DISPOSAL OF FIRE-KILLED TIMBER 733 



made and that good sound common sense is at the back of these require- 

 ments, the criticism has largely ceased. 



In addition to securing a closer utilization in logging, there is a constant 

 effort to promote a closer utilization of the finished product, with a corre- 

 sponding decrease in waste. Nearly all of the sawmills are cutting the best 

 slabs into S-foot lengths and are shipping them to the coal mines for "grain 

 doors"; this has been the practice for a number of years. One mill on the 

 Sopris utilizes the slabs from dead logs for the manufacture of laths; but 

 it has not yet been determined whether this is a paying venture, since there 

 is a low price on Mexican laths, which come directly in competition with 

 them. 



An excellent example of close utilization is that of the Colorado Yule 

 Marble Company, at Marble, Colo. Here the edge boards are used just as they 

 come from the log for crating sculptured stone . This company handles large 

 contracts for building material, and since much of it is highly carved and 

 polished it has to be boxed or crated. Since excelsior is used around the 

 pieces, lumber with an uneven edge will serve very well for outside pro- 

 tection. The company operates a sawmill on patented land, and, in addition 

 to lumber which they secure from their own holdings, they purchase from 

 the Forest Service. On this part of the Forest the supply is limited, the 

 market is good, the timber is accessible and easily logged, and stumpage rates 

 are relatively high. 



In one case it was possible to interest a company in the exploitation of a 

 large tract of dead timber by making a sale to cover a long term of years at 

 an equitable stumpage rate. The tract was too far from the shipping point 

 to pay a profit in handling under the system of hauling stuff out by wagon, 

 but the company is now constructing an aerial tramway by which they will 

 deliver the material to the railroad over a distance of two miles, as against 

 seven miles by wagon. 



As a result of the present policy of encouraging the sale of dead timber, 

 it will undoubtedly be but a short time until a sale will be made of a large 

 tract in Chapman Gulch, where at least 10,000,000 board feet of good mer- 

 chantable stuff can be had if a road is constructed to bring it out. To induce 

 the building of such a road the timber will be sold at a rate low enough to 

 make it profitable to the buyer, and at the same time get rid of material 

 which would not only deteriorate as time goes on, but would prove a serious 

 fire menace. 



Still another method of utilizing dead timber and enlarging the market, 

 for it is through the construction and operating of an open-tank treating 

 plant at Norrie, Colo. This plant was equipped and operated by the Forest 

 Service, and used creosote and zinc chloride as preservatives. It was not 

 run as a commercial venture, but poles and ties were treated at cost simply 

 to get native treated timbers in use and to accustom consumers to this class 

 of stuff. As was intended from the first, the plant was advertised and sold 

 after a thorough demonstration was made and the treated material had 



