they are harder to cut because the wood is tougher. It is also recommended to do the cutting when the moon has set, since then the wood is harder and less likely to rot. But, since the times when the fruit ripens are different for different trees, it is clear that the right moment for cutting also differs, being later for those[1] trees which fruit later. Wherefore some try to define the time for the cutting of each tree; for instance for fir and silver-fir the time is, they say, when they begin to peel[2]: for beech lime maple and zygia in autumn; for oak,[3] as has been said, when autumn is past. Some however say that the fir is ripe for cutting in spring, when it has on it the thing called 'catkin,'[4] and the pine when its 'cluster'[5] is in bloom. Thus they distinguish which trees are ripe for cutting at various times; however it is clear that in all cases the wood is better when the tree is in its prime than when it is quite young or has grown old, the wood of quite young trees being too succulent, and that of old ones too full of mineral matter.
Of the wood of silver-fir and fir.
Silver-fir and fir are the most useful trees and in the greatest variety of ways, and their[6] timber is the fairest and largest. Yet they differ from one another in many respects; the fir is fleshier and has few fibres, while the silver-fir has many fibres and is not fleshy, so that in respect of each component it is the reverse of the other, having stout fibres[7] but soft
