UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
j\fp'<$*rL 
ft BULLETIN No. 510 
Contribution from the Bureau of Plant Industry 
WM. A. TAYLOR, Chief 
SW9^^mTU 
Washington, D. C. 
PROFESSIONAL PAPER 
May 17, 1917 
TIMBER STORAGE CONDITIONS IN THE EASTERN AND 
SOUTHERN STATES WITH REFERENCE TO DECAY 
PROBLEMS. 
By C. J. Humphrey, Pathologist, Office of Investigations in Forest Patliotogy. 
(In cooperation with the Forest Products Laboratory of the United States Forest Service, 
Madison, Wis.) 
CONTENTS. 
Page. 
Introduction .'. 1 
Cause of decay in timber 2 
Handling timber at sawmills 7 
Location of mills and its relation to decay ... 8 
Quality of stock with reference to decay 9 
Condition of storage sheds at mills 10 
Page. 
Condition of storage yards at mills 11 
Handling timber at retail yards 27 
Fungi which rot stored lumber 30 
Wood preservatives in the lumberyard 38 
Branding structural timber 40 
Conclusions 41 
INTRODUCTION. 
During the past few years a large number of requests for infor- 
mation on the control of decay in building and factory timbers have 
reached the United States Department of Agriculture. In many 
instances the cases reported have involved serious losses, often run- 
ning into the thousands of dollars. 
The rapidly rising interest in the question on the part of the public 
may be attributed to two general causes: (1) The greater publicity 
being given to this work in the Department of Agriculture, partic- 
ularly through the activities of the Office of Investigations in Forest 
Pathology of the Bureau of Plant Industry and the Forest Products 
Laboratory of the Forest Service, and (2) the increasing use of 
timber less resistant to decay, which has become very marked during 
th6 past decade. 
As a preliminary to an investigation into the prevalence of decay 
in building timbers, with the prime object of securing some basis for 
71022°— 17 1 
