GENERAL SURVEY or TEXAS WOODLANDS. 45 



length, and are free from defects clue to insects or other injuries and 

 decay, should be set aside and hauled to a mill equipped to handle them. 

 Such a procedure would insure the receipt at the mill of a class of 

 operating expenses. The mill operator would be using such material as 

 timber which could all be utilized, thus minimizing waste and reducing 

 is now wasted while discarded portions of the tree could still be used 

 for fence posts and fuel. 



In milling a high grade hardwood, more particularly mesquite, small, 

 local mills are apt to be inefficient. The extreme hardness of the wood, 

 together with the small sizes of the logs, make sawing difficult. Cut 

 stock will show wane and be of different dimensions at the extremes, 

 due to slipping of the piece when being sawed. As a consequence the 

 value of the finished product, even in squared bolts as mesquite would 

 be used, is out of all proportion to the cost of production. Milling 

 methods must, therefore, be efficient. 



A single circular saw portable mill, of the type used in the northern 

 hardwood regions, should solve the problem. Such a mill would be 

 equipped with a circular saw, not more than 30 inches in diameter, a 

 belt driven carriage on which the log is clamped and carried against 

 the saw, and a small boiler to furnish the power necessary to drive both 

 .the saw and the carriage. Clamping the log to the carriage insures 

 uniformity in sawing which is now so lacking in the cut timber examined. 

 A mill of this type could be set up at points along the railroad easily 

 accessible to areas of suitable timber, the raw material hauled in for 

 sawing, and the finished product, squared bolts of various dimensions, 

 shipped to the manufacturers. When the available timber is cut out 

 locally, the mill could be dismantled and shipped to another location. 

 Although the capacity of such a mill is about 10,000 board feet daily 

 in average hardwood timber, this output would not be possible in mes- 

 quite. ISTot more than 2000 board feet, with an average of perhaps 

 1200 feet, could be cut daily. At this rate and based upon 250 oper- 

 ating days annually, the present available stand should insure a life at 

 least twelve years to a mill of the type mentioned. 



Another feasible plan would be to establish a mill at San Antonio 

 as a receiving point. Local buyers, purchasing raw material in the 

 round, could ship to the mill such timber as would be suitable for saw- 

 ing. This mill might be equipped with two circular saws, rather than 

 one, as is the case with the local portable mill, since shipping to one 

 central point would mean the receipt at the mill of a comparatively 

 large volume of timber. Buying locally and shipping only selected 

 timber would reduce freight charges on unsuitable material. Shipping 

 timber in the round would, of course, mean paying freight on a certain 

 quantity of unavoidable mill waste, but this excess charge would prob- 

 ably be balanced by a difference in the freight rates on finished and 

 unfinished products. In this connection it was not possible to obtain a 

 definite rate on squared bolts of mesquite lumber, but the cordwood rate 

 is well recognized and reasonable. 



With the second of the proposed plans, and to a certain extent with 



