Page:Timber and Timber Trees, Native and Foreign.djvu/142

122 of the fibres of Moulmein Teak in a length of 3 feet under certain strains. Three pieces, each 2 × 2 × 48 inches, were thus tested, at one of the royal dockyards, and it was found that the mean elongation was nearly a quarter of an inch. (See Table L.)

The Teak tree is subject to a wasting away of the early annual layers long before it reaches maturity; and the number of young trees found thus affected in the rafts brought from the forests to the shipping port is very remarkable. The surveyor judging only from the deliveries of Teak in this country would hardly be aware of this, as hollow trees would not be selected for the European market.

Teak timber is also subject to heart-shake, as before observed, and in many logs, especially if they are procured from old trees, it is found to extend to one-half, and sometimes to two-thirds the diameter of the tree, and stretching along the entire length of it. If this shake is in one plane throughout, the conversion of the log involves no greater difficulty or loss than that occasioned by dropping out a piece large enough to include it. When, however, as in other instances, the cleft or shake at the top is at right angles, or nearly so, to that at the butt end, it is rather more serious, as the log must either be used in its greatest bulk, or worked up for small scantlings, such as could be obtained if it were cut into two or more lengths.

If the shake extends only a few feet up from the butt end, the most profitable way of converting the log would be by cutting it into plank or board, taking care to work from the outside instead of the centre, and thus waste only a tapering or wedge-like piece, sufficient to include the defect.

Many Teak logs are worm-eaten; holes from a