seasoning, grading, grade marking, and fini^ihing and/or surfacing. The 

 first of these is not truly a transformation because it is an activity en- 

 gag<Hl in to maintain the condition of lumber as it is received. Other 

 j)rocesscs are carried out to a limited degree but are more nearly manu- 

 facturing, and therefore are not as common to retail market outlets. As 

 will be noted, these latter processes are most prevalent where eastern 

 species make up a significant percentage of retail lumber sales. 



Storage 



Approximately 38 percent of the regional retail yards store all 

 lumber under cover, as opposed to about 5 percent who store all lumber 

 in the open (Figure 16). The remaining firms store their lumber using 

 a combination of these two methods. More than 50 j)ercent of the firms 

 in Pennsylvania and West Virginia indicate all lumber is kept under 

 cover. Only 8 percent of Maine firms and 10 percent of Massachusetts 

 firms use cover storage for all lumber marketed. This may be related to 

 geographic variability in susceptibility of wood to stain fungi and/or the 

 degree of seasoning prior to receipt of the lumber. 



FIGURE 16. PERCENT OF ALL YARDS STORING LUMBER. 



Significant dilferences exist in lumber storage according to dollar 

 sales volume classes. In general, larger firms store relatively more lumber 

 in the open than do smaller firms. About 45 percent of the smaller retail 

 yards store all lumber under cover, whereas, in contrast, only 23 percent 

 of tilt; largest yards store all lumber in this manner. Lack of covered 

 storage for a higher proportion of lumber in large yards may be ac- 

 counted for by size of inventories, high cost of providing sheds for all 

 himlter storage, and also the lack of need for storing some types of 

 lumber under cover. 



24 



