THE WAR AGAINST WOOD WASTE 209 



But not all of our forest waste is to be found in the lumber 

 mill in fact, only a small part. Fire we have already called 

 the greatest waster of all. Each year fire reduces to smoke and 

 ashes enough wood to have built thousands of homes. Without 

 doubt fires have destroyed far more timber since the settlement 

 of this country than men have used. Tree killing insects cause 

 tremendous waste of wood. Our ignorance of the values of 

 woods for certain purposes is another source of waste. We have 

 wasted millions of feet of hickory because we believed that the 

 red heartwood was inferior to the white sapwood. Actually 

 they are equally serviceable. To use perishable species for poles 

 or fenceposts or weak species when strength is required this, 

 too, means waste. But there is still another kind of waste that 

 goes on day and night before our eyes. It is not as spectacular 

 as forest fires. It is not so easily controlled and corrected as the 

 waste of industry, but it is responsible for nearly two-thirds of 

 all the destruction of lumber in the land. It is decay. 



Of course decay is the ultimate end of all living organisms. 

 We can do little to prevent it, but in the case of wood especially 

 we can delay it for many years. When wood is in contact with 

 the ground, as it is in fence posts, poles, railroad ties, or when 

 it is exposed to the air, as in boardwalks or buildings, decay 

 sooner or later enters. Decay in wood is the result of various 

 kinds of fungus growth that attack the substance of the wood 

 cells and break them down, destroying the strength of the 

 wood and rendering it useless. 



Some woods are easily susceptible to the entrance of fungi 

 and are completely destroyed within a few years. Others re- 

 sist the entrance of this destructive enemy for great periods of 

 time. 



