Table 3 .- -Moisture content of test sections A and B 

 cut from studs of dead lodgepole pine logs 



Sample stud : : B sections : Weighted average for 



number : A sections : Shell : Core : stud 1 



Percent 



1 



16.7 



16 



7 



16. 



3 



16 



6 



2 



19.3 



18 



8 



18 



6 



19 







3 



17.0 



18 



1 



17 



1 



17 



4 



4 



16.8 



15 



9 



16. 







16 



4 



5 



25.1 



23 



5 



26 



3 



24 



9 



6 



28.7 



26 



7 



29 



2 



28 



2 



7 



18.6 



18 



3 



19 



1 



18 



6 



8 



23.7 



23 



5 



25 



5 



24 







9 



32.5 



28 



4 



32 



7 



31 



2 



10 



19.3 



18 



2 



18 



5 



18 



8 



11 



34.3 



30 



2 



33 



3 



32 



9 



12 



43.7 



39 



6 



36 



8 



41 



1 



13 



23.7 



21 



3 



24 



1 



23 



1 



14 



19.4 



19 



1 



19 



7 



19 



4 



15 



16.7 



15 



3 



15 



8 



16 



1 



16 



20.9 



19 



6 



20 



8 



20 



5 



17 



25.1 



24 



4 



27 



2 



25 



3 



18 



18.7 



17 



6 



17 



6 



18 



2 



19 



24.3 



23 



2 



26 







24 



3 



20 



15.6 



15 



4 



14 



6 



15 



3 



21 



23.0 



22 







24 



6 



23 







22 



26.1 



24 



6 



26 



7 



25 



8 



MEAN 



23.1 



21 



8 



23 







22 



7 



1 Computed by multiplying the shell moisture content by 12, the core moisture 

 content by 8, and the average moisture content (section A) by 20. The sum of these 

 values was divided by 40. 



The distribution of the moisture content of test sections A and B (moisture 

 content and moisture distribution specimens) is shown in table 3. The average moisture 

 content for the A sections was 23.1. The average for the shells of the B sections was 

 21.8; and for the cores 23.0. 



Because of the variation in the lodgepole pine test sections and to obtain a reli- 

 able estimate of moisture content, a weighted average moisture content was computed. 

 This value was calculated by multiplying the shell moisture content by 12, the core 

 moisture content by 8, and the moisture content of section A by 20. The sum of these 

 values was divided by 40 to obtain the weighted average moisture content. The computed 

 values for the sample studs ranged from 15.3 to 41.1 percent and 12 of the 22 average 

 values exceeded 20 percent (table 3) , The maximum difference between the shell and 

 core was 4.3 percent, and the average difference was 1.2 percent moisture content. 

 Five of the shells had a slightly higher moisture content than the core. This is con- 

 trary to expectation and indicates some reabsorption of moisture. 



Three of the 22 drying stress test sections showed a slight amount of casehardening 

 or tension set. McMillen (1968) has shown that tension set develops from the start of 

 drying and often reaches a maximum above 30 percent average moisture content. The 



7 



