TIMBER- STORAGE IN THE EASTERN AND SOUTHERN STATES. 15 



tives appear to be little known. In the opinion of the writer, thor- 

 ough preservative treatments would effect an ultimate saving ii] 

 maintenance charges, a considerable part of the cost of application 

 being offset by the use of cheaper grades of timber, which when 

 treated properly will last longer than the highest grade of natural 

 wood available. 



In very few lumberyards are the railway ties preserved in any 

 way. In most cases they consist of inferior timber which readily 

 decays. Many fruit bodies of dangerous fungi are usually present 

 (PL III, fig. 2), so 

 that it is important 

 from the standpoint 

 of sanitation to re- 

 move this source of 

 infection by the ap- 

 plication of wood 

 preservatives, such as 

 creosote or zinc chlo- 

 rid. A track in 

 which the ties are 

 creosoted is shown in 

 figure 15. 



FOUNDATIONS. 



Probably no other 

 factor involved in 

 the storage of lumber 

 in yards is open to 

 more criticism from 

 the sanitation stand- 

 point than the foun- 

 dations to the piles 

 (figs. 16 and 34). 

 Almost invariably 

 these timbers are severely infected and often abundantly supplied 

 with sporulating fruit bodies of serious wood-rotting fungi (PI. Ill, 

 figs. 3 and 4). 



Various types of foundations are in use. The most primitive and 

 most insanitary type consists in laying planks directly on the ground 

 and stacking the lumber upon them. This procedure occurs at only 

 a few of the smaller mills. A few of the mills make use of built-up 

 plank foundations (PI. Ill, fig. 3), but the more usual method 

 is to use 6 by 8 or 8 by 10 stringers, blocked up to a height of 



Pig. 11. — A highly insanitary mill yard in South Carolina. 

 Hundreds of thousands of feet of stored lumber have 

 rotted in this yard as a result of these conditions. All 

 this rotten debris should be removed and burned. 



1 



