Liquid permeabilities of red oak and several softwoods were measured by the pressure bomb method and a modified liquid permeability method in order to investigate their efficacy. The effect of preboiling and prefreezing on wood permeability were also examined for both green and resaturated specimens. Regardless of some disadvantages these two methods were revealed as a handy tool for quick evaluation of the permeability of an unknown species. The permeabilities of the resaturated specimens increased when preboiled. but decreased when prefrozen. For green specimens, however, pre freezing increased permeability. The discrepancy of the pre freezing effect on two specimens partially attributes to their difference of initial permeabilities. For all species except radiata pine heartwood, the radii of the effective capillary pores, derived from the water potential equation, distribute from $0.42{mu}m$ to $7.2{mu}m$. Those of radiata pine heartwood are below $0.46{mu}m$.