8 BULLETIN 510, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
LOCATION OF MILLS AND ITS RELATION TO DECAY. 
The location of sawmills is usually determined by certain economic 
considerations which do not readily admit of change. Many of the 
P64F 
Fig. 2. — Lumber piled at the water's edge on the Atlantic coast. High waves sweep over 
this during storms, wetting the lumber and producing rot. 
mills are located either on streams or along the low and swampy 
Atlantic or Gulf coasts. Very often higher dry land is not available 
for storage purposes 
and then, particu- 
larly in the South, 
the conditions for 
decay are excellent. 
In some instances at- 
tempts have been 
made to fill in this 
low land with saw- 
dust, bark debris, 
etc., with the result 
that the soil is made 
over into a most ex- 
cellent culture me- 
dium for the devel- 
o p m e n t of wood- 
destroyine fungi. In 
other cases yards, even when on comparatively high ground, are so 
graded as to allow drainage into the yard rather than away from it. 
In the coastal regions, where mills are at times located just above 
the level of high tide, storm waves frequently beat in from the sea 
P65F 
Fig. 3. — Silt deposited in the base of a lumber stack during 
a Mississippi River flood. This condition permits the 
lumber to rot rapidly. 
