A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 1377 



side is machined as the face for painting. As practical ways can be 

 worked out for taking into account the peculiarities of wood as they 

 come to light, the aggregate effect in satisfaction to the user will be 

 distinctly beneficial. 



LOG GRADING 



Preparatory processes and conversion largely determine the degree 

 of consumer satisfaction, but the log supply is of primary importance 

 in production costs. To put different classes of logs into the product 

 to which they are best suited and to exclude unprofitable logs are 

 basic to low production costs. The logs coming from any forest vary 

 greatly in size and freedom from defect. Judgment alone has been 

 the basis of the sorting process to date, but it has not been sufficiently 

 accurate to prevent large losses to manufacturers attempting to use 

 unsuitable material. Rules of thumb can hardly be expected to 

 show whether veneer, lumber, dimension, piling, or pulp is the product 

 into which a given quality of log should go to net the largest return. 

 The little amount of systematic study that has been given to this 

 subject has shown that attractive prices for veneer logs, for example, 

 have encouraged millmen to sell their best logs for that purpose, not 

 realizing that the extra yield of high-grade lumber from those same 

 logs would often net more than is obtained for them as veneer logs. 

 As the production of diversified products becomes more common, it 

 is particularly important to have a basis for sorting the raw material 

 according to the product. 



The need for the development and commercial adoption of log 

 grades is becoming more urgent as time passes not only for lumber 

 but for pulp and dimension, veneer, and other products cut from logs. 

 The increasingly important part played by logs cut by farmers for 

 sale to lumber, pulp, and other mills emphasizes the need for log 

 grades. In the case of pulpwood, grading on the basis of weight 

 rather than volume is a fertile field for improvement. 



Rough log grades have been in use for some time, notably in the 

 Douglas fir region, where logs are bought and sold on the open 

 market. Preliminary investigative work has been done to improve 

 these grades, as well as to develop log grades for southern hardwoods, 

 but no really systematic program has as yet been undertaken in any 

 case. 



Closely allied to the grading of logs is their protection against 

 deterioration from discoloring and decay fungi. Under poor con- 

 ditions of storage and handling that frequently exist, injury occurs 

 which may continue undetected into the finished product. While the 

 immediate conversion of logs into lumber offers the surest way of 

 avoiding deterioration, storage of logs in the woods or at the mill is 

 common practice. Storage of logs in water or rapid seasoning by 

 piling on high skids has been used with varying degrees of success in 

 attempting to avoid fungus attack. The need for developing more 

 effective methods of control was apparent, in the Gulf States region 

 particularly, from a recent survey in which more than 50 percent of 

 the mills visited had from 5 to 50 percent of their logs infected at the 

 time of sawing. Recent tests of antiseptic sprays and end coating 

 materials offer promise of yielding treatments that will combine 

 fungicide with insect-repellant properties and will be commercially 

 practical. 



