EMPIRE TIMBER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22101, 3 November 1933, Page 16

EMPIRE TIMBER

RESISTANCE TO DRY ROT ORGANISING ENGLISH INTERESTS. - (From Our Own Cor uesi*ondent.) LONDON, September 29. Experiments carried on at Princes Riaborough have revealed the existence of two Empire timbers capable of offering a stout resistance to dry rot. The matter is referred to in the annual report of the Forest Products Research Board for 1932. Comparative tests were made in the experimental building constructed for the investigation of wood-destroying fungi and beetles. Alternate boards were removed from the floor of a room when fungus was in active growth and were replaced by boards of western red cedar and of western hemlock. After nine months there were slight signs of attack upon the hemlock, but the red cedar boards were completely free from fungus. Experiments also demonstrated, the report states, that good ventilation will prevent the outbreak of dry rot even if infection be present. It does not mean that a well-established attack can be checked by ventilation alone, but that an outbreak will not originate in a wellventilated floor.

During the year 25,000 mechanical tests and 30,700 physical tests and other determinations on timber specimens were made at the Forest Products. Research Laboratory. The increase in the output from the testing laboratory is stated to have been due largely to increased work for the Empire. The information derived from the testa is of particular value in connection with the Empire timbers now being introduced, since the comparison between the properties of new timbers and timbers already in use, made possible by such data, enables potential uses and markets for the new timbers to be readily ascertained. ATTACK BY BEETLES. . Over 300 inquiries received at the laboratory referred to damage of timber by attack by beetles. The majority of these related to damage by death-watch, furniture, and powder-pest beetles. The report again refers to the difficulty of obtaining live specimens of death-watch beetles for experimental work. This has been partially overcome by obtaining two willow; trees known to contain the living insects and replanting them in the grounds of the ...laboratory. A series of experiments has been carried out to determine the duration of the incubation period of the egg of the beetle under controlled conditions of temperature and humidity. The results show that an increase in temperature, within certain limits, results in a marked reduction of the incubation period and thereby hastens the rate of development of the insect. This information is of particular interest in relation to the progress of attack of death-watch beetle in the roofs of heated buildings.. Further work has been carried out on kiln sterilisation processes for the treatment of timber attack by the Lyctus powder-pest beetles. A variety new to this country has been detected in imported Japanese oak, and there is a real danger, the report states, that this new variety may become established in timber yards and manufacturers’ premises in this country. The report notes with satisfaction the Increasing commercial interest displayed In Empire timbers, which is attributed partly to a genuine desire on the part of consumers to utilise Empire products more extensively and partly to the policy of colonial Governments in developing their forest resources more intensively. HOME-GROWN TIMBERS. An organisation designed to further the interests of Hampshire-grown timber was set up (is a result of a .meeting held at Winchester Castle, under the chairmanship of Lord Mottistone, Lord Lieutenant of the county. The meeting was attended by large numbers of landowners and agents, architects, builders, and timber merchants. A committee, under the chairmanship of Lord Manners, was appointed to create the necessary machinery, the membership including representatives of the Central Landowners’ Association, the Royal English Forestry Society, the Surveyors’ Institution, the Land Agents’ Society, and the timber merchants. ANCIENT ENGLISH TIMBER.

Lord Mottistone referred to the “ vicious circle ” which now existed, in ‘which the potential consumer complained that he could not obtain properly graded British timber, and "the landowner complained that he could not grow gradgd timber because there was no market. Co-operation between the two sides was, he declared, essential to break this circle. There could be no question of the suitability of British wood. The country’s old buildings were sufficient testimonial. “My house, Mottistone Manor,” he said, “ was completed nearly 400 years ago. Some of the beams are dated 1491. The newest beam in the church is dated 1643. They are all as good ns the day they were put in.”

Parts of his estate were leased to the Forestry Commissioners, and derelict hills were now incipient forests, and the're was no unemployment in the countryside. All this showed that a market for timber existed with proper organisation, and the country itself would benefit together with the individual landowner. *

Sir George Courthope said that the softwood resources of the world were being rapidly exhausted. Only two countries, Finland and Sweden, were keeping their annual output within their growth. To increase Britain’s forest stocks was an urgent necessity, for the pinch would come shortly when the world stocks bad dwindled. The price depressed by Russian exports could not last, for Russia was rapidly denuding her accessible forest land.