Not so many people go in now for log fires, either in open fireplaces or in stoves. One wise user of logs says that he orders beech in autumn for use 12 months hence. For, no matter how eloquent the seller is, in general the bluer the wood, the better is the fire. There are those who say that they have read somewhere (perhaps here) that ash can be used almost when cut. The answer to that is yes and no, mostly no. There is an old rhyming formula for all this:
Oak logs will warm you well
If they're old and dry.
Larch logs of pinewood smell
But the sparks will fly.
Beech logs for Christmas time,
Yew logs heat well.
Scotch logs it is a crime
For anyone to sell,
Birch logs will burn too fast,
Chestnut scarce at all.
Hawthorn logs are good to last
If you cut them in the fall.
Of course, not everyone can be so choosy. The venders of logs are not often the growers. But the rhyme goes on to more pleasant examples.
Pear logs and apple logs
They will scent your room.
Cherry logs across the dogs
Smell like flowers in bloom.
And then it finishes with praise of ash logs which, in experience, is somewhat exaggerated:
But ASH logs, all smooth and grey,
Burn them green or old,
Buy up all that come your way,
They're worth their weight in gold.
The book from which this was taken says "author not known - largely traditional verse". But it is also claimed that it was written during the 1926 coal strike in Britain. Y