Timber

“ We like the smell of this aromatic forest timber, and its clear flame. The birch is also a sweet wood for the hearth, with a sort of spiritual flame and an even temper,—no snappishness. Some prefer the elm, which holds fire so well; and I have a neighbor who uses nothing but apple-tree wood,—a solid, family sort of wood, fragrant also, and full of delightful suggestions. But few people can afford to burn up their fruit trees. ”

“ Every stick of timber was oak from the forest primeval, felled and hewed by the strong arms of the men who, with stout hearts, braved the perils and hardships of the wilderness for their altars and homes. ”

“ There is timber of all sizes, large trees and small—mostly beech, as it seems to me—branches and twigs, portions of trees, planks innumerable; and boys and girls, old men and women, young men and women, are busy along the shores fishing up the timber and the branches that are borne thither by the force of the waves. The young ones leap exultingly with their bare legs into the water; the old people drag the more precious waifs and strays towards them with rakes. ”

“ Above timber-line are many bright blossoms that are familiar to us, but dwarfed to small size. One needs to get down and lie upon the ground and search carefully with a magnifying-glass, or he will overlook many of these brave bright but tiny flowers. ”

“ Timber was so plentiful with us that poles and planks lay piled up at the back of the house, and after a number of these had been hunted up, from where they had floated among the trees, and laid in the full sunshine, a platform was built up high above the muddy earth, and then another upon which pine boughs were laid, and good, dry resting-places contrived for our weary bones. ”

“ The leaves of these trees are like those of the pine; timber from them comes in long lengths, is as easily wrought in joiner's work as is the clearwood of fir, and contains a liquid resin, of the colour of Attic honey, which is good for consumptives. ”

“ The timber retains its aromatic fragrance to a great age. On a transverse section the wood is marked by large pores, which are more numerous and larger in the spring wood, or the inner belt of each annual ring, while they are less numerous and smaller in the autumn wood or outer belt. ”

“ Speaking generally, it is found that, other things being equal, the most resistant, closest, and toughest timber comes from isolated trees growing in the open: straight and long timber, less marked for the above qualities, comes, on the contrary, from trees grown in close, high forest. ”

“ It is also necessary to be very careful in the selection of the timber for the house. Trees especially to be avoided are those which have no flowers, those which have no leaves, trees which grow on anthills, trees with birds' nests on them, and those from which the bark has been torn off from whatever cause. Unhappily these distinctions are not obvious in timber which you have not cut yourself, and rascally Chinese carpenters will not hesitate to palm off upon the unwary wood from a tree on which scores of egrets--the Byeing, or sacred paddy-bird of the Talaings--have nested. ”

“ Properly constructed, and with timber adapted to its purposes, it will stand securely against the fury of the elements, and answer every purpose that an old fashioned timber frame is calculated to fulfill. ”

“ Plenty of timber is a favorable augury. Who can not recall some beautiful valley where the well-grown trees seem almost to meet their branches over green meadows and patches of grain and other crops? On the other hand, inclement and thin soils carry a stunted and forlorn timbering. ”

“ The timber varies very much both in size and quality, but large quantities of fine oak, ash, chestnut, walnut, elm and several other hard woods, exist in the vicinity of the river and its tributaries. The best timber is generally to be found in the narrow belts of wood that border the large stretches of prairie grass. ”

“ Small, recent growths of timber, even where they have succeeded an ancient forest, are not, as a rule, attractive. Their newness is too evident, and, except for a few passing birds, they are not apt to harbor much wild life. As I look at the mingled foliage of oaks and elms, beeches, hickories, and wild cherry, I give little heed to that before me and recall forests worthy of the name, doing precisely what I have declared unwise. A naturalist could find more material in these few acres of woodland than he could “work up” in a lifetime. ”

“ There's a lot of timber that there ain't much expected of—an' a lot of humans, too. They're the stuff that works up into rough boards, an' cull stuff, an' lath, an' pulp wood, an' cordwood an' the like of that—an' so it goes, folks an' timber runnin' about alike. ”

“ Other timber we have, as the Iron-wood, and another sort, which are excellent good to endure wet and drie; and of those we make Shingles, which being such a kinde of wood, as will not warpe nor rive, are the best coverings for a house that can be, full out as good as Tiles, and lie lighter upon the Rafters. ”

“ We have reason, however, to believe, from their giving a similar account of the timber where we now are, that the timber of which they speak is similar to that which we have seen for a few days past, which consists of nothing more than a few straggling small pines and dwarf cedars on the summits of the hills, nine-tenths of the ground being totally destitute of wood, and covered with short grass, aromatic herbs, and an immense quantity of prickly-pear ”

“ Pine, or fir, is imported into this kingdom under the various names of timber, battens, deals, laths, masts, yards, and spars, according to the size or form into which the tree is sawed. It is called timber when the tree is only squared into a straight beam of the length of the trunk, and from not less than eight or nine inches square, up to sixteen or eighteen square; fifty cubic feet is a load of timber. Deals vary in length and thickness from eight to sixteen feet, eleven inches wide, and from one and a half to three and a half inches thick. ”

“ Man may mar this beautiful natural balance easier than decypher the proximate cause he may throw the new deposit of wood in greater proportion upon the upper part of the stem, rendering his beam more suitable from equality of thickness, and particularly in pines, of cleaner, smaller growthed, more durable timber, thence more valuable. ”

“ This timber also does well (if kept dry) for columns, tables, chests, chairs, stools, bedsteads; for tubs, and wine-casks, which it preserves with the least tincture of the wood of any whatsoever: If the timber be dipp’d in scalding oyl, and well pitch’d, it becomes extreamly durable; but otherwise I cannot celebrate the tree for its sincerity, it being found that (contrary to the oak) it will make a fair shew outwardly, when ’tis all decay’d, and rotten within ”

“ In many cases when timber trees are cut down and converted for use, it is found that at the junction of some of the minor branches with the main stem, the roots, as it were, of the branches traverse the surface wood in the form of knots, and that they often assume a commencement of decay, which in the course of time will extend to the wood around them. ”

“ Timber Work.—Half timber work consists of a framework of timber; the upper storeys of suburban and country residences are often thus treated, and the spaces between the timbers are filled in with brickwork and plastered inside, and rough cast outside, though sometimes tiles are hung on the outside. In some instances in country places there is no filling between the timbers, and both sides are lath and plastered, and in others the timbers are solid, or facing pieces are simply plugged to the walls, the joints being pinned with hardwood pins. ”

“ The tree is less than the last. The timber is hard, heavy, very durable, very hard to work, and of a greenish colour. It is commonly used for piles and posts, where the maximum of toughness and durability is required. ”

“ In its timber growth, conspicuous by their number, tower white-pines, while among them stand only less loftily a remarkable variety of forest trees imperfectly listed by a certain humble authority as "mostly h-oak, h-ellum, and h-ash, with a little 'ickory." ”

“ Crooked wooden crosses, or even a single upright{63} stake, were the landmarks of the dead; perhaps in a country where trees take more trouble to preserve than game, and are far more rare, a piece of timber is felt to be more honourable than the stone that lies profusely ready to the hand. ”

“ The wood near the shore, and for several miles up the River, is worth but little, being short and crooked, and thus unfit for building; but the further you proceed up the country, so much the better is the timber in quality. ”

“ And fiddled in the timber!
Tennyson.
2. The body, stem, or trunk of a tree.
3. Fig.: Material for any structure.
Such dispositions are the very errors of human nature; and yet they are the fittest timber to make politics of.
Bacon.
4. A single piece or squared stick of wood intended for building, or already framed; collectively, the larger pieces or sticks of wood, forming the framework of a house, ship, or other structure, in distinction from the covering or boarding.
So they prepared timber . . . to build the house. ”

“ If we could investigate the properties of timber with the same care which has been bestowed on the metals, we should find that there is an even greater variation in the properties of different kinds of wood. This arises, in part, from the fact that timber is much affected by a number of external and internal conditions, during its growth and seasoning, and in its subsequent treatment, which gradually modify and change its properties. ”

“ As it affords timber and boards of a greater size than any other soft-wooded tree, and is lighter and more free from knots, it is used in preference for the masts of ships, for the large beams, posts, and covering of wooden buildings, and for the frame-work of houses and bridges, as well as for clap-boards and shingles. ”

“ Vast quantities of timber are annually cut into boards in saw-mills, and floated down the rivers from the interior, during the time of high water in the spring and fall, and sometimes at other seasons of the year. ”

“ Consideration of the difference of tension of the concentric layers, from the difference of disposition to contract by drying, modified by the difference of position in which these layers may stand, when supporting weights and bearing strain, with the various qualities of timber of the same kind of tree, from variety, age, soil, climate, or from being taken from near the outside or heart, or butt or top, will, we think, account for the contrariety of results which unphilosophical experiments have afforded. ”

“ The structure and properties of wood should be thoroughly understood by every joiner. The man who has made the nature of timber his study has always a decided advantage over those who have neglected this. Timber shrinks considerably in the width, but not appreciably in the length. ”

“ In felling a tree we should cut into the trunk of it to the very heart, and then leave it standing so that the sap may drain out drop by drop throughout the whole of it. In this way the useless liquid which is within will run out through the sapwood instead of having to die in a mass of decay, thus spoiling the quality of the timber. Then and not till then, the tree being drained dry and the sap no longer dripping, let it be felled and it will be in the highest state of usefulness. ”

“ The wood of an old tree, on the other hand, Felling Timber. has lost a great part of its toughness, and is of bad colour, brittle and often predisposed to decay. In trees that have arrived at a mature age the heart-wood is in its largest proportion and the sap-wood is firm and elastic; and the timber from such trees is of the strongest, toughest and most durable character. The age at which the northern pine and Norway fir arrive at maturity is between seventy and one hundred years. The larch, elm and ash should be felled when the trees are between the ages of fifty and one hundred years. ”

“ It is doubtless of all timber hitherto known, the most universally useful and strong; for though some trees be harder, as box, cornus, ebony, and divers of the Indian woods; yet we find them more fragil, and not so well qualify’d to support great incumbencies and weights, nor is there any timber more lasting, which way soever us’d. ”

“ The trees of India producing economically useful timber are comparatively few, owing to the want of durability of the wood, in the extremely hot and moist climate. The teak, Tectona grandis, supplies the finest timber. ”

“ In one of my drives, I went to see an election which took place in the neighbourhood. The road for some distance lay through a forest full of magnificent timber; but, like most forest timber, that which gives it a marketable value destroys its picturesque effect. A few noble stems—however poor their heads—have a fine effect when surrounded by others which have had elbow-room ”

“ The timber, which is yellowish, strong, and ornamental, is used for almost every purpose, and is exported for making musical instruments, cabinet-work, the backs of brushes, marqueterie floors, etc. To supply the demand of it, the tree is being planted in many tropical countries. ”

“ VII. Next we must endeavour to say in a general way, distinguishing the several uses, for which purposes each kind of timber is serviceable, which is of use for ship-building, which for house-building: for these uses extend far and are important. ”

“ The first requisite of all education and discipline should be man-timber. Tough timber must come from well grown, sturdy trees. Such wood can be turned into a mast, can be fashioned into a piano or an exquisite carving. But it must become timber first. Time and patience develop the sapling into the tree. ”