This section is from the book "The Gardener's Monthly And Horticulturist V25", by Thomas Meehan. See also: Four-Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables from Your Home Garden All Year Long.
By Dr. J. T. Rothrock, of the University of Pennsylvania.
This paper has been issued from the regular proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. One of the most important facts here deduced is that the more rapid the growth the better the timber in the same species. We have presented this point several times as regards fast growing species. The facts show that the old belief, that slow growing trees made better timber than fast growing trees, was not the rule. It is, in fact, chiefly from a consideration of willows and poplars alone that the belief originated. Now Dr. Rothrock shows that it is not even true in the same species. He first explains why timber is good or bad. "The difference in the quality of the wood is obviously in the relative predominance of solid woody fibre in the good as compared with ducts in the bad." And he then contends : " For white oak we may contend, other things being equal, the specimen of oak timber with the larger year's growth is the better."
 
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