26 DEPARTMENT BULLETIN 1425, U. 8S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 
rear of the pile (pl. 6, A) can only result in depreciation of one 
kind or another. Exposed to the direct rays of the sun and the other 
weather elements the overhanging ends are subjected not only to 
excessively rapid drying but usually to alternate wettings and dry- 
ings. Also, there are no supports to hold these ends in alignment 
during seasoning. As a consequence, end checks, splits, warp, twist, 
and cup occur. Use of this type of pile can be justified only with 
products of very low value and which permit large amounts of the 
defects mentioned. Such stock would include No. 5 boards, culls, 
shims, and similar material. 
PILE WIDTH 
Width of the lumber pile is ordinarily determined by other details 
than a consideration of its effect upon drying conditions. The width 
of foundations, the method of crossing the stock, and the plan of 
stock segregation usually influence this matter. If unit foundations 
are 16 feet wide, piles are this width. With separate provisions for 
each length of stock, the foundations are ordinarily square, and pile 
widths correspond. Square piles are also used where stock crossers 
are employed on separate-length stock. With random lengths, the 
longest piece often controls the width of the pile. When 18-foot and 
longer stock is piled separately, however, the piles are commonly 
only 8 to 12 feet wide, owing to the relatively small production of 
such sizes and the necessity for smaller piles. 
Although varying greatly at individual plants, pile widths as a 
rule follow a general standard in each region. The unit foundation 
is common in the California pine territory, and piles are usually 16 
feet wide. This is true to some extent in the Inland Empire, but 
there the square pile is employed most frequently. Although pile 
bottoms in the redwood region are generally of the continuous type, 
pile widths are mostly 16 feet. In the Douglas fir region the square 
pile is the standard. 
Despite the fact that seasoning considerations are given little 
weight in fixing the pile width, this element of pile construction has 
an important bearing on drying. Stock at the center of the pile has 
been found to dry much more slowly than that near the sides. Natu- 
rally this lag becomes smaller as the top of the pile is approached 
and is less pronounced during the active drying season. This varia- 
tion is clearly shown by Figure 1, which pictures actual drying in 
a representative pile 16 feet in width. 
With Inland Empire conditions, the average lag in drying between 
the center and the sides of the pile is approximately one month in 
the lower third of the pile and two weeks in the upper third. Nat- 
urally, as the width of the pile is decreased this differential becomes 
smaller, and the average drying period for the pile is shorter. Actual 
yard tests with sinker redwood stock substantiate this nicely. In 
piles 8 feet wide an average moisture content of 19 per cent was 
reached in 1386 days. Stock in piles 16 feet wide, put up at the same 
time and under exactly the same conditions, came down only to an 
average moisture content of 36 per cent during the same period. 
The conditions determining the pile width in actual yard practice 
are ordinarily of a fixed nature and accordingly difficult and costly to 




