SELLING LUMBER 



The Condi- 

 tions That 

 Promote 

 Development 

 of Fungi 



An Example 

 of Misuse. 



en the wood for structural purposes. That was very exhaustively 

 tested by the United States government laborato^' and in Ger- 

 many. Blue stain, therefore, is simply a question of appearance; 

 it has nothing to do with strength. Furthermore, it occurs always 

 in the sap wood, and never in heart, and therefore is always a 

 good criterion as to what constitutes heart wood and what con- 

 stitutes sap wood. The modern mill man has taken steps to pre- 

 vent blue stain by dipping, the dipping consisting of immersing 

 the board at the end of the sorting table in various chemicals, su- 

 dium, carbonate or baking soda and various other chemicals, the 

 cost of which runs within about 10 or 11 cents per thousand feet, 

 board measure, according to the cost of the chemicals employed. 

 That method is very effective, does not harm the lumber, and does 

 not increase or decrease the strength of the material from a struc- 

 tural standpoint, and is in every way a very desirable proceeding. 



The fungi which grow in cut lumber do so because of certain 

 physical and chemical conditions. Those conditions are identical 

 with, the conditions of other life; they must have a certain food 

 supply, a certain water supply, a certain amount of air supply and 

 a certain amount of heat. Given those four conditions, the fun- 

 gus will grow, and sooner or later cause decay. Now, one of the 

 simplest methods of preventing that decay is to disturb those con- 

 ditions ; either keep the timber thoroughly dry I would be glad 

 to show you a section of wood which I took some years ago in 

 Switzerland, which had been on a cottage 700 years. In the same 

 way, if you keep it under water it will never rot. The piling of 

 the prehistoric lake dwellers, in Lake Geneva, Switzerland, is just 

 as hard today as it was then; and in the Campanile, which fell 

 down several years ago in Venice, the piling had been continuously 

 under water. An examination of those timbers was made and it 

 was unanimously decided that they would serve the purpose of 

 building a new foundation. So, either keep lumber wholly wet or 

 wholly dry, and it will not decay. 



Now, how does that apply to you? There are a thousand and 

 one ways in which Mrs. Brown and Mrs. Jones uses lumber like 

 yellow pine lumber and has it fail, when, if they keep in view cer- 

 tain simple facts it would last and be well adapted for their pur- 

 pose. 



Not very long ago I was walking through the street and I 

 saw a man pulling down his front porch, built of short leaf pine. 



