The Sun.
London, England, 1821-03-21 00:00:00

degrees of durability? Yes, I have paid attention more particularly to the pine,
beeause there was not the prejudice against the Baltic.

What opinion have youfo;med of the respective durability of each, when em•
pliKr'red hi the 6rdipary purposes of house-building? The more experience I have
had of the pine, the more partial i hate become to the use of it.
State comparatively your opinion, which yon hare found the most durable, and
which the most liable to decay, with reference to the pa?ticular manner in which
they have been respectively used? I have used the American pine fonr-and-
twenty years back for gate-posts, and renewed them in 1814; this was in 1790.
You used American pine for making posts of gates in 1796? Yes; in 1814
*e renewed them ; they were decayed ;- that was a period of upwards of eighteen
years ;. we do not consider that Baltic timber wou!d last longer to be in the ground
than from eighteen to twenty years ; that is a fair trial of Baltic timber.
iVere those posts to Which you refer, placed in the ground so as to be exposed to
the damp of the sail? Yes, they were buried in the ground at least four feet.
And lasted for eighteen years? Yes, upwards.
When taken out, in what state did you find them? They were decayed; it was
between the surface and the earth that they were decayed, just where the wet gets
to. them.

They were decayed just in that part where they are subject to the alternation of
wet and dry? Yes.
They stood well exposed to the air, but in that pert where there was an alterna-
tion of wetness and dryness they had decayed? Yes.
Was that part of the post which was placed in the earth, decayed•? Not so
rntieli as the other part.
Did t 6 det'aj.red part bear the appearance of dry rot? No, not at all.
No part of the post had that appearance? No part; it was just the same as
Baltic timber.

You are quite clear they were made of American pine' timber ? Quite clear,
for they were put down by my directions.
Can you state" any other instances of the durability of American yellow pine tim-
ber ? Yes ; in 1797, we made sashes, and frames, and shop-fronts for three
houses, and I examined them off lilonday last, and they are in a perfect state.
By shop-fronts, you mean the ornamental parts of shop-fronts? Yes.
Have you known any particular instances of the durability of yellow pine where
it has been used for joists or other purposes of house-buiMitig, where it was placed
in a particularly confined state, and in any way exposed to damp or green walls?
'Yes; in 1810 I built eight houses of pine timber, and about four months since, I
opened the flotirs of of the houses, and examined the ends, which,have th'ree
bearings on the outside WaliS, the joists in the walls, and found them perfectly sound
and hood, and the boards also.
Were those walls outer walls ? Outer wails.

Do you know of any instances of Baltic timber decaying at any given period,
when used in a similar manner? Yes, in nine years. I built a house of Rigatimber,
and under the wine cellar where the air was kept from it, in nine years both the
boards and the joists were completely decayed.
What appearance did that decay assume ; was it the dry rot, or dtherwise? A
rot that is found arising from the damp.
Was there a fungus? Yes, it was all over fungus ; there was nothing but the
skin of the upper part that appeared free.
Are you of opinion that American yellow pine timber, for the ordinary purposes
of house-building, is not more.subject to decay than the common pine of the Bal-
tic? Not to my knowledge; I have never found it so in all my experience; hav-
ing tried both, I do not conceive that it is.
Do you know any instances in which American pine timber, when used for house
building or other similar purposes, has decayed prematurely? Not at all ; Ido
not remember any.
For what purposes is the American yellow pine timber generally used in Lan-
cashire? There are large quantities used in the manufacturing towns, for boxes,
and also for the insides of buildings; in Liverpool, the cabins of ships are all fitted
up with the pine timber, and the insides of buildings ;it is used for mouldings and
architraves.

For floors? Sometimes in floors, but more generally for the doors, window
shutters, anti all tipt part of the work which has most labour upon it.
Do you consider American yellow pine equally suitable for floors, with Baltic
timber or deals ? For warehouses, it is my decided opinion that the yellow pine
will be found equally as profitable and as durable as Baltic.
Is it not of a soft nature, and alit' to yield to pressure? It is rather so ; it sinks,
it gives way, it is more spongy, but it does not wear. I have examined a warehouse
on Monday last, the floors of which were laid twenty years back, and are in per-
fect good order.
It is within your own knowledge that those floors were made of American pine ?
Yes, the boards went from my own yard, and the warehouse doors were of pine,
and they are'in perfectly good order.
Then, in point of fact, though you find American pine of a softer texture, upon
the whole it is not less durable for. this purpose than Baltic timber? No; from
my experience of it, though we have not been in the habit of using so much of it,
yet, by proving the time it has been in uk, I am quite convinced that the more it is
used, the more persons will be in favour of it. Another reason why I find that the
pine timber will wear equally as well as the Baltic is, that in the warehouses there
is generally a grit or sand that is upon the floors, arising from the different uses of
the warehouse; the timber receives that by the treading it in, it makes the surface
more hard.

. Inform the committee, what number of joiners and house carpenters you are in
the practice of employing, in the ordinary course of your business? Fifty hands.
What proportion of American yellow pine timber, compared with Baltic, are
you in the habit of using in the course of your business, as a joiner and house car-
penter? Some years about equal, other years more Baltic than pine ;my business
is principally in building the best houses, houses of the first class; and there hai
been a prejudice against the pine, and my employers have preferred using Baltic to
pine, and that has led me to use more of the Baltic.
Are you acquainted with the general proportion throughout the country, that is
used of each description of timber; that is, the North American pine, and.the Bal-
tic pine? Of late years, I apprehend there has been about two-thirds of American
pine to one of Baltic; in Liverpool, I believe, that will be found to be about the
average.
Can you state to the committee, the present price of good North American pine
in the Liverpool market? Eighteen-pence is the price now.
Can you state the present price of good Baltic timber, such as that of Memel,
Dantzic, or Riga? Dantzic is 2s. 6d. Riga, being scarce, about 3s. Memel,
about the same as Dantzic.

Thg high price of Riga is Owing to its being particularly scarce? Yes.
Is there American timber, good timber, at the price of Is. 6d.? Yes; but not
what it has been for some time past ; at present, there is a scarcity of demand.
Is there any abatement of demand in consequence of the price? No, not at all.
Is there, at the prices you have quoted for Baltic timber, a good demand, equal
to the demand for American? No, there is not the same demand. for Baltic as for
American.
What approximation, in the prices of the two kinds of timber, that is, corning
nearer to each other, would be necessary in order to increase materially the demand
for Baltic timber, the present difference being about Is. a foot? As Baltic timber
is stronger bearing timber than the pine, it would make 4d. a foot, the difference
from the bearing o the one and the other, I should imagine about 6d. ; that is to
say, the Baltic timber about 6d. a foot more than pine, would make Baltic timber
to be mote used than it is.

Then the consumption of American timber would decrease in the same propor-
.ion ? Ofcourse.

Then in point of fact the committee understand you to state, that the proportion,
that in your view of the subject, the difference of strength between Pattie timber
and American, for the purposes of bearing, is as 21 to 28 ? I have made my cal-
culations according to the bearing. When I have used pine timber, I cut my
scantling ten by two and half, for which I should put in Baltic nine by two and a
half, so that, supposing pine timber to be two shillings, then it would, to put in
the same strength of timber as I should in Baltic, make it equal to 2s. 4d.
Then, in the use of American timber, put in, in such a manner as to be of equal
strength with the Baltic timber, there would still be a saving of two-pence in the
expence ? There would be a saving of two-pence, but the prejudice in favour of
Baltic would lead the public to prefer Baltic.
. With this difference in the scantling of the timber, would you use for your own
purposes, American timber as readily as you would Baltic? For all purposes, with
the exception of beams for warehouses, or wherever there might be a great
pressure ; where we use props under the beams, the American pine being softer
than the Baltic, there would be a giving way, which would lead in many stories,
that is, in six or seven stories of a warehouse, the beams to sink so much more.
For that reason, itwould not be so preferable as the Baltic; but for warehouse
floors, I am fully persuaded it would answer as well.
Is there not a way in which you now make the beams, by constructing them of
different species of wood, that prevents that giving way you have spoken of? That
has always been used for ages past ; it is what we call trussing a beam.
When the beams made of the American timber are so trussed, are they not as
strong as those made of the Baltic ? The American timber I have mentioned
must have a great proportion more in it than Baltic, to make it equal to Baltic.
If you truss an American beam, and truss a Baltic beam, the proportion is equally
the same in the one as the other; to go to truss an American beam, and not to
truss a Baltic beam, the expense of trussing the beam would be so much more that
no one would ever attempt it.
Supposing the prices of American pine and Baltic pine to be equal, or nearly so,
are there any purposes for which you would Still continue to use American pine,
notwithstanding the equality of price? Certainly, as I before observed, for
mouldings, architraves, and every thing of that kind, the American timber is su-
perior; it receives the paint better than the Baltic; it is cleaner, freer from knots,
and for doors and shutters is lighter on the binge; and the breadth also prevents
Blueing of pannels ; where you require width of pannels on the inside, it is always
preferred on that account.
Do you give a preference to any one particular port of the British North Ame-
rican colonies over the other? Yes.
Which? The Miramichi timber is what we consider to be the best timber that
comes into the port of Liverpool ; that is New Brunswick timber.
Better than Canada timber of any description ? It is cleaner and more lively
timber, not a dead timber ;I am not speaking of the red pine. It is only for the
cleanness 'of it; when we cut the other timber up, either St. John's or Quebec, it
is found to be more knotty; we use it more on account of its being cleaner than the
other. We give a preference to Miramicbi timber; it sells a penny a foot more in
the market than St. John's timber.
' Have you ever. used white spruce deals, or timber from Canada? Not the
deals; I have used white spruce timber balk.
Is that better for any purposes than the ycllowpine timber ?. We do not ap-
prove of it at all in Liverpool, and very little is used ; very little comes there.
Inform the committee what is the usual square of the timber imported from Mi-
ramichi? The size is sixteen, eighteen, and twenty-two inches, and some two feet.
Have you made any remark on the comparative quality of the middle or smaller
sizes with the larger sizes? Yes; I will first state, that as to the United States of