Page:Timber and Timber Trees, Native and Foreign.djvu/254

234 vary with the quality and average length; and, at the present time (1875) in the London market, they stand at about seventy to ninety shillings per load for best, sixty to eighty shillings per load for good, and fifty-two to fifty-eight shillings per load for common middling. The crown and the fifth class being special distinctions, are, respectively, a little above and a little below these prices.

There are no reliable or recognised official brands by which the several qualities of Dantzic Fir timber may be known, there being no sworn Bracker to make the sorting; consequently, as each merchant acts for himself, he can give to it any particular distinguishing mark he pleases, and of course this will be only known in his own private circle, or, at most, to the trade of the district. The result is, there are often as many marks for each quality as there are merchants dealing in the article, thus making it necessary to see the several kinds in order to determine which would be most suitable for the work to be done. The practice is not a very satisfactory one, since it is not an uncommon thing to find the best middling timber of one merchant 3 to 4 or 5 per cent, better in quality than that of another, and the same with regard to each of the other classes brought into the market.

Dantzic Fir is employed more extensively in civil architecture than, perhaps, any other description of wood for joists, rafters, trusses, floors, scaffolding, &c.; it also enters largely into the construction of bridges and railway works; indeed, it is not too much to say that few works in this country are ever carried on without its capabilities being in some way turned to account. In ship-building it is employed for beams to carry the upper and lighter decks, occasionally for bottom