24 



BULLETIN 510, U. S. DEPABTMENT OF AGKlCtfLTUiElE. 



Fig. 23. — Foundations which have failed through decay, 

 permitting the piles to topple over. This would have 

 been prevented by the use of a good preservative. 



Certain general considerations, however, apply to practically all 



cases. The method of using special narrow cross sticks is probably 



in greatest use, and 

 this offers certain 

 advantages wdien the 

 sticks are handled in 

 a sanitary manner. 

 In the first place, the 

 strips are kept in an 

 air - dry condition, 

 which* offers consid- 

 erable advantage 

 over green material; 

 in the second place, 

 the strips, being nar- 

 row, do not offer a 

 bearing surface 

 more than 1 to 4 

 inches wide. A dis- 

 tinct advantage 



w" ould also accrue with the use of sticks cut from highly durable 



material; for instance, resinous heart pine or resistant hardwoods, 



such as white oak 



and heart red gum. 

 The second gen- 

 eral method of pil- 

 ing lumber consists 



in using the nar- 



row^er widths of the 



lumber itself for 



crossing strips (fig. 



26). The wider 



boards ordinarily 



offer too much of a 



bearing surface for 



good air circulation. 



At one of the x\rkan- 



sas mills visited it 



was customary in 



the earlier days to 



use the regular run 



of lumber up to 12 



inches wide as crossers, but this practice was discontinued on account 



of the serious loss from decay. The manager of the mill informed 



the writer that considerable rot would occur in 8 to 12 inch stock 



Fig. 24. — Piling sticks lying on the ground at a mill in 

 South Carolina, showing the insanitary method of han- 

 dling them. Such sticks lying for only a week or two in 

 contact with fungus-infocted ground may themselves 

 become seriously infected, and decay may in turn pass on 

 to the lumber stacks. 



