In general, however, it may be said that where strength or ease of working is essential, woods of moderate to slow growth should be chosen.

But in choosing a particular specimen it is not the width of ring, but the proportion and character of the late wood which should govern.
In the case of the ring-porous hardwoods there seems to exist a pretty definite relation between the rate of growth of timber and its properties.

This may be briefly summed up in the general statement that the more rapid the growth or the wider the rings of growth, the heavier, harder, stronger, and stiffer the wood.
This, it must be remembered, applies only to ring-porous woods such as oak, ash, hickory, and others of the same group, and is, of course, subject to some exceptions and limitations.
In ring-porous woods of good growth it is usually the middle portion of the ring in which the thick-walled, strength-giving fibres are most abundant.

As the breadth of ring diminishes, this middle portion is reduced so that very slow growth produces comparatively light, porous wood composed of thin-walled vessels and wood parenchyma.

In good oak these large vessels of the early wood occupy from 6 to 10 per cent of the volume of the log, while in inferior material they may make up 25 per cent or more.