Page:Timber and Timber Trees, Native and Foreign.djvu/336

316 working it up, and to give it simply that protection when brought into use which all other materials require to keep them from perishing. It need not be too soon varnished, painted, or coated with any preservative compound whatever, but be allowed to undergo after conversion a further short process of the natural seasoning before this is done. Its durability will be thus insured much more effectually than if desiccating, charring, or some other hastening process of seasoning had been resorted to, for the sake of bringing it into earlier use after being felled.

My experience of the approximate time required for seasoning timber under cover, and protected from wind and weather, is as follows :—

Planks from one-half to two-thirds the above time, according to the thickness.

If kept longer than the periods named, the thin fine shakes which first open upon the surface during the process of seasoning will open deeper and wider, until they possibly render the logs unfit for conversion. If, however, the logs be reduced to the scantlings required after partial seasoning, and then further allowed to dry, they will not be liable to tear open so much, but by shrinking gradually will retain a more solid form, and be less objectionable to the eye when placed in position.

The table showing the time necessary for seasoning the various scantlings must be qualified by the consideration that in the case of any foreign timber that will float, the foresters and raftsmen, while transporting it to