10 



BULLETIN 510, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



durable grades at times becomes a considerable problem, not alone at 

 the mills but also in the retail yards. In fact, the writer has been 

 told by certain retailers that deterioration due to decay in these low 

 grades had become so serious with them that they had discontinued 

 carrying such hazardous stock. 



. In the case of hemlock, spruces, firs, low grades of pine, and cer- 

 tain of the less durable hardwoods, storage difficulties are bound to 

 develop at times during exceptionally wet seasons, but much of the 



trouble can be fore- 

 stalled by applying 

 the proper methods 

 of sanitation. 



It is necessary that 

 if such material is to 

 enter into the con- 

 struction of buildings 

 it should be entirely 

 free from fungous 

 infection. Responsi- 

 bility for clean lum- 

 ber must rest with 

 the lumberman. 



CONDITION OF 

 STORAGE SHEDS 

 AT MILLS. 



Fig. 5. — Pine lumber piled in a swamp on high skids over 

 standing water at New Orleans, La. Note the luxuriant 

 vegetation, which checks proper air circulation beneath 

 thb'^les. 



As noted before, 

 many mills, includ- 

 ing some of the larger 

 ones, are operating 

 under serious disadvantages of location as far as decay is con- 

 cerned. The better types of storage sheds are inclosed at the sides, 

 with ample ventilation beneath (fig. 6), but those open on both 

 sides are not uncommonly met with. The exclusion of water from 

 stored lumber becomes a necessity when such material is put in close 

 piles under cover, where the drying action of wind and sun does not 

 have full play. This is particularly true where sheds are built over 

 low swampy ground where the vapors on rising from the wet soil are 

 more or less imprisoned, keeping the air at a high humidity, A little 

 extra moisture in such cases may be sufficient to permit the outbreak 

 and rapid spread of fungous infections. 



The greatest source of danger in storage sheds lies in placing the 

 lumber too close to the ground, and several instances have been noted 



