCE FROM TREES.

Camphor is a carbohydrate of tough, crystalline nature, with
a characteristic scent and taste ; it evaporates at ordinary
temperatures. [There are two kinds of camphor, Japanese
and Borneo camphor, their respective compositions being
CioH80 and CioH90 ; the latter has an aliaceous odour and
thus may be recognised. — Tr.]

Camphor is formed in sac- like prolongations of parenchy-
matous cells in the sapwood and other parts of the lauraceous
camphor tree, Cinnamomum Camphora; the camphor also
accumulates in the cells of the heart wood and root- wood of
very old trees contain the most of this substance. Pure white
camphor is obtained by cutting the wood into small pieces and
dry distillation. Japan has the chief forests of camphor trees,
and by the conquest of the Island of Formosa has practically
a monopoly of this product ; its yearly export is about 2,500
tons of camphor. The dipterocarpous tree, Dnjobalanops
Campliora, growing in Sumatra, Borneo and the Malay Penin-
sula, yields Borneo camphor, nine trees producing about a cwt.
It is exported to Japan and China, and there used locally in
preference to Japanese camphor, which alone comes to Europe.

Coniferin is a glucocid, which, by absorption of water, passes
over into glucose. It occurs chiefly in the sap of the carn-
biuin of conifers, at the end of each year's growth. By
oxidation, on being treated with dilute acids, coniferal-alcohol
is formed, and by further oxidation, Vanillin ; the latter is in
white, aromatic crystals, exactly resembling those derived
from the pods of the Vanilla plant.

Sugar, as cane-sugar, occurs in the sap of all woody species,
especially during the season when the cambium is fully active.
Economically valuable sugar can be obtained only by wounding
certain species, such as maples and birches. It is not known by

SUGAR AND DYES. 729

what means the sugar is produced ; probably it is connected
with the conversion of starch into sugar, in connection with
the turgescence of the sapwood. According to Dr. J. Gifford
("Practical Forestry," 1902), America produces annually, from
maples, 25,000 tons of sugar and 250,000 gallons of syrup. By
tapping the tree in January, the air-temperature is over
0°C., the sugary sap exudes freely. The sugar-maple (Acer
saccharum) is bored with an auger at 2 to 8 feet from its base to
a depth of 2 to 4 inches and a piece of elder-wood without its
pith, or a metallic tube inserted in the boring, a vessel being
hung from the tube in order to collect the sap; the maximum
annual yield of sap by each tree is about 40 gallons, from
which 10 Ibs. of sugar is made, or on the average 4 Ibs. of
sugar per tree. The sap is removed every morning, and its
flow stops when the leaves come out. Trees should not be
tupped till they are thirty years old, but afterwards may be
tapped as long as the tree is alive. Hitherto no injurious
effects in the quality of the wood or the vitality of the tree,
except for the wounds caused, have been found to result from
tapping the sugar-maple. European maples yield sap, which is
hardly inferior in flavour to that of maple-syrup ; the sycamore
is specially suitable. [Plm'iii.r sylve8tristthe wild date-palm, is
tapped in India for syrup, which is boiled down and refined
into sugar, or fermented into an alcoholic drink. — Tr.]

The birch also yields sugary sap when tapped before its
leaves sprout. This sap is used partly as medicine, partly
after a slight fermentation, as a beverage (birch-wine).

Trees, chiefly tropical, yield dyes, which are extracted from
their wood-cells ; such as Redwood from Pernambuco (Cccsal-
j>iiii>ii<t l)r<t,:i!icn.six, C. rrhinatd, C.Sappan) ; Logwood (llaana-
oiiiiprt-Jtitiniini), from the W. Indies; Red Sanders
iitiilinuii), from the Cuddapah district of Madras.
The bark of the N. American dye oak, QUITCH* velutiua
(tinctoria), yields a yellow dye, so does Fustic from the wood
of Madura tutctoria, from tropical America and the W.Indies,
also the bark of the root of the Osage orange-tree, Toxylon
poniij't'nim (Madura aurantiaca) from N.America; the inner
bark and roots of the common barberry also afford yellow dyes,
so does Phellodendron amnrcnsc from Eastern Asia; the woods

730 OTHER MINOR PRODUCE FROM TREES.

of European trees and of other foreign trees yield a brown
extract. The husks of the fruits of Rhamnus Frangida and
other species yield useful dyes ; the former are imported from
Turkey and Persia as Yellow or Persian berries. [From the
bark of lihamnus chlorophorus and R. utilis, the Chinese pre-
pare a very beautiful green dye called Chinese green indigo,
used also for dyeing silks at Lyons, and a similar dye has
been extracted from R. catharticus. — Tr.] The green chloro-
phyll and the red erythrophyll of plants are used but rarely
as dyes. The fact, that many vegetable dyes are more per-
manent than dyes prepared from coal-tar, alone enables them
still to compete with the latter.

Gums are widespread in the wood of many species, being
components of their cell-walls, but only when contained in
bark are they of commercial value, as they then exude through
wounds in the bark of trees. Gum in the bark is suspended
as latex in the sap.

[The chief kinds of gum* are gum-arabic, gum-tragacanth,
gum-resins, copals, oleo-resins, and elastic gums. It is of
great importance that the gums collected from different species
should not be mixed, and that they should be free from bark,
earth and other impurities.

Gum-arabic is a clear, white or yellowish gum, very soluble
in water ; it is produced by Acacia Senegal of N. Africa and
also growing in Sind, the Punjab and Kajputana. Other
acacias yield inferior gums, and so does Bauhinia retusa, a
small tree of N. India, and many others, including the cherry-
tree and other species of Prunus, the gum being of pathological
origin. These gums are used in calico-printing, in medicine,
in giving lustre to silk and for many other purposes.

Gum-tragacanth is insoluble in water, but swells up ; it is
produced by species of Astragalus and Stcrculia. Gum-resins
are partially soluble in water, and a type of these is gamboge,
the produce of Garcinia Morella, a tree of Eastern India and
Ceylon. A thin slice of bark is cut off of the size of the palm
of one's hand, the gamboge collects there and is scraped off,
when sufficiently dried. Gum-kino, a bright red, astringent

* "Indian Forest Utilization," R. S. Troup, Supt. of Govt. Printing, Calcutta,
1907.

CAOUTCHOUC.

731

gum-resin, from Pterocarpus ^^arsupium, from India and
Ceylon, contains 75 per cent, of tannic acid.

Dammar, or copal, is a gum-resin used in making varnish.
The finest transparent dammar comes from Dammara orientalis,
the Amboyna pine, growing in the Molluccas ; D. australis
(New Zealand) also yields dammar, so does Valeria indica, a
large tree of the Indian Peninsula, its dammar being white
and valuable. Common dammar comes from Ayathits lorauthi-
folia, a conifer growing in Borneo and the other large islands
of the Indian Ocean.

Lac is a resinous incrustation on the twigs of various
Indian trees produced by a minute hemipterous insect,
Tachardia Lacca. This substance contains a crimson dye,
known as lac-dye ; also shellac, used in making varnishes,
cements, sealing-wax, lacquer work, lithographic ink, gramo-
phone records, etc. For a full account of the method of
production of lac, the reader is referred to Troup's "Indian
Forest Utilisation."

Elastic gums include the valuable products, caoutchouc, or
rubber, gutta-percha and balata.

Caoutchouc* is the produce of various trees, shrubs and
climbers, growing generally within 250 miles north, or south,
of the equator, usually with an annual rainfall averaging
80 inches, but in the Congo not exceeding 40 inches ; the
following are the chief species that yield caoutchouc :

Natural Order.

(Si-mis and »Sp(-cii's.

Locality.

EUPHORBIACEAE .

Hevea braziliensis .

Valleys of the Amazon and

Orinoco.

Manihot Glaziovii

Ceara.

Micrauda major

Amazon.

AltTOCARPACEAE .

Castilloa elastica

C. America.

Ficus elastica

Assam, Burma, Java.

„ Vogelii

Gold Coast.

„ various

Soudan, Venezuela.

APOCYNACEAE

Hancornia speciosa

Pernambuco, Peru.

Carpodinus lanceolatus .

Congo State.

Urceola elastica

Borneo.

Funtumia (Kicksia) elas-

tica ....

W. and C. Africa.

Landolphia (many sp.)

Madagascar, Mozambique.

ASCLEPIADEAE

Calotropis gigantea

Assam.

* " India-rubber and its Manufactures," with chapters on gutta-percha and
balata. 11. I.. Terry. Constable & Co., London. 1(J07.

732 OTHER MINOR PRODUCE FROM TREES.

Caoutchouc trees show great variations in form and size.
The llt'i'ca and Fiais clastica are huge trees, while the Landol-
phias of W. Africa are lianes, and the rubbers of the Congo
State are obtained from the rhizomes, or underground sterns,
of plants that grow only one or two feet above the sand. The
best rubber is obtained from the Hevea in the Amazon valley,
and is known as Para rubber. Its composition is as follows :

Caoutchouc 31 '70 per cent.

Albumen T90 ,,

Other nitrogenous and saline matters 10*03 „
Water 56'37

The best quality of Para rubber is smoked carefully with
palm nuts, before export. Kubber is prepared also most
carefully in the Congo State, and is consequently in great
demand.

Terry says, that, leaving out the wasteful destruction of
trees by felling, the following points in the preparation of
rubber call for special attention :

1. Careful tapping so that other juices of the tree may not
be mixed with the latex.

2. Avoidance of mixing latex from several species so as
to increase bulk.

3. Removal or sterilisation of fermentible albuminous
matter.

The raw rubber production of the world for 1906 has been
calculated at 65,000 tons, of which 41,000 come from tropical
America, 22,000 from Africa and 2,000 from Asia. It is a
characteristic of the tropics, that frequently plants from all
tropical districts can be planted successfully in any tropical
district. As extensive plantations of Hevea and other rubber-
plants have recently been made in Ceylon and in the Malay
peninsula and in Islands, the supply of caoutchouc from
Asia will become gradually more important than it is at
present.

Gutta-percha is the produce of the sapotaceous trees.
Dichopsis Gutta and D. oblonyifolium of the Malay peninsula,
and of Borneo, Sumatra, Java, Celebes and the Philippine
islands. Gamble states that the method of production has

GUTTA-PERCHA. 733

been very wasteful hitherto. The tree is felled and the bark
stripped or rings cut in it at intervals of a foot. The sap
oozing out is collected, put in a pot and boiled with a little
water, it is then run into moulds. The trees used are 30 to
35 years old, each tree yielding 2 to 3 Ibs of gutta-percha.
French exports say that it can be obtained from the leaves,
which, H. C. Hill (Report on Forest administration of the
Federated Malay States, 1900) says yield the best gutta-percha,
valued at 15s. a Ib. Hill recommends the planting of the
above-mentioned species, with Fa<jrae<i frayrans and Afzelia
palembartica to act as nurses, and advises experiments being
made to ascertain the most economical method of obtaining
gutta-percha with the least damage to the crop of trees.

Gutta-percha differs from caoutchouc chiefly in its plasticity
under heat.* Thus, if a piece be put in water, that is
heated gradually, it becomes more and more plastic, until at
190° F. it can be drawn out into forms which it retains on
cooling. It is used specially in submarine cable-factories
and also for making golf-balls and for other purposes.

In 1899 the imports of gutta-percha were as follows :

Great Britain . .... 4531 tons.
Rest of Europe .... 2494 „
United States 197 „

Terry says that since the completion of the all-British
Pacific cable, exports and prices have materially declined.

Balata occurs as a latex in the bark of several sapotaceous
trees, of which Mimusops balata is the principle producer.
The tree is found in many equatorial regions, but chiefly in
Venezuela, the Guianas and the W. Indies. Terry states, that
unfortunately it is lumped together with gutta-percha in our
trade returns, but as it is used largely in the manufacture of
belts for driving machinery and is much more resistent to
atmospheric oxidation and in toughness than gutta-percha, its
production should be an important industry ; it is used very
largely in beet sugar-factories for machinery belting, as it
withstand the chemical solutions met with. About 1,000
tons annually are imported into Europe. — Tr.]

* Terry, <>j>. r/7.

734 OTHER MINOR PRODUCE FROM TREES.

Bird-lime is made from the fruits of mistleto (Viscum
album) and from the inner bark of holly. The inner bark of
Trocbodendron (Japan) yields- a stronger bird-lime. Hydran-
geas, Hibiscus and Acer crataegifolium (Japan) supply size for
paper.

Lacquer from China and Japan is made with latex of Rhus
vernicifent.

Oils, fats and wax. — Usually oils are pressed from seeds ;
beech-nuts, walnuts and hazel-nuts and many other fruits
yield oil. Vegetable wax covers the bark of Myrica cerifera,
in the southern States of N. America. Wax used in Japan
for making candles and oil, is obtained from the seeds of Rhus
succedanea, which also grows in the Himalayas. [The euphor-
biaceous tree, Sapium sebiferum, the Chinese and Japanese
tallow-tree, is cultivated in India, wax-candles are made from
it in China and Japan, the wax being separated by boiling the
seeds. Cocoanut oil is prepared from copra, the dry kernel of
Cocos nucifera, which is an important article of trade. — Tr.]

Salicin is a bitter substance prepared from the bark of
willows and poplars and used in medicine as a febrifuge,
instead of quinine.

Quinine is a bitter alkaloid, coming into trade as a phosphate
or sulphate. It is present in the bark of species of Peruvian
Cinchonas, which are cultivated in subtropical countries, as
coppices, resembling those for oak-bark. In very wet localities
during the monsoon, the bark is stripped from the tree close
to the cambium, which produces fresh inner bark. In Java,
by grafting shoots that are very rich in quinine, on naturally
grown seedlings, a 20 percentage of quinine has been obtained.
[In India,* Cinchona Calisaya, at moderate elevations, yields
the best bark, rich in alkaloids, of which quinine forms from
half to four-fifths. C. officinalis, at high elevations, is not
quite so rich, while C. succirubra, thrives at lower elevations,
but is comparatively poor in quinine, though rich in cincho-
nine and chichonidine. The trees grow in Peru, at altitudes
from 2,300 to 8,000 feet above sea-level.— Tr.]

* Gamble, " Manual of Indian Timbers."

PART III.

UTILIZATION AND DISPOSAL OF MINOR PRODUCE
FROM THE SOIL OF THE FOREST.

737

CHAPTER I.

UTILIZATION OP FOREST HERBAGE FOR FODDER.

THE natural fodder produced by forests can be used in
several ways for cattle-fodder, either by driving the beasts
into the forest to graze, or by allowing men to cut grass or
the leaves of woody plants, and use them for stall-fodder.
The present chapter is therefore divided into two sections :
pasture, and grass-cutting.

SECTION I. — PASTUKK.

Forest pasture includes all grasses, herbs, leaves and shoots
of shrubs, as well as forest plants. The best grasses and
herbage for milk production in the Alps are : I'on alpina,
Alrheniilla alpina, Plmitci^o alpimis, Mi'ian nmtcUina, Achillea
nmxchdta, etc.* The amount of fodder depends on considera-
tions, which are discussed under the following headings.

1. Amount of Finltli-r.

a. Climate. — The production of fodder is greater in
favourable climates ; the cattle may be admitted into the
forest at the end of April, or the beginning of May, and may
remain till the middle of October. In unfavourable climates,
the duration of pasture is much shorter, in the higher Alps, it
lasts for only 10 to 12 weeks. May and June afford the best
pasture, at high altitudes, also July ; in these months there is
more fodder than in all the rest of the season.

b. Soil. — As regards soil, the amount of clay it contains (up
to a certain point) is the chief factor in producing fodder :
sandy soils produce as a rule the least grass ; limestone
mountains also produce little grass, being characterised often

* W. St recker, " Erkennen u. Bestimmen cler Wiesengraser. " 3rd edition,
1900.

F.U. 3 B

738 UTILIZATION OF FOREST HERBAGE FOR FODDER.

by scarcity of springs and a slow disintegration of the rock.
They also abound in deep clefts. As soon, however, as a little
clay is mixed with either sand or limestone, provided that the
soil does not thereby become too stiff, or impermeable by
water, plenty of grass will be produced. An abundant and
constant supply of water during summer is almost more
important than a mixture of clay, for grass production. On
this account, the crop of grass on a naturally dry soil is
markedly increased by an admixture of humus, or by the
shelter of a thinly stocked wood [of larch, for instance. — Tr.],
which moderates radiation from the ground and protects it
from drying winds : for this reason, mountain-forest grazing
grounds and grassy blanks are so much moister than those
outside the forest. Anyone can observe the increased deposi-
tion of dew in open land with scattered shrubs and bushes
which keep-off the wind, and the comparative dryness of
similar land without this protection. The depreciation of the
Alpine meadows in the Tyrol, and in many parts of Switzerland
and Austria-Hungary, is due chiefly to the clearance of forests.
If the soil once suffers a diminution of steady moisture, sour
grasses, rushes, etc. take the place of sweet meadow-grasses.

c. Insolation. — Grasses, clovers and most fodder-plants are
usually light demanders ; many of them love exposure to full
sunlight, and these are most nutritive, though somewhat hard ;
other grasses and herbs are half-shadebearers, being less
nutritive than the light demanders, but they have softer leaves
and shoots. For this reason, tracts, that have been freed from
trees, by clear-cuttings, storms or fire, become covered with
willow-herbs (Epilobium), or fleabane (Erigeron), etc., and are
less favourable than those shaded by isolated trees — such as
oak-pastures in wide river-valleys, mountain larch-woods,
larch plantations, meadows with pollards — forms of woodland,
the chief object of which is to favour pasture.

In forests, the ground becomes covered with herbage first of
all among light-demanding trees, oaks, birches, pines, etc.
(Dr. Peters found that this verdure under trees comes from
seeds, that have remained for a score of years and more at
rest in the soil). Among shadebearers, in dense woods of
spruce, silver-fir, or beech, there is no herbage; the soil-

PASTURE. 739

covering consists chiefly of dead leaves. In high forest, the
most favourable localities for pasture are : narrow strip-
fellings, or large clear-cut areas; extensive fellings under a
shelterwood, that have been rendered unfit for natural
regenerations by storms, which have blown down the mother-
trees, are the best places in a forest for pasture. Next to
these come coppices and coppice-with-standards, with their
areas either clear of trees or slightly shaded by the standards.
Natural regeneration under a shelterwood diminishes the
growth of herbage ; in thoroughly successful cases, there is
nothing for the beasts to eat except the young crop of forest
trees.

2. Species of Cattle.

Forest pasture is used chiefly by horned cattle ; also by
sheep and goats ; less frequently by horses or ponies. [In
India, elephants, camels and buffalos may be added to the
above list. — Tr.] Among these, horned cattle do the least
damage, for they prefer grazing on the ground, and as long as
there is sufficient grass and herbage, will not attack the woody
plants. The sheep likes dry pasture, and prefers short grass
among woody plants, to a strong, luxuriant growth of grass,
and especially prefers fodder that has grown unshaded by
trees ; it attacks woody plants much more freely than do horned
cattle. If there are no dry pastures, sheep peel trees in a
similar way to red deer. The goat is absolutely destructive to
the forest, and no other beast shows such a preference for
woody plants, which it will attack, however abundant the
supply of grass may be. This greedy beast, often indeed
indispensable to the poor peasant, bites off the buds, young
shoots and leaves, of almost every woody plant within its
reach ; no forest is too remote for it, and no mountain too
lofty, no patch of woody growth beyond its reach, and it even
bears-down fairly tall saplings with its fore-legs, in order to
nibble their juicy tops. Forests in the Alps, the South Tyrol
and Southern Switzerland, which were formerly so well
wooded, and those of Spain, Greece, Sicily, etc., have been
destroyed chiefly by herds of goats ; even up to the present
time a limit has not been put to their ravages.

3 B 2

740 UTILIZATION OF FOREST HERBAGE FOR FODDER.

Young cattle are always more harmful to the forest than
older beasts ; even calves form no exception to this rule,
nibbling woody plants partly out of playfulness, partly to
assist dentition. Whilst a flock of full-grown sheep may be
driven without much danger through a beech or spruce
reproduction-area well stocked with grass, as is sometimes
done in the Harz, this can never be the case with lambs.

It is evidently necessary to base the number of cattle
admitted to graze in a forest on the amount of available
fodder it contains. Very many Alpine forests, for 'instance,
have suffered greatly from an excess in the number of cattle
admitted into them by grazing-rights. As a rule, the require-
ments of fodder per head are proportional to the weight of the
beasts ; thus, a cow of average size, weighing 200 kilos
(4 cwt.), requires daily for its complete nourishment 7 to 8
kilos (15 to 18 Ibs.) of hay ; if, as Hundeshagen calculates, for
every cwt. 1/8 to 2 kilos (4 to 4J Ibs.) of fodder are necessary.
If calves are reckoned at two-thirds and sheep at one-tenth
the weight of a full-grown cow, 5 kilos (11 Ibs.) of hay are
required for a calf ; and f kilo (If Ibs.) for a sheep. It is
impossible to say what is the average yield of fodder in forests
open to grazing, but grass, equivalent to 700 to 900 kilos of
hay per hectare (5J to 7 cwt. per acre), may be cited, as the
supply in good localities.

3. National-economic importance of Forest Pasture.

The gain to agriculture through forest pasture, from the
large quantities of grass and other herbage which forests
annually produce, and from the maintenance and exercise of
the beasts in the open air, is too self-evident to be controverted.
On the other hand, the supply of manure is diminished con-
siderably, and whenever, as now almost everywhere, the latter
is the turning-point of agricultural profit, forest pasture is
clearly a hindrance to agricultural success. The more
unfavourable, however, the agricultural conditions, and the
more the farmer is compelled to use all available means in
order to be able to feed his cattle at least through the winter,
the greater value does he attach to forest psist.uro. .Forest

PASTURE. 741

pasture, therefore, at present prevails in forest countries that
are recently populated, in mountain -forest regions where the
climate is severe, and also in districts where landed property
is much sub-divided,

Every settler in a virgin forest district seeks to increase the
growth of grass as much as possihle, and opens out the dense
cover of the trees for this purpose. The trees are girdled ;
fire, which traverses the forest annually, expedites the growth
of grass by destroying the forest and leaving a prairie in its
place. In America, Asia and Australia as in many localities
in Europe, the opening out and destruction of the forest is the
earliest mode of utilising it.

Mountainous districts permit only of poor farming ; there,
crops of artificial fodder are scanty and the yield in straw is
insufficient for the winter's fodder-supply. Most mountainous
forest districts are in this plight. The less favourable the
conditions for agriculture, the more are the people driven to
cattle-breeding, and the more they value forest pasture ; in the
Alps and higher mountain-chains of the interior of Germany,
cattle-breeding and the production of milk and cheese are
the chief popular industries, and forest pasture far exceeds
silvicultural limits.

Excessive sub-division of landed property is also a great
incentive to forest pasture. \Yhere the poor peasant hardly
possesses enough land to grow potatoes for his family, and
can scarcely manage to stack sufficient fodder for the winter
supply of his cattle, he will pasture them as long as possible in
the forest.

4. Effects of Pasture on Forest Management.
(a) Advantages of Forest Pasture.

In only a few cases does forestry gain any advantage from
pasture. These should not, however, be overlooked ; they
consist in the suppression of dense growth of grass and herbage
in regeneration-areas and plantations, in protection against
mice, and, to some extent, in keeping the surface-soil free for
the germination of seeds.

There are many sheltered regeneration-areas with moist and

742 UTILIZATION OF FOREST HERBAGE FOR FODDER.

rich soil, on which, after only a moderate admission of light,
such a strong growth of grass appears, that the woody plants
under it must be stifled if the herbage is not carefully removed.
It cannot he denied that in the Schwarzwald, the Harz, etc.,
many young plantations and woods owe their existence to
cattle-pasture. Nevertheless these cases, in which grazing is
useful, are very much less numerous than those in which it
is prejudicial, and have caused the economic ruin of forests
and their conversion in mere hrushwood ; this is specially
true, where goats are permitted to graze in the forest.

Frequently, danger from mice follows from a dense growth
of grass, especially in felling-areas near fields. Under and
between the dry procumbent tufts of grass, the mice find
sheltered winter-quarters, where they collect in swarms,
especially under deep snow, and cause great damage to young
beech and other plants by gnawing their bark. When cattle
trample in the grass and herbage which is full of the runs of
the mice, and the covers that protected them against enemies
and the cold, have been removed, damage to forest by mice
becomes much less formidable.

It has been observed in many places, that in scantily-stocked
old woods with consolidated soil, where cattle have pastured,
natural regeneration is obtained more easily than in others
closed to grazing, provided the cattle are removed when the
seed germinates. This is due to the wounding of the soil,
caused by the tread of the cattle, especially on somewhat
sloping ground.

(b) Disadvantages of Forest Pasture.

The realisation of the above-mentioned advantages from
forest pasture is always more or less attended with danger to
the forest. The damage which cattle effect in a forest is
due chiefly to improverishing the soil, browsing on the forest
plants, and trampling on their roots and on the soil.

i. Impoverishment of f/te Soil.

Every usage which removes forest produce must conse-
quently reduce the fertility of the soil ; it is incontestable that

DAMAGE BY PASTUKE. 743

pasture removes, in the fodder consumed, large quantities of
nutritive mineral matter from the forest and reduces the
organic matter necessary for the formation of humus. The
damage done is however slight, for the dung of the cattle
remains in the forest, and many organic products are composed
chiefly of air ; only on shallow calcareous soil, or on gravel,
can the superficial soil be said to deteriorate.

ii. Damage li/

Cattle graze not only on the grass and herbage of the soil
covering of forests, but also browse on the leaves, buds, and
young shoots of woody plants. That, by this browsing,
especially if repeated annually for long intervals of time,
forest growth is seriously damaged and its very existence
endangered, may be proved by the present condition of hun-
dreds of acres of forests, even if the fact is not accepted as
self-evident. When and where browsing is to be feared, and
the extent to which woods are thus endangered, depends on
UK larger or smaller supply of fodder-plants on the grazing-
groimds, the species of cattle admitted to graze, the suscepti-
bility of the woody species, the season for grazing, the age
of the woods and the system of management.

Supply of Fodder. — It is obvious that when cattle do not find
sufficient grass or herbage on their grazing-grounds, they will
attack woody growth.

The condition of the animals as regards fodder is of
immense importance to the well-being of the forest. Hungry
cattle, of any kind, will attack woody growth much more
readily than those that are well fed; if, therefore, there is
only scanty herbage in a forest, the damage done by either
horned cattle or sheep may be considerable. It is on this
account that the half-starved flocks of sheep driven annually
from Lombardy to the Engadine and the Tyrol are always so
destructive to the forests. So, also, cattle, reared from their
youth in forests attack woody growth much more than cattle
accustomed to meadows and only occasionally driven into the
forest. Milch cattle and breeding cattle always require the
best fodder, and satisfy their hunger without wandering far ;

74-4 UTILIZATION OF FOREST HERBAGE FOR FODDER.

young cattle thrive on inferior herbage, and it is even
beneficial to them to be driven far into the forest for their
fodder.

Species of Tree. — In general, broadleaved species suffer
more from cattle than conifers ; among them, it is (unless
they possess acid or bitter sap) chiefly light-demanding species
that are most attacked, such as ash, aspen, sallow, syca-
more ; but also hornbeam. These species are attacked when
isolated among beech, even where there is plenty of herbage.
It is characteristic of cattle to prefer locally rare woody
species to those of which a wood is composed chiefly. Whilst
in districts where beech predominates, it rarely suffers
provided there is plenty of grass, beech-plants springing up in
coniferous woods with scanty herbage are attacked so freely as
to grow into abnormal shapes, which can be hardly recognised
as trees. Oak and alder are less liable to attack than the
species already mentioned, and except the alder, the birch is
the only European forest tree, which is browsed rarely by
horned cattle. Sheep spare beech more than do horned
cattle, but they attack light-demanding species freely, even the
birch. The goat is impartial in its taste for woody species.
Among conifers, silver-fir and larch are more endangered
than spruce and pines, which latter suffer from browsing.
The spruce escapes more easily than the softer silver-fir ; the
larch grows more rapidly out of danger, as the larch forests of
Wallis and the Engadine show.

Season for Pasture. — Pasture is most dangerous to woody
growth at two periods of the year : in the spring, when the
young shoots appear and the foliage is tender and most
nutritive ; again, late in autumn, when the grass has become
hard or scanty. The least damage is therefore done at
the season when the grass is still soft and juicy, and the
annual upward growth of the woody plants is about finished,
i.e. from the end of May till the middle of July. In the higher
Alpine pastures, however, the grass is not fully grown till the
second half of June. If cattle are brought into the forest only
when the grass has become tough and there is little after-
growth, they will browse certainly on woody plants. Cattle
should not be driven into the forest in the morning before the

DAMAGE BY PASTURE. 745

dew has nearly dried from off the grass, or else they will attack
the woody plants ; they will also do so in wet weather.

System of Management. — No damage is done by pasture
in clear-fellings that are planted only after remaining blank
for a few years, as a protection against the pine-weevil* :
it may be advisable to continue the pasture after the
planting has been effected, in order to keep down the
grass, otherwise the area is closed to grazing, and in
woods managed by the group system. In selection forests,
not only is there far more fodder produced, but damage
by cattle is more widely distributed than in concentrated
even-aged forest.

iii. iJtnuiKjf by Tram^li-ny.

It is evident that young plants must be damaged when
trampled by the hoofs of heavy cattle ; foals are most hurtful
in this respect; sheep also, owing to their sharp hoofs and
short stride, in spite of their comparatively light weight, do
much damage. Besides trampling-down young plants and
shoots and bruising young superficial roots, calves jump
about and crush saplings and poles. The amount of damage
done, however, is modified by the configuration of the
ground.

On level or gently sloping ground the damage done by the
tread of cattle is only slight ; on steeper slopes, however, both
horned cattle and sheep, when grazing in narrow strips of forest
or passing daily in the same direction, make straight, narrow
paths, on dry slopes where the grass is scanty. The effects of
trampling are, however, much worse on steep, damp slopes,
with a clay subsoil, the cattle at each step slipping and
making grooves in the surface-soil, and burying every plant in
their way. In forests with a deep moist coating of humus,
where cattle come for the first time, it not unfrequently
happens that whole crops of trees perish, because the cattle
expose the superficial roots that are in the humus. Spruce
crops may thus become affected wholesale with root-rot, owing
to the wounds the cattle cause to their roots.

* See Vol. IV. of this Manual.

746 UTILIZATION OF FOREST HERBAGE FOR FODDER.

SECTION II. — GRASS-CUTTING.

Demands for grass are increasing in all forest districts.

Localities, which produce large quantities of grass, may be
distinguished as permanent, or temporary, grass areas. To
the former belong regular forest meadows, which owing to their
naturally moist condition are adapted for a prolonged supply
of good grass. Temporary grass areas include all those
destined for the production of wood, but which, during the
young stages of woody growth, are adapted for the production
of grass; besides these, all blanks in the forest, such as the
sides of ditches, road-sidings, rides, fire-lines and other
similar places, may be included here, for unlike permanent
meadows they are not kept clear from woody plants expressly
for grass-production.

The permanent grass-areas are lands contained in the
forest area, but used for the production of grass : these are
lands liable to inundations from rivers and brooks, or near
permanent springs, which afford the necessary supplies of
subsoil moisture ; lower parts of valleys between mountainous
slopes ; Alpine pastures, or similar areas, with rich moist soil
in mountainous countries. Wherever there are extensive
areas of this nature, and fodder is scarce, every means should
be employed that the farmer uses to improve his meadows ;
often only a small expenditure is necessary to obtain a better
crop of grass, by removing stones and rocks, draining swamps,
or planting rows of trees far apart. It is not only the direct
utility to the forest that should be considered by the forest
manager, but public duty also should impel him to endeavour
strenuously to increase the local supply of fodder, especially
in essentially forest districts, where the poor peasantry are
constantly increasing in numbers and becoming more and
more impoverished.

For a temporary supply of grass the most important
places are : — felling-areas and plantations with moist grass-
producing soil, there, if the grass be cat carefully, this can
be done not only without injury to the forest, but in the
case of grass that chokes the plants, with most beneficial
results. Plantations with plants that are wide apart are most

GRASS-CUTTING. 747

suitable ; where the soil is poor and dry it is better to abstain
from grass-cutting.

On all permanent forest grass-lands, the grass is mown
with scythes as in ordinary meadows ; where the presence of
trees would interfere with the scythe the sickle is used instead.
Forest revenue is obtained either by leasing the grass for
longer or shorter periods, or by selling the crop in well-
demarcated lots by public auction.

The grass among young growth or on felling-areas may be
either plucked by hand or cut with a sickle. Hand-plucking
is considered a less hurtful method, but it yields little and
cannot be continued long without danger to the hands.
Cutting grass is nearly everywhere effected with the com-
mon smooth-blade sickle, and but rarely with the saw-
toothed one.

The season for grass-cutting cannot be begun too soon when
plants are being choked by the grass. In any case, a com-
mencement should be made not later than the blossoming
period ; and if, as on very rich soil, it is necessary to repeat
the cutting, this should be done during autumn, for the snow
will press the grass down over the young plants in winter and
thus endanger them.

Grass-cutting on felling-areas is thus permissible with good
supervision. The revenue for it is collected either by the
issue of cheap grass-permits, giving the holder a right to cut
grass on certain designated areas, or by auction-sales of
demarcated lots on grassy tracts.

If the full value of the grass cut in Germany from forests
could be given, its immense national-economic value would be
thoroughly appreciated ; it would be seen that a very con-
siderable number of cattle obtain their summer fodder almost
entirely from forests, and that often the maintenance of the
poor man's cow or goat only thus is rendered possible. From
the Hardtwald near Mulhaussen in Alsace, for instance, the
annual crop of forest-grass is estimated as at least 2,500 tons.
In the forest range of Berghausen in Baden, the average
revenue from grass has been 760/. (6s. an acre). In the dry
year 1893, no less than 65,000 tons of grass were obtained in
a regular manner from the Bavarian forests.

748 UTILIZATION OF FOREST HERBAGE FOR FODDER.

The advantages the forest gains from grass-cutting are
similar to those already described under pasture. Plantations
and natural regeneration-areas are saved from being choked
by the grass, and from deprivation of light and dew ; whilst
damage by mice is greatly reduced, and, finally, a considerable
revenue is frequently obtained.

The disadvantages are obvious : cutting down and up-
rooting young plants, transplanting and breaking them.

i£. 387A. — Field-crops and woods in the Ardennes, i'.y K. Storey.

749

CHAPTER II.

FIELD-CROPS IN COMBINATION WITH FORESTRY.

^YHEN field-crops care grown on forest land they are classed
as minor forest produce. Either the field-crop or the crop of
wood may preponderate in value, and the methods adopted
vary in accordance with their comparative importance. These
different methods will be considered seriatim, chiefly from a
silvicultural point of view.

SECTION I. —METHODS ADOPTED.

1. Land* j><'rin<(nentli/ cl'tircd in Forests.

Forests contain certain lands that are always free from
wood, and consequently are classed as silviculturally non-
productive. These are fields given either rent-free, or at a
low rent, to forest-guards, or to permanently engaged wood-
cutters ; areas cultivated for feeding deer or other game ;
areas adjoining foresters' houses in the interior of forests,
that are cleared to afford sufficient light, heat, and air to
render them habitable, and also space for gardens, orchards, or
field-crops. Strips of treeless land along roads or railways,
and blanks left unstocked with trees for sporting and other
purposes, may be included.

As lands thus excluded from the wood-producing forest area
(except those used for feeding game) rarely are cultivated by
the forest -owner, they should be leased unless they are allotted
to officials or woodcutters. The foresters' orchards contain
apple, pear, cherry or walnut trees, and therefore often yield
some timber.

2. Field-crop* tjroini on Woodland without Care for
Forest Growth.

Formerly in certain localities where the value of wood was
almost nil, it was often customary to fell and burn the trees,

750 FIELD-CROPS IN COMBINATION WITH FORESTRY.

and then cultivate the soil for agricultural crops as long as
these would grow without manure. Subsequently the land was
put under pasture. It then gradually became restocked with
trees by means of coppice-shoots and seeds coming from
adjoining woods. This practice is becoming rare in Europe,
but has been practised extensively in America since its first
colonization.

In Europe this barbarous manner of destroying forests and
using the burned area for field-crops, or pasture, is followed
still in Finland, Northern Sweden, in Poland and certain
parts of Russia, and here and there in the Alps and Carpathian
mountains. In other localities a regular utilization of the
wood has been introduced, only the unsaleable parts being
burned, as well as the shrubs and soil- covering. Such a system
is still in force in the Swiss cantons of Luzern and Wallis.
The wood on these areas is felled every 10 to 20 years, usually
for making cellulose, the stumps extracted, and the refuse
burned ; then potatoes or corn are grown for a few years,
when the land is abandoned to forest growth or used for
pasture. Gradually, woody growth reappears, and after a
number of years the same treatment is repeated. In the
district of Birkenberge in Lower Bavaria, a similar system,
now falling into disuse, was followed in woods chiefly stocked
with birch and spruce trees ; but in this case, a few standard
trees were left to give seed, and the land constantly subjected
to pasture and removal of litter, after 2 to 3 years' crops of
potatoes or corn had been harvested. Some districts of the
Eeutberge in the Black Forest may be included, as the cultiva-
tion of trees is quite subordinated to that of field-crops. For
the last 50 years, the Baden Government has endeavoured to
convert this system into oak-coppice, or coniferous forest ;
8 per cent, is still unconverted.

[In many hill-districts in India, a similar custom, termed
jhuming, prevails. As an instance, the mode adopted in the
Garo Hills, south of the Brahmaputra river, will be described.
The Garo village-communities own land naturally stocked with
trees, bamboos or grass. In October they fell all the woody
growth on areas they wish to cultivate, and cut the herbage,
etc., reserving a few large trees, if found on the area. Some-

FIELD-CHOPS WITH CULTIVATED TREES. 751

times they remove a certain number of poles and other pieces
of wood or bamboos for their own use, or for sale in the plains
of Sylhet, and the rest of the wood is spread on the ground,
and burned in March. The stumps are not extracted, but the
land is hoed between them, and cotton or rice sown. In the
second year, a crop of yams, chillies, tapioca, etc., is taken off
the land, and then the area is abandoned to woody growth
from coppice-shoots, seedlings, etc. In about ten years or
less, according to the total area of land possessed by the
village, the operation is repeated. The Garos levy fines on a
village if a fire should spread from its lands to those of another
village. The reserved trees are lopped of most of their
branches, so as not to over shade the crops, and temporary
bamboo huts are built in the forked boughs of these trees,
where the cultivators can sleep without fear of elephants and
other wild beasts. — Tr.]

3. Field-Crops aJtmiatinii trith the Cult /ration of 7'nvx.

Wherever care is taken to protect the woody growth after
the field-crop has been harvested, the latter may be considered
as subordinate in importance to the former. Here, usually
after a clear felling, unless the trees have been up-rooted, the
stumps are extracted, the refuse burned, and the soil cultivated
for a crop of corn. If the soil-covering consists of shrubs,
grass, etc., it is hoed up sometimes in sods and burned in
loosely piled heaps with the wood-refuse. The heaps are
burned to ashes so as to leave as little charred wood as
possible. The ashes and the burned earth from the sods are
then strewn over the area. This system is termed in German,
Sclnnoren, or Schmoden. If the area is hoed roughly, and all
the herbage and refuse wood spread over it so that the fire
passes over the whole area, the system is termed Sengen.
This is usual when there is not much herbage on the soil, the
soil-covering consisting chiefly of coniferous needles ; the fire
is applied against the wind, or downhill on slopes, otherwise it
would be kept under control with difficulty.

In the system called Schmoren, the refuse is more thoroughly
burned to ashes than in the latter system, which produces

752 FIELD-CROPS IN COMBINATION WITH FORESTRY.

more charred wood. The beneficial effects of burning the soil
are, however, more marked in Sengen.

The field-crops last usually for two years. Generally, cereal
crops are cultivated, buckwheat, rye, oats, or potatoes, a third
crop being sometimes obtained. The ground cannot be
cleared always early enough for spring sowing, it then lies
fallow till the autumn, when it is sown for the next year's
crop. As soon as the cultivation of field-crops ceases, the area
is restocked with trees either by sowing or planting, and
occasionally the seed of the trees is sown with the last cereal
seed.

There are several varieties of this mode of treating forest
land. Thus, in many pine districts, the felling-areas with
reserved standard trees standing on them are leased in lots
for one year's cereal cultivation, in order that the soil may be
thoroughly loosened for natural regeneration of the pine. The
soil must not then be too matted with weeds or roots if the cost
of cultivation is to be covered by only one year's crop. In Upper
Bavaria, spruce plants with balls of earth round their roots are
planted in land, which has been cropped with oats. The land
is cleared, cultivated, and oats sown in the spring. In the
second year a crop of potatoes is reared ; in the third year
another crop of oats mixed with spruce seed. From the fourth
to the sixth year the spruce seedlings are utilised as trans-
plants with balls of earth, and planted in lines on the area and
on other neighbouring cleared strips.

4. Simultaneous Cultivation of Forest and Field-Crops.

In the above-mentioned systems the felling-area is abandoned
to agriculture for several years, and the cultivation of a forest-
crop commences only after the last field-crop has been
harvested. The wood-increment is therefore lost during the
years occupied by the field-crops. There are, however, other
methods in which there is no interruption in the production
of wood, and the field-crop is merely intended to assist the
latter. The two most important varieties of this method are
termed in German, Hackir«l<l and Wabyeldbau-Betrieb*

(a) Hackwald.— This is a combination of field-crops and

I 1HLD-CKOPS WITH CULTIVATED TREES. 753

coppice, nearly always of oak ; it has been practised for
centuries in the Odenwald, in Siegen, Westphalia, Hildesheim
and several other localities, and is followed most extensively
in the district of Beerfelden and Hirschhorn in the Neckar-
valley. As soon as the oak-coppice compartments have heen
felled and peeled, the bark removed, and the felling-area
cleared (usually about the end of May), the felling-area, on
which the oak-stools are somewhat far apart, is cultivated by
hoeing and burning, as in the methods previously described.
At present, in the Odenwald and irji Siegen, the cultivation is
only for a single crop, and the area is sown with winter-corn
(in October or November).

In the Odenwald an acre of the best Hackicald yields about
8J bushels of corn. The felling-areas are leased in small lots
for cultivation, either after the felling and clearance of the
wood and bark, or together with the wood and bark. In
Hirschhorn and Beerfelden the forest-owners first auction-off
the bark to tanners at so much a cwt., and at the same time,
the right of cultivation in small lots to the peasantry ; the
latter also buy the standing-crop, bark and wood, and the
right of cultivating as well, under agreement to sell the bark
at a stated price to the tanners. In Siegen an acre yields on
the average 13 bushels of corn. The right of cultivation
on the annually felled areas is exercised by an association
of peasants. As the llackirald produces usually only bark of
an inferior quality, it is now so unproductive, financially, that
other forms of management must be adopted.

(b) Waldfeldbau. — Waldfcldbau is a similar method to that
of Hackwald, but is applied to high forest instead of coppice.
The method adopted by Forstmeister Keiss of Hesse-Darmstadt
has been followed in different German countries, and the
following account of the experience gained in the well-known
forest-range of Viernheim will suffice to explain it. The
felling and clearance of the felling-area is expedited so that
the land may be cultivated early in the spring. All the wood
is uprooted except a few standards (oaks or Scots pines).
The whole cleared felling-area is cultivated to a depth of from
1 foot, to 16 inches, and the soil, thoroughly worked, is restocked
by .sowing, or by planting in lines 1J meters (say 5 feet) apart.

F.U. 3 C

754 FIELD-CHOPS IN COMBINATION WITH FORESTRY.

Oaks or conifers are used for this purpose, according to
locality. For oaks, acorns are sown 3 meters (10 feet) apart ;
at the same time, Scots pine nurses are planted or sown in
rows to protect the oaks, and are removed eventually in
thinnings. The rotation is fixed at 100 years. In the inter-
vals (4 feet broad) between the plants, field-crops are grown
on the better soils for 4 years, and on poorer soils, for 2
years.

In the first year it is usual to grow a crop of potatoes, in
the second year, winter-corn ; if the field-crops are con-
tinued during the third and fourth years the same order is
followed. When the potatoes are dug the spaces between the
forest plants are hoed, weeded, and the plants tended almost
as carefully as if they were in a forest-nursery. If in the first
year there should not be enough plants or seed to stock the
ground, the whole area is cultivated for a potato-crop, and, as
an exception, the restocking undertaken only in the autumn.

In Hesse about 10,000 acres of forest land have been thus
treated. In Wurtemberg also, this system has been adopted
extensively, especially on a rich soil near Bibrach. The
method has been tried also in the Prussian provinces of
Pomerania, Silesia, Hesse-Nassau, and in Alsace-Lorraine ; in
some Bohemian districts ; in Hungary, where also crops of
maize are reared. At present, however, the agricultural
aspect of this system has lost in interest greatly for well-
known reasons.

Pollards of willows, ash, poplars, etc., grown in lines on wet
land, also imply a steady annual production of grass between
the rows of trees.

Osier-beds are truly silvicultural means of producing
material for basket-making. They are, however, but rarely
managed by foresters and are regarded as a branch of
agriculture ; therefore a short account of them may be given
here.

Osier-beds are an exceedingly remunerative form of culture.
Danckelmann says that good osier-beds may yield a net annual
profit of £7 to £8 per acre. To succeed, however, a moderately
warm climate is necessary, a good moist, but not wet, deep
soil, deep trenching and clean weeding, as in a garden. The

NATIONAL-ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE. 755

best osier-willows are Salix rindnalis, purpurea, amygdaUna,
rubrn (riminaUs X piirptirea), alba var. ritclliiia, pruinosa, etc.
Planted in the ground as shoots, 8 to 10 inches long [or full-
length shoots of 6 to 8 feet, as in England. — Tr.], they grow
in one or two years coppice-shoots to lengths of 6 to 10 feet.
Full details regarding the culture of osiers are given by Krahe,
Kern,* Goschke, Piccioli, and others.

von Kern has described the use made of twelve species of
willows : the wood, — for basket-work, fascines, fences, vine-
props, hurdles, charcoal and fuel ; the bark, — for tanning, pro-
duction of salicin, dyes, tying, carpets, litter and woven shoes ;
the wool from their seeds for wads and stuffing ; their leaves
and twigs for sheep and goat fodder ; their flowers for agri-
culture and for decorative purposes ; their roots for fixing soil,
protecting banks, etc.

SECTION II. — NATIONAL-ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE OF FIELD-CROPS

COMBINED WITH FORESTRY.

The national-economic advantages of combining field-crops
and forestry consist in the increased production of food, the
fact that this can be secured without any manure, and last
but not least, because the increased supply of straw really
increases the amount of manure available for agriculture.
These advantages, however, are diminished considerably by
the difficulties of working the soil (weeds, shrubs, stools, roots,
sloping ground, distance from villages) ; this form of cultiva-
tion is commonest in warm countries, on loose soil, in land
either slightly undulating or flat, in densely populated districts,
with insufficient agricultural land.

The advantages to forests from field-crops are : the conse-
quent increase in the forest revenue, and the reduced cost of
reproduction, for the ground is thus cultivated ; the growth
also of the forest plants is stimulated when the crop is young,
and the young crop is sheltered.

The increased forest revenue by field-crops is usually only

* von Kern "Die Weiden, ihre Bedeutung, Erziehung, " Benutzung. Tula,
IS'.H; (Russian). See also Mouillefert, " Traite de Sylviculture," Felix Alcan,
Paris. 11)01, where there is an excellent account of osier-beds.

3c2

756 FIELD-CROPS IN COMBINATION WITH FORESTRY.

slight, for the expenses are considerable; only where the
peasant pays for the cultivation of the ground, the demands
on the forest cash -box for simultaneous or subsequent stocking
with forest plants are reduced considerably. Every day
experience proves that by agricultural cultivation, sowing and
planting of forest plants is facilitated, and that, owing to the
working of the soil, the young plants grow quickly. The
protection afforded by the corn to young sowings of spruce,
against lifting by frost, drought and enemies of all kinds is
specially beneficial.

The principal danger caused by field-crops to the forest is
the consequent reduction in fertility of the soil. The crops
take from the soil those very substances, which are generally
deficient (potash, nitrates and phosphates), and these materials
are required just as much by woody plants as by those grown
by the farmer, the latter requiring them merely in larger
quantities than the former. The agricultural plants, however,
grow only in the surface soil, which owing to the decom-
position of the weeds forming the soil-covering and of the humus
from dead leaves, etc., and to the cultivation it has received, is
more or less richly supplied with assimilable nutritive salts.

The field-crop robs the surf ace- soil undoubtedly of a con-
siderable amount of nutritive matter, and the more so the longer
the land is under crops ; the forest plants can satisfy their
wants less fully in the soil, the poorer the latter, and the more
exacting the species of tree grown, and the less provision has
been made for its roots to penetrate deeply in the soil. Bat
when coppice is grown associated with field-crops (Had-wcdd],
the greater or less reduction in fertility of the soil occurs every
15 to 20 years only ; or when high forest is so grown (Roder-
wald and Waldfeldbau) , only every 80 to 100 years : if then,
the soil-covering is carefully protected on areas so treated, no
litter removed and the soil by nature sufficiently rich and moist,
the results of the deprivation of nutriment will be felt very
little. In • the case, however, of poor soil exhausted by the
fieldcrops, bad consequences will result for the forest growth ;
if this is not visible at once during its youth the wood must
undoubtedly suffer in its subsequent development.

Whenever temporary field-crops are to be grown on a

NATIONAL-ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE. 757

sufficiently rich soil with the least possible damage to the forest
crop, care must be taken that the young woody plants are
rooted in a lower stratum of the soil than that in which the
field-crop is grown. This is secured by cultivating the soil
deeply, and restocking it with woody plants with deep rather
than superficial roots, and with transplants rather than by seed.

From the above considerations it follows that, from a silvi-
cultural point of view, field-crops may be grown profitably in
combination with forestry only on well-cultivated soil rich
in nutritious salts, and then it is the cheapest and most
certain method of restocking a felling-area. On poor soil this
system is quite unjustifiable, as has been proved in numerous
cases.

Of all the methods which have been tried, the Uraldfeldbau
is the best, because it implies a thorough working of the soil,
no loss of wood-increment, and clear-felled areas are at once
restocked. But even on superior soils, field-crops should not be
maintained for more than two years.

[Frequently in France and Belgium, cleared areas, on which
conifers grew, are cultivated for one year with a field-crop,
after burning (snrtcuje) the soil-covering and refuse from the
felling : this reduces danger of damage by insects to the
succeeding crop of conifers.

In Burma, bamboos and other inferior species prevent the
growth of teak, advantage is therefore taken otjhumc cultiva-
tion, which is termed locally taungya, to get the area sown
with teak-seed, the teak plants growing into forest after the
cultivation of field-crops has been abandoned. — Tr.]

758

CHAPTEK III.

FOREST-LITTER.

SECTION I. — GENERAL ACCOUNT.

IN forests, the mineral soil is not exposed, but it is everywhere
coated with a vegetable soil-covering, which is partly dead and
partly composed of living plants. The nature of the soil-
covering varies according to the shade it receives. In a dense
beech forest the soil-covering consists of dead leaves, husks of
fruit, fallen flowers, etc., which the trees shed periodically and
with which dead fallen branches and twigs are mingled. In a
dense old spruce or silver-fir forest, the soil-covering consists
of living and dead mosses, among which are the dead fallen
needles, cones, scales of bark, etc. Under light-demanding trees,
the soil is exposed to the influence of light, and, besides the
fallen debris from the trees, it also exhibits a number of
weeds of various species.

Whenever the soil-covering of a forest, consisting of dead
leaves or needles and moss, is left to the natural process of
decomposition, its lowest layers lose completely their organic
character, only their mineral components being left. More
and more organic matter thus occurs in its upper layers, till the
surface consists of dead leaves or living moss. Its lower and
partly decomposed layer is termed humus and its upper decom-
posing and living layers, ground-litter (Bodenstreu). While
therefore in humus all vegetable structure has disappeared, in
ground-litter this structure is quite recognisable.

Humus cannot be used in stalls for litter, but it has some
value as manure and is appreciated by the farmer as an
adjunct to litter. It is generally the undecomposed layers of
the soil-covering only, that are used as litter in agricul-
ture. Hence a distinction is made between the following
kinds of ground-litter:

EFFECTS ON TKEE-GROWTH. 759

(a) Dry fallen leaves or needles, which are shed by the
trees forming the standing-crop of the forest ; and to some
extent, by shrubs in the underwood.

(b) Moss and grass, partly living and partly dead.

(c) Forest weeds, such as broom, bilberry-plants (and other
species of Vaccinium), heather, ferns, reeds, rushes, etc.

Branch-litter, young needle-bearing twigs of conifers, have
been described already (p. 694).

SECTION II. — IMPORTANCE OF FOREST-LITTER FOR WOOD-
PRODUCTION.*

It is not the business of " Forest Utilization " to deal
thoroughly with the question of the importance of litter for
soil-formation, climate, productivity, for forest trees individu-
ally, or for the whole forest, any more than in dealing with
the utilization of wood, the effects of soil and climate and the
methods of starting and tending trees, are discussed. Here
only the most essential points will be explained. The works
noted below may be consulted for further details.

1. 7>Vm'//rM/ Htj\-ctx of Litter <u«l Humus on (lie (ir<nrth

of Trees.

(a) Preservation of Moisture in the Soil.

The humus which covers the mineral subsoil and is only
to a slight extent mixed with it, and the coating of litter above
the humus, are the most effectual means of securing and
maintaining in the soil the requisite amount of moisture.
The action of humus and litter is in this respect threefold, viz. :
The mechanical impediment it affords on slopes to rapid
drainage of surface-water from atmospheric precipitations, and
the time thus allowed for the water to sink into the soil-
covering and the soil ; the sponge-like action possessed by dead

* Kbrnnavcr, "Die gesamintc Lehre der Waldstreu," Berlin, 1H7<>. Wollny,
translated into French by K. Henry, " La decomposition des mat ieres organiques
et les formes d'huimis," 1'aris, Berger Levrault, 1902. Ramatm, "Forstliche
. Stand. alslrhnj,'' 1^1)3. Muller, (- Die natiirlichen Hunmsformon."

760 FOREST-LITTER.

leaves and moss, of absorbing and retaining water, and the
consequent reduced evaporation of water from the soil.

The more sloping the ground, the greater is the value of the
litter in preventing torrents and floods; on slopes in the shallow
soil, over rock, sand or gravel, it is absolutely necessary to
maintain the litter, in order to protect the fertile soil below it
from erosion.

The amount of water which is retained by the absorptive
action of the soil-covering is considerable ; dry coniferous
needles can absorb 4 to 5 times their weight in water,
dry beech leaves 7 times, and mosses 6 to 10 times this
amount, without allowing it to dribble away. This absorptive
power of the soil-covering is increased further by that of
humus for water- vapour, which, becoming condensed in the
cool soil, increases the supply of moisture.

Once the soil-covering is saturated thoroughly with water
from atmospheric precipitation, it passes on the superfluous
water to the subjacent soil, in the numerous interstices
of which it is distributed, and thus reaches the roots of the
trees. Slight showers, which are so necessary for natural
regeneration under a shelter-wood, and during the dry
season are fully absorbed by the litter, do not reach the
plants' roots. In this respect, the litter is the more hurtful,
the thicker it is. But if the rain is sufficiently heavy, the
litter prevents too rapid evaporation of the water in the soil.

E. Eamann (1895) found, that the soil in dense crops of
trees, with plenty of litter, is less moist than the soil of
agricultural land ; when the leaves come out in spring, their
transformation causes a considerable loss of water from the
deeper layers of the soil ; shaded glades in a wood are much
moister than the soil of an old crop of trees. Hoppe (1900)
also showed that the soil in dense crops of trees with litter
was less moist than in clearings. Ebermayer* has proved
experimentally that the soil-covering of leaves and needles
evaporates water 2J times less than does a forest soil without
litter. There is a difference in this respect between leaf-
litter and moss-litter. Wollny showed that the soil-covering

* " Die Physikalischep Kimvcrkun^en dcs \V;i.l<lrs :iut' Lut'l u.

EFFECTS ON TREE-GROWTH. 761

of beech leaves is the best defence against evaporation, and
much more so than the rapidly evaporating covering of moss
in coniferous forests, which dries up in summer. Fricke
evaporated the following percentages of the precipitated
water:*

Old crops where litter was removed (1). 40 per cent.
„ not „ (2). 35 „ „

Poles 1 and 2 47 and -10 „

Clear-fellings 1 and 2 . . . . 102 and 67 „

[Otot/ky in Kussia (181)5), Tolsky in Russia (1901 2),
E. Henry in France (1900-2), and li. 8. Pearson in India
(1904-5) have made a series of observations which show:
that in all cases the level of subsoil water in forest is lower
than outside the tree influence ; that the level is steadier inside
than outside forest ; that old woods lower the level more than
young woods, and that in a low rainfall area, the difference in
the levels is greater than where the rainfall is more abundant.
-Tr.]*

(b) Influence on Porosity of the Soil.

The activity of a soil depends also on its porosity, which
affords interstices in it for the circulation of air and renewed
supplies of oxygen. Litter and humus keep the soil loose
and prevent its being caked by the rain. Humus becomes
mixed with the mineral soil to various depths by the infiltra-
tion of water, and by the activity of earthworms, mice,
moles, etc.

Wherever masses of imperfectly decomposed humus accu-
mulate, not only water, but also the necessary mixture of
organic matter, with the mineral soil, are absent ; so also are
earthworms and other animals and bacteria, the share of
which in rendering a soil nutritive and porous is considerable.

(c) Maintenance of an Even Temperature in the Soil.

If it is correct to affirm, that, during the full activity of the roots
of trees, a temperature of 68° to 72° F. is necessary, the soil-

* " Indian Forester," February, 1!K>7, where other references are given.

762

FOREST-LITTER.

covering of dead leaves, which reduces the temperature during
that season must be injurious, and there would be no growth
at all in the spruce, silver-fir and beech forests of the Bavarian
plateau.

Mayr's observations prove, that during the months May-
August, the following temperatures prevail in July : —

Depth of soil
in inches.

Bare soil.

Soil covered with
dead foliage.

Covered soil and dense
crop of trees.

8

64°

60°

57° F.

16

58°

56°

51° „

24

59°

57°

52° „

32

62°

60°

M° ,;

Hence it follows : — that the soil- covering of litter, by itself,
and when united to the cover of the trees, cools the soil
considerably; that quite low temperatures suffice for the
activity of the roots of trees, so that the cooling of the soil
during the season of growth is not prejudicial : the con-
sequent elevation of the temperature of the soil in winter, is
indifferent to the plants, but involves a continuous chemical
decomposition of the litter, whenever this temperature is
above freezing point.

In soils containing humus, according to Frank, fungi which
form a mycorhiza on the roots of most forest trees, are always
present, they are absent in soil deprived of humus [or
artificially sterilised by burning. — Tr.] and a long time passes
before mycorhizae are produced. Owing to this symbiosis of
plants and fungi, the former not only derive nutritive matter
through the humus, but are enabled to obtain nitro-
genous substance indirectly from the atmosphere.

(d) Fertility of the Soil.

Humus improves the productivity of soils, chiefly by its
physical power of absorption, and also by its own decompo-
sition and conversion into nutritive material. Water and
water-vapour are absorbed by humus, as well as the most

MODE OF DECOMPOSITION. 763

important mineral and nitrogenous substances (potash, phos-
phoric acid, ammonia, etc.), which combine with various
compounds formed in solution by humus, and are retained by
it, ready for absorption by the roots of trees.

The residual products of the decomposition of humus, are
ash constituents, carbon-dioxide and water ; they are either
quite pure, or in the form of salts that are the food and
manure of the forest. By the ash- constituents, set free by
the decomposition of humus, most of the nutritive matter that
the production of wood has taken from the soil, is returned to
it in the most assimilable condition.

From the successful use of manure in agriculture, we can
see how greatly the growth of plants depends on these ash-
constituents, also prove the good results obtained by manuring
our nursery lines and seed-beds, and the difference between
the production of wood on soils that are rich, or poor, in
nutritive mineral matter.

Nowadays foresters are more and more favourable to the
use of artificial manures for forest plantations, as well as for
forest nurseries (Jentsch, Schwappach, Giersberg, Mathes,
Baumann, Fricke and others) ; so also the sowing of legumi-
nous plants, as accumulators of nitrogen, has been found
beneficial to impoverished soil.

SECTION III. — MODE OF DECOMPOSITION OF FOREST LITTER.

It is well known that the decomposition of organic sub-
stances is effected only by bacteria and fungi,* the species of
which are affected, relatively and absolutely, by the reaction of
the soil (acid, neutral or alkaline); probably the acid products
of humus are due to low organisms. If the layers of litter
become dry, the process of decomposition is interrupted and
unfavourable kinds of humus are formed.

The comparative rate of the decomposition of forest-litter
and humus is influenced chiefly by the kind of soil-covering,
soil, locality, climate, nature of standing-crop, etc.

* Ramann. Runelr, Schellhorn and Krause, " Anzahl u. Bcdeutung dcr
nicdercn Organismcn in Waid u. Moorboden. Zeitschrift f. F. u. Jagdwesen,"
1889.

764 FOREST-LITTER.

(a) Kind of Soil- Covering. — Soft and only slightly lignified
parts of plants decompose most rapidly. Thus, of broadleaved
trees, the dead leaves of the hornbeam, ash and lime decom-
pose more rapidly than those of oak, beech and birch. Of
conifers, larch needles are decomposed soonest, then Scots pine
needles, those of silver-fir, and most slowly, those of spruce.
]t is generally true, that dry leaves of broadleaved trees
decompose more rapidly than coniferous needles. Mosses
are known to decompose very slowly : but their decomposition
once commenced, they pass quickly through the condition of
humus to that of complete dissolution. On this account, the
living layer 'of moss rests on the ground with hardly any
noticeable intermediate layer and may be removed from it
like a carpet.

(b) Soil. — The most important factors in the soil, which
expedite decomposition of the soil-covering, are, its capacity for
heat, its degree of porosity and the amount of moisture it con-
tains. Decomposition is generally slowest on clay or loam,
quickest on calcareous soil and sand. It is especially rapid on
moist calcareous soil in South Germany ; after two years most
of the litter is decomposed, the humus decomposing still
more quickly.

(c) Locality. — It is well known that decomposition proceeds
more slowly on north and east than on south and west aspects ;
northerly slopes are damp and cool, and in folds of the hills near
the valleys the rate of decomposition is extremely slow ; in such
places the greatest amount of partly decomposed humus and
litter accumulates.

(d) Climate. — Southern countries prove conclusively that
heat combined with moisture is most effective in expediting
decomposition ; in South Germany, and still more in Hungary,
etc., decomposition proceeds much more rapidly than in North
Germany and the countries bordering on the Baltic. Whilst
in the latter case 8 or 4 years are often required to complete
the process of decomposition, one or at most two years suffice
for the former. [In an Indian forest, except in mountainous
districts, it is rare to find any noticeable layer of humus in
forests. — Tr.] The contrasting climates of the lowlands and
high mountain-regions of Europe have opposite effects on

MODE OF DECOMPOSITION. 765

decomposition; the high relative-humidity of the air and low
mean temperature in mountain tracts cause dec]) layers of raw
humus to accumulate in forests.*

(e) Density of Standing Crop of Trees. — Neither a dense
crop of trees, nor an open, light crop, such as that of light-
demanding trees, when they become old, and weeds cover
the ground, afford the most favourable conditions for the
decomposition of litter and its admixture with the mineral soil,
as ordinary neutral mould ; in both cases, the humus accumu-
lates in an incompletely decomposed, sour condition, as peat.
Peat hinders the absorption of water by the roots of the trees
and prevents the aeration of the soil, it interrupts the normal
loosening of the soil, and by the infiltration of solutions of
humus under its superficial layers causes the formation of a
hard pan. The important influence of the various systems
of management result from the above considerations. Clear-
cutting yields the densest even-aged crops ; selection forests,
resembling virgin forest most closely, affords the most favour-
able conditions. It is evident that in the tending of a woqd, by
thinnings, setting the older trees free, underplanting light-
demanders, etc., the forester has the best means for regulating
and maintaining the normal decomposition of the soil-covering
of litter.

If litter and humus are to produce the most advantageous
effects on forest-growth, the litter must be decomposed chiefly
by bacteria and fungi, this decomposition must be moderately
fast and uninterrupted.

Although it is difficult to decide absolutely the proper period
for the decomposition of humus, it may be said, that for
ordinary forest localities, this is most beneficial, when broad-
leaved litter is converted into humus within three years, and
coniferous litter in three or four years, while the layer of
humus below is only a few centimeters thick.

The hurtful effects of breaking up the soil and mixing litter
and humus on poor soil, by pigs, a comparison of the humus
in such areas, with others in which pannage is not allowed,
will demonstrate clearly.

* Ramann, li Die kliinati.schc.n Uoden/oneii Eurojuis." Bodenkunde, 1'JOl,
St. Petersburg.

766 FOREST-LITTER.

From the above considerations it is evident, that forest litter
is one of the most important factors in the productivity of
the soil. As in forestry, where practised on a large scale,
it is impossible to substitute manure for litter ; normally
decomposed litter by its physical and chemical properties
and its effects on the soil, is indispensable.

SECTION IV. — AMOUNT OF FOREST-LITTER PRODUCED.

Owing to the importance of moss and weeds as well as dead
leaves and needles in the supply of litter for farmyards, the
different nature of these kinds of litter and the various ways in
which they affect wood-production, itis necessary to consider the
question separately for each kind of forest litter.

1. Dead Leaves and Needles.

Experience shows that the annual amount of litter produced
from dead leaves and needles in a forest varies with the species
of tree, locality, weather, density of crop and age of trees.

(a) Species of Tree. — Three factors have great influence on
the amount of litter produced by European forest trees ; namely,
the density of the foliage, its duration on the trees and the
suitability of the species to form a more or less dense leaf-
canopy. Considering all these factors, not for individual trees
but for a crop of trees, and deducting the amount of moss pro-
duced in coniferous forests, the species may be arranged, as
follows, in descending order of their comparative production of
dead leaves or needles : —

Beech ;

Sycamore and other maples, lime, sweet-chestnut, hazel ;

Hornbeam, alder, black pine ;

Elms, oaks, black poplar ;

Scots pine, larch ;

Spruce, silver-fir;

Ash;
Birch, aspen.

The density of foliage of a species depends on the nature of
the locality and its mode of growth. Silver-fir, spruce and
beech have the densest foliage ; that of hornbeam, sycamore,

AMOUNT OF LITTER PRODUCED. 767

ash, elm, lime, Weymouth pine, sweet-chestnut, alder and hazel
is also dense though comparatively lighter than the above ;
oaks, poplar, birch, pines and larch close the list.

The duration of the leaves on the trees is longest for
evergreen conifers, silver-fir, spruce and pines. In the case
of the black, Weymouth and Scots pines, the needles remain
from two to four years ; in the spruce and silver-fir, four to
six years and even longer for the latter. Hence it follows that
pines shed about one-third of their foliage annually, the spruce
and silver-fir only the fifth or sixth part. These species, there-
fore, are much worse producers of litter than follows from the
density of their foliage.

Silver-fir, spruce and beech possess in the highest degree the
property of growing in densely stocked woods, next come the
hornbeam and hazel — some way further down in the list — alder
and sycamore. In the case of ash, elms, oaks, sweet-chestnut,
birch, aspen, Scots pine and larch, the woods open out much
earlier. As compared with woods of light- demanding trees,
those of mixed light-demand ers and shade-bearers produce
more litter, whilst woods of spruce, silver-fir and beech produce
litter most abundantly.

(b) Locality. — The nature of the locality in which it is grown
has the greatest possible influence on the wellbeing of a species
of tree. The more a locality suits a tree, the greater, other
conditions being equal, will be the production of litter. As a
rule, a moist atmosphere, provided there is sufficient heat
available for the species in question and a rich soil, increases
the density of the foliage.

E. Weber's* note on beech leaf-production should also be
noted, viz., that it falls off in quantity with the altitude.

(c) Weather. — Any casual observer must have noticed that
according to the changes of weather in different years, the
forest presents different appearances, being in certain years
fresher, greener and possessing denser foliage than at other
times. Spring weather, when the foliage is produced, is most
decisive in this respect. Years with severe late frost and dry
seasons produce less foliage than moist years free from frost.

* Ebermayer, " Die Waldstreu," p. 37.

768

FOBEST-LITTER.

According to Krutzsch, there may be a difference of 60 per cent,
in the amount of foliage produced by Scots pine and beech
in wet and dry years. Severe storms during the season when
leaves are produced are very prejudicial to the supply of foliage.

(d) Density of Growth and System of Management. — The
densest woods do not produce most litter, nor do open woods
where each tree is exposed completely to the influence of light,
the number of individual trees being then too few. The most
litter is produced annually when there are as many stems as
possible in a wood, with the proviso that each stem has ample
room for its growth — a density which results from well-
executed thinnings.

Even-aged woods exercise a similar influence to that of the
density of woods on the annual supply of litter. When all trees
in a wood are of the same height and their crowns form a dense
leaf-canopy at a uniform level above the ground, the influence
of light is far less than when the heights of the trees vary, when
lateral light is admitted between the groups of the taller trees
and their crowns consequently grow lower down their stems,
as in the group and selection systems.

(e) Age of Trees. — The greatest production of dead leaves
and needles is during the pole stage, and falls off only slightly
in the older stages of high forest, provided the leaf-canopy is
fairly complete.

The following results give the average yield of litter as deter-
mined by observation* made in the Bavarian State forests.

One acre of dense forest of the ages given in the subjoined
statement produces annually so many tons of air-dried litter :—

Age of Wood.

Beech.

Spruce.

Scots pine.

Years.

Tons.

Tons

Tons.

Under 30

—

2-50

25 to 50

—

1-56

30 „ 60

1-67

1-58

—

50 „ 75

—

—

1-4

60 „ 90

1-34

1-35

—

75 „ 100

—

—

1*69

Over 90

1-62

1-31

—

Average

1-64

1-42

1-48

Ebernuiyer, " Die gesammte Lehre der Waldstreu," Merlin, ]S7t>.

AMOUNT OF LITTER PRODUCED.

769

It is evident that, when the litter is allowed to accumulate in
a forest for several years, the supply is greater than that pro-
duced annually. At the same time the accumulation is
limited, as the lower layers are constantly decomposing and
only the upper layers are available for litter. In this respect
investigation has led to the adoption of the following average
figures per acre : —

No. of years.

Beech.

Spruce.

Scots pine.

3 years' supply
6 .. „
< )\-( Tt; years' supply...

Tons.
3-26
3-39

H7

Tons.
3-04
3-76
6-6 1

Tons.
3-56
5-49
7-31

...

3-61

4-11

545

A cubic meter (35*3 cubic feet) of air-dried litter (15 to 20
per cent, water) well compressed is of the following weight :—

Beech
Spruce
Scots pine
Moss-litter

Kilos.
81-5
168-4
117-3
104-0

Lbs. per
cubic foot.

5

10-5
7-3
6-5

Hence the yield of litter may be calculated in stacked cubic
meters or in waggon-loads per acre (as in the following state-
ment) as waggons drawn by two horses usually carry 5 stacked
cubic meters (176*5 cubic feet) of litter: —

One year's supply
Six years' ,,

Beech.

. 10
, 20

Scots Pine.

6
16

Spruce.

4
11

2. Moss-Litter.

The forest is the home of most mosses, especially of the
larger species, which may be used for litter. The growth of
moss depends generally on the presence of damp soil and air,
and a certain amount of cover. Only a few mosses can stand
full exposure to light. Some kinds of forest mosses form
large tufts only exceptionally, whilst other gregarious mosses

F.U. 3 D

770

FOREST-LITTER.

Fi-. 388.
(Drawn by R. S. Troup, after Schwarz.)

1. Polytrichum commune. 2. Sphagnum cymbifolium. 3. Hylocomium
triquetrum. 4. Hylocomium splcndens.

AMOUNT OF LITTER PRODUCED. 771

under favourable circumstances may carpet the ground over
extensive areas. If these carpets are formed of the larger
kinds of moss, they yield a very important form of litter.

Of the mosses employed usually for litter, several species of
the large genus Hypman and of other genera are common,
as:* — Ilypiitim Schreberi, pnriini, ciispidatum, molluscum,
cupressiforme ; Hylocomium splendent, squarroxuin, ti'iquetrum
and loreum ; Brachythecium nitabulum ; Campothecwftn lutes-
ccns ; Tlniidium tamariscinuni and abietinum, etc.; also Poly-
triclnim formosuni and urnigerum ; Dicranum scoparium ,•
Bartramia fontana ; Climatium dcndroides ; on wet, swampy
ground, besides some of the above, species of Sphagnum
predominate.

The quantity of moss in a forest that may be used for
litter, depends chiefly on the species of tree of which the
standing-crop is composed, the age of the wood, and the
system of management.

As regards species of tree, moss is most prevalent in coni-
ferous woods, and especially in those of spruce and silver-fir ;
it is rare for broadleaved woods to produce moss in sufficient
abundance to be utilizable as litter. The older the trees, the
greater the amount of moss, unless opening the cover should
admit sunlight and dry the soil, when the mosses cease to
thrive. The system of management followed is also
influential.

It is chiefly the annual fall of dead leaves in broadleaved
woods that forms an obstacle to the growth of moss, as they
intercept the small amount of light which mosses require, and
small tufts of moss which may be produced here and there are
stifled by the dead leaves falling on them in succeeding years.
It is different in coniferous woods : the thinner coating of dead
needles affords room for the spread of any mosses which have
germinated and sufficient light for their development. As the
moss then grows regularly through the annual fall of needles,
the litter consists of an inseparable mixture of moss and
dead needles, and only exceptionally can they be collected
separately.

* Vide Braithwaite's "British Moss Flora"; also James' " Field- Flora of
Mosses."

3 D 2

772 FOREST-LITTER.

In Scots pine and larch woods, moss is generally an un-
important factor in the soil-covering, or may be completely
absent. Hunger-moss, or Iceland-moss (Cetrana) is a lichen
and denotes great poverty of soil.

As regards age, in the early years of dense spruce and
silver-fir forests, there is only a slight production of moss ;
after the leaf -canopy has become elevated, so as to admit suffi-
cient light to the soil and allow for a slight movement of air-
currents, moss gradually spreads over the ground. It then
continually becomes denser and deeper the higher the leaf
canopy, and attains its maximum in mature woods which have
been already thinned and contain advance-growth,* provided
the soil continues moist.

The system of management affects the growth of moss, in
so far that uneven aged woods, resulting from natural regene-
ration by seed, are generally more favourable for the produc-
tion of moss than even-aged and artificially formed woods.

"Wherever the growth of moss is luxuriant, it regenerates
itself after removal for litter more rapidly than under
opposite conditions. If the moss has been completely
removed, an interval of 3 to 5 years passes before it is repro-
duced, and this may be longer on poor soils.

3. Litter from Weeds.

The forest weeds, which are used chiefly as litter, are
heather, broom, Genista and ferns : less frequently —bilberry-
bushes (Vaccinium Myrtillus) and other species of Vaccinium,
reeds, grass, etc.

Heather, chiefly ling (Calluna vulgaris), [but in Britain, also
bell-heather (Erica cinerea) and cross-heather (E. Tetralix).—
Tr.] produces a sour, partly-decomposed humus, which when
the soil is dry, resembles charcoal-powder, but when the soil
is wet, forms a moist mass ; heather predominates on open
sunny localities and on poor silicious soils, where it spreads
freely and produces peaty heather-humus. The removal of
the heather with the sods of humus, that are full of its roots,

* Advance -growth. — The seedling underwood sj.ringing-iip in a high t'oiv>t.

AMOUNT OF LITTER PRODUCED. 773

is generally beneficial for forest plants, which can overpower
this wreed only when they have formed a closer canopy of
shade. [In Britain, however, the heather serves often as a
protection to young plants against spring-frosts, and they do
not suffer from its presence so much as in the drier climate of
the Continent. — Tr.J

The broom (Cytisus scoparius) is produced by nearly every
kind of soil ; it is chiefly prevalent on silicious soils, but also
grows on argillaceous schist, quartzite, limestone, and even on
chalk. It always implies an admixture of certain clay in the
soil. It resembles heather in requiring a complete exposure
to light and a moderately warm atmosphere.

Among ferns, the widely-spread bracken (Pteris aquilina)
is most important, Aspidium I^iJi-r-uias and Asplenium F'dir-
fii'iniiHi also are used as litter. They require a moist, or even
wet soil, but cannot stand stagnant moisture. Half-shaded
localities, or fully exposed but cool, damp places, suit them
best.

They grow best in moist, no longer completely closed old
woodlands, especially in spruce and silver-fir forests, with a
moderate soil-covering of moss. Clearings for plantations, on
northerly aspects with a rich soil, also produce a vigorous
growth of ferns.

Bilberry (Vactin iinn Myrtillns) and other species of Van-i-
uinm are less frequently used as litter than the above-
mentioned plants ; their stems are usually too woody and no
weeds decompose more slowly. They require an amount of
clay in the soil, and needs shade in soils free from clay, and
consequently dry.

Species of V actinium hence are found in loamy soil in
lightly shaded, old woods, when the soil has become super-
ficially impoverished ; more on warm than on cold aspects,
both in broadleaved and coniferous forests. A large supply
of Vacciniitni litter, therefore, always implies deteriorating
old woods, or stunted young woods containing blanks. On
superior soils a vigorous growth of bilberry is also found in
young woods not yet fully closed. The bilberry, like many
other forest weeds, has a superficial root-system, but no other
weed covers the ground so thoroughly with its densely matted

774 FOREST-LITTER.

roots.* Hence results the superficial impoverishment of the
soil, so far as the bilberry roots extend.

In wet, swampy localities, on fairly level ground, many
species of reeds and sedges grow (Juncus, Carex, etc.) ; they
have long, broad leaves which die early in the winter, and can
be raked together easily. In some districts, as in Upper
Bavaria, meadows of sour grasses, rushes, etc., are used for
litter.

SECTION V. — MODES OF HARVESTING LITTER.

The different ways in which litter is harvested are all
extremely simple, but differ according to the kind of litter in
question.

1. Litter from Dead Leaves and Needles.

In collecting litter composed almost exclusively of dead
leaves or needles, with only a few weeds and a scanty
admixture of moss, wooden rakes are always used.

Iron rakes are quite inadmissible, as they not only damage
the superficial roots of trees, but also penetrate the layer of
humus, which they remove partly, as well as the litter. Thin
layers of moss are also removed easily by means of wooden
rakes. The heaps of dead leaves and needles are packed in
cloths or nets for removal either to the farms or to a forest
depot, where the litter is measured for sale, or carts are laden
with it on the spot.

On smooth ground it is easy to rake up every leaf, but when
the surface is uneven, interrupted by holes, hummocks, stones,
rocks and roots, or overgrown with shrubs, bushes, grass or
weeds, or finally, in places where swine have been rooting —
raking is a difficult process. A considerable amount of litter
which cannot be raked up is then preserved to the forest, and
thus an indication afforded how the forests may be protected
by artificial means against a too complete removal of litter.

* [Species of StroMlantkea have a similar habit in India, and most of them
blossom periodically, every 5 to 1C) years. After blossoming, the whole crop
dies, and thus allows tree seedlings to take root — otherwise an impossibility.
Species of Strobilanthe* are common in oak-forests in the Himalayas, but the
genus is best, represented in the .Nilgiri Hills, where some kinds are used largely
for fuel. (Jamble, " Manual of Indian Timbers,'' p. ."ill). — Tr.J

LIMITS TO USE OF LITTER. 775

2. Litter from Moss.

Wherever the moss has grown into cushions, in which, as
in silver-fir and spruce woods, the needles are embedded, it
can be raked together. Certain kinds of moss, however, can
be gathered only by hand.

3. Litter from Weeds.

Heather is the most productive form of weed-litter, and is
harvested in different ways according to its age and silvi-
cultural requirements. Heather is cut usually with the sickle,
provided it is not more than 3 to 4 years old ; when old and
woody, it must be cut with a strong knife, or whenever there
is no fear of injuring forest plants which are growing among
the heather, it may be pulled up by hand. Whenever the
heather is harvested on blanks, or waste land, it is best to
use a strong scythe, and when not only the heather but the
grassy or mossy tufts which accompany it are utilised, a
broad, sharp hoe is used. Bilberry and other Vaccinium
undergrowth, also broom and ferns, when used for litter, are
harvested like heather. All the heather and other weeds,
which have been gathered, are brought usually in cloths to the
forest depot ; broom and ferns are often firmly tied on the
spot into bundles by means of withes.

SECTION VI. — LIMITS TO USE OF LITTER.

The forester must endeavour to render the removal of litter
as innocuous as possible. Thus the demand for litter should,
if possible, be met by supplying those kinds which the forest
can best dispense with ; places and woods are opened which
can best withstand the loss ; the intensity and length of rota-
tion of the removal of litter should be modified in places which
are most liable to injury, and a season chosen for the usage
when the soil is least exposed to be dried up.

1. Kind of Litter.

Litter from roads, halting-places, ditches and blanks, and
from forest weeds, may be supplied with least injury to the
forest.

776 FOREST-LITTER.

Only when other sources of supply fail should the removal
of ground-litter be permitted from the woods. The remaining
paragraphs refer to that mode of litter only.

2. Locality.

The better localities should be taken in hand first, the
inferior ones being spared as long as possible. Litter which
has been heaped up by the wind in wet places, on moist, low-
lying ground, in hollows, ravines or narrow valleys, and thick
cushions of moss in damp ground and on places about to be
regenerated naturally, may be utilized with the least damage
to the forest. There is sometimes in cold localities a stiff,
heavy soil, which is improved by removing the litter. The
north and east slopes of hills, with rich deep soil covered with
scattered blocks of stone or boulders, and terraces or gentle
slopes on mountain-sides, should always be preferred, the
more exposed places being used only as a last resort. Places
exposed to wind, such as hill-tops, mountain-ridges, steep
declivities and especially the upper parts of steep mountain-
chains, should be spared always.

3. Nature of Crop.

Vigorous, dense, mature crops of trees should be opened
for the removal of litter in preference to other parts of a
forest. All woods that are deteriorating for any reason —
which have suffered from caterpillars, snow-break, wind-break,
drought, etc., or in which, from any cause, the leaf-canopy has
opened out — (for instance, immediately after thinnings, pre-
paratory fellings, etc.)— must be protected as long as possible
against the removal of litter. All woods intended for imme-
diate natural regeneration, and even-aged old woods ready for
felling may be opened, but all young woods, till they have
reached middle-age, should be spared. Litter should, as far
as possible, be preserved carefully in coppice- with -standards
and coppice, and especially in oak-bark coppice.

4. Intensity of the Usage.

Only undecomposed litter should be removed, that in pro-
cess of decomposition being preserved. This proviso cannot

LIMITS TO USE OF LITTER. 777

indeed be completely secured, but every effort must be made
in this direction and the removal of the humus should never
be permitted. The more a locality requires protection, the
more superficial should be the removal of the litter ; this is
possible if the workmen are engaged by the forest-manager,
but when the peasants remove litter on their own account, it
is better to allot a large area instead of a small one for the
removal of litter. The mossy carpet in spruce and silver-fir
forests should never be removed entirely, but only in patches
or strips. The hoe must never be used for removing heather
in sods. When dead leaves are raked together, only a wooden
rake with wide intervals between the teeth should be used,
never an iron rake.

5. Lcii'/th of Close -time.

The length of close-time between two successive removals
of litter from the same area depends on the nature of the
locality ; the soil and configuration of the ground should be
considered first, and, only in the second place, the species,
age, and condition of the wood. It requires no argument to
prove that the forester should insist on as long a close-time as
possible, and should only consent to an interval less than six
years when absolutely compelled to do so. The close-time
maybe shortened in crops of trees that have attained their full
maturity, but must be kept as long as possible in the case of
young woods.

6. Season.

Heather and broom should be harvested just before they are
completely in blossom, ferns* in the autumn ; on regeneration-
areas it is better to collect litter somewhat late in the year.
Ground-litter should be raked up chiefly in autumn, while the
leaves are falling. Wherever the removal of litter must take
place in spring, it should be restricted as much as possible in
quantity ; the farmer, however, requires more litter in spring
than in autumn. Dry weather is preferable for the removal of
litter, as then the work is less laborious, and because, in wet

* [Hon. G. Lascelles. Deputy Surveyor, New Forest, states that if bracken is
cut before the end of September, as in the forest of Dean, its rhizomes become
greatly weakened, and the crop becomes gradually poorer. — Tr.]

778

FOREST-LITTER.

weather, in order to obtain dry litter, the peasant will select
the very places that are most liable to damage.

7. Plan of Operations.

It is in many places usual to draw up a plan of operations
for the removal of litter, to serve for a longer or shorter series
of years ; this is revised usually at the same time as the forest
working-plan. In such a plan all compartments are designated
which may be opened for the removal of litter, subject to a
suitable close-time, and the plan is based on area. Although
this plan is drawn up on different principles in the different
German countries, yet they all agree in excluding from the
usage areas requiring protection, and especially all kinds of
young woods. After this has been deducted, the remaining
area is divided by the figure representing the rotation of the
litter, the quotient being the area which is opened annually
for the removal of litter. In order to compensate for the
withdrawal of the annual felling-areas from the area open to
the removal of litter, an area of the oldest woods equal to
those which were closed, must be opened annually to the
usage. In countries where years of scarcity of straw7 occur
periodically, a reserved area of woodland should be set aside,
which may be opened when required.

In Baden, removal of litter is not allowed in the case of
broadleaved woods, till they are 40 years old ; in coniferous
woods — 30 years, and in coppices — 12 to 15 years. The
shortest close time is three years. In Hesse, removal of litter
is not allowed in high forest till after the first thinning, and
in coppice till the second half of the rotation. In Bavaria, all
woods are closed to the removal of litter till the second half of
the rotation; the close-time is as follows : —

Nature of forest.

Moist soil.

Dry soil.

rears.

Years.

Scots pine, larch, birch

3

6

Beech, oak, silver- fir, spruce ...

6

10

In the Wurtemberg State forests all rights to litter have

DISPOSAL AND SALE OF LITTER. 779

either been commuted [by purchase, or by granting a forest
area to the commune which held the right. — Tr.], or are now
in process of commutation, so that no plan of operations for
the removal of litter is required. In Prussia the local forest
official is authorised, according to the actual requirements of
the people, to open those forest areas for the removal of litter
which are best able to bear it.

SECTION VII. — MODE OF DISPOSAL AND SALE OF FOREST-
LITTER.

1. Persons icho may remove Litter.

Owing to the great prejudice to wood production caused by
the removal of litter, this usage is not considered as a regular
form of forest utilization, as in the case of wood and other
minor produce ; but unless there is any actual right of user,
it should be permitted only as an extraordinary concession
for otherwise irremediable agricultural distress. Thus, litter
is granted by a forest official only to right-holders, or by
special permit. In both cases the amount granted is limited
by silvicultural requirements, as laid down for instance in the
plan of operations, and in cases of urgent necessity even these
may be exceeded.

(a) Right-holders. — Eights to litter are generally unlimited
in amount ; even then they must be limited by the require-
ments of the right-holders, or by those of silviculture. It is
extremely difficult to decide what are the actual requirements
of the right-holders, so that silvicultural requirements may be
paramount. All national-economic laws in Germany prescribe
that rights to minor-produce from a forest must be so limited
in volume as not to endanger the production of wood. The
necessary limits are laid down in the plans of operation for
litter, which have been drawn up by competent persons, and
all grants of litter to right-holders must therefore be kept
within the limits prescribed in these plans.

(b) Permit-holders. — Permits to remove litter should be
given only to persons actually in need of it.

It is evident that to supply litter too liberally to farmers

780 FOREST-LITTER,

tempts them to abstain from producing sufficient straw for
their cattle. In years of scarcity of straw, however, exceptional
assistance to farmers is justified. Thus, in the dry year, 1893,
about 75,000 tons of forest-litter, from the State forests of
Bavaria, were given to the farmers. The forest-owner should
see to it that these aids to agriculture do not become normal.

2. Sale of Litter.

Litter can be sold only in two ways : by royalty, or by
public auction. The latter method, however, can be adopted
only if the removal of litter is regarded as a measure
necessary for forest management.

If litter is sold to the highest bidder, it at once assumes the
character of ordinary forest produce; farmers base their
cultivation on these sales and expect them to recur annually,
and thus a demand for litter arises. Attempts are being made
to render the demands for litter permanent. Prices obtained
for it by auction represent only the agricultural value of
litter. If they are to guide the forester in fixing the royalty
it should be remembered that the forest point of view differs
from the agricultural opinion of the value of forest-litter.

There is, however, little or no objection to auctioning litter
of forest weeds, the removal of which rarely injures a forest.

In fixing royalties for litter, two points must be considered,
the unit of measurement to be adopted and the rate of royalty.

(a) Unit of measurement. — Forest litter may be measured
by area, or by volume ; in the former case, as a rule, one or
more compartments in a forest are opened to all permit-
holders who remove the litter collectively. They either divide
the litter among themselves, or each permit-holder is allowed
to remove a specific number of cartloads or headloads. Then
separate areas usually are allotted to the different modes of
conveyance (carts, wheelbarrows, headloads, etc.). When the
litter is disposed of by volume, heaps of specified dimensions
are prepared by the permit-holders under the supervision of
the guards. The size of each heap corresponds usually to the
local waggon-load (for two horses or bullocks) termed in
German, Fader, being equal to five stacked cubic meters.

SALE OF LITTER. . 781

Eemoval by volume in heaps is preferable to the method by
area, and does less injury to the forest. The litter is then
brought alongside the roads and piled in rectangular heaps of
equal size ; these are counted and delivered in a regular
manner to the permit-holders.

(b) Price of litter. — Strictly speaking, the price of litter
should depend on the loss of wood increment caused by its
removal ; for, from a silvicultural point of view, litter is as
valuable as the additional volume of wood which would grow
on an area, were the litter allowed to remain. Since, however,
the exact amount of the loss of wood for any locality is, as a
rule, non-ascertainable, this method of valuing litter must be
abandoned. Another means for determining the royalty on
litter is its agricultural value, which should be the minimum
royalty for litter, and may be most correctly determined by
selling it by public auction. The agricultural value of litter
depends on the current price of straw, on scarcity of straw,
and on the general conditions of agriculture. Brock says that
the dearer is straw, in a year of scarcity, the cheaper forest-
litter should be ; in such case, old woods may be raked, pole-
woods cleared by hand of litter, in strips only.

Even in cases where forest-owners for certain reasons are
compelled temporarily to permit the removal of forest-litter,
it should not be given gratis, though lower prices than those
current for straw may be charged. This position among
others was adopted by the Bavarian Forest Department, in
the year of drought 1893-4.

[As regards the use of forest-litter in Britain, the following
data are given :

In the New Forest, about 14,500 bundles of heather are sold
per annum at Is. 100 bundles, 6 bundles being about as much
as a man can conveniently carry. Heather is also cut and
sold in the Windsor Forest at Id. a headload.

Bracken is cut, in the New Forest, from the 25th September,
by the foresters, and is sold dry to farmers, who remove it
from the forest, at 8s. a waggon-load, the cost of cutting and
drying being 5s. In the enclosures it is much more patchy,
and costs 7s. a load to cut and dry, but is then cut and sold
between the 1st of August and the 15th September, at 15s, a

782 FOREST-LITTER.

load. People who are very keen about bracken being well-
dried pay the extra price. From 1,800 to 2,000 waggon-loads
are thus removed annually. In Windsor Forest, it is sold at
2s. a cart-load (one horse), the purchaser cutting it. In the
Dean Forest, there is a poor crop of bracken, it being cut too
early, which weakens the rhizomes considerably. The Hon.
G. Lascelles, Deputy Surveyor, New Forest, who supplied the
above information, states that if bracken is cut before the end
of September, as in the Forest of Dean, its rhizomes become
greatly weakened, and the crop becomes gradually poorer.

We have seen above that the removal of dead leaves and
other forest-litter is practised extensively in Germany.
In France, this removal is termed soutrage, and litter is
litiere, but the benefits to the forest by disallowing its removal
have been felt so long, that no rights-of-common to such a
destructive practice are allowed by law, and in the standard
French book on silviculture, Boppe et Jolyet, " Les Forets,"
1901, the practice (p. 123) is alluded to merely, " Mais le
silviculteur doit surtout s'opposer de la facon la plus energique
a Venlevement des feuilles mortes. Heureusement, ce fleau, qui
sevit encore en Allemagne, est tres localise en France." — Tr.]

SECTION VIII. — LIMITS TO PERMISSIBLE USE OF FOREST-
LITTER.

Section I. of this chapter deals, in a general way, with the
question of forest-litter, and describes its important action
upon the well-being of the forest and on the production of
wood ; it proves also that the removal of the litter is most
injurious, whenever it is necessary for the soil and crop of
trees in question. No further remarks on these points, there-
fore, are required here, but those cases will be explained, in
which the removal of litter does the least possible harm to the
forest, or even may be useful to it.

1. Locality.

Dead-leaf litter may be removed from places, where its
presence is indifferent, or superabundant ; from areas not
used for the production of trees, such as forest meadows,

LIMITS TO USE OF LITTER. 783

glades, roads, ditches, etc. ; it should be removed from areas
used for tree-growth, but which are covered deeply with dead
leaves, depressions, or freshly-sown compartments. All weed-
litter may and should be removed, wherever it is a hindrance
to natural regeneration, or to the development of forest plants ;
also litter containing numerous larvaB or pupae of destructive
insects. Woods growing in localities, where the climate is
cool and moist, and where the rainfall is heavy are chosen in
preference to dry localities for the removal of litter.

2. Soil.

Soil that is mineralogically rich can withstand the removal
of litter better than poor silicious soil ; on poor soils the effect
of this removal is felt soonest and most severely.

Schwappach states that in spruce woods of the best quality,
the annual removal of litter even for long periods has no bad
effects. Laspeyres found that the use of litter on good soils
is indifferent ; that in years of drought litter may be taken
from inferior soils. Bleuel* showed that annual removal of
litter during periods of 23 to 30 years caused a falling off of
increment in old beech woods, on inferior soil, of 32, 39, 42
and even 56 per cent., while on good basalt soil (Khone) the
loss was only 8 per cent. Under similar conditions, the loss
of increment in Scots pine woods of good quality was 7*5, 9*3
and 10'9. Kemoval of litter every three years in the Spessart
from beech woods caused a loss of increment of 13 per cent.,
every six years, of 10 per cent. These observations showed
further, that the loss of increment increased steadily from
period to period.

The condition of the subsoil is also important ; if it is of
boulders, gravel, or of rock full of cracks, and also the ground is
sloping, the water descends to such a depth, as to be useless
for the forest. The ill effects of the removal of litter from
soils full of springs or from deep soils are felt less ; its bad
effects are nowhere greater than on shallow soil, with a subsoil
of gravel, etc.

* Bleuel, " tiber den Einfluss der Streunutzungauf die Massenproduction des
Holzee."

784 FOREST-LITTER.

3. Climate.

In cool, moist climates and in localities sheltered from the
wind, litter decomposes slowly ; sometimes it accumulates to
such an extent, that its removal may be even advantageous for
the trees. Such places should be opened, first of all, for the
removal of litter.

4. Species of Tree.

The removal of litter is the less injurious for any species of
tree, the better the locality suits it, and the less the producti-
vity of the locality, depends on the soil-covering of dead leaves,
moss and humus. The question is therefore strictly local,
and must be decided afresh for every change of locality.

5. Age of Crop.

The removal of litter is most prejudicial to young thickets
and poles ; on the contrary, for mature crops of trees, at the
commencement of natural regeneration, its removal facilitates
the germination of the seed, [and enables the seedlings to
become rooted firmly in the mineral soil, when they are less
exposed to perish from drought than if rooted merely in
the litter.— Tr.]

6. Density of Crop.

There are crops of such a density, that encourages an
unproductive accumulation of partly decomposed humus ; in
dense spruce and silver-fir woods this bad condition of the
soil arrests the growth of the trees. In such cases, thinnings
are beneficial and so is the removal of the cushions of moss.
Also in crops of pines, oak and larch, there is often a dense
soil-covering of mather or bilberry-plants, that induces the
formation of sour soil and of a pan ; removal of the soil-
covering and breaking up the soil is thus beneficial.

7. Intensity of the Usage of Litter.

The shorter the period between consecutive removals of the
litter, the greater the injury to the crops. Such an interval
be termed rotation of the litter-raking.

VALUE OF LITTER FOR AGRICULTURE. 785

It is also of great importance when the litter is removed,
whether only the uppermost layer of undecomposed leaves, etc.,
is raked together, or the humus and mineral soil below is
also affected. The deeper the raking the more injurious it is.

Whenever deep raking is repeated frequently, the soil
becomes dry ; it may become so firm and hard that the next
year's dead leaves, either are blown away by the wind, or do not
coalesce with the soil for several years. Therefore, only the
upper and undecomposed, or slightly decomposed, layer should
be removed, and the moss removed only in strips.

8. Season for the Usage.

The removal of litter is more prejudicial during spring and
summer ; less so in autumn before the leaves fall, and least of
all after the fall of the leaves.

Baking, before the leaves have fallen, removes dead foliage
that has lain for a year on the ground, so that in order to
secure a given quantity of litter the rake must go deeper
into the decomposed humus. When raking is done after
leaf-fall, some of the freshly fallen leaves remain on the
ground.

SECTION IX. — VALUE OF FOREST-LITTER FOR AGRICULTURE.

The very existence of agriculture depends on a sufficient
supply of manure. Both agricultural and forest land require
that all soil-constituents which the crops have taken from them
— in fact their own ash-constituents — should be restored, or
they will become sterile. In order to meet the constantly
increasing demands on the soil made by agricultural crops,
every farmer besides using imported artificial manure, endea-
vours as much as possible to increase the supply from his own
farmyard. In order, however, to obtain more farmyard manure,
more fodder-crops must be grown, and any scarcity of hay,
clover, etc., must be met by using straw. But stalled cattle
require litter partly to afford them dry bedding, and partly
for the absorption of their excreta ; when therefore there is
not sufficient straw for this purpose, a substitute may be found

F.U. 3 E

786 FOREST-LITTEK,

in dead forest leaves, needles and weeds. There are in Ger-
many many farms where all the straw is used for fodder, or
sold, and only forest litter used for bedding. Hence during
the present century the belief has spread, that forest-litter
is more or less indispensable for the farmer, and practically
the forest owner is obliged to supply it.

The questions must therefore be discussed, first, what is the
agricultural value of the different kinds of forest-litter ; and
secondly, under what circumstances forest-litter becomes a
real necessity for agriculture?

1. Agricultural Value of Forest- Litter.

The agricultural value of the different kinds of forest-litter
depends on their value as manure, and as material for bed-
ding. Some other factors are also important, such as the
physical properties of litter, its effect in rendering soil
porous, etc.

The amount of contained ash- constituents (phosphoric acid,
potash, etc.) and of nitrogenous compounds decides the manurial
value of forest-litter. All forest-litter, except ferns, is poorer
than is straw in ash-constituents. The observation of Wolff and
Ebermayer* as regards the percentages of mineral constituents
in the ash of forest-litter are given below : —

Kind of litter.

Potash.

Phosphoric acid.

Ferns and rushes

22 to 24

5 to 6

Different kinds of straw ...

7 „ 11

2

Moss and broom

^ „ 6i

1| to 3

Dead leaves ...

3

3

„ needles

li to 2i

1 to2i

Forest-litter is sometimes richer in nitrogenous matter than is
straw. It is, however, much more valuable as bedding material
than for its intrinsic manurial value. Good bedding material
should absorb and retain the excreta of farm animals readily.
With the exception of dry moss and peat, all other forms of
forest-litter are inferior to straw in this respect. Leaf-litter

* " Die gesammte Lehre dor Waldstreu," p. 109.

AGRICULTUKAL VALUE OF. 787

and dead ferns come next to these in value, while coniferous
needles and heather are less suitable. The absorptive power of
woods and branch-litter varies inversely with their more or less
woody nature.

[Ebermayer states that animal manure containing much
ammonia has a basic action ; vegetable debris, except when
mixed with lime or ashes, is acid. — Tr.]

The absolute value of the various kinds of forest-litter
depends chiefly on their value as manure and bedding, but,
as noted above, other factors also intervene. Taking all
these into consideration, the kinds of litter may be classed
as follow : —

1. Moss, either alone, or mixed with needles.

2. Straw.

3. Dead ferns.

4. Dead leaves, of beech, sycamore, lime, alder, and hazel.

5. Coniferous needles, and dead leaves of species not

included in 4.

6. Weeds and branch-litter.

Moss, when used dry, is the best of all forest-litter : it is more
absorptive than straw, and contains more nitrogenous matter,
phosphoric acid, and potash. Its rate of decomposition varies
with the species of moss. Mosses that occur usually in spruce
and silver-fir forest become comv.rU-.d rapidly into a fairly light
soil ; the more fibrous- kinds of moss, which grow on swampy
ground, decompose more slowly.

Dead ferns also form a valuable kind of litter, containing
not only the largest quantity of ash, but also, when thoroughly
dry, being highly absorptive of liquid manure. Ferns also rot
rapidly, and improve the porosity of a soil.

Litter of dead leaves of beech, lime, sycamore and hazel is
very nearly as valuable as straw ; when used for manure,
however, unless thoroughly rotten, it is rather harmful to light
soils, in which it forms stratified layers, does not decompose
uniformly and often renders the soil too loose. Thus, light,
sandy soils manured with it often become superficially dry, and
the leaves and dung applied to them are blown about by the
wind.

3 E 2

788 FOREST-LITTER,

Dead needles, taken alone, are inferior to dead leaves of
broadleaved trees, both in their ash-constituents and power of
absorbing dung. As, however, there is generally a certain
amount of moss with the needles, this increases their value as
litter, and hence, a mixture of dead needles and moss is pre-
ferred to dead leaves.

The branches of conifers form a litter very variable in value.*
If it contains only the twigs and last year's sappy shoots of the
trees, and all woody pieces less than the little finger in thick-
ness are excluded carefully, this litter in many districts is
considered valuable for stiff soils. It is not used in loose,
sandy soils, or when very woody.

Heather, as well as litter from other weeds, is inferior agri-
culturally to the kinds already referred to. It varies, however,
in value, according as only the upper half of the plants, or the
whole plant is used ; if cut when young, or when old and
woody ; in the spring, or the autumn. Sods of heather, includ-
ing the roots and hurnus around them, as well as the whole
plant, are much more absorptive of dung than the heather
alone ; but their removal is never permissible under careful
forest management.

2. Cases where Forest-Litter is Indispensable for Agriculture.

The condition of agriculture is so variable in different
countries, and the intensity with which land is farmed differs so
considerably even in one and the same district, that to answer
the above question requires a special consideration of each case.
The main factors of general application are ; — the natural pro-
ductiveness of the soil, climate and season, size of farms,
density of population and comparative knowledge of agricul-
ture by the farmers. If any special case is considered under
each of the above heads, a decision may be formed as to the
indispensability or otherwise of forest-litter.

Within certain well-defined limits forest-litter may be con-
sidered indispensable to agriculture : — in the case of inferior
soils and unfavourable climates ; in years of scarcity of straw
and fodder ; in over-populated districts where landed pro-

* Cf. Part II.

AGRICULTURAL VALUE OF. 789

perty is much subdivided and garden-husbandry or the culti-
vation of potatoes extensively followed ; or where, in fairly
productive localities, the land is being over-cropped.

In all other cases, and especially where bad farming prevails,
and the farmer from obstinacy and indolence declines to adopt
improved agricultural methods, there can be no real necessity
for concessions of forest-litter.

790

CHAPTEE IV.

DIGGING AND PREPARATION OF PEAT.*

SECTION I. — GENERAL ACCOUNT.

IN the cooler parts of the temperate zone there are numerous
areas, frequently of large extent, characterised by an excessively
wet soil and a specialised flora, and generally known as peat-
moors or bogs. Most of these moors yield peat, sometimes
called turf, as in Ireland and the English fens.

Extensive peat-bogs are found in all northern countries, but
not in southern countries. They are most abundant in Ireland,
Eussia, Scandinavia and Germany, occurring in river-valleys,
along the banks of lakes, on high plateaux and ridges in
mountainous districts (such as the Harz, Thiiringerwald,
Erzgebirge, Rhone-valley, Schwarzwald, Alps, etc.), also on
the high Swabian plateau in Bavaria bordering the northern
declivity of the Alps, where there are at least 500 square miles
of peat-bog; there are also extensive bogs in the plains of
North Germany. This latter district, extending northwards
into Denmark and westwards into Holland, is the richest peat-
producing tract of land in Europe, for bogs over 1,500 square
miles in extent, which occur in East Friesland, do not pro-
bably exist elsewhere.

[There are in Ireland 1,861 square miles of peat-bog, with an
average depth of 25 feet, chiefly in the counties of Mayo, Galway
and Donegal,! but the area of bog in Great Britain is not given
in the agricultural returns, though peat is dug for fuel in the
Scotch and Welsh hills and mountains, in the Yorkshire and
Lincolnshire wolds and moors, and in the fens of East Anglia
and Somersetshire. — Tr.]

* I'.auinann, "Die Moore 11. die Moorkultur in I'>;iv<>ni." Manuel, "Die
Mo<»r<: <lcs Kr/Li oli nye." Monoid, " Die TorllapT in Wiirt teniberi:."

f [The :ire;i. of ihrbo^ol' Allen in Ireland is about 370 square miles. See
'• The Irish I Vat Hue-Lion." T. Johnson, '' Proceedings of Koyal Dublin Soeiet y/:
Nov., 181)1).— Tr.]

GENERAL ACCOUNT OF PEAT. 791

Much has been written at different times about the com-
position of peat ; recently, Wiegmann, Sendtner and Braun,
Miiller and Kamann,* all agree that it consists chiefly of
vegetable substances, the decomposition of which is arrested
by excessive moisture : the only questions still unsolved being
whether the exclusion of air by water alone suffices to retard
the decomposition of the vegetable remains, or whether the
antiseptic action of free humic acid is also indispensable for
this purpose, finally, whether frost in any way affects the
formation of peat.

Since, during the formation of peat, air is excluded by the
presence of water in excess, the carbon contained in vegetable
di'ltris cannot be converted into carbon-dioxide, but plants in
the deeper layers of a peat-bog part with their oxygen and
become carbonised.

Permanent and excessive moisture causes the formation of
peat, and this, according to Sendtner, may be due to :—

(a) Impermeability of the soil, when the bed of a peat-bog
is formed of clay, loam or marl. This is the usual cause of
peat-formation.

(b) The porosity of the soil. When the sub-soil consists
of permeable sa*nd or gravel (as in the case of several Dutch
and North Gorman bogs) the situation being either on a level
with an adjoining lake or the sea, or slightly elevated above
them, the soil is maintained constantly wet by the sub-soil
water.

(c) Inundations, when repeated annually and lasting for
some time.

(d) Finally, certain mosses, e.f/., Sphagnum, Dicranum,
cause moors to form, as they become saturated with water and
spread centri finally from their original position.

[Some European peat-bogs are of great age, and con-
tain remains of extinct animals (Irish elk, etc.), also of
arctic flora, dating from the close of the Glacial Period.
-Tr.]

* Kiimann. " Moor u. Torr, ihre Eritstehung u. Kultur,'' 1888. Sendtner,
'• Vc^.'tfitionsvi'Hiiilinissc; von Siidbayern," p. 041 ; Sprengel's notes on pp. 37,
11, nt LC.-IJUCM-UX, •' Untersuchungen Uber die Torf raoore " ; also Braun, "Die
Hnmussiiure mid die fossilen Brennstoffe." Darmstadt, 18S4.

792 DIGGING AND PREPARATION OF PEAT.

SECTION II. — CLASSIFICATION OF BOGS.

Peat-bogs vary considerably in appearance, being composed
of various plants, and containing different kinds of peat.
Thus, in North Germany, high peat-bogs (Hochmoore), are
distinguished from fens (Grilnlandsmoore, or BrJichcr) ; in
South Germany, chiefly in the Bavarian and Swabian plateau,
there are high peat-bogs and morasses (Wie»enmoore) . Les-
quereux classifies Swiss bogs as super-aquatic and infra-
aquatic, corresponding to high peat-bogs and morasses.

1. High Peat-bogs.

High peat-bogs, termed also peat-mosses, peat-moors or
wolds, are characterised chiefly by the prevalence of peat-moss
(Sphagnum), and a dense growth of heath plants (Calluna,
Erica, Andromeda, Myrica and Vaccinium) ; in South Germany,
also, the mountain-pine (Pi mis montana), birch and willows
appear on these bogs, and the spruce on their borders.
These plants grow gregariously on extensive areas and form
most of the peat. Such bogs are characterised by a gravelly
or clayey subsoil and by the convex, arched shape of their
surface.

The arching of their surface (from which the term high
peat-bog arises) consists in a gradual, upward slope from their
margins towards their centre. This upward slope is sometimes
inconspicuous, but often reaches 20 to 23 feet, or even 33 feet,
as in the Emsmoor and in East Prussia. High bogs originate
at their highest point from which they tend to spread in all
directions ; this is due to the hygroscopic nature of the moss
(Sphagnum), so that water constantly flows from the margins
of a bog, rendering the surrounding land swampy. In this
way even permeable soil may become covered with peat, the
bog consequently spreading. The wettest parts of high peat-
bogs are their borders.

2. Morasses or Meadow-bogs.

Morasses, as in the Bavarian plateau, have a completely
different flora from high bogs. In ilio first place there are no

CLASSIFICATION OF BOGS. 793

peat-mosses, heath- plants or mountain-pines ; in their place
species of Hypiium and sour herbage (Enophorum) appear,
which are their chief components, while stunted Scots pines,
alders and birches are here-and-there disseminated. High
bogs are distinguished readily, even at a distance, by the
appearance of the heather and red-tinted Sphagnum, but
morasses resemble extensive sour meadows.

In the Bavarian plateau, morasses have a subsoil of boulders
and gravel brought down from the mountains and usually
covered by a thin layer of amorphous calcareous marl, termed
locally Aim, which forms an impermeable base for the bog.
The surface of mor horizontal, and they are more

frequent in low lands near rivers than in depressions among
hills, where high bogs prevail ; they are more extensive than
the latter in southern Bavaria.

3. Ft-iix.

The fens of the North German plain have much the same
appearance as the morasses of the Swabian plateau, as they
are also formed of sour herbage, such as rushes, sedges, cotton-
sedge (Eriophorum) &n.d moss ; but according to Sprengel, they
do not yield actual peat, but a muddy humus which is dredged
from them.

These fens are often of large extent, chiefly near the water-
courses, but are much less prevalent in North Germany than
the high moors.

[The fens in East Anglia, when near the low chalk hills of
that region, as at Mildenhall, sometimes rest on beds of marl
formed of the debris of water-plants (Chara) incrusted with
carbonate of lime from the brooks running into them, peat
also occurring on the Kimmeridge and Oxford clays. In all
these cases, the vegetation resembles that of the fens and
morasses of Germany. Professor Seeley states that in East
Anglia, at the base of the layers of peat there are embedded
forests of Scots pine and yew, separated by marine clays.—
Tr.]

Although, as a rule, the different kinds of bog preserve their
distinctive character, yet there are many intermediate forms.

794 DIGGING AND PREPARATION OF PEAT.

Thus fens and morasses may contain patches of high peat-bog,
and frequently pass completely into the latter form, as in
many North German districts.

Besides the above-mentioned kinds of bog, there are seaside-
bogs and forest-bogs. The former are found on lowlands
along the seaside, which either are inundated occasionally by
the sea, or into which brackish water infiltrates, or are
caused by the damming of the mouths of rivers or small
water- courses by the tides. Forest bogs are those in which a
great number of trunks of trees in more or less good preserva-
tion (bog-oak, etc.) are imbedded. These trees are sometimes
erect, as in the Wicklow mountains, and sometimes lying
horizontal, as at Sunningdale, in Berkshire. Both these
forms of bog, however, come under one of the headings
already mentioned.

The peat found in the different bogs varies greatly in its
character, according to the degree of decomposition it has
undergone, its greater or lesser contents of humic acid and
carbon, the vegetable debris of which it is composed, and
finally the comparative quantity of earthy material which is
mixed with it. Some peat resembles lignite both in appear-
ance and economic value, whilst other kinds hardly can be
distinguished from slightly decomposed vegetable remains.
So many bogs are intermediate to these extreme forms, that it
is difficult to characterise even a few of them. They are
distinguished frequently by means of the plants from which
they are formed, such as heather-peat, moss-peat, wood-peat,
sedge-peat, etc., but thus no true standard of quality can be
obtained, as each variety may represent peat of every
possible quality. The best way to judge of the latter is to
consider the degree of decomposition of the vegetable debris,
the degree of cohesiveness of the particles of peat and their
density. In this way, the following kinds of peat may be
distinguished :—

(a) Amorphous or Black peat, a dark brown or blackish
peat with silky lustre on a clean-cut section, heavy, generally
rich in carbon, when dry, breaking with a eonchoidal fracture.
This peat is found generally in the deeper strata of a bog, and
the plants of which it is formed are scarcely recognisable.

METHODS OF HARVESTING. 795

(b) Fibrous or Brown peat, of a loose fungoidal structure,
in which the component plants, grass, moss, heather, reeds,
sedge, etc., are generally recognisable ; it is usually of a lighter
colour than black peat (yellowish to dark brown), less heavy,
more or less carbonaceous, when dry does not crumble and
usually occurs in the upper strata of a bog.

(c) Dredged peat, a more or less tenaceous black peaty mud,
forming the lowest layer in morasses, showing no visible
vegetable structure ; when dry, it has a peculiar lustre and is
heavy; owing to its muddy character it generally is moulded
into various shapes.

Between dredged and black peat (the best kinds) and brown
peat, there are numerous intermediate varieties, the quality of
which is considerably modified by the amount of earthy admix-
ture they contain. This earthy matter consists partly of the
ash-constituents of the peat-forming plants, and partly is
introduced accidentally by inundations, etc.

SECTION III. — METHODS OF HARVESTING PEAT.

Before undertaking to work a peat-bog, a full estimate
should be prepared of its quality and its probable volume, in
order to determine whether the outlay of capital expended in
removing the peat will be covered by its value and that of the
cleared land.

1. (JiKiiitit)/ of Peat.

The following data are required to estimate the quantity of
peat in a bog : the area, depth, amount of shrinkage of the
dried peat and the loss of peat during its extraction.

(a) The area of a bog should be ascertained by surveying it.

(b) The depth may vary considerably at different points of
a bog, which is not unfrequently intersected with one or more
layers of sand, loam or trunks of trees. In order to become
acquainted with the nature of the bog, it should be divided
into a rectangular network, the points of intersection of which
may be about 27 yards (25 meters) apart, and are marked by
numbered stakes. Three methods can then be followed; either
strong poles are driven down at each numbered point to the

796 DIGGING AND PREPARATION OF PEAT.

bottom of the bog, pits 2 to 3 yards broad are dug, or a peat-
borer is used.

Driving poles into bogs may lead to false inferences, if beds
of marl or trunks and stumps of trees, etc., are imbedded and
prevent the poles from reaching the bottom of the bog.
Digging pits is often impracticable owing to the accumulation
of water and always involves much labour and expense, but
this method affords the best possible insight into the nature
of the bog and must be employed to ascertain the quality of
the peat. It is best to use the peat-borer, as this generally
gives satisfactory results and saves much labour. Since,
however, few bogs are level at the surface and their bed is
often undulating and irregular, levels should be taken all
over the surface of a bog, the levels of the bottom and top
of each point of intersection being fixed with reference to
a horizontal plane through the highest point in the bog.
This levelling will show what is the contour of the bog, a
knowledge of which is requisite before its drainage can be
undertaken.

(c) With the help of the above factors, the contents of the
peat-bog may be estimated in cubic feet. In order, however,
to estimate how much marketable peat there may be, a deduc-
tion must be made for shrinkage. For as soon as a bog has
been drained, it settles down and shrinks the more, the more
thorough the drainage. The amount of shrinkage must be
calculated by experiment.

Thus pieces of peat of the ordinary dimensions are cut from
several trenches and thoroughly dried, their volumes being
calculated before and after drying and the difference between
them being the amount of shrinkage, which is generally from
30 to 50 per cent, of the volume of freshly cut peat.

(d) Finally the loss of peat during extraction must be
estimated : this varies in quantity according to the skill of the
workmen, the quantity of stumps or stems of imbedded trees
and the cohesiveness of the peat, for the better kinds of peat
,'iro much more brittle than inferior fibrous peat.

During frosty weather in winter, the walls of the open peat-
trenches frequently crumble considerably ; besides this waste,
frequently ridges of peat remaining between the trenches

METHODS OF HARVESTING. 797

cannot be utilized. Thus a loss of peat occurs, often 25 or
50 per cent, of its whole volume. If, however, this otherwise
wasted material can be moulded into turves, no loss need
accrue.

2. Quality.

The quality of the peat is ascertained in the above-men-
tioned manner, both as regards its efficiency as fuel, and the
possibility of thoroughly draining the bog.

It has already been remarked that the quality of the peat
varies in the different strata of the bog, the best peat being, as
a rule, at the base of the bog and the inferior kind at its
surface. In order to ascertain the nature of the peat through-
out the bog, several experimental trenches are dug: the
refuse is set aside and the fibrous peat stacked apart from
the black peat, the relative proportion of each kind being
calculated ; the peat at the base is then dredged out and each
kind analysed.

As the value of peat depends on the quantity of combustible
matter in it, which is greater the less water or ash the peat
contains, the analysis is directed chiefly to ascertaining the
quantity of water and ashes in the peat. The contents of the
peat in bituminous substance and uncombined carbon, which
is always a test of its value, may be found by extracting them
with sulphurous ether.

The value of a peat-bog depends also on the possibility
of draining it. If a bog can be thoroughly drained within
a year from the commencement of working it, the admis-
sion of oxygen from the air will more or less quickly con-
vert the insufficiently decomposed and less valuable peat
into rich black peat which is the most valuable kind. Well-
drained peat also crumbles far less than when the bog is
undrained.

It is evident that if a bog is to be properly utilised, it
should be worked in accordance with a fixed plan prepared
beforehand ; this plan specifies how much peat should be dug
yearly, when the digging is to be commenced, in what direc-
tion it is to be continued, according to what principles it is to
be drained and the best lines for transport. Wherever there

798 DIGGING AND PREPARATION OF PEAT.

is an intention of utilizing the peat and then converting the
bog into a forest or meadows, so much of it will be dug each
year in accordance with the purpose in view, to which the
utilization of the peat is merely subsidiary. If, however, it is
intended to have a permanent supply of peat, only so much
should be dug yearly as the bog produces in a year.

Fresh peat is produced regularly in all bogs where the
conditions remain unaltered. Thus some bogs produce annu-
ally layers of peat 6 or 8 inches thick, or even thicker ; others
a mere film of new peat, and others none at all.*

The first condition for a renewal of the peat is a drainage
system by means of which the parts of the bog from which
the peat has been dug can be irrigated properly. If these
portions can be kept submerged continually, but not too
deeply (about 2 to 4 inches), whilst here and there ridges and
mounds remain above water-level, the water containing humus
and the base of the bog not being completely freed from peat
a continual production of peat may be anticipated. In order
to secure these conditions, the useless upper layers of peat and
other refuse are thrown on the cleared areas and trenches,
care being taken to keep these latter inundated.

The mode of reproduction of a bog cannot be explained in a
general manner, but only observed on individual bogs, whilst
any change in the drainage of the surrounding land may
greatly affect matters in this respect. As, therefore, a long
period is required for such observations, during which changes
in the water-supply may occur and the rate of production of
peat vary in different parts of the bog, it is rare that working
plans for a bog take into consideration its reproduction. It
is, therefore, considered sufficient to prepare a plan for from
50 to 100 years, accor(}ing to the extent of the bog, the demand
for the peat, and amount of labour available ; a fixed quantity
of peat is thus supplied annually, whilst the cutting proceeds
in a proper direction. In the latter respect, it is customary to
commence operations at the highest part of the bog, if it is
intended that the peat shall be reproduced, and thence to
proceed gradually to its lower parts.

* For the rate of growth in various moors, see Sendtner, oji. rif., p. l!l(>.

799

SECTION IV. — DRAINAGE OF BOGS.

1. General Account.

Peat can be utilized only after a bog has been partially drained.
It is chiefly small bogs resting on a sloping bed which can be
worked without draining ; drainage is always necessary in the
case of large bogs. The object is not to drain the entire bog,
but only that portion which it is intended to work immediately,
and to such an extent that the peat may be readily dug and
dried. The remainder of the bog should be kept thoroughly
wet in all cases where the production of the peat is intended,
and the peat also protected from being frozen* ; this is also
frequently useful when the land already freed from peat is to
be cultivated.

All parts of the bog which are not being utilized should be
kept thoroughly wet during winter, or the peat will be seriously
injured by frost. When wet or damp peat is frozen it does
not become compact again on being dried, but crumbles. If
the cleared bog is to be planted with trees or converted into
meadow-land, it is not advisable to drain the bog completely,
but only to remove the superfluous water.

The method of draining a bog depends essentially on its
situation and nature ; one or other of the following methods
being adopted : — leading water away in drains, cutting off the
water-supply, collecting the water in drains or tanks, or causing
the water to sink through an impermeable subsoil.

2. Ordinary Drams.

The usual method of draining is to lead the water from
the bog in ordinary open drains. It is then essential that
some land near the bog is on a lower level than its bed ; this
generally occurs. The levels taken of the bog and the
immediately surrounding country show the difference of altitude
between the lowest point of the bed of the bog and that of the
external land, and the gradient of the line joining these two

* [Cranberry bo;/.-; in N.America are inundated regularly when threatened by
:u order to protect the plants. — Tr.]

800 DIGGING AND PREPARATION OF PEAT.

points. This is the line of greatest fall, and should be the
direction of the principal drain.

It should be noted that a steep gradient is desirable only
outside the bog ; within the bog the gradient of the drains should
be less the more water the bog contains. Digging the principal
drain is commenced at its lowest point outside the bog ; it
often suffices to continue this drain up to the bog, but, as a rule,
it should be conducted to the lowest point within the bog. In
case a brook runs through the bog it may often be used as the
principal drain after some cuts have been made in it to improve
the flow of water. If the bed of the bog slopes down towards a
neighbouring river or brook, this slope affords the best
gradient for the drainage. If, however, the bog lies in a
depression surrounded by higher land, it is a question of expense
whether to cut through the latter or construct a tunnel to serve
as a drain. The dimensions of the main drain depend on
the gradient and the quantity of water to be removed. It is
not generally necessary to drain down to the bed of the bog.
Too broad or deep drains often injuriously dry up the bog and
are extremely costly both in construction and maintenance.
Where the drain leaves the bog a simple sluice-gate should be
constructed in order to retain sufficient water in the bog during
winter. In the case of small bogs and drains, instead of a sluice-
gate, the inlet into the main drain is blocked in autumn with peat.

If there is much change of gradient in the bed of a large bog,
several draining trenches are cut through the latter. It is often
advisable to cut these drains from a certain point in the bog,
and then lead them outwards in diverging directions, which
generally cross one another at right angles.

Whilst generally the main drain is completed once for all, the
subsidiary drains are dug gradually during the progress of
removal of the peat. They are generally at right angles to the
main drains and are intended to drain only that portion of the
bog which is being worked. They are naturally smaller than
the main drain.

In the extensive bogs of Holland, Friesland and Bremen the
main drains serve not only for drainage, but also for the purpose
of communication by barges and conveyance of the peat ; they
are frequently 26 to 32 feet broad.

HARVESTING THE PEAT. 80J

3. Drains for Cutting off the Water from Bogs.

There are frequently small watercourses which run into a bog,
or water runs down a slope into it. If, then, trenches can be dug
so as to cut off the water-supply from the bog, they are very
serviceable as an aid to ordinary drains, but will not suffice alone
to drain the bog.

4. Collecting -Drain* and Tauka.

A large number of bogs are supplied with water by infiltration
from neighbouring watercourses. If, then, the bog lies above
the level of the water it is possible to drain it in the ordinary
manner ; this cannot be done if it is on about the same level
as the water. Usually more extensive works are then required
(which are too costly where peat-digging is concerned), in order
to exclude inundations from the bog, or remove the water from
collecting drains by means of pumps and hydraulic engines.
Only when the inlet of water is inconsiderable can water, which
collects in the drains during the night, be removed by manual
labour. The construction of a sufficiently large tank near the
bog to receive the water can be undertaken only exceptionally.

5. Pien-inf/ an Impermeable Pan.

If a bog should rest on a thin bed of loam or clay, below
which is an impermeable stratum, or pan, of gravel or sand, the
simplest method of draining it is often to bore or break through
the pan and thus allow the water to sink below it. If, however,
the shaft through the pan is made at the deepest part of the
bog its drainage may be too thorough, and thus injuriously
affect the peat.

SECTION V. — HARVESTING THE PEAT.

The removal of the peat may be effected in various ways. A
distinction is thus made between peat dug by manual labour
(SHrlitorf), peat which is moulded into shape (Modeltorf) and
peat removed and prepared by machinery (Maschinentorf).

F.U. 3 F

802 DIGGING AND PREPARATION OF PEAT.

1. Peat Dug by Manual Labour.

Only fairly compact peat can be dug by means of spades, and
the pieces, termed turves, are then dried in the sun and by
exposure to the air. The different operations in this case are
the preliminary works, and digging, drying and storing the
peat.

(a) Preliminary Works.

i. Subsidiary Drainage.

After the main drain and the most important side-drains have
been dug, further subsidiary drainage must be done annually.
This is effected by making a trench a little way from where the
peat is to be dug, parallel to the line of digging and per-
pendicular to the main drain, so that either the whole or a
portion of the area to be dug in a year may thus be drained. As
soon as the season's digging is over, the junction of each of these
drains with the main drain is closed in order to keep the bog
sufficiently moist.

ii. Laying Out the Line for Digging.

The area where the peat is to be extracted in accordance with
the plan of operations, should then be measured and marked
out with shallow trenches, so that the workmen may know
where to dig.

As a rule, the peat should be dug in successive years from
immediately adjoining areas and no wall of peat left standing
between them, which is usually a sign of bad management,
though sometimes necessary where there is a superfluity of
water. Each year's area should consist of a long, narrow strip,
parallel lengthwise to the subsidiary drain. Such a shape
allows a number of men to work simultaneously, renders drain-
age by means of a single trench possible and allows sufficient
room for drying the turves, which are generally piled on a strip
of land previously marked out and adjoining the digging trench.
All vegetation should be cleared from this strip, so that the
turves may be piled easily and exposed thoroughly to the air.

HARVESTING THE PEAT. 803

iii. Layiiuj out Roads.

The turves must either be dried on land adjoining the bog,
or on the bog itself, and then removed. In both cases, roads
are necessary, which should be made on the driest part of the
bog, be as permanent as possible and cross the drains only
when this is unavoidable, in order to avoid the expense of
bridges. Roads should be made of fascines and sifted gravel
whenever they traverse wet ground. If the turves are removed
in wheelbarrows from the digging-trench to the drying-ground,
only a narrow pathway is required.

iv. RrHuirul of \Vood.

On many bogs a certain number of trees are growing
(mountain or Scots pine, alder, birch, etc.), and their usually
spreading roots often interfere considerably with the digging.
These trees should be felled a year before the turves are dug,
and their main roots extracted.

v. Mtinftf/nncfi/ of I.nlxnir.

Labourers employed in digging turves should be divided
into parties, as in the case of forest work. According to the
methods employed for digging and drying the turves, three,
four or even more workmen form a party. The digging-
ground is then sub-divided into as many sections as there are
parties of labourers, provided a certain length is not exceeded,
in North Germany usualty 2 or 3 yards (meters), and in South
Germany 4 or more yards, per man. These measured lengths
are staked outnumbered and distributed among the parties.

(b) Digging the Turves.

i. /Season.

It has been stated already that peat is damaged by frost, and
this is the case both with uncut peat and turves. One or two
degrees below freezing-point is sufficient to do the damage.
Frozen turves do not shrink after thawing, but dry the same

3 F 2

804 DIGGING AND PREPARATION OF PEAT.

size as when frozen ; they are, therefore, very porous, form
inferior fuel, and crumble easily. Digging turves should not
therefore commence until there is no longer danger from late
frosts.

Although it may appear profitable to dig turves during dry
spring weather, yet experience proves that a single late frost
will damage the turves, so as to nullify all the advantage of
early work. In countries, therefore, with a mild climate,
digging turves should be commenced about the beginning of
May, in mountainous and northern countries, from the middle
to the end of May. The work should stop early enough to
allow the turves to dry thoroughly. This depends also on the
local climate and especially on the humidity of the air.
Digging turves generally terminates about the end of August,
if the turves are dried out of doors. When they are dried
artificially, the work may continue for a longer period.

ii. Size of the Turves.

The size of the turves depends on the compactness of the
peat and the time required for drying them. The lighter and
looser the peat, the better it holds together during digging
and drying, the more quickly can the turves be dried and the
larger they may be. In the case of black, amorphous peat,
the turves are smaller than with brown peat.

iii. Implements.

All the implements used for digging turves are modifications
of the garden spade.

The Frisian spade (Fig. 389) is used for digging vertically ;
the spades (Figs. 390, 391) are used for digging horizontally ;
they have short handles, but very sharp and perfectly flat
blades. The peat-spade (Fig. 390) is in common use. Fig. 391
is a two-bladed spade with one blade at right angles to the
other, in order to loosen the turves on both sides at once ; it
is used in the Ehine provinces. Fig. 392 is a spade used for
vertical digging in Upper Bavaria, the turves being cut on all
sides with it. Fig. 393 represents a spade used in North

HARVESTING THE PEAT.

805

East Germany to remove the useless superficial turf and sods
of earth. A three-pronged fork resembling an ordinary dung-

Fig. iV.it). Fig. iV.ll. Fig. M2.

Implements used for digging peat.

Fig.

fork is used generally for putting the turves into barrows or
carts for transport.

In i i Turves.

There are two methods of digging turves, termed respectively
the horizontal and vertical methods. The former method is
almost universally employed in North Germany, and is common
in the Rhenish Provinces and South Germany. The vertical
method is practised in some Upper Bavarian bogs and in the
Baltic provinces. In the horizontal method, a workman
beginning at the top edge of the wall of peat, cuts the vertical
lines of a turf with the Frisian spade, whilst another workman
standing in the trench, cuts the turf horizontally and sideways
from the bank of peat.

In the vertical method, the workman standing on the top
of the bank of peat cuts each turf free by one vertical or
slightly oblique stroke of the spade (Fig. 391) and tears it off

806 DIGGING AND PREPARATION OF PEAT.

from below, raising it with the same spade on to the bank of
turf. As by this method the turf is broken off above and
below, it has not a regular cubical shape; control is thus
rendered more difficult, while there is more refuse from
crumbling than in the horizontal method. At the same time
the vertical method is less laborious and cheaper than the
other. According to the skill of the workmen and the diffi-
culty of cutting the peat, with horizontal cutting, 3,000 to
5,000 turves may be cut in a day, and with vertical cutting
under favourable circumstances 6,000 to 7,000 turves. The
vertical method is obligatory whenever the bog is insufficiently
drained.

Before beginning to cut the turves the topmost layer of soil
must be dug up in sods, as long or double the length of the
turves, by means of the Frisian spade, or the spade shown in
Fig. 393 ; these sods should be removed from the bog in
wheelbarrows or carts.

The methods of cutting turves also vary, in the case of
either horizontal or vertical cutting, according as the peat-
bank is cut in continuous or alternate strips.

When the turves are cut in continuous strips, a commence-
ment is made on the longer side of the area marked out for
the year's cutting, and strip after strip of peat is removed until
the work has been completed. In this case, the work going on
continuously down to the bed of the bog, there is either a
vertical bank of peat left, or this bank may be in steps and the
work proceed by cutting first from the top-most step, then
from the second step, and so on. In this case the turves are
removed from the bog as soon as they are cut, so as to leave
room for the workmen to dig.

When the turves are cut in alternate strips, they are
stacked close to the cut, like a wall, the strip on which they
stand being left uncut and a new strip commenced imme-
diately beyond it. In this case also, a deep bog cannot be at
once cut to its full depth, but the work must be done in two
operations. As soon as the stacked turves are dry and have
been removed, the work of cutting the intermediate strips is
undertaken.

Cutting in alternate strips is cheaper than in continuous

HARVESTING THE PEAT. 807

strips, as a separate labour force is not then required for
removing the turves to the drying-ground ; this method is
also especially applicable when the bog is wet or insufficiently
drained, also when it is superficial and can be cut in one
operation. It has, however, the disadvantage that the turves
are all from the same level and is not advisable for deep bogs.

v. Obstacles to Culling.

Besides the water, which may prevent the cutting going
down to the bed of the bog, various foreign bodies are im-
bedded in the peat, forming so many obstacles to the digging ;
among these are stones, beds of sand or marl, roots and stems
of trees, etc. Stones are frequently found in morasses and
fens; besides interrupting the cutting they injure the imple-
ments. Layers' of sand and marl often cause temporary
flooding and must be cut through to let the water pass.
Imbedded roots and stumps of trees are often serious obstacles
in high peat- bogs. When these are stumps of resinous
conifers, they are usually quite undecomposed* and must be
removed completely. Large quantities of peat are sometimes
wasted owing to the presence of stumps and long side-roots.
Superficial roots of birch, alders, etc., in the upper layers of a
bog are not so prejudicial, as they are generally rotten and
can be severed with a spade.

Machines have recently been constructed, to replace manual
labour in cutting turves ; one invented by Browowsky t is used
in North Germany, and cuts turves 3 to 6 yards long and
2£ X 2| feet in section, even from undrained bogs. These
large turves are then cut into smaller sizes by manual labour.

(c) Drying the Turves.

As much care should be taken in drying as in digging
turves, for their value as fuel depends greatly on the thorough-
ness with which they are dried. The air dries the interior oi

* In the Laiulstuhl 'bog, near Kaiserslautern, there are three layers of Scots
pine-stamps separated by peat, that yield annually 28,000 cubic feet of slump-
wood. They arc converted into tar.

\ Hanseling. " Indust. Torfgewinnung," p. 25.

808 DIGGING AND PREPARATION OF PEAT.

turves better than solar heat, which quickly hardens their
surface but leaves them still wet internally. Turves may be
dried either out of doors, or under cover.

i. Drying Turves out of Doors.

The drying-ground is either on the bog itself, or on an
adjoining plot when the latter is too wet ; as already stated, it
should be prepared before digging the peat. The turves are
stacked in various ways, according to the space available for

Fig. 394. Fig. 395.

Methods of piling turves.

drying them, their comparative wetness and rate of drying,
and the available labour-force ; in order to dry them properly,
however, they should always be turned over several times.

As soon as they are cut, the turves are removed usually by
the workmen, either in wheelbarrows, or by the men forming
a chain and passing them from hand to hand. They are then
placed singly and on their edge, like bricks, at short intervals,
or piled in little stacks of five turves each (Fig. 394) ; or as
in Fig. 395 round a stake, up to a height of 3 to 4J feet, a
method usual in Swabia and around Lake Constance ; or, as
in some parts of Austria, stakes are driven into the ground
with 9 or 10 pointed transverse sticks attached crosswise to
their ends, on which the turves are impaled. After a pre-
liminary drying, the turves are turned over once or several

HARVESTING THE PEAT. 809

times, the lowest ones being brought to the top of the stack,
and vice versa.

As explained already, when space is limited, the turves are
dried first on the top of the bank of peat, which is cut in
alternate strips. It is evident that the turves when stacked
for drying do not dry so quickly or thoroughly as when placed
singly on the ground. The lower turves must therefore be
further dried on the drying-ground, and for this purpose may
be placed in circular rings of 5 or 6 turves on the ground,
over which 4, 6 or 8 rings are placed, the space between two
turves in a lower ring being covered by a turf in the ring
above it.

When the turves are dried thoroughly — for which 4, 6 or 10
weeks are required, according to the weather, mode of drying
and quality of the peat — if they are to be at once sold and
removed, they are piled in the usual rectangular or conical
sale-stacks, each containing 1,000 turves, or else in stacks
similar to those used for firewood.

ii. Drying imilcr Cover.

Sheds for drying turves are similar to those used for bricks,
being very long and narrow and formed of laths, which are
covered with a light roof, and in which the turves are stacked
one above the other. These sheds offer the great advantage
that the drying process is independent of the weather, but
they are too expensive for general use.

Drying, however, is conducted in sheds, much more rapidly
and thoroughly than in the open air, observations at Waid-
moos having shown, that in four weeks, turves thus dried
lost about 20 per cent, more moisture than in the open.

iii. Shrinkage.

From 70 to 90 per cent, of the weight of freshly-cut turves
is water ; most of this is lost in drying, but air-dried turves
still contain 26 to 30 per cent, of water. In passing to the
air-dried condition, turves shrink considerably, the more so
the better their quality.

Some peats lose 70 to 75 per cent, of their volume by

810 DIGGING AND PREPARATION OF PEAT.

shrinkage, so that a volume of 100 cubic feet of wet peat
becomes only 25 to 30 cubic feet when dried. Fibrous peat, on
the other hand, does not shrink much, but loses much more in
weight than good peat, weighing frequently only one-fifth, or
even less, of its weight when freshly cut.

(d) Storage of Turves. — The turves cannot always be sold
and removed at once, but sometimes must be stored through the
winter. This is done either in the open, or in covered stacks.

The cheapest method is to pile the turves in stacks, either
conical or prismatic, and sloping at the top. Turves which
are not thoroughly dried, may, however, be spoiled in this
way. The stacks should be erected in a dry and somewhat
elevated place and piled carefully.

The turves are protected from damage much better when the
stacks are thatched. Straw, reeds, spruce-branches or bracken
will serve the purpose ; better still, a light plank roof
supported by four posts may be erected with a slope towards
the rainy quarter, or the turves may be placed as follows — in
the centre of a cleared space a strong stake is driven vertically
into the ground, and billets placed radiating in a circle from
the stake (as in the base of an Alpine charcoal-kiln) and
covered with planks ; the turves are then piled on this floor in
a truncated cone thatched with straw. From these thatched
stacks the turves can be taken during winter according to
requirements, this can be done from uncovered stacks only at
the risk of spoiling them.

Whenever the value of turves is sufficiently high, it is best
to store them in sheds, which should have their greatest
length perpendicular to the direction of the prevalent wind,
and be lightly built of planks or laths, so that the wind
may blow through them, the rain being kept out by a roof.

2. Moulded Peat.

Some peat is not sufficiently compact to be cut into turves,
but must be moulded. This is the case with bogs containing
much imbedded wood, or so dry that the peat crumbles into
dust, or so wet that the peat must be dredged ; also where the
peat is only ordinarily moist, but cannot be cut into turves

MOULDED PEAT. 811

owing to the presence of numerous undecomposed roots. In
ordinary peat-bogs, however, where turves are cut, there is
always a large percentage of waste peat resulting from the
digging, drying or transport of the turves, which can be
utilized only by moulding it. This waste frequently amounts
to a fifth or a quarter of the annual yield of peat, so that some
turf should be moulded in every moor, and not only where
all the peat is moulded.

The different works in question are — preparing the peat,
and moulding and drying the turves.

(a) Preparing the Peat. — Peat which is to be moulded
should form a homogeneous mass, containing a suitable
amount of water, and capable of being kneaded. If the peat
is naturally powdery and dry, it should be mixed with water in
a pit, or in a wooden bin with holes in its base ; if it is muddy
peat with a superfluity of water, it must be dredged out of the
bog with a hollow shovel or in a purse-net, and poured into
the bin or on straw laid on the ground, so that the super-
fluous water may drain away. In whatever way it is collected,
the mixed peat and water must now be thoroughly kneaded
and worked together until they form a fairly homogeneous mass.
This is generally done by men trampling on it with bare feet
or with flat clogs, less frequently with the help of hoe or spade.

When the peat is of the ordinary consistency and moisture,
the workmen place planks in the trench in front of the bank
of peat, and cut the peat away from the bank with a sharp
cutting mattock, letting it fall on the planks, and watering it
sufficiently by means of wooden buckets. In Holland and
several places in North Germany (especially Hanover), the
peat-pulp is left alone to dry for a few days, and then again
kneaded. In South Germany, it is moulded while still very
wet, the second operation being omitted.

(b) Moulding the Turves. — The turves should be moulded
at a place close to where the peat has been dried. If this is at
any great distance from the bank of peat, the peat-pulp is
removed in baskets or bins which are placed on wheelbarrows ;
it is then thrown on to straw or planks, and is either cut or
moulded into shape, the moulds containing several compart-
ments or being similar to those used for brickmaking.

812 DIGGING AND PREPARATION OF PEAT.

Peat-pulp is cut into shape in Holland, Friesland or
Hanover, being spread out in layers, often half an acre in
extent, and beaten flat with flat wooden shoes, planks or
shovels. The pulp is allowed to lie for several days, and when
sufficiently dry and consolidated it is cut with sabre-like
blades, or sharp spades, in parallel strips as broad as the
turves are long. After a few more days' exposure, these strips
are cut into turves.

When on account of its watery condition, the peat-pulp is
collected in perforated bins, in which it is worked up, it is
moulded into turves by means of wooden frames without
bases ; these are placed on the ground or on a bench, and the
pulp poured into them. Its surface is levelled by means of a
board which is also pressed down on the pulp in the frame to
expel the water.

Moulds of several compartments are composed of rect-
angular wooden frames open above and below, and divided
into 16, 28, 36 or more compartments, each the size of a turf.
A mould is then placed on a bench, or on a substratum of
straw, reeds, etc. ; the peat-pulp is poured into its compart-
ments with a shovel, pressed down, and the mould is then
removed. In order that the turves may not stick to the sides
of the compartments, they are lined with tin, or their bases
are somewhat wider than their tops.

Simple moulds resembling those used in brickmaking are
used by a workman standing before a bench, often made of
cast-iron, on which the mould is placed. The mould is of
wood, open at top and base, its interior the size of a turf and
generally lined with tin. The workman from a heap of peat-
pulp on his bench, takes sufficient with both hands to fill the
mould, strikes off the superflous peat with a board, the size of
the base of the mould ; he then places the board over the
mould, turns the latter over, raises it and leaves the turf
resting on the board. A second workman takes the board
and turf to the drying-ground, and brings back the board. In
the meantime the former workman continues to make turves
with the mould and other boards.

Experience shows that a simple mould is at least as
expeditious as a multiple one, a man, with a boy to remove the

MANUFACTURED PEAT. 813

turves, preparing 1,000 to 1,500 turves in a day. As, more-
over, the peat-pulp passes again through the workman's hand,
and all foreign matter can thus be removed, the turves in that
case are more uniform and free from extraneous matter, and
as the peat is not poured but pressed into the mould, the
turves are denser than in the former method.

(c) Drying Moulded Turves. — Moulded turves must be
dried more gradually and carefully than those that are cut
directly from the bog. When peat-pulp is cut, the turves are
left to dry for a few days, and then turned on to their narrow
sides ; then they are piled generally in superposed rings (as
described above, p. 808). They must be turned again once or
twice, according to the state of the weather and are stacked
when completely dried. Moulded turves generally dry more
quickly than cut turves, especially when they are moulded
like bricks and dried like ordinary turves.

AY hen the peat is very watery and moulds of several com-
partments used, it is better, after the preliminary drying on
the ground (which is not required for brick-moulded turves) to
place the turves under cover, as they cannot withstand pro-
longed rain. Turves made in multiple moulds may be
destroyed entirely by rain, so that this method can be adopted
only in fine weather.

(d) Quality. — Moulded turves afford a better fuel generally
than cut turves, in ratios of 5 : 3 or 5 : 4. This is due to
their greater homogeneity, the removal of extraneous matter,
greater density and the use of amorphous peat, which is often
wasted when the turves are cut from the bog.

3. Manufactured Peat.*

Manufactured peat is so prepared as to be capable of
competing with other fuels in the market.

Turves cut from bogs or moulded by hand will not bear
distant transport, firstly, on account of their large volume
compared with their value as fuel, and secondly, on account
of their brittleness and property of absorbing much moisture

* An interesting account of peat manufactured at Schussenried in Wurtem-
berg, is jriven in " IJaur's Centralblatt," 1881, p. 88.

814 DIGGING AND PREPARATION OF PEAT.

in damp air and of falling to pieces when frozen. These
turves are, therefore, saleable only in the immediate neigh-
bourhood of the bog ; the price obtained for them, being low,
does not encourage an extensive working of the bog. Owing to
the high price of fuel which prevailed a few decades ago, the large
demands for industrial purposes and the extensive supplies of
peat available in certain districts, the question arose as to
whether peat might not be so improved by machinery as to
yield a fuel approaching coal in value. Owing to the subse-
quent depression in the price of fuel, the demand for manu-
factured peat has somewhat abated, but the industry is still
carried on in many places.

In order that manufactured peat may compete with coal and
wood, it must be utilizable for heating boilers, preparing gas
and paraffin, in metallurgy, etc., and should fulfil the
following conditions : —

Density. — The turves must not merely be dense super-
ficially, nor so dense at the surface that the air cannot reach
their interior, but be uniformly dense throughout.

Compactness. — The turves must be compact enough not
only to retain their shape during transport, but also while
being burned.

High combustible power. — During manufacture, the most
combustible parts of the peat must be carefully preserved,
especially the amorphous peat.

Dryness. — The peat must be dried thoroughly, not only
superficially, but also internally ; it should, as far as possible,
lose its great hygroscopicity and not swell considerably when
exposed to damp and thus become unserviceable.

Quantity. — The manufacture must be so conducted as to
yield large quantities of material and be independent of the
weather.

The cost of production, including that of supervision, must
be sufficiently low to allow the material to compete with other
combustibles.

The following methods have been undertaken to secure the
above conditions : — contraction, dry pressure, wet pressure
and destruction of structure, with or without pressure.

All these methods are, however, too costly to repay the

MANUFACTURED PEAT. 815

expense unless the price of fuel is as high as during the
'forties of this century. Several of these methods have fallen
into disuse, whilst others have been adopted. The former
will, therefore, only be shortly considered, more attention
being given to those still in vogue.

(a) Contraction. — Challeton at Paris, and Kay at Neuchatel
adopted the following method of increasing the density of
peat. The turves were cut from a bog, brought to the factory
and then cut to pieces by a system of rollers with blades fixed
on them ; the material was then treated with running water
so as to form a thin pulp, which ran over fine sieves in order
to remove all coarse fibres. This fine pulp is then led in
canals to a trench one to two feet deep, the bottom of which is
covered with reeds or rushes. In this trench the pulp sets
firmly, the water draining off through the reeds, and after a
few days it can be cut into turves by means of a wooden
lattice-frame as broad as the trench, which is pressed down on
the peat.

The specific weight of Challeton's peat, according to Schenk,
Tl to 1-2, and to Dullo 1'8, is equal to that of coal. But it
is not suitable for fuel, as it burns like charcoal, without any
flame, the turves also fall to pieces in the fire and block up
the grate.

(1) Dry pressure. — In this case the peat is subdivided as
finely as possible, thoroughly dried and pressed into turves.
The experiments of Exter made a few years ago at Haspel-
moor, near Munich, and some other places, give the best
known results of this method. The bog was superficially
ploughed by a steam-plough. All the refuse peat was finely
subdivided, dried and conveyed to the factory. It was then
sifted and thoroughly dried in a specially designed hot-air
chamber, which it left with only 10 per cent, of moisture, and
was then converted into turves by a powerful press.

This product, however, did not answer the purpose intended,
as it fell into dust while burning, and was scarcely superior,
as fuel, to the best ordinary turves.

(c) Wet pressure. — Owing to the obvious advantage result-
ing from pressing the wet peat, and thus increasing its density,
and at the same time its compactness, more attempts have

816 DIGGING AND PKEPAKATION OF PEAT.

been made in this direction than in any other. No attempt,
however, to press raw peat has succeeded, partly on account of
the fibrous nature of the peat, which caused it to swell again
after the pressure had been removed, and partly because the
valuable humus-carbon escaped with the water, and thus the
product deteriorated as a combustible. Other kinds of pressed
turves were too dense externally, and their interior either did
not burn well or else retained too much moisture.

(d) Destruction of the Structure of the Peat, with or
without Pressure. — It is now everywhere recognised that
the structure of the peat must be destroyed before the turves
are formed, and that, only a moderate pressure, if any at all,
is advisable. The apparatus of Schlickeysen and Geysser,
Gratjahn and Pelau, Mecke and Sander, Weber and Maft'ei,
are those best known for this method.

(i.) Method of Schlickeysen* and G-eysser. — A vertical axle
is moveable by steam-power in a vertical, hollow, cast-iron
vessel, with a funnel-shaped top. On the axle are six sharp
horizontal knives, fitted to it like the thread of a screw, while
six corresponding knives are on the walls of the vessel. There
is also a moveable base, which is attached to the axle and rests
on the real base of the vessel, and immediately above it are
two holes on opposite sides of the vessel through which the
prepared peat passes. The peat placed in the vessel while
the axle is in motion is cut into shreds by the knives, which
also cut through all pieces of roots ; it is at the same time
pressed slightly downwards by their screw-like action, and
finally passes out through the holes in a round rope-like mass
of stiff paste. This runs out continually on to a bench, and is
cut into pieces and dried.

Although no water is added to that originally in the peat,
the latter is quite plastic. The fresh turves are moderately
dense ; though covered superficially with a smooth gelatinous
coating they are yet capable of being dried easily and
thoroughly. There is no loss of humous-carbon, which during
the macerating process becomes attached to the walls of the
vessel and issues from it as a glazed coating to the turf. In
twelve hours, 15,000 turves, each a foot long, can be cut from

* Leo, "Die Konipression dcs ToiTcs."

MANUFACTURED PEAT.

817

each side of the vessel, and in favourable weather they dry
rapidly with a considerable shrinkage. This turf can be used
not only as ordinary fuel, but also in the manufacture of glass
and porcelain, it must then be dried in kilns. Gysser has
invented hand-machines of a similar description to the above,
as represented in Figs. 396 and 397, and capable of turning
out 2,500 to 3,000 turves in a day. These hand-machines
have the advantage over that of Schlickeysen, of saving the
transport of the wet peat, besides saving fuel, and can be

:'•%. — Gysser's machine for
pressing peat.

Fig. 31)7.— Section
of Fig. 390.

worked on the bog ; at the same time, they are not applicable
in the case of very fibrous peat, or where there are many roots.
Gysser dried the peat in an excellent manner in portable
drying sheds, consisting of frames like hurdles placed one
above the other, and covered with a roof.

(ii.) Method of Grotjahn-Peau. — Figs. 398 and 399 show
the machinery constructed by G. Krauss & Co., of Munich.

The elevator a b (Fig. 398) raises the irregularly shaped
pieces of peat to b, where they fall into a bin c, and hence
into the horizontal macerating machine, the interior of which
is shown in Fig. 399. This is of somewhat similar construc-
tion to Schlickeysen's vessel containing a moveable axle with

F.U. 3 G

818

DIGGING AND PREPARATION OF PEAT.

revolving knives. The peat is thus finely subdivided, uni-
formly mixed together, and finally issues through the orifice b

Fig. 398. — Grotjahn's machine.

Fig. 399.— Cutting cylinder of Grotjahn's machine.

(Fig. 399), on to a plank d c, which is pushed forward on rollers.
A workman stands at the orifice of the machine and cuts the

MANUFACTURED PEAT.

819

issuing part into turves with a sharp instrument. The elevator
and macerating cylinder are driven by a locomobile m, and they
both stand on a frame .4 B, which can be moved by means
of small wheels along a tramway as the digging-ground
advances. The plank d is taken with the turves on it to
the drying-ground, and turned over carefully, and then
brought back to the machine. This mode of preparing
turves has been employed extensively, both in North and
South Germany.

(iii.) Mecke and Sanders, of Oldenburg, have constructed
a machine consisting of a long steel girder (30 metres) A B

I-'i'j-. loo.— Mivkr and Saixlars' machine.

(Fig. 400) resting on a car IF and a wheel y which run on rails
or boards parallel to the peat-cutting C, and placed at a proper
distance from it. a a is the machine for cutting the peat, and
can be placed higher or lower, according to the depth of the
cutting. It is self-regulating to avoid impediments in the
peat, roots, etc., and cuts the peat with the saw teeth of
a dredger, in thin vertical strips. The turf is elevated by an
endless chain, attached to the dredging sections, into the
mixing apparatus b. The latter is an iron cylinder containing
two rotating axles provided with a projecting screw, which
mix up uniformly all the turf coming from different depths
and press the homogeneous peaty paste through a wide open-
ing on to the distributing apparatus c c c. The distributing
apparatus consists of a chain stretched over two rollers, m n,

3 G 2

820 DIGGING AND IMSM PA NATION OF PEAT.

and bearing successive flat pieces of wood, 20 inches long and
6 inches broad, through which passes a slowly moving flat chain
supported by rollers. This chain takes up the peat-paste, and a
car (W), like a snow-plough, throws it down uniformly on to the
drying platform x y. The drying platform is made of sods of
grass well-levelled and serves as a filter by absorbing the
water from the paste, so that the latter dries rapidly (even in
rainy weather in 24 hours). The paste is pressed flat by
the workmen with planks on their feet, and cut up into
turves.

The machinery is driven by steam-power, and 100,000 turves
are prepared daily on a peat-moor at Oldenburg. Kain is no
impediment.

(iv.) The Weber-Mattei method is employed at Staltach in
South Bavaria. This long-approved method macerates the peat,
mixes it uniformly, but forms it into turves by hand. The
peat dag from the moor is conveyed to the factory in waggons.
It is then raised by elevators on to a platform and thrown
into the macerating machine, which is an improvement on
Schlickeysen's machine. At Staltach, it consists of four long
buildings forming a square, three of which are the air-drying
sheds and the fourth a hot-drying shed. The air-drying shed
is made of posts supporting a strong roof and provided with a
succession of horizontal trays 18 inches apart. A tramway
passes through the middle of the sheds, by which the peat
paste is brought in. The workman places a plank on the
lowest tray, presses on it a mould of 7 cells, kneads in the
paste, lifts up the mould and places it close to the 7 turves,
and continues to make turves till the first plank is covered
with them. Then he proceeds in a similar way with the next
tray, and so on till the shed is full. After the turves have
remained 3 or 4 days under cover they acquire a consistency
like leather, but are still porous enough to part with their
interior moisture. They are turned over, placed on their ends
and dried gradually till they contain only 25 per cent, of water,
bring then suitable for fuel. If they aro to l>r rlmnvd, tho
air-dried turves are placed for some lime in tho hot drying-shed
and lose another 15 per cent, of water.

(v.) Eichorn's Method differs from the preceding ones,

1'KAT-LITTKR. 821

and is employed at Aibling, near Kosenheim ; the product is in
balls. The macerated peat is mixed gradually by a horizontal
cylinder \viili an an-liimidean screw. The balls of peat
descend by a slide to the drying-chamber, which contains a
number of heated tubes, down which the balls descend on
spirals.

Some progress has certainly been made in the quality of
machine-made turf. Hausding* states that, air-dried machine-
turf, with at most 10 per cent, of ash, has jjrds the heating
power of superior coal, so that one cwt. of machine-turf is
equivalent to \ to § cwt. of coal, whilst ordinary turves are
equivalent to only \ to J cwt. of coal.

It may here be noted that several attempts also have been
ina<l<; to carbonise peat and produce peat-charcoal in order to
increase its market value as a fuel.

Peat is not used for many other purposes besides fuel. Its
use, however, for Mable litter is increasing in importance, and
-pecially noticeable here, as there is a hope that by ibis
means tin; disastrous use of forest litter may be stopped.

Peat forinsa much better stable litter than either forest litter
or straw, for it is I 3 to 5 times as absorptive of fluids as the
latter, and thus prevents any waste of animal manure, either
in the form of urine or ammonia. The humic acid in peat
also acts beneficially on the salts, alkalis and alkaline earths
of the soil. Peat also improves the soil physically more than
other litter, retaining moisture in loose soil, loosening binding
soil and especially in promoting porosity. Its capacity for

* ()]>. fit., p. 720.

t Vide Dr. Fiirst, i; Die Torfstreu," 1802; also Bavarian "Torfstreu und
Mulhverk," Haspelmoor. Mendle, " Die Torfstreu," 1HS2.

\ According to experiments made by Wollny, Classen and Petermann, the
following are the absorptive capacities of different, substan

Percentage of

Weight.

Spruce-needles ir.i

pine needles ... 207

Oak (lend La ... 2 J2

257
Wood -wool 2*:. to I lo

'raw ... ... :')(»1

\\vi-ht.

-10!)

Spruce saw-dust ... I ID

I !;>-], elmoor peat-litter l',:\t\

Oldenburg peat ... (Jf/t

I hispelinoor prepared

peat-meal G!)0

822

DIGGING AND PREPARATION OF PEAT.

heating the soil has been shown clearly in vineyards. The air
in stables in which peat-litter is used is free from ammonia
and is thus made healthy ; the beasts have a dry, soft bedding,
the litter is also preferable to other kinds for horses, cattle,
sheep, pigs or poultry. Peat also is used in the dry-earth closet
system. Only loose-textured, mossy or fibrous peat, forming
the superficial layer of bogs, is used for litter. In some bogs
layers of the fibrous peat and amorphous black peat alternate ;
preparation of peat for fuel and litter should then proceed

Fig. 401.— Mill for tearing
up peat.

Fig. 102. —Mill for preparing
peat-litter.

simultaneously. The peat should be dried and then finely
subdivided in a peat-mill (Fig. 401) and pressed into a rectan-
gular bales weighing 2 to 3 cwt. each. [Such bales of peat-
litter are now imported largely from Holland into London, for
omnibus and tramway stables. — Tr.]

Machines have been constructed for subdividing peat, the
commonest of which are represented in Figs. 401, 402, the latter
being termed the peat-mill. The subdivided peat falls from the
machines on to a wire sieve, which separates the powdery from
the fibrous peat. The former is used in dry-earth closets. In

OTHER USES OF PEAT. 828

order to preserve the bales during transport, pieces of undivided
peat and laths are placed along their edges. About 70 or 80
bales can be carried by an ordinary railway truck.

Peat-charcoal* is prepared by charring peat in retorts, or
kilns. This product resembles lignite in heating-power.
When prepared at Christianat by electricity, in retorts, it con-
tains 79 per cent, of carbon.

Dry distillation of peat j yields : charcoal 33 to 35 per cent,
tar 4 to 5 per cent., tar-water 38 to 42 per cent., gas 25 to 28
per cent. : from the tar, creosote and paraffin are made ; from
tar-water, methyl-alcohol, ammonium sulphate and acetic acid.
Only peat dried to 25 per cent, of water is utilizable.

Artificial wood made of peat is referred to (p. 525). In
" Dingler's Polytechnical Journal," 1901, a report is made of
briquets of peat with only 1 to 3 per cent, of ash, and as valu-
able as lignite.

* Miiller. " Die Tm-fvcrkohlung," 1874. Ekelund, "Die Herstellung kompri-
niierter Kohle au.s r>reimtorf," 1*112.
f "Ncuc forstliclu' I'.iiiitcr." I'.HI-J.
I ll'.<-isrli, •• Dif \Vrw.-rtun- (ks TnrlVs." ' Ncue forstliche Blatter," 1902.

824

CHAPTEE V.

LESS IMPORTANT MINOR PRODUCE.

THE most important items of minor produce have been dealt
with in the preceding chapters, but there are various other
products of the forest soil, which are more or less useful.
Most of these are leased by area, either of the whole forest or
certain parts of it ; permission is given to collect others
gratis. Not unfrequently, however, it should first be decided
whether utilization will be injurious to the game in the forest,
for permission given to persons to wander all over a forest in
search of petty products may give rise often to irregularities.
The following items of produce will be referred to :—

Grass-seeds. Mosses. Edible Fruits.

Herbage for various Edible Fungi. Other Products.
Industrial Purposes.

1. Grass-seeds.*

The frequently abundant growth of grass on clear-cuttings,
forest-roads and other places has been described already,
nearly all the species of grass occurring that are found in
pastures. As meadow-grasses are cut for hay when in full
blossom, meadows do not afford grass-seed ; but in forests,
grasses may be allowed to ripen their fruit and thus afford a
useful agricultural product. The collection of grass-seeds is at
present in many forests a matter of importance, employs many
people and yields a fair revenue.

The species, which, as good meadow-grasses, are chiefly
in demand for seed, may be classified as gregarious, light-

* (i. Kothc, "Sjiinrln <k>r < irassaineii in <k-ii Waldun^en," St ut t-art. 187.1.

GRASS-SEEDS.

825

demanding or shade-bearing grasses, and are included in the
following list :—

Grct/arious Grasses.

Fiorin-grass

Bent-grass .
Meadow foxtail
Upright brome
Meadow fescue

Yorkshire fog
Perennial rye-grass
Italian rye-grass*

Meadow poa
Timothy-grass

Agrostis alba, L. : var.
stolonifera, L.

Agrostis alba, L, : var. vul-
gar is, With.

Agrostis canina, L.

Alojicciirus pratcnsis, L.

Browns crcctns, Huds.

Ft-atuca clatior, L. : var.
arundinacea, Schreb.

Fi'stHca clatior, L. : var.
pratcnsis, Huds.

Festuca r libra, L.

Holms himitus, L.

Loliiini ]>crcinic, L.

italicum, A. Br.

Poa pratcnsis, L.
, Phlfum pratcnse, L.
etc., etc.

var.

Light-demanding Grasses.

Grey aira .
Yellow oat-grass .
Perennial oat-grass

Aira canescens, L.
Arena flavescens, L.
Arena pratensis, L.

var.

pubescens, Huds.

Common quake-grass . Briza media, L.
Field brome . . Bromus arvensis, L. : var.

mollis, L.

Crested dog's-tail grass Cynosurus cristatus, L.
etc., etc.

* A variety probably raised by cultivation from British grass-seed, but now
much imported from the Continent. Bentham &; Hooker.

826 . LESS IMPORTANT MINOR PRODUCE.

Shade-bearing Grasses.

Vernal grass . . Antlwxantlium odoratum, L.

Tufted aira . . . Air a ccespitosa, L.

Wavy aira . . . Aira flexuosa, L.

Tall brome . . . Bronius giganteus, L.

Sheep's fescue . . Festuca ovina, L.

Reed fescue . . . Festuca sylvatica, Vill.

Soft holcus . . . Holcus mollis, L.

Spreading milium . Milium effusum, L.

Wood poa . . . Poa nemoralis, L.
etc., etc.

When the seed is ripe (which for most grasses is in the latter
half of June or July, and for others, in August and September)
the collectors walk in lines through extensive grassy areas, grasp
a handful of spikelets, cut them off and place them in a bag
slung in front, which is emptied from time to time on to a large
cloth spread out on the nearest road. The spikelets are then
put into sacks for removal and again spread out in sunny places
to dry, threshed and sifted. The chief points are to collect only
one species at a time and avoid entirely seed of bad species ; in
his own interest the forest- owner should pay attention to this.

The revenue from the collection of grass-seed is sometimes
considerable. In the State forests of the Grand Duchy of Hesse
the revenues thus obtained in 1873 and 1874 were respectively
£634 and £494. This covered from one quarter to one-sixth
of the cost of re-stocking the annual felling-areas. In 1878
50 acres of felling-area in the Forest of Stockstadt, near
Aschaffenburg, were leased for this purpose in one year for £31.
Forstmeister Urich, at Biiddingen, sows Poa nemoralis in beech
felling-areas and on clear-cut areas, in order to produce a crop of
valuable grass-seed. The seed of Milium effusum (common in
Britain) is used as bird-seed.

2. Herbage used for Various Purposes.

Among herbage used for industrial purposes, other than those
already described, Car ex Irizoides chiefly deserves mention ; it
is used instead of horsehair for stuffing furniture, etc. This
sedge is found in Germany on the damp, rich, loamy soil of

STUFFING-MATERIAL. 827

somewhat open spruce forest, also in coppice and coppice-with-
standards of ash, alder, aspen, etc., where it grows in tufts
between the overbading coppice-shoots and thrives in places
sheltered from late frosts. The longer and softer the leaves, the
more valuable the product. The sedge is full-grown by the
end of June, and may be plucked from then till October ; it is
dried partially by spreading it on sunny roads, and then brought
in and twisted by means of simple machines into plaits. It is
collected extensively in the Baden Ehine valley, where 5 cwt. of
the grass per acre form a fair crop. The yield may, however,
under favourable conditions, amount to 9 or 10 cwt. per acre ;
150 pounds of dry sedge yield 125 pounds of plaits, worth
4s. to 6s. per cwt.

In the Grand Duchy of Baden at least 2,000 tons of sedge
(worth over .£12,500) are collected annually. In 1872, the town
of Friburg obtained 4*1,287 for sedge removed from its forest;
and other towns, 1:712 and 1*840. In 1873, several communes
in Baden obtained 80s. to 60s. per acre for the sedge. More
recently the demand has somewhat lessened, owing to the sub-
stitution of Crin (V Aj'r'mm' (filaments from a palm, Ch(tnnrr<>}»i
luiniilix) as stuffing for furniture, also of cotton from species of
Bombax (India).

A grass (Aiirostis c(/'Hpifoa(i) growing in damp forests and
usually mature in September, is also used as stuffing material.

A loose, spongy tissue is used under the name of wood-wool,
that is said to be prepared from pine needles and served as a
substitute for cotton and sea-grass. The material sent to Mayr
(prepared by boiling in water and weak alkaline solutions) is
not made of pine needles, but of sea-grass ; for the mace-
rated woody bundles are 10 to 25 c.m. long and woven with
very fine cotton-fibres into a soft greenish, or grey loose tissue ;
the shorter pieces may be fibres from pine-needles.

[The chair-factories at High Wycombe besides horsehair use
Alva, as stuffing material ; * this product is the dried leaves of

* [Communicated by Mr. Glenister, High Wycombe, the plant being identified
l.y Marshall- Ward.

Mr. Isaacs of Mark Lane, states that alva is imported by the ton, in pressed
bales, from Holland. France, and Germany, at prices varying from £3 15*. to
C'.i per ton of 20 bales. It is mowed in the sea, as if dragged out, it is not cu"ly
and springy or suitable for stuffing chairs, &c. Also used by florists. — Tr.]

828 LESS IMPORTANT MINOR PRODUCE.

Zostera marina belonging to the Nat. Order Naiades and termed
grass-wrack by Hooker. It is abundant, at or below low-water
mark around the British Isles, on sandy or muddy edges of
the sea and is often thrown up in large quantities by the
tide.— Tr.]

Rushes are used chiefly as packing-material for bottles of
superior wine, and for the seats of chairs. Share-grass
(Equisetwii) is used for polishing furniture, and is largely
exported from Germany, to Greece, Turkey, and Hungary.

2. Mosses.

Polytrichum commune, a moss often growing a foot high in
wet places, is used for making brushes that are fashionable in
France, the material chiefly coming from Germany. The
moss is cut in the forest, tied in thin bundles and steeped like
flax ; it is rolled on ribbed planks, again heated to render
it pliable, and is then ready for use for weavers' -brushes,
scrubbing-brushes, carpet-brushes, etc. The roots of the
common crowberry (Empetrum nigrum. L.) and of Polytrichum
commune and P. urnigerum also are used for brushes, velvet
brushes being made from the latter in Khenish Prussia.

Tamarisk-moss (Hypnum tamariscinum) is largely used in
the manufacture of artificial flowers, Hypnum splendens being
less valuable. Tamarisk-moss is found chiefly in beech forests,
and the other moss among conifers ; they are collected in
summer, kept dry under cover, and during winter the separate
fronds are cleaned, pressed between leaves of paper, sorted,
dyed and packed.* Sphagnum-moss also is used for the
transport of living plants. Mosses are gathered by hand, with
or without permits.

3. Edible Fungi.

The truffle (Tuber melanosporum) is the most valuable of
edible fungi ; it is found chiefly in oak, hornbeam, hazel, beech
and ash forests, its mycelium being parasitic on the roots of
the trees, a few centimeters underground, in damp, rich,
calcareous soils of the warmer parts of France and Germany.

* " Dankelmann's Zeitechrif t," iv., \>. l.v.».

TRUFFLES, ETC. 829

[Formerly it was fairly common in oak forests in the South of
England, and is still found in Sussex and Hampshire, and
should be grown extensively in the south-west of Ireland. — Tr.]
Other species of truffles, especially T. Irumatum ((estirum)
and T. excaratum, etc., are less valuable. The importance of
truffles may be gathered from the fact that 1,500 tons (worth
£640,000) are exported annually from France ; in the whole
of Germany only about a ton (worth £350) is collected yearly.

[In the forest of Bedoen, on Mount Ventoux, truffles grow ex-
tensively on the roots of Quercns pubescens, their sale having
produced £1,500 in 1897, the rate being 3s. to 9s. per Ib.

In Perigord, land formerly stocked with vineyards is now
planted with young oaks for the cultivation of truffles, which
grow as a mycorliiza on the oak roots. This is said to pay
three to five times as well as vineyards. Whole villages are
engaged in this industry, which has now gone beyond the
experimental stage. The following recipe for their cultivation
is given by de Lesparre in the Rev. dc* F. ft F., 18th September,
1898. Take a truffle and dry it thoroughly (in a drawer).
When quite dry, it should be bruised into a pulpy paste with
water between two pieces of ground glass. This paste should
be spread with a paint brush, between July and January, on
green leaves of the hazel or oak, which should then be placed
in the ground. Eight or nine days later the spores germinate,
and the mycelium of the truffle is produced. The soil should
be calcareous and the climate suitable for the vine. In 5 or 6
years truffles will be produced and must be under the shade
of trees.— Tr.]

Among other edible forest fungi, Boletus edulis, Morchella
sp. sp., Clavaria, Ilydnum and Cantharellus may be cited. The
common mushroom (Agaricus deliciosus) grows rather in
meadows than in forests.

4. Edible Fruits.

Cranberries and bilberries are the edible fruits most fre-
quently collected from forests. In many districts all the
children are engaged during the season in collecting these
berries, and a large trade is driven in the produce ; there are
commercial houses in North Germany which deal with them

830 LESS IMPORTANT MINOR PRODUCE.

to the extent of £5,000 and more yearly. The forests of the
Fichtelgebirge, the Spessart, the Schwarzwarld, etc., yield
large quantities of these berries. When fully ripe, large wooden
combs are used to strip off the berries into baskets. Only a
small part of the produce is now used for brandy ; it is chiefly
made into wine, partly to convert white wine into red wine
and partly as bilberry wine, which is sold at Frankfort-on-
Maine and other places as a medicinal beverage ; it has also
been sent in large quantities to the south of France to be mixed
with grape-wine and sold as claret.* Bilberries may be also
eaten fresh, cooked or dried.

It is well known what enormous quantities of wild straw-
berries, raspberries, alderberries, etc., are gathered annually.
In the village of Frammersbach, in the Spessart, children
yearly collect these berries to the value of £200.

Mistletoe-berries are here and there collected for making
bird-lime. [Branches of mistletoe for Christmas form a yearly
article of trade from Normandy to London, whole steamer-loads
arriving from the Norman apple-orchards. — Tr.]

10. Other Items.

Among the multifarious forest plants, which are used indus-
trially or medicinally, may be mentioned : — Willow blossom,
for apiculture ; orchid-bulbs, as salep ; spores of Equisetnm
clavatum, for artificial lightning : roots of valerian and ber-
berry (Beriberis vidgaris) and flowers and fruits of a number of
shrubs and herbs, Arnica, Atropa, Colchicum, etc., for medicine.

The beetle Spanish-fly (Lytta vesicatoria) also is collected
for sale in Hungary.

[The items of minor forest produce exported from the Indian
Forests, such as medicinal drugs, dyes, paper material (Bhabar-
grass — Ischcemum angustifolium — Daphne papyrdcea, bamboo,
etc.), textile fibres, lac, wild-silk, honey and wax, besides those
already mentioned in former chapters of the present book, are
far too numerous to be described here. Eeference on the
subject is invited to Watts' Dictionary of Indian Economic
products, and Troup's Forest Utilization.— Tr.]

* B. Laxis, in " Hiinclclsblatt fiir WjiMem-u^ni^i','' IS'.U. No. '_';;.

831

PAET IV.

UTILIZATION OF COMPONENTS OF THE FOREST SOIL.

UTILIZATION OF STONE, GRAVEL, ETC.

IN mountain-forests, the utilization of stone is frequently an
important item of forest revenue ; quarrying the better kinds
of stone increases in importance with the expansion of towns,
the more substantial nature of the buildings erected, and the
constantly extending means of communication. Independently
of the fact that an absolutely necessary want is thus met, the
forest-owner's own pecuniary interest will prevent him from
opposing a well-regulated system of quarrying, for the best
production of wood will never pay so well as leasing quarries.

1. Different kinds of Stone.

The following kinds of stone are utilized : — Hewn-stone,
which is cut into regular shapes, and for which the fine, com-
pact sandstones of the Cambrian, Silurian, New Red Sandstone
and Tertiary formations, also trachyte among eruptive rocks,
etc., are most in demand. [In Britain, also Bath oolite,
Aberdeen granite, etc. — T]r.]

Broken stone used in rubble-masonry, for foundations, etc.,
for which almost any kind of stone is suitable; — or paving
stones, for which the hardest material, basalt, phonolith,
diorite, fine-grained syenite, etc., are most suitable. Slate for
roofing from the Cambrian, Silurian and Jurassic (Stonefield
slate) formations, and lignite near Liegnitz and Frankfort, are
also valuable. Large quantities of the harder rocks, as well
as boulders and gravel, are used for macadamised and paved
roads. Calcareous rocks are also of great importance, serving
as building-stone or for lime-burning, for which purpose they
are the more valuable the less clay they contain ; when mixed

832 UTILIZATION OF STONE, GKAVEL, ETC.

with clay they are used for cement. Quarries of gypsum, felspar
and kaolin are rare.

2. Mode of Utilization.

Stone is obtained either by quarrying the mountain-side, in
deep quarries, or by collecting boulders or flint-nodules from
the surface of the ground. From a silvicultural point of view,
permanent quarries are greatly preferable to the employment
of boulders, as the area taken from the production of wood is
then of limited extent and more easily controlled : the growth
of wood being permanently excluded from the area, no question
of indirect injury to the forest can arise. Direct injury to the
forest may, however, occur in quarrying — in the experimental
search for suitable localities for a quarry ; the loss of wood
production on areas which are often extensive ; the damage to
roads, and occasionally the increase in forest offences owing
to the presence of the quarry-men in the forest.

The quality of stone from the same geological formation
may vary considerably in different parts of the same moun-
tain-side ; hence several experimental quarries are frequently
commenced and eventually abandoned. This causes loss of a
considerable area for wood-production, as when the soil is
covered with fresh unweathered rock it is often impossible
to restock it with trees. Even when a workable quarry has
been started, often fairly large areas are required for deposit
of the refuse stone, and on steep slopes the latter often
accumulates in long strips down the valleys, as in the
Siebengebirge.

This nuisance may, however, be improved by good regula-
tions and confined within reasonable limits. It is therefore
indispensable that not only the quarry itself, but the area on
which refuse may be thrown should be demarcated carefully.
Forest offences by quarry-men, who are sometimes imper-
fectly acquainted with the limits of mine and thine, cannot
be avoided altogether. Considerable damage also is done to
the forest roads, no traffic being more ruinous to them limn
that of stones from quarries. The latter are not usually im-
portant enough to warrant the construction of roads specially
made for them alone ; hence the nearest forest road is used,

MODE OF UTILIZATION. »33

and if the expense of its maintenance falls exclusively on the
forest-owner, this may cost him more than he obtains from
the stone-quarry. In such cases a condition should be entered
in the lease of the quarry for payment by the lessee for
maintaining the road in good condition.

Although regular quarries are usually more profitable than
the mere collection of boulders, the latter are often harder and
drier than freshly quarried stone from the damp mountain-side,
and are, therefore, much used for rough building purposes, if
the slope on which they are lying is steep enough to facilitate
their collection, and roads are available for their removal from
the forest.

As in this case, the stones are collected from among trees,
damage to the standing-crop is always to be feared, and
especially to the roots of the trees. It is the interest of
the lessee, however, to be careful, as he would otherwise lose
the business, so that the best precautions against damage are
usually taken.

[Considerable damage is done to the roots of trees in the
forests of Normandy, by removal of superficial flint-nodules.
It should also be noted that large stones lying in regeneration
areas often preserve moisture in the soil, and therefore their
removal should be restricted to older woods, in which the
cover has not been interrupted. — Tr.]

The forest-owner rarely undertakes the quarrying or removal
of stones at his own expense ; even if he should require the
stones for buildings, walls, or road-metalling, it is better to
obtain them by contract, rather than by daily labour. Hence
it is usual to lease quarries.

As regards the components of weathered forest soil and
substrata, humus and vegetable-mould, for gardens and
forest-nurseries ; sand and gravel, for roads and buildings ;
clay for harbour-works and for bricks and tiles ; kaolin for
porcelain, are the chief items.

[In the north of India, considerable revenues are obtained
by leasing the limestone-boulders in the beds of watercourses,
which are dry for 8 months in the year; lime-burning has the
further advantage of causing a large demand for firewood, for
which it is often difficult otherwise to find a market. — Tr.]

F.U. 3 H

INDEX.

Abnormal structure of wood, 124

Absorption of water by wood, 66

Advertising sales of wood, 479

Alburnum, 44

Alderwood, 29

Anatomy of wood, 7

Anobium sp., 103

Antiseptic treatment of wood, 509

Artificial wood, 524

Ash wood, 22

Assortments of timber, 238

Auctions of timber, 455

Autumn- wood, 66

Axes, 175

B

Balatu, 7:5:i
Balks, 558

Bamboos, 17, 43, 555
Bandboxes, 682
Band-saws, 496
Burk, anatomies of, 629

,, other uses besides tanning,
662

,, for tanning, 633
Barrels, 599
Bast, lime, 662
Battens, 561
Bean-sticks, 614
Beech-nut oil, 693
Beechwood, 21, 587
Bent wood for furniture, 507
Betulin, S3, 110
Bilberries, collection of, 829
Bilberry bushes for litter, 773

Billhook, 180

Birch -bark, 661

Birch oil, 662

Birchwood, 30

Birdseye maple, 131

Blasting stumps and roots, 248

Bleaching wood, 115, 503

Boards, 560

Boat-building, 577

Bogs, 790

Bole, cleanness of, 119

Booms in timber floating, 380

Boucherie, 512

Boxwood. 34

Bracken, 777

Branches for litter, 777

Briar-wood for pipes, 624

Bridges, timber for, 574

Brooms, 609-616

Brushbacks, 609

Brushwood, 238, 261

Burrs, 132

Butchers' blocks, 593

Butts, 237, 259

C.

Cabinet-making, 586
Camphor, 728

Canals, influence on timber-trans-
port, 427

Caoutchouc, 731 _ s

Carbonisation of wood, £23- ^ ^ ^
Carriage-poles, 592
Cart traffic, 3*3
Casks, 594
Cedrela wood, 589

836

INDEX.

Celluloid, 564

Cellulose, 79, 551, 662

Cembran pine-wood, 39

Charcoal, 116, 527

Chemical properties of wood, 79,

154

Cherrywood, 28
Chestnut wood, 25
Children's toys, 610
Christmas trees, 619
Chutes, timber, 278
Cigarboxes, 589
Circular saws, 495
Cleanness of bole, 119
Clearing felling-area, 262
Cleaving-axe, 197
Cloven timber, 561
Coherence of wood, 65
Colour of wood, 43
Compass timber, 581
Conductivity of wood, 78
Cones, collection of, 672
Coniferous seeds, 673
Contract, sale b}^ private, 461
Contractors, timber work by, 170,

442

Conversion of wood, 229, 482
Coopers' wood, 594
Cordwood, 285
Cork, 663
Cranberries, 829
Crate-wood, 615
Creosoting wood, 515
Cryptomeria wood, 41
Cup- shake, 139
Curls, 132

Curved timber, 151, 581
Cylindrical shape of bole, 120
Cypress wood, 40, 42

D.

Da inside to wood by fungi, 145

,, ,, ,, insects, 103

Dammar, 731
Dams for timber floating, 358

Dead wood, 617
Deals, 560

Defects in wood, 148
Depots for timber, 429
Dimensions of trees, 117
Discolouration of wood, 145
Disposal of wood, 440
Distillation of wood, 525
Douglas fir wood, 37
Drums, wood for, 603
Dry fallen wood, 617
Dry rot, 105

Durability of timber, 97, 507, 564
Dyes, 729

Dynamite tor splitting stumps and
roots. 250

Ebony, 35

Elasticity of wood, 88
Elmwood, 24, 593
Even-grained wood, 83

Faggots, 251
Fascines, 515
Felling rules, 223

„ trees, 205, 211
Ferns, 337

Field-crops in forests, 749
Fineness of grain, 83
Firewood, 238, 261, 285, 617
Fissibility of wood, 86
Flexibility of wood, 95
Floating wood, 353
Flutes, wood for, 610
Forest devil, 201, 21 S

„ litter, 75S

,, roads, 301

,, tramways, 334
Forked trees, 152
Frost-crack, 140
Fruit, edible foivst. .".2l>

,, of forest trees, 666
Fungi, destructive, 105, 133

INDEX.

837

G.

Calls, oak, 635

Glaziers' wood, 607

Grass-cutting in forests, 746

Grass-seeds, 824

Gravel, 831

Grazing, forest, 737

Grubbing up stumps, 217

Guaiacum wood, 34, 87

Gums. 730

Gunpowder for blasting stumps

and roots. 2-1 s
Gun stocks, wood for, 610
Gutta-percha, 733

H.

Handles of tools, 588
11 M nli less of wood, 48, 111
Ila-kenising wood, 509
Hawkeye machine, 2."»2
Ha/.ehvood, 199
Heartshake, l;ls
He:irt\vood. 14 i
Heather. 772

ing-power of wood, 107
Hemlock spruce, 41
Herbage in forests, 787
Hickory wood, 593
Hook-lever, 267
Hoops for barrels, 600
Hop-poles, 614
Hornbeam wood, 29
Horse-chestnut wood, 31
Humus, 759
Hurdle wood. 615
Hygroscopicity of wood. 67

I.

Implements, felling, 174
Injection of wood, 116, 512
Insects, destructive to wood, 103
Instruments, action of, on wood.

Ill
Internal bark, 137

J.

Jacaranda wood, 35
Jarrah wood, 579
Jhuming, 749
Joiners' wood, 585
Juniper wood, 42

K.

Knee-pieces, 582
Knoppern-galls, 635
Knottiness, 133
Krempe, 268
Kyanising wood, 519

L.
731

Ladders, wood for, 593
Lamp-black, 550
Land-transport, 300
Larch bark, 661
I, arch wood, 37
Laths, 560
Lead-pencils, 606
Leaf-fodder, 694
Length of stem, 117
Lignin, 79
Lime -bast, 663
Litter, forest, 758
Logs, 236, 257, 556
Lopping branches, 694
Lucifer matches, 605

,, boxes for, 602

M.

Machines for converting wood, 499
„ for uprooting stumps, 199
Machine saws, 483
Mahogany, 32
Manual labour, 156
Maple wood, sugar, 27
Markets for timber, 447
Mast, oak and beech, 693
Masts for ships, 579

838

INDEX.

Matches, lucifer, 603
Measures, wood for, 603
Merulius lacrimans, 105
Mining timber, 573
Minor forest produce, 629
Mistleto, damage by, 133
Model-making, 588
Mosses, 769, 828
Moss-litter, 769
Myrobalans, 635

N.

Non-inflammable wood, 524
Numbering hammers, 291

0.

Oak-bark, 636
Oakwood, 20
Oars, wood for, 601
Oil of turpentine, 699, 723
Oils, 734
Olive wood, 34
Optimum climate, 56
Oxalic acid, 555

P.

Packing-cases, wood for, 589

Padauk, 36

Palmwood, 16

Paper-pulp, 160, 501, 551

Park-palings, 615

Parquetry, 585

Pasture, 737

Pavements, wood for street, 568

Pea-sticks, 614

Peat, digging, 790

„ litter, 821
Pianofortes, wood for, 590
Tigs in forests, 693
Pitch pine, 106, 625
Pit-props, 574
Planing machines, 500
1 'huiks, 498
Pliability of wood, 95, 507

Poles, 237, 260

Pony saws, 494

Poplar wood, 31

Potash, 550

Private contract, sale by, 461, 467

Q.

Quarrying stone, etc., 831
Quebracho wood, 624, 634
Quinine, 734

B.

Eafting timber, 407
Railway-carriages, wood used for,

594

,, sleepers, 570
Eed deal, 579
Redwood, 41
Resin-galls, 125

,, in wood, 704

,, tappin, 706
Resinosis, 155

Resistance to strains, 88, 563
Rhytidome, 631
Roads, 301

Robinia wood, 26, 595
Rolling wood from felling-area, 276
Rose wood, 35
Rosin, 704
Royalty on wood, 451, 462

S.

Sabots, 609
Sale-lots, 291
Sales of wood, 447
Salicin, 734
Sand, pits for, 831
Sapwood, 44
Saws, 181

,, resistance of wood to, 113
Saw-dust, 616

„ mills, 483

„ sets, 192
Sawn timber, 559
Scantling?, 110

INDEX.

889

Scent of wood, 47
Scots pine wood, 87
Sealed tenders for wood, 461
Season for- felling, 204
Seasoning wood, 506
Seeds of conifers, 667, 673

„ „ other forest trees, 666
Seed-kilns, 623
Sequoia wood, 41
Shingles for roofs, 601
Ship-building, 577
Shoemakers' pegs, 606
Shrinkage of wood, 72
Silver tir-wood, 40

,, grain, 559
Slack barrels, 599
Sledge-roads, 306
Sledges, 270
Slides, timber, 316
Sliding logs, '21.'>
Sorting wood, 254, 284
Sounding boards, 590
Spars, 584
Specific weight, 50
Spokes for wheels, 592
Spruce wood, 37
Stacking wood, 254, 285, 437
Stakes, 614
Staves for casks, 594
Steaming wood, 96
Stone quarries, 831
Storing seed, 687
Straightness of stem, 121
Street pavement, 568
Strength of timber, 88, 563
Stumps, 217
Sugar in trees, 82, 728
Sumach, 624
Summer wood, 15
Superstructures, 561
Swelling of wood, 72

T.

Tanning bark, 633

,, extracts, 635

Tar, 546

Taxodium wood, 41
Teak wood, 578
Telegraph-posts, 260
Teredo, 105
Termites, 104
Thuya wood, 42
Timber-assortments, 257

„ chutes, 278

„ slides, 316

„ trade, 447

Tools, wood for handles of, 588
Toys, children's, 610
Tramways, forest, 334

„ wire, 346

Transport, 300

Transverse strength of wood, 93
Tj-ee-props, 615
Trenails, 606
Truffles, 828
Tulip wood, 36, 587
Turnery, 611

Turpentine, oil of, 699, 723
Twisted fibre, 128

U.

Uprooting trees, 219
Uses of woods, 620

V.

Valonea, 624
Vanillin, 728
Veneer, 499, 587
Venetian blinds, 590, 605
Vine-stakes, 615
Violet wood, 36
Violins, 607
Vulcanising wood, 509

w.

Wages, 164
Warping of timber, 72
Water-pipes, 567
,, transport, 353

840

INDEX.

Wavy wood, 129
Wedges, 194
Weight of wood, 50
Weirs, 372

Weymouth pine wood, 39
Wheels, 591

Wheelwrights' work, 591
White ants, 103
Willow wood, 81
Winter felling, 209
Wire-tramways, 346
Withes, 613, 616
Wohmami's machine, 202
Wood-assortments, 254

Wood-carbonisation, 527

„ carving, 608, 610

,, depots, 429

,, engraving, 611

„ gas, 526

,, paving, 508

,, plaiting, 613

,, pulp, 501

,, tapestry, 602

,, transport, 300

,, ,, by water, 353

„ wool, 500, 604
Woodcutters' implements, 174
Wooden shoes, 609

BRADBURY, A<:NT.\V, & CO. !.!>., I'lUNTKlls, LONDON AM> ToMUUU; K.

i- 1 u ft Y
FACULTY OF FORESTRY
UNIVERSITY QF

SD

371

S33

1906

v.5

Schlich, (Sir) William
A manual of forestry

3D

iZL

533
.906

.5

APR

LIBRARY

FACULTY OF FORESTRY
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO