Wood and other organic structural materials by Snow Charles H. (Charles Henry) b. 1863

Author:Snow, Charles H. (Charles Henry), b. 1863
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Wood
Publisher: New York : McGraw-Hill book company, inc.; [etc., etc.]
Published: 1917-03-25T05:00:00+00:00

FAILURE DUE TO DECAY. FUNGOUS DISEASES.—Trees in the forests, and woods waiting to be used, or already in constructions, are susceptible to diseases that cause losses so serious as to constitute one of the greatest drains upon the timber resources of the world.

All wood, whether employed in railroad ties, telegraph poles, bridge, mine or house timbers, are susceptible to the same or similar diseases. Wooden warships once suffered more from them than from the guns of the enemy. It is said that wooden ships have failed after seven or eight years of service. Selection, seasoning, and the attention paid to protection makes it possible for woods to last longer at the present time; yet even now woods exposed to the weather endure for a comparatively short time, while the premature failure of beams in protected places is not uncommon.

Many names refer to practically the same causes of deterioration in wood. Wet-rot, dry-rot, disease, decay, mildew, soft-rot, canker, bluing, rust, bot, dote, mould, and other terms are thus employed. The results indicated by all of these names are due to the presence of bacteria or fungi.

Fungi.— These non-seedbearing plants differ from ferns and mosses, which are also non-seedbearing plants, in that the latter require light and contain the green substance chlorophyll which serves in the preparation of plant food; whereas the former, that is fungi, are without chlorophyll and do not require light. Fungi cannot draw their food from air and soil like ordinary plants and must therefore attach themselves to appropriate substances from which they can draw their food. Fungi are destructive rather than constructive and in this respect resemble animals rather than plants.

REFERENCES. —"Outlines of Botany," Leavitt; "Fungous Diseases of Plants," Duggar; "Diseases of Economic Plants," Stevens and Hall; "Flowerless Plants," Bennett (Gurney & Jackson, London); "Fungous Diseases of our Forest Trees," Halstead (3rd Annual Report Penn. Dept. of Agriculture); "Diseases of Trees," Hartig; "Diseases of Plants Induced by Cryptogamic Parasites," Tubeuf and Smith; "Studies of Some Shade Tree and Timber Destroying Fungi," Atkinson (Cornell Exper. Sta. Bulletin No. 193); Bulletins American Railway Engineering Association; "The Discovery of Cancer in Plants" (The National Geographic Magazine, Vol. XXIV, No. 1, 1913); etc.

PLATE V. FUNGOUS DISEASES OF WOOD

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