8 BULLETIN- 718, U. S. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 



the demand. There is httle to be gained in sawing out a lot of lum- 

 ber and keeping it hidden away in the hills. For every man, woman, 

 and child hi the United States 375 feet of lumber is used annually; in 

 new States three or four times as much. Montana, for example, uses 

 1,234 feet per capita, and it is a moderate estimate that a community 

 of 500 people will use up a quarter of a million feet annuall3\ 

 A small mill operator who opens a yard and keeps 100,000 feet of 

 lumber in stock, along with a moderate amount of shingles, lath, 

 and building material, can establish a remunerative business very 

 easily. Be it understood that lumber in this sense means lumber 

 that is properly sawed, surfaced (when necessary), edged, trimmed, 

 graded, air dried, and properly piled. You can not run a successful 

 lumber yard with rubbish anywhere. 



The heaviest demand in newly settled communities is for low- 

 grade lumber, viz, No. 3 common and dimension, the very class of 

 material which the portable mills can supply most readily. The 

 upper grades will always find a remunerative market. A small 

 mill, if properly handled, can successfully hold a competitive market 

 for low-grade lumber and dimension against similar products pro- 

 duced in a large mill and shipped into the local market. 



GRADING LUMBER. 



The necessity for grading the product of small mills can not be 

 emphasized too strongly or too often. Every millman is able to dis- 

 tinguish between good and bad, rotten and sound lumber, and what 

 sort of a log is best adapted for inch lumber and what for plank, 

 dimension, finish, and so on. But when it comes to being able to 

 tell at a glance what defects in a board causes it to grade No. 1 

 common instead of inch finish very few can make an intelligent dis- 

 tinction, yet those men have been handling such lumber perhajDs a 

 lifetime. They have simply neglected to use their powers of 

 observation. 



The Western Pine Manufacturers' Association of Spokane, Wash., 

 issues free a little booklet containing the rules for the grading of pine, 

 fir, and larch, which is distributed by their secretary to anyone in- 

 terested. To a man handling lumber every day this little book will 

 be invaluable. To have lumber to sell and no grading rule to sell it 

 by is a condition that spells certain loss for the sawmill owner. If 

 he doesn't study grading himself, his son will, with the result that the 

 boy will learn more about the lumber business in a month than his 

 father has been able to pick up in years. There is no " royal road " 

 to a knowledge of lumber grading — ^you must learn it yourself. 



It sometimes happens that when an enterprising mill operator, who 

 has adoj^ted modern methods in milling and grading his output, is 

 negotiating the sale of a bill of lumber with a prospective purchaser. 



