Chapter VI: Section II: Timbers (1)

Timbers, as before stated, are the ribs of the vessel, spreading out and upward (excepting at the bow and stern) at right angles to the keel and keelson, two large straight logs which form a double spinal support or backbone. The ribs or compass timbers in great public building establishments are sometimes bent by machinery, after being softened by steam or hot liquids[8]; and for this purpose the {15} cleanest straightest wood is requisite. We, however, do not believe that pieces of great diameter, bent artificially, can have equal strength and resilience as when grown bent—the fibre must in some degree be crippled. We admit that timbers and frames may be built of separate bended pieces of no great thickness, and have all the strength and resilience of natural bend: the strongest and most elastic mode of forming vessels would be to compose them of different layers of plank over each other in diagonal fashion, or at an angle 60°, but the labour and inconveniency of these modes would be great. We will not admit that an experiment between the strength of a piece of coarse cross-grained timber, half naturally bent, half cut out of the solid, and that of a piece of clean timber artificially bent, is any proof on the subject. Let us produce a clean natural bend, exactly fitted to its place, without any section of fibre, and make experiment with it. But at any rate, as this plan (bending of timbers) has never been adopted to any extent in our private building-yards, we must doubt its economy,—either {16} that the practice is of no considerable advantage, or that the requisite machinery is too expensive for private establishments, and conclude that fine bent timber still continues a necessary in the formation of at least our mercantile marine.

Of the very ingenious innovations in the structure of vessels contrived by Sir R. SEPPINGS, by which knees and crooked timber might nearly be superseded, we can only say, the practice is not followed, and, at least in private building-yards, not likely to be so;—that the demand for fine crooked timber, comparatively, is, and will continue to be, as great as ever. Should our war navy, from the introduction of steam impulse and bomb cannon, be reduced to fleets of strong gun-boats, the demand for crooked timber, instead of lessening, will greatly increase,—the building of frames of straight timber being more expensive, and less suitable, in small than in large vessels; and should war occur, in the hurry of the formation of a new war navy under a different principle, the speediest and simplest mode of construction will be followed.

Nearly two-thirds of the timbers of a vessel consist of the curves and bends _a_, _b_, _c_, _d_, _e_, _f_; the other third is of straighter timber, and easily obtained. {17} All timbers require to be straight in one way—in the plane of their side, and the sides generally to be square. The under measures embrace timbers of appropriate size for vessels from 50 to 500 tons register; it is seldom that merchantmen are required under or above this size. Of course, large war-vessels require timbers of larger dimension. The corresponding timbers of vessels of different size are nearly similar figures, and the length of their respective lines not far from being in the ratio of the cube root of the tonnage—a little deeper and thicker in the smaller vessels. When timbers are formed of larch or pine, they require to be a little more in diameter than when of oak. {18}

Fig. _a_, Flat floor, from 9 1/2 to 18 feet long (that is, 9 1/2 for a vessel of 50 tons, and 18 for one of 500), and from 9 to 16 inches deep at middle; thickness 1/4th less than depth, the diameter increasing in proportion to the length. When fillings such as _s_ are used, flat floors are cut from straight logs.

_b_, Rising floor shorter, and same depth and thickness as former.

_c_, _c_, High rising floors, from 4 to 8 feet in length of wing, and a little deeper, and same thickness as former. From the difficulty of procuring this bend, the wings are often used of unequal length, according as the timber turns out, the shorter wing to exceed 3 feet, and more when of considerable diameter. Floors are of every rise from _a_ to _c_, being flattest at midships, and rising gradually as they approach the bow and stern. In all timbers, it is necessary, for strength, that the fibre of the wood extend from one end to the other without much cross grain. See lines on high rising floor, _c_.

_d_, First foot-hook, from 7 to 13 feet long, and from 7 to 14 inches deep; thickness 1/5th less than depth.

_e_, Second foot-hook, from 6 to 10 feet long, and from 6 to 13 inches deep, thickness 1/6th less than depth. This curve, when of great size, is valuable as, breast-hooks—curved timbers stretching horizontally within and at right angles to the bow-timbers, to support the bow.

_f_, _f_, _f_, Knees, the one wing nearly at right angles to the other; from 2 to 9 feet in length of wing; depth at middle as much as possible; thickness from 4 to 12 inches,—generally required about 3 1/2 feet in length of wing, and from 6 to 8 inches thick. Knees, when large, suit for high rising floors.

Fig. _h_ is a valuable piece, and easily procured by bending the young plant; when cut, it forms two second foot-hooks.

Figs. _a_, _b_, _c_, _d_, _e_, are suitable, though the part cut off by the dotted line be awanting. In good work, this plan is often followed, and a cross-chock put on. (Vid. _s_, left side of the cross-section of a vessel thus timbered, page 20). By this {19} mode of building, vessels can be constructed from much straighter timber, and the vessels are superior, from being more elastic; but from the nicety and expense of the work and waste of timber, the practice is not much in use. {20}]

A first foot-hook alternates with each floor, and second foot-hook, alongside, extending from _o_ to _q_; and a top-timber, or third foot-hook, alternates alongside of each second foot-hook, and chock extending from _q_ to _a_. These timbers are bolted together, and constitute a frame or double rib; and the skeleton is composed of a series of double ribs (several inches separate, of course wider above than lower down, as the timbers decrease in thickness), to within a little of the bow and stern, where the timbers are usually placed singly, without framing. {21} In large vessels a fourth futtock is used; thence straighter timber is suitable.

The knees occupy the position at _x_, stretching horizontally along the inside of the vessel and end of the beams.

Of British trees, timbers are formed of oak, Spanish chestnut, larch, red-wood pine, red-wood willow (the stags-head ozier, _Salix fragilis_), and sometimes the broad-leafed elm (_Ulmus montana_) under water.

In Britain, crooked oak for timbers is found chiefly in hedge-rows and open forests, where the winds, casual injury, or overhanging superior branches, have thrown the tree, while young, from its natural balance; or, by the tree, from open situation, or excision of lower branches, parting early into several leaders, which, in receding from each other, form curves and angular bends. On the Continent of Europe, in the natural forest, it is chiefly the tops of old lofty trees which afford the crooks; in consequence, those we import are, for the most part, of a free, light, insufficient quality[9]. {22}

To procure a sufficiency of excellent crooks, every person who has the charge of young plantations of timber intended for naval purposes, ought, in the more exposed situations not favourable to the growth of plank timber, or timber for bending, when the plants are from 3 to 15 feet high, to mark out the most healthy, suitably formed plants, sufficiently close to fill the ground when of the proper size, say 6 yards apart, and to bend these, as the under figures will illustrate. The dotted portion is the growth after being bent. {23}

The bend of floors requiring to be at the middle, and of angular bend, see Fig. _f_, young trees of one-half the required length, should have the earth removed from the bulb of the root, from one or both sides, according to circumstances, and the tree and stool partially upset to windward, that is, generally south-west; (the operator, in effecting this, may be assisted by a strong pronged instrument); then fixed in this inclined position, and the earth filled in. This inclination may be given at planting, when the plants are tall.

The best mode of securing the larger plants in their bent position, is by rods, forked or hooked at one end, the other end nailed to a ground-stake;—the upper end, if forked, firmly tied to the bent plant by mat or straw rope. Smaller plants may be secured to the notched tops of stakes by ligatures; and the smallest, particularly larch, pinned down by small stakes with hooked tops. Advantage may also be taken of an adjacent tree of small value, and which would ultimately be required to be thinned out, to tie the bended standard down to the most convenient part of its top or stem, lopping off all above the ligature, if it interfere with the standard, and barking it near the ground, to prevent much future growth. When the workmen comprehend {24} the required bends, they will fall upon methods of fixing the plants in the most suitable position, better adapted to the locality than any directions can teach. The plants will require to be fixed down at least two years, and bent a little more than what is requisite, as in their after-growth they have generally a tendency to become straighter, from depositing the thickest layers in the hollow of the bend. A fine regular curve may be obtained by bending the plant for several successive years, a little lower every year; this gradual lowering does not so much check the growth of the leader, nor tend so much to cause the feeders upon the upper side to push as leaders. When oaks are bent, great attention must be paid to cut away any ground-shoots, and to cut off or twist down any strong feeders that stand perpendicular on the upper side of the tree; and also for several years afterwards, to look over the trees twice a-year, correcting any exuberant feeder, and destroying root-shoots. The forester ought to keep in mind that his pupils are proverbially pliant, and that, should his growing timber not be of the most valuable and most appropriate figure, he must rank either with the negligent or the incapable.

Ship timbers being generally required of greater depth than thickness, that is, broadest in the plane {25} of the curve, hedge-row is better adapted to growing them than the forest, especially when the trees are close in the row. The bend generally takes place across the row; and the bole of the tree acquires a greater diameter in that direction than in the line of the row. If the figure of the top of a tree be very elliptical in the horizontal plane, the cross section of the bole, instead of being circular, will also be elliptical (cake-grown). The lateral spread of the roots in thick planted rows being greater than the longitudinal, also tends to give elliptic bole, the stem swelling most on the sides where the strongest roots enter, which, of course, always occurs on the sides affording most nourishment. Forests intended for ship timbers might be planted and kept in rows a considerable distance apart, with the plants close in the row, and thus acquire the elliptic bole. This would also facilitate the bending; by being turned a little right and left alternately, they would spontaneously, from the weight of the top, and their inclination to avoid the shade of each other, increase the original bias. Were forests planted in close double rows, the plants thick in the row, with wide avenues or glades between, many of the trees would acquire crooked boles, and the crooked might be retained when thinning. Avenues of this description {26} would form agreeable diversity from the monotonous irregularity of the forest, and be highly picturesque.

Were close triple rows planted with wide glades between, having spruce, larch, birch, or other trees of more rapid growth than the oak in the mid row, and oak in the side rows, the greater part of the oak would be thrown out into fine curves by the overshadowing top of the superior tree. After the oak had received a sufficient side bias, the central row, which of those kinds comes soon to be of value, might be removed.

The easiest way to procure good oak knees is to look out in hedge-row and open forest for plants which divide into two or four leaders, from 3 to 10 feet above ground; and should the leaders not diverge sufficiently, to train them as horizontally as possible for several feet, by rods stretching across the top, or by fixing them down by stakes; see following figures. Figs. _a_, _b_, _f_, are drawn to a smaller scale than _c_, _d_; of course, a stem, after dividing, never extends in length below the division. {27}

When grown, the main stem, either used whole, sawn in two, or quartered, will form one wing of the knee, and the bent branch the other; see figs. _c_, _d_. The dotted lines shew the saw section. Particular attention must be paid to prevent oaks from separating into more than four leaders, and also to train up these leaders a considerable height, without allowing them to divide again, retaining always numerous feeders; thus, when the tree acquires size, {28} many valuable crooks _g_, _h_, _i_, will be formed above the knees. It is necessary, however, to guard against training the branches to too great a height, as, when so, they run much risk of being twisted and torn by high winds.

Knees may also be obtained by cropping the top from plants that have side branches similar to _f_, and training these branches for leaders as above directed. In this case, the section, where the top is cut off, must not be too large, and the branches, either two or four, well knotted to the trunk, or the situation sheltered, otherwise the trunk at the section may be split down by the strain of the wind on the new leaders. Also, in healthy growing trees of considerable size, which have spreading tops, and which are not to be cut down for a considerable time, the forester, if he have a good eye, may, by lopping off a few branches here and there throughout the top, throw the greater part of the boughs into condition to become knees, or valuable crooks, when of size. This is of most material consequence to the ultimate value of half-grown oak trees, in open situations, and ought to be particularly studied by the superintendent, as, when allowed to run into very numerous _stemmy_ branches, without direction or curtailment, the top, instead of being ultimately of {29} considerable value as timber, is of none. Directions in writing will scarcely suffice to teach a forester this part of his business; he must consider attentively the knee figures and bends we have furnished, fix them in his memory, and use every eligible means to obtain them. Knees, of all descriptions of oak timber are in the greatest request. We have known them purchased at 7s. per computed solid foot, which, from the plan of measuring, is as much as 10s. per real solid foot. The prevailing inattention to judicious training will continue to occasion the supply of knees to be short of the demand, and thence the price high, provided some change does not take place in the structure of vessels, or iron knees be adopted, which are now sometimes used, or vessels, with the exception of the deck and rigging, be formed of iron altogether, which we have seen do very well in inland navigation.

As crooked round oak timber of the natural length is extremely unmanageable, and its distant transport very expensive, it is desirable that it be squared and cut in lengths suited to its ultimate use, where grown. This requires a thorough knowledge of the necessary curves, to which the figs. p. 19, will afford considerable assistance. However, the superintendent of any extensive fall of naval timber either should be {30} a shipwright who has had practice in lining off timbers, or should have passed several months in a dock-yard during the timbering of vessels, observing every piece that is put to use.

As most part of the timbers of a vessel have their sides squared, the cutter cannot err much in hewing away the sides in the plane of, and at right angles to, the curves, at least as deep as the sap-wood reaches, thus leaving only a little sap-wood on the angles; the sap-wood, in all cases (except in those small craft used in carrying lime, which preserves from rot), being worse than useless; by its decay not only weakening the vessel from the want of entireness of the timbers, but also acting as a ferment to further corruption.

In our directions for obtaining curved and angular bent timbers, we may be thought to have been a little too minute with the dimensions and figures: under the hand of the shipwright, or person of skill, a tree of almost any possible bend cuts out to valuable purpose: what is wanted is crooked timber, free of large knots;—first and second foot-hooks and knees are, however, most in demand.

ENDNOTES TO PART I.

[4] Beech, suited for plank, is sometimes of more value when straight and of considerable length for the purposes of keel-pieces; for this the log requires to be from 30 to 70 feet in length, and at least of sufficient thickness at the small end to square a foot.

[5] These directions are generally applicable—as well for what may be required for being bent for compass-timbers, and for what may be used for land purposes, as for plank.

[6] There are several valuable varieties of apple-trees of acute branch angle, which do not throw up the hark of the breeks; this either occasions the branches to split down when loaded with fruit, or, if they escape this for a few years, the confined bark becomes putrid, and produces canker, which generally ruins the tree. We have remedied this by a little attention in assisting the rising of the bark with the knife. Nature must not be charged with the malformation of these varieties; at least, had she formed them, as soon as she saw her error she would have blotted out her work.

[7] Commencing by times, the greater part of training and pruning for plank, excepting in the case of dead branches, fractures, and last pruning, may be performed by a small knife.

[8] We are not in possession of sufficient facts to judge of the effect to hasten or deter decay occasioned by the timber having been softened in hot liquids of 212° or upwards, and not raised so high as to generate pyrolignous acid; but we think it must impair the elasticity.

[9] As excellent plank can be obtained by importation, the grower of naval timber ought to regard the production of crooks as a more patriotic occupation than the production of plank. _It will generally pay better._

{31} PART II.

BRITISH FOREST TREES USED AS NAVAL TIMBER.

OAK—_Quercus_.

Oak appears to be the most prevalent tree about the middle of the north temperate zone, growing, naturally, upon almost every soil, excepting some of the sterile sandy hats. With the exception of the pines, it is by far the most useful kind of tree, almost balancing the accommodating figure of stem, and manageable quality of the pine timber, by its greater strength and durability, and excelling the pines in value of bark. It is not easy to determine whether there be distinct British species in the genus _Quercus_; but, at least, there are several breeds, or families, or grouped resemblances, which, though the individuals may slightly vary, and though a gradation, or connection, may be traced among these families themselves, yet possess general character sufficiently marked to support names. Botanists, who are so prompt and so well prepared with their classes, {32} orders, genera, species, varieties, long before they acquire much knowledge of what they are so ready to classify, or be able to distinguish between species and variety, or know if species and variety be really distinct, divide the oak of this country into two species, _Quercus Robur_ and _Q. sessiliflora_, the former with long fruit-stalks, and hard, strong, durable timber, the late leafing old kind once so prevalent in the island: the latter an earlier leafing, faster growing kind, timber inferior, leaves petiolate, fruit sessile, not common, but supposed native. We consider there is no foundation for this specific distinction; we have met with oaks with various lengths of fruit-stalks: Besides, short and long fruit-stalks is a very common difference among seedling varieties. The families or breeds which we have observed in the indigenous oak resemble what are found among almost every kind of vegetable, and graduate into each other,—those farthest removed in appearance, no doubt having power to commix by the pollen. The most remarkable distinction we have observed is in the colour of the bark, whether inclining to white or black. The variety or breed with grey white bark, often very smooth and shining, and sometimes beautifully clouded with green, has also a different form of leaf and figure of top from those with {33} blackish bark, and we have no doubt will also afford a different quality of timber. Those with blackish dingy bark vary considerably from each other, some being of very luxuriant growth and heavy foliage, with thick fleshy bark, affording much tannin; others, though in favourable situation, of stunted growth, thin dry bark, and delicate constitution, often being nipped in the twigs by the frost: some having a round easy figure of top, even with pendulous branching, others extremely stiff and angular in the branching; some with the most elegant foliage, deeply sinuated and finely waved, others with the clumsiest, most misshapen foliage, almost as if opposite principles had presided at their forming. We have observed the earlier kinds, with the dark bark, to have generally the easiest figure of top; the angular branching and stiffness of figure of top being greatest in those sooty-barked late kinds, most disposed to take two growths in the season, the spring and autumnal, which, from the proneness of these kinds to be affected in the terminal bud by monstrosities, and sometimes also to be nipped in the point of the unripened autumn shoot by the frost, are generally thrown out in different directions, the tree, from these causes, growing awkwardly and irregularly, and by fits and starts.

Besides the indigenous _Quercus Robur_, we have {34} a number of kinds, termed distinct species, growing in Britain, of foreign derivation—the Turkish oak, _Quercus Cerris_; the Lucombe oak, _Q. sempervirens_; the scarlet-leaved American, _Q. coccinea_; the evergreen, _Q. Ilex_, and several others. The Turkish and Lucombe resemble each other, but the latter generally continues green till the spring, when the old leaves wither, a little before the young appear: Botanists make them varieties. We consider the Turkish oak the most valuable and elegant of these foreign kinds. The leaves are generally very long and slender, deeply and widely sinuated, and the teeth or salient angles sometimes undulated, having a curled appearance; yet there are some individuals with broad, short, flat leaves, not differing in figure from those of the common oak, but the tree in other respects not different from the Turkish, being easily distinguished from the common oak by the reddish hairy appearance of the developing shoot, the scales of the bud having a hair-like extension, visible in each leaf axilla. The acorns are also bristled like echini, with this scaly prolongation. The timber is tough and clean, resembling the white American, and suitable for staves. The stem and branches are generally very straight, as the terminal bud seldom fails, and the growing proceeds steadily, without much autumnal shoot. {35}

As oaks run more hazard in transplanting than most other kinds of trees, the greater care is necessary in procuring well-rooted, short, vigorous plants; in having the soil free of stagnating water, in timing and executing the work in a proper manner, and in hoeing around the plant, keeping the ground clean and friable on the surface during the first two or three seasons. As young oaks grow much more vigorously under considerable closeness and shelter, and as the plants are expensive, it is proper to plant, along with them, a mixture of cheaper plants, larches or other pines, which also sooner come to be of a little value, to be removed gradually as the young wood thickens up. In bleak exposed situations, it is well to plant the ground first with pines, and when these attain a height of 6 or 8 feet, to cut out a number, not in lines, but irregularly, and plant the oaks in their stead, gradually pruning and thinning away the remaining firs as the oaks rise. In general, pitting is preferable to slitting; but when the plants are very small, and the ground wet-bottomed (with close subsoil), liable to become _honeycomby_ with frost, slitting secures the plant better from being thrown out.

Oak is by far the best adapted tree for hedge-row, or for being grown by the sides of arable fields, both {36} with respect to its own qualities, and to the growth of the adjacent crops or hedge. The bark is much thicker, and more valuable in proportion to its bulk here, than in close forest, and the timber more crooked, which is desiderated in oak, but which unfits most other trees for much else than firewood. The oak is, besides, as generally suited for the variety of soils which lines crossing a country in all directions must embrace: this is matter of consideration, as few planters have skill to locate a number of kinds properly. It will also be thought, by reason of British feeling, the most interesting and ornamental; nor is it to be overlooked, that, by the roots taking a more downward direction than other trees, the plough has greater liberty to proceed around, and the moisture and pabulum necessary to evaporation and growth are not drawn from the ground so superficially; thence the minor plants adjacent do not suffer so much. We have observed, too, that, when all cause of injury by root suction was cut off by a deep ditch, the undergrowth seemed less injured by shade of oak than of some other trees. The apple and the pear only, appear to be as little detrimental to the surrounding crop as the oak. The ash, the elm, the beech, in Scotland the most general hedge-row trees, are the most improperly located; the ash and the {37} elm as being the most pernicious to the crops, and the beech as being of little or no value grown in hedge-row. In clays, most kinds of trees, particularly those whose roots spread superficially, are more detrimental to the crop around than in the more friable earths, owing to the roots in clays foraging at less depth, and to the clay being a worse conductor of moisture than other earths. The disadvantages attending the planting of hedge-row with oaks are, that their removal is not in general so successful as that of other trees, especially to this exposed dry situation, and that the progress of the plant, for a number of years, is but slow; and thus for a longer time liable to injury from cattle. Fair success may, however, be commanded, by previously preparing the roots, should the plants be of good size; transplanting them when the ground is neither too moist nor too dry, and in autumn, as soon as the leaves have dropped or become brown, particularly in dry ground; performing the operation with the utmost care not to fracture the roots, and to retain a considerable ball; opening pits of considerable size for their reception, much deeper than the roots, and should a little water lurk in the bottom of the pit, it will be highly beneficial, provided none stagnate so high as the roots; firming the earth well around the roots {38} after it is carefully shaken in among the fibres; and, especially, keeping the surface of the ground, within four feet of the plant, friable and free from weeds, by repeated hoeings during the first two or three summers. Of course, if you suffer the plant to waver with the wind, or to be rubbed and bruised by cattle, or by the appendages of the plough, it is folly to expect success. On this account, stout plants, from 8 to 12 feet high, the branches more out of the way of injury, may, in sheltered situations, under careful management, be the most proper size. Much also depends on procuring sturdy plants from exposed situations. We have experienced better success with hardy plants from the exposed side of a hill, having unfibred _carrot_ roots much injured by removal, than with others from a sheltered morass, having the most numerously fibred, well extricated roots. In cases, where, from the moistness and coldness of the ground in early summer, there was a torpor of root suction, and, in consequence, the developing leaves withering up under an arid atmosphere, we have attempted to stimulate the root action by application of warm water, covering up the surface of the ground with dry litter to confine the heat; we have also endeavoured to encourage the root action by increasing the temperature of cold light-coloured soils, by strewing soot {39} on the surface for a yard or two around the plant, and by nearly covering a like distance by pieces of black trap rock, from three to six inches in diameter. The success from the pieces of trap appeared greatest; they diminished the evaporation from the ground, thence less loss of heat and of necessary moisture; and being at once very receptive of radiant caloric, and a good conductor, they quickly raised the temperature of the soil in the first half of the summer, when bodies, from the increasing power of the sun, are receiving much more heat by radiation than they are giving out by radiation.

The oak should never be pruned severely, and this rule should be particularly observed when the tree is young. We have known several of the most intelligent gardener-foresters in Scotland err greatly in this; and, by exclusively pruning the oak plants, from misdirected care, throw them far behind the other kinds of timber with which they were mixed in planting. There is no other broad-leaved tree which we have seen suffer so much injury in its growth, by severe pruning, as the oak. The cause of this may be something of nervous susceptibility, or connected life, all the parts participating when one is injured; it may be owing to the tendency to putrescency of the sap-wood, or rather of the sap, the part around the section often decaying, especially {40} when the plant is not vigorous; or it may arise from some torpor or restricted connection of the roots, which, when robbed of their affiliated branch, do not readily forage or give their foraging to the support of the nearest remaining branch, or to the general top of the tree, but throw out a brush of twigs near the section.

Although the oak often lingers in the growth while young, yet, after it attains to six inches or a foot in diameter, its progress is generally faster than most other kinds of hard wood, not appearing to suffer so much as others from excessive fruit-bearing. The value of the timber, and also of the bark, and the slight comparative injury occasioned to the under crop, whether of copse, grass, corn, or roots, independently of any patriotic motives, or religious reverence lingering in our sensorium from the time of the Druids, should give a preference to this tree for planting, wherever the soil and climate are suitable, over every other kind, with the exception of larch and willow, which, in particular soils, will pay better.

The planter of oak should throw in a considerable proportion of Turkish oak into the more favourable soils and situations. The beautiful clustered, fretted foliage of this species gives a richness, and, in winter, when it retains the withered leaf, a warmth of colouring to our young plantations beyond any other {41} of our hardy trees and shrubs. We have had this kind, eighteen years old, equal in size to larches of the same age in the same ground. We cut down several of these oaks of about 8 inches in diameter, and compared the timber and bark with those of common oak of the same age. The timber was clean, very tough and flexible, with much _flash_, and we should suppose might suit for plank when matured; at any rate, from the splendid shew of the laminæ (_flash_), it would form beautiful pannelling and furniture. It shrunk, however, extremely while drying, which must have been partly owing to the quick growing and youngness, it thence consisting almost entirely of sap-wood, and this sap-wood almost entirely of sap; and, when left in the sun in the round state, after peeling, rent nearly to splinters,—much more than the common oak under the same exposure. The bark was about double the thickness and weight of that of the common oak of equal size, and, in proportion to its weight, consisted much more of that cellular or granular substance most productive of tannin. The varieties of common oak with thick bark are generally of inferior quality of timber; but they are by far the finest, most luxuriant growing trees, with rich heavy foliage, and appear as giants standing in the same row with {42} the thin barked varieties, though planted at the same time.

To the naturalist the oak is an object of peculiar interest, from the curious phenomena connected with the economy of numerous insects who depend upon it for existence. It would be tedious to describe the different apples, galls, excrescences, tufts, and other monstrosities which appear upon the oak. It is something like enchantment! These insects, merely by a puncture and the deposition of an egg, or drop of fluid, turning Nature from her law, and compelling the Genius of the Oak to construct of living organized oak matter, instead of leaves and twigs, fairy domes and temples, in which their embryo young may lie for a time enshrined.

SPANISH CHESTNUT—_Castanea vulgaris_, (_Fagus Castanea, L._)

Spanish or sweet Chestnut, sometimes named Chestnut Oak, sometimes included in the genus Fagus, seems at least a connecting link between Quercus and Fagus. This valuable timber tree, the largest growing, and, in many places, also the most common in the south of Europe, and which was once so {43} abundant in England that many of the largest of our ancient piles are wooded of it, has been for several ages much on the decrease in this country; owing, probably, to a slight refrigeration of climate, which, during this period, appears to have taken place, preventing the ripening of the seed, or, in more rigorous winters, following damp, cold summers, destroying all the young plants (at least the part above ground), whose succulent unripened shoots and more delicate general constitution, from immatured annual round of life, or imperfect concoction of juices, have not power to withstand the severe cold sometimes occurring near the surface of the earth. A very general destruction of the young plants of this kind of tree has occurred more than once within our memory from severe frost; but as the climate, a few years back, rather improved, and the spirit of planting became more general, a considerable number of plants of this tree have attained height and hardihood to withstand the cold, excepting in the points of the annual shoot, which we notice are again nipped (year 1830). This may give encouragement to more extended planting, as the tree is handsome, and, in most places, where water does not abound nor stagnate, acquires great size in comparatively short time. It is said to prefer a gravelly or stone {44} rubble subsoil, but we have seen it in rich clay, in row with large beeches, even exceed them in size. We should prefer for it any deep friable dry soil.

There is one circumstance connected with this timber in this country, at least in Scotland, which must prevent its general use in ship plank, and be of material injury to it for ship timbers; this is, that few trees of it of size are found without the timber being shaky or split, some to such a degree that the annual rings or concentric growths have separated from each other. This appears to be owing to our climate being colder than what is suitable to the nature of the plant; the sap in the stem possibly freezing in severe weather and splitting, or severing the growths of the timber, but more probably occasioned by the season being too short, and too moist and cold, to ripen or fill up with dense matter, sufficiently, the frame of the annual growths; thence, as each ring of sap-wood, prematurely hastened by the torpor of moisture and cold, turns to red or matured wood, and, in so doing, dries considerably within the other rings of moist sap-wood, the contractile force may be sufficient to separate this growth from the next external sap growth, the cohesion existing between the tissue or fabric of the growth being much stronger than the cohesion between one {45} growth and another. The uncommon dryness of the matured wood, and moistness of the sap-wood of this tree, and smallness of the number of sap-wood rings, commonly only from 2 to 6 in this country, incline us to believe that this is the cause of the insufficiency or defect; and that, in a milder, drier climate, the sap-wood rings will be found to be more numerous, and thus, independent of a better first ripening, affording a longer time for their cells to be more filled up with an unctuous matter (which prevents the shrinking) gradually deposited while they convey the sap, the sap-wood rings being the part of the timber through which the sap circulates. As proof of this unctuous deposit or filling up, we observe that dry sap-wood imbibes moisture much quicker, and in greater quantity, than dry mature. We think this premature maturity (if we may so term it) of timber in cold countries, a general law. Our larch, originally from the Apennine, has not more than one-third of the number of sap-rings of our Scots fir, indigenous in Mar and Rannoch mountains; and our narrow-leafed, or English elm, said to have been introduced from the Holy Land in time of the Crusades, has not more than one-half of the number of our indigenous broad-leafed, or Scots elm. From the sap-growths of Laburnum, {46} scarcely exceeding in number those of the Spanish chestnut, we should suppose that it has been moved northward, or that the proper climate has left it. We have observed that moist, or water-soaked ground, has influence, as well as climate, to deprive the alburnum vessels sooner of their living functions, inducing that torpor of tubes, or semi-vital condition, in which they only serve to support the more active parts, and constitute what is called Mature Timber.

It is a general opinion that Spanish chestnut soon takes rot in situations where the roots come in contact with water. This appears to result from moist soil inducing the too early maturing of the timber already alluded to, and occasioning shaky insufficient fabric, which soon corrupts. We have observed oaks which had fewer layers of sap-wood, from growing in damp situations, have the timber of inferior quality, and sometimes of a shaky, brownish description, when cut across, throwing out a dirty brownish liquid or stain.

From the use of the Spanish chestnut in the Spanish navy, both in planking and timbering, and from the roofing beams and ornamental work of Westminster Hall being also of this wood, we should suppose it was not so liable to this defect of rents in {47} the timber in milder climates. Chestnut timber is a good deal similar to oak, though not quite so reedy and elastic, but is destitute of the large laminæ or plates (_flash_), which, radiating from the pith to the outside, become so prominent to view in the oak when the longitudinal section is perpendicular to the outside, in the plane of the laminæ. It is, we should think, as capable of supporting weight, when stretching as a beam, as the oak, and is equally, if not more durable, many beams of it existing in very old buildings undecayed: it is said even to have been taken out fresh where it had stood 600 years as lintels. Earth stakes of it are also very durable. It possesses one advantage over oak, which must recommend it for ship-building, that is, having much less proportion of sap-wood; and, from the matured wood containing much less sap or moisture, we should suppose it not so liable to dry rot, or that more simple means, or shorter period, would suffice for seasoning it, so as to be proof against this evil. Spanish chestnut is as yet little known among British shipwrights; but were a quantity of it in the market free of the unsoundness we have alluded to, its merits would soon become known. The bark is used by tanners, but is said not to equal that of oak.

{48} BEECH-TREE—_Fagus sylvatica_.

This hardy tree occupies fully as wide a range, both of soil and climate, as the oak, and is generally the fastest growing, most vigorous of all our hard-wood kinds, prospering on all soils, on the dry and moist, the aluminous, the calcareous, the siliceous, provided water does not stagnate. It combines magnificence with beauty, being at once the Hercules and Adonis of our Sylva. The timber of our beech, while green, is by far the hardest of our large growing trees, and, in the American forest, the members of the beechen family match better than those of any other, with the perseverance of the ruthless Yankee; the roots retaining the hardness deeper in the earth than those of any other tree, and being so plaited and netted throughout the ground for a considerable space around the bulb, that it is next to impossible to trench or dig over the soil till they have decayed.

As we have before stated, the timber of the beech-tree soon corrupts if it is not speedily dried, or kept in water after being cut down, and is equally liable to corruption in the tree when deprived of life by wounds or other injury. Beech has a matured and sap wood, although they are not very distinguishable, being nearly of one colour. The former has {49} considerable durability when kept dry, the latter is speedily consumed by worming.

The planter of beech should procure the kind[10] with yellow-coloured wood, termed by joiners Yellow Beech, in opposition to the kind with white wood, called White Beech. The yellow grows faster and straighter, and is cleaner and freer of black knots, and also more pleasantly worked than the white, but it corrupts much sooner in the bark when cut down. This variety of beech, when properly trained, is probably the most profitable hard-wood that we can raise; when planked, it bends pleasantly under the shipwright to the curvature of the vessel’s side. The tree is also much superior in size and grace of outline to the white. There are few planters who need be put in mind that beech of small size, or of short or crooked stem, is the least valuable of all timber. Whoever plants with a view to profit will, therefore, throw in only as many beech plants as may ultimately be required for standards, and these in the bosom of plantations; as it is seldom that beech attains to much value in hedge-row or on the outskirts of woods, {50} from its proneness when so situated to ramify and grow crooked. It is, however, quite possible, with a little early attention, to rear beech as straight and clean as to be valuable, on the outskirts, where it forms a beautiful fringe to the plantation, and affords excellent shelter.

ELM—_Ulmus._—BROAD-LEAVED, OR SCOTCH, or WYCH ELM—_Ulmus montana._

This beautiful and most graceful tree, whose favourite locality is the damp, deep, accumulated soil, free of stagnant water, at the bottom of declivities, is, together with its sister, the small-leaved kind, the English elm, when so situated, the fastest growing of our hard-wood trees. Both delight in easy or gravelly soils, though the small-leaved will also prosper in the more adhesive, the alluvial and diluvial clays.

There are a number of kinds of elm growing in this country, differing rather more from the common run of _U. montana_ and _U. campestris_, than what occurs among seedling varieties of untamed plants; but as these have very probably a power of mingling by the pollen, thence not specifically different, we leave to {51} botanists to explain their nice peculiarities, and think it sufficient to rank the whole under _montana_ and _campestris_, especially as the timber seems to range into two kinds—_Montana_, with large leaves, heavy annual shoots, somewhat zig-zag, thick towards the point, thence drooping a little from gravity; having much sap-wood, and timber of great longitudinal toughness, but, from the great quantity of sap-wood, and want of lateral adhesion, it splits considerably in drying;—_Campestris_, with smaller leaves, more numerous straight annual shoots, which are small towards the point, thence more erect, has but little sap-wood, and the timber also possessing greater lateral adhesion, and less longitudinal, it does not crack much in drying. We have noticed one broad leaved kind or variety, whose annual twigs often spring out in tufts or knots from one point; this seems to arise from the shoot of the preceding year sometimes dying, probably nipped by frost, and the tuft of shoots springing out from the knot at the lower extremity of the dead twig. From this cause, it has not the graceful easy spread of branches of the _U. montana_, but assumes a more angular, stiff, upright figure. We have heard this named Dutch Elm, but it does not quite correspond with the elm in the parks at London said to be Dutch. We consider it a kind {52} not very nearly allied to _U. montana_, yet the above peculiarity of appearance may only arise from individual tenderness, and may not be accompanied by other difference of character.

The elm, more especially the broad-leaved Scotch elm, has a peculiar fan-like sloping-to-one-side spread of branches, most perceptible while young; hence the tree when grown up, has generally a slight bending in the stem, which renders it very fitting for floor-timbers of vessels, the only part of a ship, excepting bottom plank, to which it is applicable, as it soon decays above water. Its great toughness and strength, however, render it good floors.

There are some kinds of foreign elm which deserve attention. Some time ago we planted several of these, and lately cut down one of about six inches diameter, which we found a great deal harder and stronger timber than our _U. montana_. We had this kind under the name of the Broad-leaved American. The bark was rather lighter in colour, and smoother, than _U. montana_; the leaves were rough and large, and the annual shoots extremely luxuriant; but, probably owing to climate, or difference of circumstance, the exposed situation where we had it growing being very unlike the close American forest, it did not carry up its vigour of growing into {53} the top, although the top was healthy, but continued throwing out numerous annual shoots, five or six feet long, from the bulb and side of stem, which disposition we did not succeed in correcting by pruning. This did not seem to arise from grafting, as some of the shoots broke out higher up than the graft must have been, and there was no difference between the lower and upper shoots.

_U. montana_, when come to some size, on the primary branches being lopped off, like the oak, often throws out a brush of twigs from the stem, and these twigs impeding the transit of the sap, the brush increases, and the stem thickens considerably, in consequence of a warty-like deposit of wood forming at the root of the twigs. This excrescence, when of size, after being carefully seasoned in some cool moist place, such as the north re-entering angle of a building, exposed to the chipping from the roof, forms a richer veneer for cabinet-work than any other timber. This disposition to form brush and excrescence might be given by art to almost any kind of tree, excepting the coniferæ and beech, and might be made a source of considerable profit. This could easily be effected by slitting, pricking, and bruising the bark at certain periods of the season. A very beautiful waved timber might also be formed by {54} twisting the stems of trees tight up with round ropes, the screw circles of the rope not being quite close to each other; the ropes to remain several seasons, then to be kept off for a season or two, and again applied. The practice of forming warty excrescences might be combined with that of forming wavy fibres, with the finest effect. Of course, those trees with timber of rich colour, and susceptible of high polish, would be the most suitable for undergoing this process. _U. campestris_ also throws out a brush, but from the great inferiority of the timber in beauty, and from its unfitness for cabinet-work, it would be useless to encourage it by art. Some plants of _montana_, not covered with brush, have a curious unevenness (laced appearance) of the timber in the stem, which renders it a beautiful cabinet plank.

NARROW-LEAVED OR ENGLISH ELM—_Ulmus campestris_.

There are few Scotchmen, as they migrate southward, who have failed to remark the tame subdued appearance of the landscape of the middle and south of England, where a number of straggling tufted-headed poles, along with windmill towers, occupy {55} the horizon. These straggling, tall, tufted poles, stuck in, perpendicular to the flat surface, are composed of living narrow-leaved elm-trees, which the perseverance of the peasantry in quest of billets, has reduced to this condition. Some varieties of this elm, however, when uncurtailed in lateral expansion, attain the grandest development, stretching forth a hundred giant arms aloft, supporting masses of foliage, fantastically magnificent.

In the neighbourhood of London, this tree is attacked by an insect, which, running along the outside of the timber, within the bark, in a few seasons deprives the individual of life, the bark peeling off in large girdles, threatening to bereave this capital of the finest ornaments of its parks. We have observed, in different kinds of growing trees, such as the apple and oak, the roads of insects traversing between the rhind and wood, although the individual thus affected appeared to suffer little or no injury; and we consider the agency of the insect in the destruction of the English elm around London to be merely sequent to disease—perhaps a taint of corruption, or slight putrescency of the sap, occasioned by the _impurities of the London air_, assisted by the hard beaten state of the ground[11] above the roots. Should {56} any one examine the inside of the bark of a cut tree, when corruption has just begun with the bark, and see how thoroughly it is undermined by insects, he will, we think, admit the strong probability, that the insect is only subordinate in the destruction of those fine old elms around London. We do not wonder at the condition of the trees—it would not surprise us if the human race in London were swept off by some similar secondary cause.

The small-leaved elm has great disposition to spread by suckers from the roots, and thus extended has become very prevalent throughout most parts of England, in the broad wastes (termed fences), which, from the indolent husbandry, consequent to tithes and the want of leases, generally surround the pasture and corn fields, but which are so necessary to these unvaried plains, as some prominent object, or characteristic land-mark, on which the _amor patriæ_ of the population may perch; the finest remembrances and associations of youth being mixed up with these bushy flower-covered enclosures.

It is with country as with society, strong lasting {57} attachment occurs only where there is individuality of character to give distinctness of image.

“Oh! how should I my true love know, From many other one?”

There is design and utility in this fascination of peculiarity. If individual distinction be but strongly marked, it signifies little of what character. Love of country often hangs upon features of the harshest and most fearful description, with which the associations and feelings become entwisted, as attachment to individual is often rivetted by fierce, austere, or even morose qualities.

The narrow-leaved elm is valuable for forming the blocks and dead-eyes[12], and other wooden furniture of rigging, being particularly suitable for these purposes, from its hard and adhesive nature, and indisposition to crack or split, when exposed to sun and weather.