Brown rot

“ Cause, Cure, and Prevention.—Dry rot is a special form of decay in timber, caused by the growth of a fungus, Merulius ladhrymans, which spreads over the surface as a close network of threads, white, yellow, or brown, and causes the inside to perish and crumble. ”

“ Then spray with copper-sulphate, one pound to nine gallons of water, or lime-sulphur, one gallon with nine gallons of water, before the buds open. Follow with one to forty lime-sulphur or other spray as for brown rot. Control methods for plum pocket are not well worked out, so these methods cannot be depended upon entirely.
Be sure and look over the apple trees carefully; cut out and burn all cankers. Black rot has been increasing in the state, and since a great deal of early infection may come from cankered limbs, it is important that cutting out and burning be resorted to. ”

“ The best preventive is to use only well-seasoned timber and to keep it well ventilated.
Detection and Treatment of Dry Rot.—When dry rot is suspected in a floor the floor-boards should be lifted at the corners of the room, or at dead ends of passages, or wherever signs of weakness show themselves, and the surfaces of the joists, wallplates, and under side of the floor-boards should be closely examined for fungus, mildew, or any unhealthy sign, such as a brown semi-charred appearance. ”

“ Rot of Potato tubers in the soil, or in store, may be brought about by very different agents.
If Phytophthora has obtained access, the fungus hyphae spread between the cells, starting from the haulm, and cause the flesh to turn yellowish and then brown in patches. On the exterior are discoloured patches, depressed, with the flesh beneath brown and soft. The mycelium spreads mostly in the outer layers, which though they turn deep brown remain firm. ”

“ The fungus destroys the substance of the timber, lessening its weight and causing it to warp and crack; until at length it crumbles up when dry into a fine brown powder, or, readily absorbing any moisture in its neighborhood, becomes a soft, cheese-like mass. * * * Imperfectly seasoned timber is 239 most susceptible to dry rot: the fungus can be spread either by its spawn or by spores, and these latter can be carried even by the clothes or saws of workmen, and are, of course, only too likely to reach sound wood if diseased timber is left about near it ”

“ Sometimes small brown spots, indicative of a commencement of decay, may be observed near the butt or root end of trees, and though they do not appear to be connected with any serious immediate danger to the durability of the wood, it is advisable to employ the material so affected only in positions where it would not be confined in anything like a close, damp atmosphere. ”

“ This sometimes shows in the color, as the "red rot" of pine or the "bluing" of ash. Sometimes as in "pecky" or "peggy" cypress, 235 the decayed tracts are tubular. More commonly the decayed parts are of irregular shape.
The decay of wood is due to the ravages of low forms of plant life, both bacteria and fungi.
A few of the more destructive forms may be noted.
Trametes pini (Brot.) Fr. Foremost among the timber destroying fungi is the large brown "punk" or "conch" found in its typical development on the long-leaf and short-leaf pines, Pinus palustris and Pinus echinata, Fig. 81. ”

“ Captain Sir Samuel Brown, R.N., states that from numerous experiments and observations, he is satisfied that at present there is really no specific remedy against the attacks of sea-worms upon timber, except iron nails. He proposes to encase the piles with broad-headed iron nails resembling scupper nails, but considerably larger, and he says that in the course of a few months corrosion takes place, and spreads into the interstices. The rust hardens upon the pile, and becomes a solid mass which the worm will not touch. ”

“ Whatever, therefore, may be the appearance or situation of the fungus producing the dry rot, or from whatever substance it originates, that substance must be in a corrupt state.
Fungi result from, or are attendant on, vegetable corruption, assisted by an adequate proportion of heat and moisture. The sap, or principle of vegetation, brought into activity, is, according to the ‘Quarterly Review,’ No. 15, the cause of dry rot, in as far as it is favourable to the growth of fungi, as it would seem to be when in a state of fermentation.
Vegetable corruption invariably presupposes fermentation. ”

“ The development of these defects is the forerunner of further decay in the tree, giving, as they do, special facilities for the introduction of various fungi, more especially that form of disease known as the rot. Wet rot is found in the living tree and occurs where the timber has become saturated by rain. ”

“ ON THE PRESERVATION OF WOODEN BRIDGES, JETTIES, PILES, HARBOUR WORKS, ETC., FROM THE RAVAGES OF THE TEREDO NAVALIS AND OTHER SEA-WORMS.
“Perforated sore
And drilled in holes, the solid oak is found
By worms voracious, eaten through and through.”
Sir John Barrow.
As the destruction of timber by fungi has been called the vegetable rot, it may not be inappropriate to term the destruction of wood by various worms and insects, the animal rot.
We have four natural enemies to deal with: 1st, the dry rot, that attacks our houses, &c. ”

“ DRY ROT, a fungoid disease in timber which occasions the destruction of its fibres, and reduces it eventually to a mass of dry dust. It is produced most readily in a warm, moist, stagnant atmosphere, while common or wet rot is the result of the exposure of wood to repeated changes of climatic conditions. The most formidable of the dry rot fungi is the species Merulius lacrymans, which is particularly destructive of coniferous wood ”

“ The fungus growing on the Petersburgh deals and Dram battens has all the characteristics and effects of dry rot as exhibited in the Canadian deals, the detection of dry rot being in most cases the same.
[39]
It should be remembered that white deal absorbs more water than yellow; and yellow more water than red; and the quantity of water absorbed by the white accounts for its more rapid decay in external situations; as the greater the quantity of water absorbed the quicker is the timber destroyed. Mr. ”

“ The signs of decay in timber are, as has been stated, fungi. Some of them now and then are microscopic, and owe their existence to the sporules deposited on the surface; while fermentation, generated by prolonged contact with warm, damp, and stagnant air, is as a soil where seeds sow and nourish themselves.
Mr. McWilliam, in his work on dry rot, states that if the temperature be very low or very high, the effects are the same with respect to the growth of fungi. At 80° dry rot will proceed rapidly, at 90° its progress is more slow ”

“ Every one knows the smell of pure, fresh wood. If you bore into wood in which the sap has just begun to ferment, you get a vinous smell, which is soon followed by the smell of putrefactive decay, unless means are taken to arrest the chemical changes that are in progress. This decomposition of wood containing sap is ordinary rot or wet-rot. It is the most general and the most fatal cause of decay in wood; but it has attracted less attention than the more startling but less common evils of dry-rot, and the destruction of timber by insects. ”

“ Spores of parasitic fungi enter the cracks, germinate and infect the heartwood. The spores of a heartwood-inhabiting fungus cannot germinate and [161] thrive unless they fall upon the heartwood of the tree. In this way certain diseases of the heartwood, which result in rot or decay, can very frequently be traced directly to fire scars, lightning scars, spike tops, broken limbs or branches, and other mechanical destruction caused by lightning, fire, storms, cloudbursts, or heavy snowfall. ”

“ Spot disease, producing whitish spots on the foliage; root rot, apt to attack young plants transplanted in hot, dry weather; wet rot, a fungus apt to appear in too moist air or where ventilation is insufficient; and yellowing, of the cause of which little is known. Any of these diseases is difficult to exterminate when it once gains a foothold. The best thing to do is to get strong, vigorous cuttings, and then to give careful attention to watering, cultivation, and ventilation, and the destruction of dead and dying leaves and all runners as fast as they appear. ”

“ Unfortunately this destructive power of fungi over vegetable tissues is too often exemplified in a manner which man does not approve. The dry rot is a name which has been given to the ravages of more than one species of fungus which flourishes at the expense of the timber it destroys. ”

“ In this case the disease may be encouraged by the application of air as a remedy. When workmen are employed in buildings which contain dry rot, and when they are working on ground which contains the symptoms of this disease, their health is often affected. A London builder informs us, that a few years since, while building some houses at Hampstead his men were never well: he afterwards ascertained that the ground was affected with rot, and that within one year after the house was erected, all the basement floor was in a state of premature decay. ”

“ Or let a vigorous tree meet with an accident, and like an injured deer it becomes food for an enemy. If lightning, wind, or sleet split the bark or break a limb, through these wounds some spore or borer will speedily reach the tree's vitals. In many cases the deadly work of parasitic plants and fungi is interrelated with, and almost inseparable from, the destructive operations of predacious insects. Many so-called tree diseases are but the spread of rot and fungi through the wood by means of an entrance bored by a borer, weevil, or beetle. ”

“ In warm cellars, or any close confined situations, where the air is filled with vapour without a current to change it, dry rot proceeds with astonishing rapidity, and the timber work is destroyed in a very short time. The bread rooms of ships; behind the skirtings, and under the wooden floors, or the basement stories of houses, particularly in kitchens, or other rooms where there are constant fires; and, in general, in every place where wood is exposed to warmth and damp air, the dry rot will soon make its appearance.
All kinds of stoves are sure to increase the disease if moisture be present. ”

“ The dry rot in timber derives its name from the effect produced, and not from the cause: it is so called in opposition to the wet rot, which is properly denominated, as this exists only in damp situations, and is applied to the decomposition which takes place in timber containing sap, and exposed to moisture: but although the dry rot is usually generated in moisture, in some cases it will flourish independent of extraneous humidity. Dry rot differs from wet rot in this respect, that the former takes place only when the wood is dead, whereas the latter may begin when the tree is standing. ”

“ Larvae that tunnel into the sapwood and heartwood can frequently damage logs and wood products. Adults aid in wood decomposition by introducing yeasts, bacteria, and wood-rotting fungi that lead to tree rot and checking in the wood. ”

“ When they have been floated down our rivers and shipped as soon as they were taken from the water, at the end of the voyage they are often so covered with this network of mycelial fibers that force is necessary to separate them, and they will grow together again in the barges before being landed. If deals in this state are piled flatwise, a whole pile will become deeply affected with rot in six months. In some instances the rot penetrates to the depth of one eighth of an inch. ”

“ Like the potato and the grape, subterranean timbering is exposed to the attacks of a fungus, producing what is called dry-rot. The parasite germinates in the sap which remains in the wood, or at least derives its nourishment from it. Its vegetation is at first scarcely perceptible; but soon its white fibres multiply, and form at length small sponges on the surface. The decomposition of the wood now advances with rapid strides, and terminates at last in the total destruction of the ligneous fibres. ”

“ The rot, though most general in trees which are chilled in wet cold tills, or starved in dry sand, or sickly from any other cause, is also often found to take place in the most luxuriant growing plants in open situations, branched to the ground, and growing in deep soil free from stagnating water. There must, therefore, be some constitutional tendency to corruption in the larch, which is excited by a combination of circumstances ”

“ McWilliam observes, “The fungi arising from oak timbers are generally in clusters of from three to ten or twelve; while those from fir timber are mostly in single plants: and these will continue to succeed each other until the wood is quite exhausted.”
Damp is not only a cause of decay, but is essential to it; while, on the other hand, absolute wet, especially at a low temperature, prevents it. In ships this has been particularly [23] remarked, for that part of the hold of a ship which is constantly washed by the bilge-water is never affected with dry rot. ”

“ On precipitation from its solvent it partially filled the pores, and hardened the wood, but occasioned speedy rottenness.” If, by using a solution of alum [120] to render wood uninflammable, we at the same time cause it to rot speedily, it becomes a question whether the remedy is not worse than the disease. ”

“ Timber that is floated down rivers and conveyed from place to place in ships is very liable to this disease. It is said of the exports of timber from Canada to England, that few cargoes in the log arrive in which, in one part or other of almost every log, you will not see the beginning of this rot, either as reddish, discolored spots, which, when scratched by the nail, show that the texture to some little depth has been reduced to powder, or else the white fibers themselves may be seen growing. ”