TIMBER STORAGE IN THE EASTERN AND SOUTHERN STATES. 15 
tives appear to be little known. In the opinion of the writer, thor- 
ough preservative treatments would effect an ultimate saving in 
maintenance charges, a considerable part of the cost of application 
being offset by the use of cheaper grades of timber, which when 
treated properly will last longer than the highest grade of natural 
wood available. 
In very few lumberyards are the railway ties preserved in any 
way. In most cases they consist of inferior timber which readily 
decays. Many fruit bodies of dangerous fungi are usually present 
(PL III, fig. 2), so 
that it is important 
from the standpoint 
of sanitation to re- 
move this source of 
infection by the ap- 
plication of wood 
preservatives, such as 
creosote or zinc chlo- 
rid. A track in 
which the ties are 
creosoted is shown in 
figure 15. 
FOUNDATIONS. 
Probably no other 
factor involved in 
the storage of lumber 
in yards is open to 
more criticism from 
the sanitation stand- 
point than the foun- 
dations to the piles 
(figs. 16 and 34). 
Almost invariably 
ti&j&gttB^i^ m^~§& 
■ 
ss 
fct ->^'' 
Fig. 11. — A highly insanitary mill yard in South Carolina. 
Hundreds of thousands of feet of stored lumber have 
rotted in this yard as a result of these conditions. All 
this rotten debris should be removed and burned. 
these timbers are severely infected and often abundantly supplied 
with sporulating fruit bodies of serious wood-rotting fungi (PL III, 
figs. 3 and 4) . 
Various types of foundations are in use. The most primitive and 
most insanitary type consists in laying planks directly on the ground 
and stacking the lumber upon them. This procedure occurs at only 
a few of the smaller mills. A few of the mills make use of built-up 
plank foundations (PL III, fig. 3), but the more usual method 
is to use 6 by 8 or 8 by 10 stringers, blocked up to a height of 
