Heres a pretty good tutorial on seasoning wood

http://m.wikihow.com/Season-Firewood

One part of the article: " Wood such as shagbark hickory, cherry and black locust will gain little benefit from air drying, as they have low moisture content."... That is interesting.

I've burnt black locust (in the past) in the green. Split and stacked one week, in the stove the next, and it burnt OK. But, no matter what the experts tell ya, if you season ANY wood (be it oak or locust or hickory), it's gonna burn better.....

Time tested and proven.......

Interesting but wrong.

exactly. You aren't going to be able to do that with hickory, I can guarantee that. But, before learning the benefits of seasoning, I did burn locust right "out of the box". I would never do that now.........

Me too....Done fine and even better 6 months later but it is what it is!

Among other gems the tutorial answers the question of whether to stack bark up or bark down - the answer is bark down!

BackwoodSavage has less BTU in his wood

"Importantly, there isn't any point seasoning wood longer than it needs to be. Over-dried wood will have less energy as volatile esters in the wood evaporate. These waxy substances contain a great deal of heat energy, so it is a mistake to think that longer is necessarily better."

That's a new one for me. Old dry wood just stacked there looses BTUs.
Be nice to know how long is to long.
Makes me wonder if covering it (top & sides) after 2 - 3 years would slow the evaporation of the volatile esters.

That makes getting more than 2 - 3 years ahead less energy efficient.

"though 16 inches (40cm) is the correct length for a face cord and will fit better in smaller stoves."
Some old school terminology there.
"Also, check for radial cracks at the ends of the wood, which indicate dryness."
Uh, no. I split and stacked some fresh cut Maple a couple days ago that now has radial checking. No way in He-double hockey sticks that wood is even close to dry.
Same for the white Oak I just cut up. Again....uh, no.
"Burn a piece on a roaring fire base. If three of the sides begin to burn within 15 minutes, the fuel is dry."
Well, maybe dry enough to burn...sorta, but mine will start burning in less than a minute. That's dry.

I'll stop.

I take it that you will no be adopting 100% of this method for seasoning your wood. LOL
I agree, in a hot fire for 15 minutes, almost any wood would start burning on 3 sides.

I drink a bottle of volityle esters every morning.

Yup. Interesting but still some baloney mixed in. I like that he says to top cover but shows a stack of wood all covered...

My wood has less btu OMG! Whatever will I do?

"I like that he says to top cover but shows a stack of wood all covered..."
I almost put that in my post, but thought it was getting a bit out of hand, so I stopped.
This is the kind of half baked stuff that causes problems for people trying to learn. See what I did there?