In some woods it is very light, while in others it is easily perceptible. It is claimed that the average end shrinkage, taking all the woods, is only about 1-1/2 per cent. This, however, probably has relation to the average shrinkage on ordinary lumber as it is used and cut and dried. Now if we depart from this and take veneer, or basket stock, or even stave bolts where they are boiled, causing swelling both end-wise and across the grain or in dimension, after they are thoroughly dried, there is considerably more evidence of end shrinkage. In other words, a slack barrel stave of elm, say, 28 or 30 inches in length, after being boiled might shrink as much in thoroughly drying-out as compared to its length when freshly cut, as a 12-foot elm board. It is in cutting veneer that this end shrinkage becomes most readily apparent. In trimming with scoring knives it is done to exact measure, and where stock is cut to fit some specific place there has been observed a shrinkage on some of the softer woods, like cottonwood, amounting to fully 1/8 of an inch in 36 inches. And at times where drying has been thorough the writer has noted a shrinkage of 1/8 of an inch on an ordinary elm cabbage-crate strip 36 inches long, sawed from the log without boiling. There are really no fixed rules of measurement or allowance, however, because the same piece of wood may vary under different conditions, and, again, the grain may cross a little or wind around the tree, and this of itself has a decided effect on the amount of what is termed "end shrinkage." There is more checking in the wood of the broad-leaf (hardwood) trees than in that of the coniferous (softwood) trees, more in sapwood than in heartwood, and more in summer-wood than in spring-wood. Inasmuch as under normal conditions of weather, water evaporates less rapidly during the early seasoning of winter, wood that is cut in the autumn and early winter is considered less subject to checking than that which is cut in spring and summer. Rapid seasoning, except after wood has been thoroughly soaked or steamed, almost invariably results in more or less serious checking. All hardwoods which check or warp badly during the seasoning should be reduced to the smallest practicable size before drying to avoid the injuries involved in this process, and wood once seasoned _should never again be exposed to the weather_, since all injuries due to seasoning are thereby aggravated. Seasoning increases the strength of wood in every respect, and it is therefore of great importance to protect the wood against moisture. Changes rendering Drying difficult