\Sprinkling With Water Protects Hardwood Logs In Storage

In a study at Helena; Arkansas, sprinkling hardwood logs during summer storage greatly reduced degrade caused by stain and insects. Logs of four Southern species were stored for 16 weeks starting July 18, 1962. The study was conducted cooperatively by the Southern Hardwoods Laboratory and the Chicago Mill and Lumber Company. While Western softwood and Northern hardwood mills have been using this system of storage for many years, hardwood mills in the South have adopted it only recently. The Chicago Mill and Lumber Company initiated a program of log sprinkling at its Helena, Arkansas, and Tallulah, Louisiana, mills during the summer of 1962. Perforated hoses, stretched over the piled logs, provide full-time wetting, as shown in the accompanying illustration. At the two yards, a total of about five million board feet of logs have been under spray at one time. The study tested full-time spraying and two schedules of intermittent spraying: (1) 12 hours on during the day and 12 hours off at night, (2) 30 minutes on and 30 minutes off all around the elock. For comparison, some logs were stored unsprayed. Thirty-six logs-nine each of red oak, sweet gum, hackberry, and cottonwood -were stored by each of these four methods. Thus the total number of logs in the test was 144. All logs had been cut less than two weeks before they were put into storage. They rangeo from 12 to 16 inches in diameter and from 14 to 16 feet in length. Three logs of each species in each storage treatment were examined for degrade at three intervals over the 16-week period.