Page:Timber and Timber Trees, Native and Foreign.djvu/99

XIII.] British 47.4 per cent.; the yield was therefore as nearly as possible the same in both cases.

Figs. 20a and 20b show the method of hewing the French Oak, whereby all the square wood that could be obtained is preserved, by simply following the natural taper or growth of tree, and, by so doing, there can be little, if any, disadvantage, since, the measurements being taken, as in English timber, at the middle, or half the length of the log, the buyer would receive and pay for the correct quantity contained in it.

FIG. 20a.

FIG. 20b.

The error in estimating its worth at the dockyards was one of those things to which professional and practical men are occasionally liable, when they have long been accustomed to a particular form or object, and are unwilling to see in any change that an advantage may sometimes be gained by its adoption.

About eighty loads of French Oak timber of compass form, that is, of pieces having at least 5 inches bend in