80 BULLETIN 900. U. S. DEPARTMENT OE AGRICULTURE. 
Many sawmills find it profitable to cut low-grade lumber into furni- 
ture dimension stock. Many furniture factories, however, object to 
using dimension stock because the quality is not good enough, or the 
sizes are not exactly suited to their needs. They prefer to buy the 
lumber and cut their stock sizes from that. It is. of course, more ex- 
pensive to ship the lumber than the dimension sizes cut from it. 
Sawmills should be able to saw the stock sizes more cheaply than the 
factory can : but if there is considerable waste in the use of dimension 
stock it is more profitable to buy the lumber. The sawmills can often 
recut their low-grade walnut lumber into a special grade of stock for 
furniture, and therefore it is not necessary for the factories to handle 
so much waste material. This is also more economical for the fac- 
tories than cutting clear stock from very defective lumber. A large 
surplus of very low-grade stock and of small clear pieces accumu- 
lated from the manufacture of walnut war material is now in 
the hands of the large walnut operators. This stock is absorbed very 
slowly. Since only small dimension pieces can be made from this 
stock, markets for this material are very limited, and a great deal 
of it goes into the waste pile and is used for fuel. 
The more extensive use of walnut instead of the various woods 
now substituted for it in making the small solid parts of walnut 
furniture would effect a closer utilization of the wood. These small 
pieces should be sawed from low-grade stock, of which there is usu- 
ally a surplus in the hands of lumber manufacturers. 
The small demand for low-grade walnut veneer makes the waste 
in veneer manufacture greater than it would otherwise be. This 
low-grade veneer is suitable for backings and drawer bottoms, but 
factories prefer large sheets from a lower-priced wood, because there 
is less trouble in cutting out the required sizes. Under present 
conditions a large part of the sapwood and defective veneer must be 
used for fuel. 
MARKETING WALNUT TIMBER. 
Owners of standing walnut timber generally dispose of their trees 
through a log buyer, who may be either an independent buyer or 
regularly employed by a walnut-manufacturing concern. Profes- 
sional log buyers generally have connections or arrangements with 
some establishment for reselling the timber. Because, as a general 
thing, the occurrence of the tree is occasional, walnut is often handled 
by small log buyers, who may disjDose of it to a larger log buyer. 
Small country sawmill owners often purchase walnut logs and sell 
them, or at least the choice ones, to a large mill or factory. As the 
timber passes through the bands of several men before reaching the 
mill, the original owner may get comparatively little for it. Some 
