Identifier: tasmanianforestr00penn (find matches)
Title: Tasmanian forestry : timber products and sawmilling industry, a description of timber trees indigenous to Tasmania, their commercial value and process of manufacture, with methods adopted by the government to foster the industry
Year: 1910 (1910s)
Authors: Penny, John Compton
Subjects: Forests and forestry Timber
Publisher: Hobart, Tasmania : John Vail, Government Printer
Contributing Library: University of British Columbia Library
Digitizing Sponsor: University of British Columbia Library

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tree elongating beyond their power to over-come resistance to their sliding growth, when accommodation tospace has to be made by a lateral or spiral curve. In trees that shed their leaves in wint<?r, it is the rule for thenew leaves and flowers to burst out of the buds and attain maturityin a remarkably short space of time. In order to enable the plantto do this it is necessary for it to store up a considerable amountof reserve food in the previous season. This food is a form ofstarch, and is stored principally in the medullary rays. Starchnas little affinity for water, contains but little, and docs notattract it. Consequently in the winter condition of the wood ofsuch a tree, the contained water may be got rid of with little diffi-culty. When active growth is taking place the contained foodis in the form of a sugar, a substance which attracts water andholds it with great avidity. If wood is taken from a tree in thiscondition it is very difficult to eliminate its moisture. For this
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•26 reason it is best to cut such timber in the autumn or winter. Aforester speaks of it as cutting when the sap is down, but the quan-tity of sap is not the important matter; what is, is to cut whenthe contained food has no strong affinity for water, and thereforereadily parts with it. Evergrc^en trees form food whenever tem-perature is not too low, and, except in rare instances, where pro-vision has to be made for an extensive outburst of flowers, do notstore much food in a starchy condition. The food in the tissues ismostly in the soigary state, no matter what the time of year maybe. The relation of moisture in the timber is mainlyinfluenced by the conditions of the soil. The timber pro-duced on alluvial flats is of less dense fibre than thatof rock) hills, and is in consequence much more difficult toseason. Eucalypts grow all the year round, and are as suitablefor cutting at one season as another. The food is as active andwatef-contained practically as much in winter as in summe

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