46 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



What it seeks to do is to uniformly bring together the work of 

 the lumber manufacturing industry of the United States. The 

 organization is, say, six or seven years old. It was effected soon 

 after the reciprocity negotiations with Canada, when the lumber- 

 men of the United States were called upon, without exception, to 

 give Canada out of their own pockets all she wanted in return 

 for whatever Canada might be willing, under the circumstances, 

 to give to us. 



Ihe National meeting this year will be held April I'Jtli or 20th in 

 New Orleans, and we hope that your delegation will not only be 

 posted, but that they will be there. What liave we done? Not a 

 great deal, perhaps very little, in fact, in proportion to the work to 

 be done. \S'e adopted the short lengths matter; we adopted the 

 resolution to support tlie wooden package as against the fibre or 

 paper package. We have taken up the subject of car stakes, because 

 the oar is one of the means or instrumentalities of transportation, 

 and we did do something on the tarifl' matter. We sent a delegation 

 ti5 Washington a year ago. We lost in part, but we saved some- 

 thing. Right there arises the question which is of vital interest to 

 all of you. I presume that a great many of you would say that 

 you were not interested in the matter of trust discussion; you know 

 you are not a trust, individually or collectively; you know there 

 is not a lumber trust which governs the lumber industry in the 

 United States, and j'ou say you are not interested in it — it does 

 not concern you. The people of the United States believe that there 

 is a trust; you stand not only charged with a crime, but you are 

 convicted of a crime. 



Mr. Bronson then discussed solution of the trust question and 

 tlie adoption of uniform prices. 



rir. Von Si-hrenk then s]ioke as fullnws: 



Some Problems in the Manufacture of Hardwood Lumber 



The subject, which I have chosen to speak about to-day, I have 

 entitled "Some Problems in the Manufacture of Hardwood Lumber. " 

 I believe this to be a particularly opportune time for the hard- 

 wood lumber manufacturers to investigate in a more tliorough way 

 than has ever Ijeen done before what they can do towards improving 

 the quality of the product being turned out by the mills. These 

 are days in which all are very much interested in the conserva- 

 tion of' the timber supply. The phase of conservation, which is of 

 most immediate importance to the hardwood lumber manufacturer, 

 deals with the question as to how he, individually, can conserve his 

 supply and at the same time keep his plant running and manu- 

 facture lumber sufKcient in quality and quantity to produce a fair 

 return on his investment at the end of the ycjir. As I have stated 

 to this organization before, I am of tlie opinion that, with the quality 

 of the logs becoming poorer in many parts, and with the quantity 

 available decreasing materially, the only way to increase the returns 

 from any particular operation will depend upon increasing the 

 quality of the lumber turned out. 



The points to which I wish to call your attention to-day deal 

 with some of the smaller economies in the manufacture of lumber. 

 I regret to state that for many of the problems to which I shall 

 refer I can give no dehnite solution at the present time. My 

 main object in presenting them to vou is to jjoint out some possible 

 lines of investigation. All of them, I am sure, will be recognized 

 by you as of immediate importance. Such suggestions as may be 

 made should be considered tentative, and their application subject 

 to local conditions, that is — none of them should be taken as 

 universally applicable. The term "hardwood lumber" includes a 

 great many dill'erent kinds of wood, and what is true of one will 

 not necessarily apply to another. 



The first point which should be considered is that w'e are now 

 manufacturing a class of timber into lumber, whose physical and 

 chemical qualities are too little appreciated by most of us, because, 

 in the first place, the timbers are new, and in the second place, 

 the relation of the physical and chemical qualities of the wood when 

 in the tree to the manufacturing processes to which the wood is 

 subjected, is but very little understood as yet. The manufacture of 

 boards involves tlie getting of as perfect a log as possible to the 

 sawmill and careful and proper preparation of the lumber from 

 the time it leaves the saw until it is ready to market. I dare 

 say that few appreciate even the amount of lumber that is lost 

 or degraded because of defects which get into the boards after the 

 tree is cut. Such losses may have been negligible heretofore. It 

 has been my contention all along of late years that these losses 

 were appreciable enough to warrant considerable attention being 

 given to the causes, and that the money expended in preventing 

 such losses would be many times repaid by the superior quality 

 of the material turned out. 



Let me now refer to several specific questions: 



1. Sap-rot of Logs: One of the difficulties with timbers like 

 red gum and Cottonwood is the sap-rot which occurs after the 

 trees are cut and before they can be gotten into the mill. Every 

 j'ear I see thousands and thousands of logs in the woods more or 

 less affected with this peculiar defect. Sap-rot, briefly stated, is 

 caused by a low form of plant life which we call a fungus, the 

 seeds or spores of wliich spread over the ends of the freshly cut 



logs or in the cracks or breaks which form as the logs start to 

 dry. The freshly cut log is full of starch and sugar and the fungus 

 tinds abundant material for rapid development. The effects manifest 

 themselves in discoloration or black lines, which appear in the sap- 

 wood to a greater or less degree. This discoloration is followed 

 Ijy a change in the wood fibre whicli ultimately becomes more or 

 less punky or decayed. Enough is known of the life history of the 

 fungi which causes sap-rot to enable me to state that their process 

 and growth in the log can usually be prevented to a very large 

 extent. One must be fully conscious of the fact that these spores are 

 in the woods, where the logs are cut, in countless millions, and 

 they are certain to attack every log of the particular kind of wood 

 upon which they are fitted to grow, with perfectly certain results. 

 Affected logs, when they reach the mill, will make a poorer grade 

 of lumber than freshly cut logs. During a recent visit to several 

 southern hardwood mills I was appalled at the quantity of lumber 

 which was cut off at the trimming table entirely because of the 

 sap-rot defect. The main point of interest is — What can be done 

 about it? Some years ago I recommended jjainting with creosote 

 the ends of freshly cut logs which might be liable to sap-rot. An- 

 other possible method for preventing sap-rot (which at the same 

 time is very efiective against the attacks of timber-boring insects) 

 is to bark the logs immediately or shortly after they are cut. 

 Another effective method consists in arranging the logs, where they 

 are to be floated, in some way so that the air will have plenty 

 of opportunity to circulate around them. The close piling of logs 

 will be the surest way to keep the water in them and bring about 

 an ideal condition for the development of the sap-rot fungus. Not 

 only is care necessary in the handling of logs in the woods, but 

 the same is true at the sawmill. I know of numerous instances 

 wliere the manufacturer brings gum logs, or timber of a similar 

 character, to the mill and dumps them in promiscuous piles. One 

 of the finest e.vhibitions of sap-rot I ever saw was in one of 

 these piles. While the logs are being conveyed to the mill just 

 as much care should be given them as after they are sawed. 



In this connection, I was particularly interested in a scheme for 

 handling logs, a brief account of which was recently published in 

 Hakdwood Kecohd. At one of the Michigan mills, the manufacturer 

 has set aside a part of his yard for piling logs with skids between 

 each layer, decking tliese logs in such a way that an adequate air 

 passage is obtained between each and every log. A cableway sus- 

 pended between two tall towers, is constructed in such a way that 

 it lies parallel to the railroad track over wdiich the logs are de- 

 livered to the mill. The logs are piled on the ground and are left 

 in this maimer until ready for sawing. I am indebted to Mr. 

 Wells, manager of the mill, for information showing the cost of 

 handling such logs, which he advhses is about 35 cents per thousand. 

 The main erection cost them about $4,000. He says that it has 

 been very satisfactory, very easy o keep in repair and very easy 

 to operate. I am indebted to Haruwood Record for the pictures 

 of this hardw'ood operation, which are shown you herewith. The 

 piling of logs has the additional efl'ect of drying them to a very 

 considerable extent which means much less difficulty in the sub- 

 sequent manufacturing operations. 



II. The next point, which I believe to be of considerable import- 

 ance, is the question of sap-stain. During the last year or so, we 

 have heard a great deal about this subject. A good many manu- 

 facturers have put up an apparatus for the chemical treatment of 

 their sap grades to prevent stain. Some have succeeded fairly well, 

 while others have failed. The results are not surprising, because 

 most of the operators followed some general recommendation with- 

 out any very definite knowledge as to what they were trying to 

 do. I want to point out that the process for preventing sap-stain 

 is strictly a timber preserving process, and requires definite technical 

 knowledge of every step in the proceedings. When we actually come 

 down to it, we know very little as yet about what it is that causes 

 the prevention of sap-stain. It will require much additional pains- 

 taking, technical investigation before the best method for sap- 

 stain jjrevention can be recommended. 



In view of the general importance of this subject, I may be par- 

 doned for briefly describing this stain, and presenting some of the 

 questions which require further investigation. Sap-stain is caused 

 by one of the lower fungi, which differs from one of the sap-jot 

 producing fungi in that it does not affect the wood structure. In 

 other words, sap-stained lumber is as strong and as good for all 

 practical purposes as unstained lumber. All that the sap-stain 

 fungus does is to get into the cells of the wood, particularly the 

 pith rays where it lives on the starches and sugars contained in 

 the pith rays. We all know that the fungus starts with lightning 

 rapidity in freshly sawed lumber and that the damage is done 

 in a very short time. Please to note my emphasis on "freshly" 

 sawed lumber. I, together with many others, have believed for 

 many years that the first condition necessary for the development 

 of the blue stain fungus was a very large quantity of water on 

 the surface of the board. We also believed that a certain percentage 

 of acid on the surface of the board was necessary. Our investigations 

 during the last year have shown some curious relations between 

 the stain fungus and the water and air content of the board. As 



