Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1881-01-27
CuttIng and SEASONING TImber.

Although it is almost the universal
custom to 20 into the woods to cut tim
ber, whenever it can be done to the
best advantage, without for moment
considering its keeping qualities, every
observing person knows that the dura.
bility of timber depends very much on
the season of the year that it is cut.
Careful experiments prove that timber
cut in the spring of the year will not
| keep as well as that cut in the autumn;
and in fact not as well rs that cut in
August. Pine timber cut in February
and March is much more liable to be-
come worm eaten than that cut in the
autumn. Gray. birch cut in March never
seasons as well rs if cut in August;
when used for fire-WoOd, if cut the last
of August or early in September, i
makes wood that is equal to maple, but
if cut in March it is 50 full of water that
it is very difficult to season it before it
begins to decay, unless it is sawed into
short pieces and split, and even then it
never appears to give as much heat as
if cut in the autumn; when cut in Sep
tember, without much care, it will dry
enough by the frst of January to burn
freely. 1t is believed by some that
timber cut in the autumn is better, be-
cause it is not as full of sap as if cut in
the spring; this is probably one reason,
but there is another reason which is not
usually alluded to, which is, if cut in
the autumn it is not affected by the
heat the same as if cut in the spring,
for it cut, even in hot weather in Au-
gust, before the wood gets very much
dried, the cool winds of October come
and it is dried more by cool than hot
air.
Timbercut in March is partially dried
before hot weather comes, and, is in
just the right state, when the sultry
days of summer come, to encourage de-
cay, if surrounded by. heat and mOis-
ture; for this reason, if no more sap
was in the wood in the spring than the
autumn, it would be best to cut timber
in the autumn; but when we consider
that all kinds of wood are filled with a
much larger quantity of sap in the
spring than in the autumn, it must be
evident to every one that, for durability
it is much the best to cut timber in the
autumn. 1t is very true that it is not
always convenient to cut so early as
September, and the weather is fire.
quently so hot as to make it very un-
comfortable to work in the woods,
therefore but little timber is cut so
early. If we cannot get ready to 60
into the woods until after Thanksgiving
it is much better to cut in December
and January than later in the season.
Timber to be used where it is important
to have it durable should never be cut
later than January, especially pine,
maple and birch.
The methods to be adopted to season
timber must depend in a measure on
the particular qualities it is desired to
secure; if, as is often the case with
pine timber, it is desirable to season
it so that it will be soft and easy to
work, ard the strength OF it is of no
consequence, itshould be kept over win
ter in the log and sawed in the spring,
then piled up in manner to secure as
much air as possible, so that there shall
be no delay in driving the sap out; but if
it is desirable to have the wood hard as
possible it should be sawed in the au-
tumn and dried very gradually. Walnut
timber for handles and other purposes
that requires great strength should be
split in large pieces and housed where
the atmosphere is cool; many believe
it is better to be two years in drying
walnut and white oak, that is to be used
for purposes that require strength.
Wood that it is desired to make tough
and elastic should be dried very slowly,
and at the same time care should be
taken to dry it fast enough SO it will mot
begin to decay. The red maple is a
wood that if properly managed can be
made very tough and kept perfectly
white; to cut it and keep it in short logs
over summer destroys its whiteness and
elasticity; to saw the logs in the spring
and stack the lumber out in the rain and
air, also destroys its strength, and
frequently its whiteness. The most
certain way to keep the red ma
pie and preserve its Whiteness and
strength is to cut the tree in the all-
tumn, trim the limbs off and leave the
trunk the entire length for a year,
when it may be sawed and dried under
cover; by this treatment it can be sea-
soned perfectly white and very tough.
The strength of some kinds of wood
can be increased by girdling the trees
and letting them die and season on the
stump. An oak, maple or apple tree,
that has naturally died on the stump is
very hard to cut; but birch or pop
lar that dies in this way usually decays
and is not of any value even for fire
wood. ...
The durability and strength of timber
depends somewhat on its age as we'll as
the manner of seasoning. There is a
period when a tree arrives at its great
est perfection after which it begins to
decay, although it may not show any
outward signs of it. The pine and the
white ash and many other kinds of trees,
until near their full growth, have the
strongest wood near the ground, but
after having passed full perfection a
change takes place and decay com
mences at the heart of the tree near the
ground; the decay once commenced
gradually extends towards the outer
surface of the tree; in time the tree is
hollow, and year by year the living rim
grown less, until at last it is so thin that
It cannot support the tree and it falls