Heard you should get the largest lumber you can get and rip it down. Like get 2 x 12's and rip down to 2 x 4's.
Makes sense that the larger cross-sectional lumber needs to come from a larger cross-sectional tree with few defects. The crap-wood they can turn into 2x4, 2x3....
I did the above to create a nice workbench with few knots. It helped of course that the lumber I ripped was glued up to make the butcher-block-style top, the uprights and cross braces also doubled, tripled up.
Makes sense that the larger cross-sectional lumber needs to come from a larger cross-sectional tree with few defects. The crap-wood they can turn into 2x4, 2x3....