6 BULLETIN" 604, IT. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
as a post timber. Few species are prized more highly for this purpose. 
Since the days of the earliest settlers it has been the chief source of 
fence posts and rails throughout the mountains and foothills of 
California. 
Posts and rails for the most part are split, the trees first being felled 
and bucked into the desired lengths. Although in a few cases- cedar 
has been sawed into -i by 4s or 1 by 5s for this purpose, split posts 
generally are considered more satisfactory. In good timber two men 
working together can split out 200 or more posts a day, thus making 
good wages at from 5 to 6 cents a post, the usual price paid for this 
work. 
In making posts usually the heartwood only is utilized, the sap- 
wood not being durable. Post makers prefer dead and charred cedar 
logs and snags where the sapwood has rotted and been burned away, 
leaving thoroughly seasoned heartwood. Such material is usually 
sound, for if dry-rot had been present in any considerable quantity 
the entire log would have burned. 
It is estimated that at least 230,000 incense cedar fence posts are 
used annually. Accurate figures, however, are not obtainable, since 
their use is for the most part local and they are cut in small lots, often 
by the men who use them. On the National Forests cedar posts form 
an important item of the free-use business, most of the local ranchers 
obtaining their supply in this way. In some regions it is an annual 
custom for those located in the foothills to go into the mountains for 
a week or two each fall for the purpose of cutting and hauling their 
year's supply* of posts and rails. 
The stumpage value of post material varies from 2 to 6 cents per 
post, according to its accessibility and abundance, dead cedar usually 
bringing about 1 cent less than green, although it is the more desirable 
of the two. Throughout the Sierras the price ranges from 2 to 4 
cents, except on the Nevada slope, where it is somewhat higher 
because of its scarcity. The prices at which posts are sold, ranging 
from 10 to 35 cents, are given in Table 3. This variation, however, 
is due largely to differences in the cost of transportation to the vari- 
ous market points rather than to differences in the cost of stumpage 
or manufacture. In the local markets, which consume most of the 
supply, from 16 to 18 cents is the usual price. 
Table 6, based on somewhat limited data, indicates roughly the 
yield in posts for trees of various diameters. There is, however, such 
a great variation in the relative width of the sap, the ease of working, 
and the waste due to rot and knots, that at best a table of this char- 
acter is only approximate. 
