AMERICAN AND GERMAN SAW MILL PRACTICE. 



An anonymous writer in the German lumberman's journal 

 Der Holzmarkt, who has spent some time in our Southern 

 pineries, attempts to compare the mill practice in the two countries 

 with regard to the difference of mill output from a given log 

 supply. The question is of interest to millmen from the financial 

 point of view and to foresters, in addition, from the economic 

 point of view. The natural assumption is, and the above 

 mentioned writer at least intimates, that the German pratice is 

 less wasteful of material, but on closer examination this does not 

 seem to be the case. Following the statements of the writer, it 

 appears to be the common usage in Eastern Prussia, Russia, and 

 Poland to send pine lumber in unedged (waney) boards to the 

 market, while in America it is alwaj^s sold as square-edged 

 lumber. This makes comparisons of market conditions difficult. 

 It is evident that the Prussian usage, while apparently utilizing 

 the product more intensively, furnishes to the consumer a less 

 convenient product for handling. The cubic contents of the un- 

 edged, tapering German board are in practice determined by 

 taking the middle diameter and the depth, multiplied together 

 by the length, in which calculation equal taper at both ends is 

 assumed. The consumer who, like the furniture maker or box 

 maker, can use short lengths may utilize a larger amount of 

 material out of such a board than would have been available in 

 the square edged board of the American practice. In modern 

 American mills, to be sure, more and more of the slabs are cut 

 into marketable short stuff, so that the utilization has grown 

 from one-half of the actual log content to .somewhere near two- 

 thirds. 



Nevertheless, the writer contends, the difference in utilization 

 of log material can still be figured as 3 : 4 in favor of the German 

 practice, for, as the'reported trial sawing showed, the East Prussian 

 mill secures in top logs 71%, in butt logs, 74 to 80^0, in the 

 average, 77% of the log contents. A part of this, to be sure, be- 

 comes waste in the hands of the user. This waste finds express- 

 ion in the price paid, i.e., the consumer discounts it, so that 

 market prices of lumber in Germany and in America cannot be 

 directly compared. A lumber merchant in Western Germany 

 figures that best East Prussian waney pine lumber, which costs 



