Many of the teachers of manual training may have to buy timber, and a knowledge of the trade terms of shape and measurement will be very useful, and probably do much to prevent the supply of timber under a false name.

Timber when first felled, with the bark still on, is called 'log.' English logs are generally at once converted into half logs, and when seasoned are cut into boards of whatever size the tree may yield.

English timber is usually found, consequently, with a portion of the bark on the outside of the sapwood showing at one or both edges of the plank.

Foreign timber is usually roughly squared into baulks, except in the case of the conifers, of which a large amount of timber is imported ready cut up into boards.

The squaring deprives the timber of its useless sapwood, and foreign timber of the hard or leaf wood kind, at any rate, is usually found good up to the edges of the planks; generally, however, at the rounded or 'waney' corner of the baulk the sapwood is left, and 'waney' timber should not, therefore, be accepted as first quality.

Hard or leaf woods suitable for manual instruction are generally sold by the square foot in plank, and in ordering these woods the number of feet 'super,' and the thickness of the timber required should be given.

The Northern Pine, or, as it is usually called by timber merchants and others, 'Yellow Deal,' is very largely imported in ready-sawn boards of various handy sizes.

If 11 ins. or more in width these boards are called planks. Those of 9 ins. wide, and 2 ins. to 4 ins. in thickness, are known as whole deals, and are usually 12 ft. long. When 2 ins. or less in thickness they are called cut deals. If a 3-in. deal is cut into six, the thin boards obtained are called 5-cut deals. These will be sold as 1/2-in. boards, but this dimension is not real, as the saw waste has to come out of the measurement.

We have accordingly 3-cut, 4-cut, and even 12-cut deals, though these, being only about 1/8 in. thick, are very rarely seen, except in certain trades. Boards of 7 ins. wide and less are called battens.

Deals or battens cut in the width into narrower boards are called quarterings; very small pieces of this kind are called laths, quarterings and laths being usually bought by the 100-ft. 'run.'

The classification of timbers in such a manner as to make them readily recognisable, is a matter on which much difference of opinion exists among various authorities, but the easiest and most readily appreciated is the usual trade classification into -

I. Conifers, and II. broad-leaf woods. - These two classes may be again subdivided, as shown in the following table: -

This classification, though perhaps not the most complete, will be found in the main a satisfactory guide, but the fact that all degrees of distinction exist makes it very difficult to always allot any wood to a particular class.

The detailed descriptions of certain woods which may be included in a course of manual instruction will prove, it is hoped, useful, but no description can ever fully convey an impression of the properties of the different timbers. Every opportunity for inspection and working in any new timber should be seized by the teacher, and a museum of specimens will be found invaluable.

It is difficult to formulate the general characteristics of timber, when the particular species vary so very much in size, colour, and density.

The following few general rules may be, however, accepted as fairly accurate in most cases :

I. Lustrous colour and a bright sheen in a varying degree, according to the kind of wood, are an indication of good quality; and a dull colour is generally indicative of inferiority.

II. Provided the colour is even and bright, the darker the tint the better; thus dark-coloured oak is better than light.

III. Sapwood, except that of elm, is inferior to the heart-wood.