20 
BULLETIN - 510, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
durable hardwoods or the cheaper grades of pine are used. Decay 
is often serious in such foundations. There is very little chance for 
ventilation, and this often leads to storage rots in the base of the 
piles. 
The open type of foundation is always much the better from a 
pathological standpoint. In certain of the Gulf cities, where munici- 
palities in cooperation with the United States Public Health Service 
are making strong efforts to get rid of rats to safeguard against 
the bubonic plague, certain ordinances have been passed requiring 
structures to be raised at least 12 inches from the ground and left 
open beneath. This requirement will react very favorably upon 
lumber storage, for the first 
necessity is to get the timber 
off the ground, with ample 
ventilation beneath. Figure 
22 illustrates the method of 
elevating the skids em- 
ployed in a retail lumber- 
yard at Mobile, Ala., which 
has only recently occupied 
the premises. 
Timber foundations are 
frequently the cause of con- 
siderable trouble on account 
of decay failure under heavy 
loads, thus allowing the 
piles to topple over or to 
crush to the ground, where 
they have every opportunity 
to rot. Figure 23 shows two 
such piles at a South Caro- 
lina mill. Eot in founda- 
tion timbers is extremely 
common and, in fact, has been encountered in practically every yard 
examined where timbers are employed for this purpose. 
Fig. 17. — A 12 by 12 inch hard-pine timber, 
showing a rotten hole in the face which lay in 
contact with infected skids. 
PILING STICKS. 
Practically all yards in which the lumber is " stuck "fail to appreci- 
ate the necessity of keeping the sticks free from infection. The strong 
tendency is to scatter them about on the ground wherever they hap- 
pened to fall when the previous piles were taken down (fig. 2-i). In 
a very few yards attempts are made to improve the appearance of the 
premises by gathering the sticks endwise into conical piles or by 
stacking them carefully on the ground beneath the skids (fig. 25). 
