TIMBER STORAGE IN THE EASTERN AND SOUTHERN STATES. 39 
terioration in his yard is not sufficient to warrant it. But this is 
not merely a mill problem; it is a lumber problem which involves 
the entire industry and the cooperation of all its members. Even 
though the mill operator may not in many cases suffer personal 
monetary loss, still he is often a contributing factor in the losses 
borne by the retailer and consumer, for incipient decay originating 
in mill yards and passed over to retail yards may during the later 
period of storage progress rapidly. 
The added cost of treatment would be insignificant in comparison 
with the benefit derived, and if the lumber trade would take the 
trouble to explain the benefits to the consumer the slight additional 
expense would in all 
probability readily be 
met by him. Even 
though it should not be 
deemed feasible to add 
the cost of . treatment 
to the finished product, 
the direct . saving ac- 
cruing to the lumber 
dealer himself should 
warrant the expense. 
It is imperative that 
something be done by 
the lumberman to put 
his product on a more 
favorable competing 
basis with other struc- 
tural materials if he is 
to safeguard the lum- 
ber business for the 
future. 
Another line of en- 
deavor which would 
reflect favorably on the whole industry is for the lumber dealer to 
carry in stock, or at least be in a position to produce on order, 
timber thoroughly treated for construction purposes by certain of 
the well-known preservative processes. The wood-preserving in- 
dustry to-day is primarily conducted for the benefit of the heavy 
consumer. The builder who may need only small quantities of 
treated stock to place where decay is most likely to occur in his 
structure is usually unable to obtain it except at prohibitive cost. 
The preservative treatment of timber is no magic process and in- 
volves no heavy expenditures for necessary apparatus, especially 
in connection with the simpler methods of treatment. The kyaniz- 
P104F 
Fig. 40. — A southern retail yard, showing a most in- 
sanitary way of handling lumber. Structural timbers 
should never be thrown promiscuously about on the 
ground in this manner to become infected with wood- 
destroying fungi. 
