The mountain sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1844-1853, 1851-03-13
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Proper Time for Telling Timber.


Mr.. Williams Painter, of Concordville,
Pa, in letter written for the Patient Of
fee report. says: "During an experience
of more than forty years as plain prac.
tical farmer, l have taken much interest in
ascertaining the best season for telling tim
Der, and | now state, with much conf
dence. that fencing timber, such as all
kind of oaks, chestnut, red hickory, and
walnut, cut from the middle of July to the
las. of August, will last twice as long as
when cut in winter or common barking
time in spring. For instance, cut sap
pling, say, five or six inches in diameter,
for lever, in the mo nth Of August, and
another of similar size and quality, in
winter or spring, and know that if the
first is stripped of its bark (Which at that
time runs welD it will raise as lever. at
least twice the weight that can be raised
by the latter"
Statements like the above, made by re-
putable men who can have no motive TO
facts, are always entitled 10
a respectful consideration. Why should
a green "sappling, six inches in diameter,
cut IN August" be any stronger after it is
winter and spring!
While we doubt the fact of the differ:
ence being so great as Mr.. Painter thinks
that he has good reason TO believe it to be,
we do not question that there is some diff
ference. The woody fbres of the tree
are the same in August and in winter and
spring, the new layer Of WOOD, al6,trnana,
IS thin and comparatively small, and most
of this Is deposited before August. The
OF sap or water in green tree
varies but little in different seasons of the
year, as compared with its dry matter.
What then is the exact difference in tim
Der in autumn and spring after a tree has
put forth its leaves and its terminal bran
ches are rapidly extending by the deposi-
ion of new wood! When is the matter
which flows as sugar dissolved
IN water from the sugar tree in the spring
before even the buds begin to swell! In
what condition and in what place does
his saccharine substance spend the time
rom autumn till March? Mulder, i'm his
work on the 'sChemistry of Veg
etable and Animal Physiology" says that
all sugar is first formed into starch from
starch that both sugar and new wood, in
spring, are produced. We are aware that
other chemists have takena different view
IF this subject, but we believe that Mulder
5 right. We know that fat in animals is
/ sort of storehouse of fuel which the ami
nal can burn when lis food is lacking or
deficient 10 maintain vital warmth. Pota-
oes and many other plants possess une-
lual quantities of starch al different peri
DDS and under different circumstances
A green sapPling in the spring has all lis
starch and albumen, or the raw material
or making a vast number of leaves much
lew wood, and It's tissues, in which nitro
zen is consumed, taken out of its trunk
md distributed in thousands OF branches,
and interminal buds. That the trunk
should be little weaker when thus depri-
red of all It's soluble solids is no more than
We might reasonably expect. To trans
orm starch, which is insolu5le, into solu-
Die dextrlne, sugar, or gum, is the effect
u the first warmth of spring or winter,
or in many States maple sugar is made
n January and February.
if the above view of this interesting
question is founded on true physiological
as we believe it is, then the
,est time to fell tree is after it has ceas-
ID to grow in autumn, and prepared, like
| fat bear In the fall, a good supply of
starch and nltrogenous compounds, in all
Is sap tissues, for use when it is ready 10
'ut forth new covering of luxuriant TO-
iage. There is strngth in the elements
)t forest leaves. and these elements while
deposited in the cells of sapwood, if dried
herein, increase its durability. Dry rot
$ fungus which destroys great deal of
hip and other timber. Whatever oper-
ties to exclude atmospheric air tends 10
prevent this malady. Several minerals,
ike copperas, corrosive sublma,e, and
'lue vitrol. will kill the fungus called "dry
ot." Exclude oxygen fom wood and
cannot decay. Painting preserves it on
his principle Genneesee Farmer.
SMUT IN WHEAT.-I have tried various