24 
BULLETIN 510, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
Fig. 23. — Foundations which have failed through decay, 
permitting the piles to topple over. This would have 
been prevented by the use of a good preservative. 
Certain general considerations, however, apply to practically all 
cases. The method of using special narrow cross sticks is probably 
in greatest use, and 
this offers certain 
advantages when the 
sticks are handled in 
a sanitary manner. 
In the first place, the 
strips are kept* in an 
air - dry condition, 
which offers consid- 
erable advantage 
over green material; 
in the second place, 
the strips, being nar- 
row, do not offer a 
bearing surface 
more than 1 to 4 
inches wide. A dis- 
tinct advantage 
would also accrue with the use of sticks cut from highly durable 
material; for instance, resinous heart pine or resistant hardwoods, 
such as white oak 
and heart red gum. 
The second gen- 
eral method of pil- 
ing lumber consists 
in using the nar- 
rower widths of the 
lumber itself for 
crossing strips (fig. 
26). The wider 
boards ordinarily 
offer too much of a 
bearing surface for 
good air circulation. 
At one of the Arkan- 
sas mills visited it 
was customary in 
the earlier days to 
use the regular run 
of lumber up to 12 
inches wide as crossers, but this practice was discontinued on account 
of the serious loss from decay. The manager of the mill informed 
the writer that considerable rot would occur in 8 to 12 inch stock 
Fig. 24. — Piling sticks lying on the ground at a mill in 
South Carolina, showing the insanitary method of han- 
dling them. Such sticks lying for only a week or two in 
contact with fungus-infected ground may themselves 
become seriously infected, and decay may in turn pass on 
to the lumber stacks. 
