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Sep. 27 1804
My dear Sir
In my last Letter I informed you that I proposed making some Experiments to ascertain the specific Gravity of oak-wood cut at different seasons of the Year, & that I had in my possession boles of 26 years growth taken from the same stands in a Coppice, one part of which were cut on the 31st of Decr 1803, & the other on the 15 of May following, when the Buds had expanded, & the young Leaves were nearly half-grown. I expected, as I mentioned in a former Letter, that I should find the greatest specific Gravity in the winter-felled wood, because I supposed it to contain a portion of the sap of the preceding year, in a concrete state; & that such sap would be dissolved by the aqueous fluid ascending from the Roots, in that spring, & would thus afford matter for the new Leaves, & to feed the Blossoms. The experiments I made in the Spring on the ascending sap of the Birch & Sycamore were in favour of this sap position; & those which I have now to relate appear more strongly to support it.
In the beginning of August I cut off from two boles, one of which had been felled in December & the other in May, two pieces of wood, about one foot long, which I deprived of their Bark, & placed in a