Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1866-08-09
The Preservation of Timber.

Every farmer has always lamented the
fact that a great part of his labor is neces-
sarily given to keeping his fences from di-
lapidation 1t is this Improbable work
that makes agriculture less lucrative pur-
suit than other occupations. Posts and
rails decay almost as fast as the profits of
the farmer will permit their renewal. Ev
cry five or six years railfence must be
thrown down and reset, that the change Of
the crossing may make them last longer
Yet there has never been a series of eXpe-
riments carefully and extensively made to
determine the best modes of preserving tim
ber by the time and manner of their cut
ting, or by applications to protect posts and
exposed timbers from decay. One of the
most useful duties of our agricultural col
leges will be in making these experiments.
There is great difficulty in determining
the precise results of experiments made on
the durability of timber There is much
difference in individual trees standing near
each other, and of the same kind. There
is still greater difference in trees grown on
poor ridges and in rich bottom lands But
still experiments could determine the value
of different modes of preparing the timber
for special purposes.
Every farmer knows how quickly the sap
wood rots Sap-wood is gradually changed
to heart-wood by the force Of pressure and
of growth. The outer layers seems 70 press
upon the interior ones, causing them To
contract by lessening the size of the pores.
These pores, too, are gradually closed by
cell-growth. The wood is more solid, and
less of air can penetrate them. The sap al
most causes to circulate in them. But i'll
the sap-wood this circulation is undiminish-
ed. In the spring when the sap, then al
most nothing but water, ascends,i it is fluid !;
but having been acted upon in the leaf,
which absorbs carboniC acid, and eXhales
the water Of the sap, it descends thicker, and
is retained in the cells or pores, forming
cell or wood growth.
By stripping the bark in the spring the
sap, in its ascent, is eXhaled off flows from
the pores, and no elaborated or descending
sap is formed. Now, this deposit OF the de-
scending sap appears to have a great aifin-
ity for oxygen, which exis.s S in the air, and
is that part of it which destroys all things
that are of vegetable or animal growth af-
ter death. Timber that is stripped of its
bark, having but little Of this downward
sap the wood seasons to complete hardness,
and is not DESTROYED by the oxygen. be-
cause it is not taken up by an absorbent,
such as the descending sap appears to be.
1t is we'll known that wood always under
water never rots, because the air is eXclu-
ded from it and posts rot most rapidly at
the surface of the ground, where the air
penetrates into the posts, and is aided by
moisture, which hastens decomposition. To
fill up the pores of the wood with sub
stance antagonistical to the oxygen of the
atmosphere, and which will not dissolve in
water readily, must be prescrvative. a
substance having these properties, and
which will solidify or harden the wood il
SELF is best Of all others. Pyroligneous ac-
id-an acid procured by the distilation Of
wood--gas tar, and other substances are
used, but we know of no series Of expert
ments having been made to determine their
relative value, and of the manner and times
Of their application.-Agriculturai Report