Page:Timber and Timber Trees, Native and Foreign.djvu/135

XX.] the greater the length, the greater is the difficulty of moving and getting them out of the forests to the streams, and the increased danger when there of entanglement in the short bends of the water-courses. Another is, that the long logs were, until quite lately, liable to some trifling duty; while upon the short pieces coming from the forests, no charge whatever was levied on their arrival at Moulmein.

It is the practice in Burmah to girdle the Teak trees three years before they intend to fell them; a complete ring of the bark and sapwood being cut through and removed in order to kill the tree. This object is very soon obtained, as in a few days, or at most a few weeks, the tree is dead; the natural juices contained in it are, therefore, gradually run off by the root while the tree stands. This and the great heat of the climate combined, seasons the wood, and renders the log—which, in its green state would have a specific gravity of at least 1.000, and be difficult to move if felled—so much lighter that it floats easily over the shallows of the streams or rivers to the port of shipment. And as usually about a year elapses between the felling and the delivery of the timber in England, it is commonly received in a fit state for immediate use.

The practice of girdling is, I think, objectionable, inasmuch as the timber dries too rapidly, is liable to become brittle and inelastic, and leads frequently to the loss of many fine trees by breakage in falling; further, it must be regarded as so much time taken from the limit of its duiation, which is of great importance Girdling has been discontinued in the Annamallay forests of Malabar, under the impression that it causes, or at least extends, the heart-shake; it is, however practised in Cochin, Travancore, and a few other places;