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AMERICAN FORESTRY 



users, leaving them to rip and cut in order to work out 

 what they needed. It is apparent that such an arrange- 

 ment would not be satisfactory to the diversified wood- 

 using industries of the present time. Each insists upon 

 receiving certain sizes which can be converted into 

 finished products without unnecessary work or exces- 

 sive waste. 



Lumber grades are based partly on sizes and partly 

 on defects. The grading of this commodity has been 

 worked out almost to the last analysis, but the practice 

 is rather recent and was brought about by necessity. 

 While grades were not designed primarily to meet the 

 requirements of particular industries, that result has 

 been nearly attained ; for, with the various grades now in 

 use. any wood-using industry can order the stock which 



and he sells it to the user at prices based on grades. 

 The largest users are factory owners who make furni- 

 ture, interior house finish, boxes, and numerous other 

 commodities ; and there have been many controversies 

 over the question whether the buyer should not have 

 something to say about the classes of material to be 

 included in the different grades. A conflict of interests 

 exists, but the advantages are about evenly divided 

 between the parties. For, though the maker of the 

 lumber may have the last word as to how he will grade his 

 product, the purchaser has the last word as to what he will 

 pay for it. That situation provides ground for compro- 

 mise, and the compromise is attained when the sawmill 

 fixes and names the grades, and the factory offers the price 

 it is willing to pay for each grade and then insists on 



THE LARGEST SAWMILL IN THE WORLD 



The plant of the Great Southern Lumber Company, Bogalusa, Louisiana, is the largest sawmill under a single roof in the world. Its record is 



1.018,000 feet of lumber in a day. This plant has been cited as one of the finest examples in America of scientific conversion of timber on 

 a large scale. Its output is principally yellow pine. 



it can use to the best advantage. Grades satisfactory 

 to a furniture manufacturer would not be satisfactory 

 to a maker of flooring; and grades which conform to 

 the needs of vehicle manufacturers would fall short of 

 satisfying a box maker. It has thus come to pass in 

 the development and extension of the uses of wood that 

 numerous sizes, in length, thickness, and width, have 

 been provided to meet the demands of different indus- 

 tries. These sizes have not been planned by the sawmill 

 for its own convenience alone, but the demand for them 

 originated with the users, and the sawmills have con- 

 formed to the demand, being in that particular the 

 servants rather than the masters of factories and shops 

 which use lumber as raw material. 



The determination of what shall constitute certain 

 grades is not an easy matter, and in the past the discus- 

 sions growing out of it have not always been wholly 

 friendly when the matter has come up between seller 

 and buyer. The man who makes the lumber, grades it ; 



getting the quality of lumber which the grade calls for. 

 At the present time most grades are so well established 

 that they are no longer called into question, and if dis- 

 putes arise as to the correctness and efficiency of the grad- 

 ing, the associations which buy and those which sell the 

 lumber have provisions for settling disputes by arbitration. 

 A large part of the lumber that is to be shipped by rail 

 is first made smooth by being passed through planing 

 machines, without much regard to what is to be the 

 final use of the stock. The chief purpose in this opera- 

 tion is to reduce weight and thereby save freight charges. 

 From 400 to 600 pounds of wood may be removed in the 

 form of shavings when a thousand feet of lumber pass 

 through the surfaces. The planed material is lighter 

 by that amount, of course, and the freight charge is 

 correspondingly less. The average freight paid on all 

 lumber carried by railroads in this country is about 

 fifteen cents for each hundred pounds. The removal 

 of 500 pounds of shavings from a thousand feet, reduces 



