Making My Own Drift Wood

[leoak]

I've read a few post on making drift wood and rocks safe for your aquarium so I'm going to give it a try. I live in a farming area with pleanty of lakes and streams. Some of the areas here are like miniature swamps. I was thinking of collecting some of the wood near the watery areas, but what I'm worried about is that the wood will have fertilizers and pesticies from farming. It doesn't seem to affect the fish and animals in the lakes, but I would think the fish have grown in and adapted to the water conditions. I know you have to boil the wood and soak it, but is there anything else anyone would recomend? Also, does it matter what kind of wood? There are mainly oak, pine and maple trees around here.