Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

Western Carolina University (20) View all

Hardwood Bark, 1928

Item
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Item’s are ‘child’ level descriptions to ‘parent’ objects, (e.g. one page of a whole book).

  • News and Personals from the Field should be sent so as to be in the Editor's hands before the 18th of the month. Shortening of articles, due to space limitations sometimes is necessary, but care will be taken to preserve the writer's meaning in every case. The Seasonal Cutting and Drying of Lumber By J. W. Damron and B. E. Mansberger The belief that lumber is more desirable when fall and winter felled than when spring and summer felled is not uncommon among lumbermen. The sap, including soluble part of a tree which is said to be up in the spring and summer and down in the fall and winter, is believed by many to contain properties which materially affect the seasoning and durability of wood. If the sap of a tree is up in the summer and down in the winter, it becomes necessary to assume that a larger percentage of moisture should be present in the lumber cut during the summer than was that cut in the winter. However, numerous experiments which have been made to determine moisture content of lumber cut during the different seasons of the year have failed to substantiate the theory that a greater amount of sap is present in the spring than in the fall. The results obtained show that the amount of sap in seasonal sap content in the tree, in order to account for the injurious effects such as stain, decay, check, and insect destruction, which are indeed more evident in spring and summer sawn lumber than that sawn in the fall and winter. Why then, is winter-cut lumber more desirable from the lumberman's point of view than lumber cut during the summer months? Because of the existing difference of temperature and moisture in the air over these periods of the year. During the warm, humid summer months when the moist, newly cut lumber is piled on the yards for drying, it is quite necessary to make a choice between two evils: that of piling the lumber very openly and in places where a favorable circulation, together with a high summer temperature, will very likely check an appreciable amount of the lumber during its rapid course of drying, or on the other hand, piling the lumber closely to prevent Lumber being air dried on the yard at Nantahala, North Carolina. present in the tree is practically the same for all seasons of the year. Considering the sap as remaining practically the same throughout the entire year, it becomes necessary that an effort be made to place the blame on something other.than a difference checking, thus retarding the seasoning process. Such piling is often done in low, damp places where there is but little sunshine and little or no circulation evident. These conditions naturally permit a very slow rate of drying to take place from the surface of the green lumber. It has been observed that a great amount of stain, decay, and insect destruction is encouraged by piling lumber where it is permitted to come into close proximity with unsound and decaying vegetable matter, for it is here that the breeding places of stain and decay diseases are prevalent and ready to be carried to other unaffected parts of the lumber. Which of these two evils is the lesser depends Six
Object
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Object’s are ‘parent’ level descriptions to ‘children’ items, (e.g. a book with pages).