56 BULLETIN 275, TJ. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



the strong objection made by the purchasing lumberman to accepting 

 white fir in Government timber sales, and this is based mainly upon 

 the unsoundness of the timber. At the same time, there is a fair local 

 demand for sound white fir for a number of uses. There is no valid 

 objection to clear and sound white fir. In fact, many a purchaser 

 would rather pay higher stumpage for white fir if he were allowed to 

 take only sound young stuff, which is in demand for dimension stuff 

 (2 by 4, 4 by 4, etc.), for frame stuff, timbers, and stickers, and for 

 butter boxes, etc. Purchasers complain that much of the material, 

 though seemingly sound, "has no fife" after going through the mill; 

 it becomes brittle and falls to pieces when dry. Sound white fir 

 neither becomes brittle nor does it fall to pieces. It is the unsound 

 material (advance rot) only which is objectionable. The remedy is 

 easily seen; it consists in liberal and judicious scaling, which would 

 rather give the purchaser the benefit of the doubt. The scaler will 

 find valuable aid in the occurrence of decayed knots on the boles of 

 trees affected with stringy brown-rot. To the casual observer they 

 may appear normal; when they are knocked off with a hatchet or 

 similar instrument the decayed rusty interior is exposed. These ' 'rusty 

 knots" afford, in the vast majority of cases, a valuable indication 

 of more or less far-gone Echinodontium rot in the heartwood of white 

 fir. Occasionally, the rusty color is missing, but the center of the 

 knot is unmistakably decayed. The verdict as to the rottenness of 

 the heartwood will be the same. The knots are often very small. 

 When sound, they are very brittle and glassy in appearance. To 

 give a practical example: 



No. 82 on the Otter & Burns tract, a very fine tree with a long clear 

 bole, 29.4 inches diameter breast high, and 154 feet high, had been 

 given a full scale. The bole had been bucked into 16-foot logs. To 

 the scaler there were no indications of decay. After examining the 

 tree the writer threw out log 5. The only indication for spotting 

 Echinodontium decay in this log was the presence of the rusty knot. 

 The log was opened and found to be unmerchantable from 0.5 to 

 5.6 feet from the lower end, leaving as merchantable 0.5 foot on one 

 end (diameter 19.5 inches) and about 10 feet on the other end (upper 

 diameter 16.3 inches). Had the defect been known to the bucking 

 crew a more advantageous dividing up of the bole in log lengths to 

 the exclusion of the decay would have meant a saving to the operator. 



Among others, Bryant 1 has pointed out the necessity of more judi- 

 cious bucking and of closer utilization. 



i Bryant, R. C. Waste in cutting timber. In Amer. Forest., v. 19, no. 11, pp. 790-799, 7 figs., 1913. 



