Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 09.djvu/461

LEFT TIMBER 399 TIMBER wood selected should be plentiful, dura- ble, more or less easily worked, fairly uniform in quality, and moderate in price. As yet the very useful timbers have been obtained from gregarious species of trees growing in the forests of the N. temperate regions of the globe, and the most important of these are a few kinds of fir and pine. From the tropics, where the social species are fewer, come the harder, heavier, and more richly colored or figured kinds, some of which are used in Europe and North America only for furniture and decorative purposes. Some of these tropical woods are, however, of extraordinary strength, and possess other valuable properties which will bring them sooner or later into use for building pur- poses. This is all the more certain to be the case as both in North America and in Europe the forest-covered land is be- ing stripped of its best timber at a rapid- ly increasing rate. Trees are of such slow growth that it takes many years before they are large enough to yield useful timber ; so that when the primitive forests of a country are once cut down the keeping up of a supply by planted trees is a very difficult matter. Chief Comviercial Timbers. — The fol- lowing are the best known and most used timbers in Great Britain. Baltic redwood {Pinus sylvestris), perhaps the most gen- erally useful of all, is employed for roof- ing and flooring, and often for all other internal and external wood work of bet- ter-class houses and other buildings. It is also used for paving streets and many other purposes. This wood in the cut state is called "yellow deal" in England. American yellow pine {Pinus strobiis) , called white pine in its native country, is also very largely imported for the in- ternal joiner work of buildings, parts of furniture, etc., but it is not suited for external work. Like the last, it is an excellent and easily worked timber. Bal- tic white wood {Abies excelsa) has for a considerable number of years taken the place of redwood for joists, flooring boards, roof timbers, etc. It is a dis- tinctly inferior wood. American pit<;h pine {PiniLs rigida), found over a large extent of country in the Eastern States, is an important timber. It has been much used in England for open roofs and for the whole of the wood-fittings of churches, halls, and the like. The annual rings of this wood are strongly marked, so that its planed surface looks striped. It is a heavy and highly resinous, but not very easily worked wood. The Douglas or Oregon pine {A. Douglasii or Pseudotsu- ga Douglasii) of northwestern America, between 200 and 300 feet in height, yields a timber of great length without knots, suitable for masts, spars, and many other purposes. Under the name of Californian red- wood, the timber of Sequoia sempervirens has of late years been to some extent imported into Great Britain. Like the last, the tree is of great size, and the wood is easily got free of knots. It is of a pleasing red color (most of the so- called red pine woods are nearly white), and easily worked in the longitudinal direction, but difficult to cut clean across the grain. Another recently imported wood is the Kauri pine of New Zealand. The Kauri {Da'ynniara australis) is also a majestic tree, and the wood is highly prized for all general purposes in its native country. It seems to have some tendency to warp, but this may be owing to defective seasoning. We may mention among coniferous woods that of the deo- dar (Cedrus Deodara), which, though not used in Great Britain, is extremely dura- ble, and of great importance in northern India. Among the more important American coniferous timbers, some of which have been already referred to, are the white pine {Pinus strobus), called in England yellow pine; the yellow pine of the East- ern States {Pinus niitis) ; the hemlock; the black spruce; the Douglas pine; Cali- fornian redwood; the white cedar {Cha- mcecyparis thy aides) ; the red cedar {Ju' niperus virginiaiux) ; as well as the larch or tamarack {Larix- avtericana) . Of timbers from dicotyledonous or, as they are sometimes called, foliaceous trees oak is the most important. The oak timber grown in the N. of Europe is obtained from two or three varieties of one species of Quercus, or from distinct but closely allied species. The timber possesses in a high degree the useful properties of a hardwood. It is strong, tough, elastic, and not too heavy. Its sp. gr. averages about .800. P'ew woods are more durable or less affected in ex- posed situations by alternations of wet and dry weather. It is still used largely in shipbuilding and for many purposes in civil architecture, but for the latter it is much more expensive than pine wood. Oak has the defect of rusting iron which pierces it or which is in contact with it. One or two American oaks also yield valuable timber. Teak, from an Indian tree, is next in importance to oak as a constructive timber. It has just the op- posite effect on iron, as it protects the metal from rust, a property which gives it great value as a backing for the armor plating of ships. Teak is neither quite so hard nor so strong as oak, but it i3 as difficult to cut with tools, and it is rather lighter when thoroughly seasoned.