Norwich bulletin., 1916-03-11
SEASONING AND DRYING STOVE WOOD

the tree and whatever it's sap, that sap contains more or less solid or sticky or sugary or gumy matter which Is not water nor yet wood.
 And in no case, with the exception of the pitch-bearing conifiers, is this sap good fuel Indeed, it's presence retards combustion and diminishes the amount of heat given off. This is so well known that a vast majority of wood users Iways make an attempt to dry or season their firewood. In many parts of the country 1t is bit ter reproach against a farmer that he forces his wife to use green" wood.
 His doing so is taken as prima facie evidence of his inprovidence and thriftlessness.
 Very we'll, then; having cut our green, sap-filIed wood how are we to make it fit for fuel by as complete a removal of natural juices as is prac- tical for the farm woodward? The ideally best way to get them out would be to have a huge vat and boil all the split-up stove wood, till the sap, with it's gums and sugars, should have been boiled out, much as lard Is boiled out of fat pork. But this is too expensive an operation for the practi- cal farmer. Suppose, instead, after splitting it into stove-wood sticks, he piles it up loosely, Out-Of-doOrs, where it can remain through the remainder of the winter and the spring. It is showed on, the snow is melted and soaks it, and then it is dried or frozen out. This is repeated again and again By and by, when spring opens, it is rained on and soaked and dried, and soaked and dried, again, and again, and yet again, over and over. Each | time it is thus soaked some of the gummy sap is dissolved and washed out of it: each time it is dried some more is dried away out of it. Grad ually, if there have been enough rain soakings, the whole original sap-Con- tent is replaced by rain-water con- l tent.
 When that point is reached. the
 wood is seasoned It may still be soggy with wet and quite unfit for | fuel by that reason, but the natural | juice has been removed, at least ir | large part. There is little gummy say l left to 'fry" and fizzle and deaden the 1 fire when stick is put in the stove. In it's place is simple rain water Now if that 'tseasoned", i. e. sapless but perhaps watersoaked wood is piled I in an airy woodshed, under cover ! where dry air can freely circulate but
 no more rain wet il, it will soon dry | out.
 l Then you have stovewod which k
 
 ready to burn, wants to burn, gives of 1 a clear and steady heat with little l smoke, less steam and less ashes, an( l burns up clean to the last brand. 1 have continued to use that wore l "seasoned' because it seems to me tht | right one and to have authority be l hind it. But if anybody objects to i l let him discard it and use some other | All 1 ask is that the difference be | tween washing the gumnly sap out O
 green wood and drying the clear wate out of wet wood be accepted, and tha 1 the two processes be recognized a
 distinct and by no means identical.
 It makes small difference what yo1
 call the processes, so long as you us
 them properly.
 Remember Mir. Lincolns famou
 question about the calf Call a calf
 tail a leg and how many legs will tn calf have? asked he. Why, five, o
 course's answered his bewildered call
 CT. "Oh, no', responded MT Lincolr gravely shaking his head, Calling
 calf's tail a leg won't make it one. Tn
 calf will still have four legs no mat , ter what you call it's tail"
 ,I 1 have one neiehbor who believes i , seasoning his wood. using the wor f l now in my sense So he cuts, split and heaps it out-of-doors,-and lets s stay there. Half the year, when hi wife wants a baking fire, she has { dry the soggy stuff off in the oven be ! fore she can make it burn in the fire : box.
 I have another neighbor who pile
 his green wood, as soon as it is split i
 a wood-house, under cover. And h l wife is always in trouble because he 3 wood won't burn. She complains ths . it fries" rather than blazes; that chars over and even goes out, unles v she keeps forever poking it up. One of these men seasons his woe g but doesn't dry 1t: the other dries t without first seasoning it. Bot ,. onlyhalf-way measures and result l only half good fuel.
 y It takes some trouble and some extl s labor to fit green wood as it comt s from the mountain for the best fue t The trouble and work all fall on u e goodman of the family, too. But h think most farm women appreciate u e labor and trouble undergone for. the s convenience. Even if one doesn't u e axe wielder can gain the satisfactit = which comes to every good workms }. from seeing a workmanlike job dol g in workmanlike manner.
 r notice that our good friend Co.,