32 
BULLETIN 1037, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
in or upon the blocks by means of a sterile scalpel and needle gave no growth, 
while cultures taken from check blocks which had not been steamed gave positive 
results in every case. 
Steamed material, unless open piled under conditions which insured an ample 
supply of circulating air, molded almost as readily as green stock. 
Steamed blocks that were given a month’s air drying subsequent to steaming 
and previous to storage under the extreme conditions that prevailed in the tile 
chamber showed a little more resistance to the invasion of fungi than those 
blocks that were placed in the tile chamber immediately after steaming. 
It is quite probable that the steam treatment of wood stock, fol¬ 
lowed immediately by prolonged submersion of the material in some 
of the antiseptic solutions to be described later, might prove to be a 
Fig. 13.—Boards of red gum loaded on a truck and ready to be rolled into the prepa- 
rator (shown in fig. 14). 
fairly effective method for the control of fungi in infected stock. 
This treatment might be applied to special classes of wood stock 
where the margin of profit would justify the extra cost. 
THE CHEMICAL TREATMENT OF GREEN WOOD STOCK. 
Many attempts have been made to find some chemical compound 
or mixture that, when applied as a dip, will control sap-stain and 
mold in green timber. A great many substances have been tried, but 
none have proved entirely satisfactory. Under conditions not par¬ 
ticularly favorable to the growth of fungi, several have met with 
considerable success. On the other hand, if the conditions were 
stimulating to fungous growth, the same substances often failed. 
Some treatments depend for their efficiency upon the neutralization 
of the acids in the wood and, at the same time, the establishment of 
