Joe, when wood dries to fast and shrinks to quick it gets drying cracks we call checks. They will run with the grain. That is why we put some type of sealer on our stave ends, and backs ( if we remove bark) and let wood dry from the split belly. After the wood has dried some and shrunk down its safe to expose it. If you look at saw logs or even firewood that's dried without sealing the ends you can see the cracks " checks" some trees can get these even when ther still alive if the bark gets rubbed off
Bjrogg