FUNGI OF IMPORTANCE IN THE DECAY OF TIMBERS. p 3 



placements during the four years prior to 1914 required about 240,000 

 feet of lumber at a cost of more than $6,100. In another Massa- 

 chusetts cotton mill, one weave shed, built in 1910, by 1916 was 

 affected with decay throughout, and in another shed in the same mill 

 parts of the roof were replaced in 1914, 1915, 1916, and 1917, neces- 

 sitating the use of 1,000,000 feet of lumber in 1916 and 30,000 feet the 

 next year. A Canadian mill, built in 1908 with beams of supposedly 

 • ; first-class Georgia longleaf " pine, was thoroughly rotted by 1911, 

 and the beams were replaced by steel. 



Blair {2) gives some similar data with regard to the decay of paper- 

 mill roofs. He found that of 80 mills visited, 12 had made renewals 

 just prior to 1920, 17 were to make renewals in 1920, and 24 others 

 would be compelled to make renewals within a short time after that 

 date. Of the roofs which were being replaced in 1920 the service had 

 been 5 to 19 years, with an average of 8 to 10 years. 



The foregoing data show that considerable pecuniary losses were 

 occasioned by the action of decay-producing fungi in mills, even when 

 the prices of lumber and labor were comparatively moderate. With 

 the recent high cost of both these factors, the figures become much 

 more impressive. In one Massachusetts cotton mill replacements 

 made during the summer of 1920 in the roof of a weave shed approxi- 

 mately 1,000 by 300 feet cost the owners between $100,000 and $125,000. 



In Europe the problem of decay in buildings is of long standing and 

 has received considerable attention. Much has been written from sev- 

 eral points of view upon the decay caused by Merulius lacrymans, in- 

 cluding the engineering and legal as well as the mycological and 

 biological factors. Also, the decays caused by Coniophora cerebellar 

 Porta vaporaria, and species of Lenzites have been particularly 

 studied. In this country the study of timber decay in buildings on 

 a comprehensive scale is only beginning, and thus far the work has 

 largely been confined to Merulius lacrymans and its relatives and to 

 ( o/tiophora cerebella. In mills and other structures in which condi- 

 tions favorable for fungus growth prevail, other organisms probably 

 do more damage than these, but have as yet received little attention as 

 structural-timber destroying organisms. 



Because of the practical importance of the decays caused by these 

 other fungi in textile mills, etc., the writer has undertaken to make 

 some preliminary studies upon certain of them {Lenzites sepiaria,. 

 L. trdbea, Trametes serialis, Fomes roseus, and Lentinus lepideus), 

 especially with regard to certain physiological relations of the my- 

 celium, basidiospores, and secondary spores where they occur. Within 

 the time and facilities at his disposal, as much attention as possible 

 has been paid to (hose factors influencing the intramural dissemina- 

 tion of these forms. 



