10 BULLETIN 1298, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
had been stored in ranked piles. No data were obtained on fresh 
river wood; but wet spruce and balsam, after storage in close-ranked 
piles at one mill for about a year, showed a maximum of 44.4 per 
cent and an average of 38 per cent. In one instance rotten 3-year- 
old samples taken from near the bottom of a large storage pile of 
solidly massed ranks of rail-shipped spruce showed a moisture con- 
tent of from 33 to 35 per cent, which is practically the same as for 
green spruce. The top of a similar 35-foot pile ran about 27 per 
cent. Rotten spruce from another mill, probably stored for about 
the same length of time but in a much lower pile, was reduced to 
about 18 per cent. Green wood just off the cars contained about 
40 per cent moisture. 
The fact that spruce and balsam will rot rapidly in an essentially 
green condition argues against their storage in large conical piles, 
unless continuously water-soaked. Hoxie believes that wood with 
less than 40 per cent moisture is best stored in ranked piles. Snell 
(25) concludes from experiments with five fungi on spruce that 
decay is greatest at a moisture content of between 30 and 57 per 
cent, but that 60 per cent of water will eliminate all danger of serious 
loss from decay. 
Present knowledge of the actual amounts of moisture which will 
preserve timber is based on observation, or unscientific experimenta- 
tion. More careful investigations will undoubtedly reveal differ- 
ences in the reactions of the various wood-rotting organisms toward 
water. Actual mill tests are highly desirable. It is well established 
that spruce and balsam containing 35 per cent moisture will decay 
readily. The few other records available indicate that in certain 
species considerable decay may also occur up to 80 or 90 per cent 
moisture content. Above this point the rate of decay may be much 
reduced. 
Wood which reaches the mill in a partially dried condition is 
probably best stored in ranked piles so that drying may progress to 
a point where decay is markedly retarded or entirely inhibited. 
Precautions must be taken to get ample ventilation around and 
beneath the piles. Under present practices the ranks are often 
solidly massed without any possibility of air seasoning. (See PL VI, 
fig. 3.) Such a condition should be corrected by separating the 
ranks by a space of from 4 to 6 feet (PL VI, fi.g. 4) and running them 
in the direction of the prevailing winds. If they can be placed on a 
hillside in the direction of the slope, so much the better, as this will allow 
improved air drainage. Cross ventilation, accomplished largely by 
free air circulation through the foundations, should be provided for, 
as this assists in the removal of the humid air near the ground level 
and hastens seasoning in the bottom of the piles. 
Ranked piles are sometimes placed directly on the ground (PL VII, 
fig. 1) . In one case they were even piled in a drainage canal (PL VII, 
fig. 2) . More often they are placed on parallel rows of poles or logs. 
The skid logs are commonly taken from the pulp-wood shipments as 
needed and kept in use as long as they are serviceable, frequently until 
they are in advanced stages of decay. On moist land they are often 
forced into the ground so far that sufficient air can not circulate 
underneath the piles. (See PL VII, fig. 3.) Inasmuch as rotten 
foundations will transmit infection to the wood piled on them, if pulp 
logs are to be used for foundations it is much better to use fresh logs 
