TIMBER STORAGE IN THE EASTERN AND SOUTHERN STATES. 39 



terioration in his yard is not sufficient to warrant it. But this is 

 not merely a mill problem; it is a lumber problem which involves 

 the entire industry and the cooperation of all its members. Even 

 though the mill operator may not in many cases suffer personal 

 monetary loss, still he is often a contributing factor in the losses 

 borne by the retailer and consumer, for incipient decay originating 

 in mill yards and passed over to retail yards may during the later 

 period of storage progress rapidly. 



The added cost of treatment would be insignificant in comparison 

 with the benefit derived, and if the lumber trade w^ould take the 

 trouble to explain the benefits to the consumer the slight additional 

 expense would in all 

 probability readily be 

 met by him. Even 

 though it should not be 

 deemed feasible to add 

 the cost of treatment 

 to the finished product, 

 the direct saving ac- 

 cruing to the lumber 

 dealer himself should 

 warrant the expense. 

 It is imperative that 

 something be done by 

 the lumberman to put 

 his product on a more 

 favorable competing 

 basis with other struc- 

 tural materials if he is 

 to safeguard the lum- 

 ber business for the 

 future. 



Another line of en- 

 deavor which would 

 reflect favorably on the whole industry is for the lumber dealer to 

 carry in stock, or at least be in a position to produce on order, 

 timber thoroughly treated for construction purposes by certain of 

 the well-known preservative processes. The wood-preserving in- 

 dustry to-day is primarily conducted for the benefit of the heavy 

 consumer. The builder who may need only small quantities of 

 treated stock to place where decay is most likely to occur in his 

 structure is usually unable to obtain it except at prohibitive cost. 



The preservative treatment of timber is no magic process and in- 

 volves no heavy expenditures for necessary apparatus, especially 

 in connection with the simpler methods of treatment. The kyaniz- 



PI04F 



Fig. 40. — A southern retail yard, showing a most in- 

 sanitary way of handling lumber. Structural timbers 

 should never be thrown promiscuously about on the 

 ground in this manner to become infected with wood- 

 destroying fungi. 



