218 SELLING LUMBER 



lumber or not and remember that the man who finds a new 

 use for Yellow Pine and broadens his market is the fellow who is 

 best covering his territory. 



Decay of Yellow Pine Lum- 

 ber and Methods for Pre- 

 venting Same , 



By Dr. Hermann von Schrenk 



Consulting Engineer, Southern Pine Association 



St. Louis, Mo. 



The great majority of living yellow pine trees are usually 

 free from destructive diseases so far as the trunk from which lum- 

 ber is cut is concerned. As the yellow pine tree approaches ma- 

 turity and beyond an age of 70 years or more, some trees are 

 attacked by one or more diseases which result in the decay of the 

 heart wood. These types of decay are usually called "heart rot," 

 and are due to various low forms of plant life called fungi, the 

 fruiting bodies of which manifest themselves either on the trunks 

 of the trees in the form of punk or toad stools, or on the roots 

 in sheets formed underground, or as toad stools growing out of the 

 ground from the root system. The sapwood of the living tree is 

 always sound. 



There are two defects in the yellow pine tree which are met 

 with now and then in the finished lumber. The principal one is 

 known by various terms, such as heart rot, speckled rot, dote, etc., 

 Tree R t ^ e otner ls butt rot. The heart rot always starts in the top of 

 That Shows the tree in the heartwood, and is recognized by the red discolora- 

 t * on ^ ^ e wo d- ^ n ^ ts ear ty stages the wood is somewhat dis- 

 colored, but is otherwise sound. In the later stages small holes 

 appear, which in the last stages are fringed with white wood fibers 

 which have given the disease in its advanced stage the name of 

 speckled rot. 



The butt rots are several in number, but in all cases the de- 

 fects can be recognized by the fact that the wood has turned into 

 a dark, charcoal-like mass, which can easily be turned into powder 



