Page:Timber and Timber Trees, Native and Foreign.djvu/104

84 hard, horny, tough, strong, less elastic and slightly heavier than the English Oak, and is, on account of its extreme hardness, more difficult to work. In seasoning it is very apt to split and leave deep shakes on the exterior of the log, which are detrimental to its value for general purposes; but, viewed as to its form and properties, it is employed in preference to most other Oaks for the frame of a ship. It may also be used in any work of construction where strength and durability are important, if care be taken to protect it, by planks or otherwise, from exposure.

Owing to its characteristic defect of shakes in seasoning, the Italian Oak is unfit for conversion into planks, or boards, or into almost any small scantlings; and its introduction into this country (about the year 1820) was not with the view to its general employment, but solely to supplement the supply of British Oak timber, which was then scarce, and seemed likely to be insufficient in quantity to meet the growing demands for it, especially for the framing of our ships of war. For this particular purpose, where it is generally used in bulk to nearly the full growth of the tree, preference may even be given to it over English Oak.

Of the different kinds of Italian Oak supplied to the royal dockyards, the Tuscan, Neapolitan, and Sicilian are the hardest and most horny in texture, and, when thoroughly seasoned, by far the most difficult to work; while the Modena, Roman, and Sardinian are what the workmen call milder in character—that is to say, they are easier to work, and a little less hard than the former.

The Modena and Sardinian also yield an easier curved form of timber than the other kinds, and do not split to the same extent in seasoning; they are all, however, very much of the same strong character, and it