How Site Shapes a Tree, and How to Choose Straight Timber
Tallest trees in deep dense woods; sawing timber so it will not warp; straightest poles from the north side
This leaf gathers observations on how a tree's site shapes it and on selecting timber. Two chapters state that a tree grows tallest and most uniform in a low, narrow valley within a dense wood far from its edges, while one on a high, open site far from the wood's centre grows stunted and irregular. A chapter gives a carpenter's method to keep felled timber from bending — saw the trunk lengthwise, reverse the two halves head-to-foot, and rejoin them. A final chapter advises that the straightest poles come from the tree's north side, which the sun barely reaches and so keeps its moisture still.
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Where the tallest, most uniform trees grow
A tree grows most continuous in girth and greatest in height when it is born in a low, narrow valley within a dense wood, well away from that wood's edges. By contrast a tree on a higher, sparser site far from the wood's middle grows more irregular in thickness, shorter, and harder.
Sawing timber so it will not bend
To keep a felled tree from bending from its straightness, saw it in half along its length, reverse the two halves so the foot end of each stands where the head was, then join them together again. This coupling, the text says, never bends.
The straightest poles come from a tree's north side
A pole made from the part of the tree most turned toward the north bends least and best keeps its natural straightness. This is because the sun reaches that side little and stirs its moisture little, unlike the southern side, which the sun sees all day long and where it keeps the sap in motion.