UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



J!\J^"^<WU 



BULLETIN No. 510 



Contribution from the Bureau of Plant Industry 

 WM. A. TAYLOR, Chief 



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Washington, D. C. 



PROFESSIONAL PAPER 



May 17, 1917 



TIMBER STORAGE CONDITIONS IN THE EASTERN AND 

 SOUTHERN STATES WITH REFERENCE TO DECAY 

 PROBLEMS. 



By O. J. HuMPHEEY, Pathologist, Office of Investigations in Forest Pathology. 



(In cooperation with the Forest Products Laboratory of the United States Forest Service, 



Madison, Wis.) 



CONTENTS. 



Introduction 1 



Cause of decay in timber 2 



Handling timber at sawmills 7 



Location of mills and its relation to decay. . . 8 



Quality of stock with reference to decay ...... 9 



Condition of storage sheds at mills 10 



Condition of storage yards at mills H 



Handling timber at retail yards 27 



Fungi which rot stored lumber 30 



Wood preservatives in the lumberyard 38 



Branding structural timber 40 



Conclusions 41 



INTRODUCTION. 



During the past few years a large number of requests for infor- 

 mation on the control of decay in building and factory timbers have 

 reached the United States Department of Agriculture. In many 

 instances the cases reported have involved serious losses, often run- 

 ning into the thousands of dollars. 



The rapidly rising interest in the question on the part of the public 

 may be attributed to two general causes: (1) The greater publicity 

 being given to this work in the Department of Agriculture, partic- 

 ularly through the activities of the Office of Investigations in Forest 

 Pathology of the Bureau of Plant Industry and the Forest Products 

 Laboratory of the Forest Service, and (2) the increasing use of 

 timber less resistant to decay, which has become very marked during 

 the past decade. 



As a preliminary to an investigation into the prevalence of decay 

 in building timbers, with the prime object of securing some basis for 



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