Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1898-12-02
LUMBER YARD SKILL
SCIENCE IN BUILDING THE HUGE
STACKS OF TIMBER.

u OIE"N HfELFs4E
Each Variety of Wood Requires .
Particular Treatment Of Exposure
That 1t May Become Properly Sea.
soned.
1t would certainly seem to the unob-
servant man that of all places in the world
p city lumber yard was the dullest. That
there is omance or any conceivable inter-
fst in heaps Of timber, stacked high up in
the air, he would hardly admit. Even
those who get their bread and butter in
the trade acknowledge no enthusiasm and
workmen do. Until you enter into its
mysteries, therefore, the lumber trade is
very prosaic and a lumber yard but q
sleepy place. hardly worth a moments no.
|tice.
Once in amid the stacks, however, the
point of view changes. What at q distance
seemed simply wood without distinctions
now is seen to be timber of many different
sorts. Each variety has its heap or heaps;
each heap Is now in process of season
ing" Some of these stacks may lie there
for months, some even for years, growing
meanwhile more and more valuable, for
ft Is age, sun baths, the effect of the at
mosphere, that improve lumber week in
and week out. A lumber yard, carelessly
arranged as it may seem to be, is never
theless the perfection Of precision. Its
heaps are by nc means 'just wood" as
they appear to the casual passerby. On
the contrary, they are scores of varieties,
each subject to some especial treatment,
each piled in some especial manner, some
to wait over so many weeks to be sold at
"a certain figure, SO man more weeks II
designed to bring q higher price.
Towering up in the mir 80, 40 feet, some.
times SO, again even 60, stretch these lum.
Der heaps. Each variety needs a treatment
of its own. Some must lie in the open
air, exposed to oil fashions of wind and
rain, others after a little time must be put
under q sort of covered shed-a she'd that
has only a back and Eyebrow" roof that
projects far over in a sort of hood and al
lows a free and constant circulation of
wind and air.
Verify, there is a science in this stack
ing of wood, q science that does not ap.
pear or show itself at the first glance. The
lumberman is not only he who up in the
North woods, in the far east or west, down
south or in the tropics selects, cuts down
and hews, but quite as much the man in
the heart of New York city who heaps up
the sticks and by arranging them deity
and, knowing just what they need, cares
for and cures them until out they come
well seasoned lumber.
There is wen a trick and q pretty art in
stacking these lengths of wood, each hun
dreds Of pounds in weight. Danger hangs
over the men who mount the piles and
from their elevated perches pull up or
swing down the huge "sticks." The bal
ance of the workman up aloft is not easily
preserved. The weight Of the "stick" may
cause him to topple at any instant. Espe-
eially when 'sletting down" must he see
to it that he let's 60 at precisely the right
second, else the 'tstick'' will drag him
along with it, despite his efforts and strug-
giles. On top Of a lumber pile very truly
does the city lumberman take his life into
his own hands. And yet such is their skill
that an accident seldom happens. These
men juggle with the sticks at once SO
clumsy and so heavy with the ease of q
Japanese master of tricks. The lengths Of
wood are handed up end first. The man
on the ground raises one, men IN a stag
ing above grasp it, draw it up and swing
its end to q staging beyond. Two stag
ings usually suffice. When a pile is not at
its topmost. one is all that is necessary.
These stagings are built out from the lum-
Der itself and form what would seem to be
precarious and unsafe platforms. They
are none too steady at the best. Yet some
how they never break, and the n danger
a man has to fear is losing his balance and
falling from them.
A lumber stack of we'll seasoned oak
some 80 feet high may be easily worth
$1,000. One inch maple (for the purposes
Of oomparison) that has laid in stack for
INT year would be valued at about one
half the price Of the oak. Spruce, again,
is figured, under similar conditions of
seasoning, at about three-flfths the figure
Of the maple. But all this depends. Cir
oumstances govern the value of the woods.
The seasoning gradually drives out the
water and reduces the weight. 1t is we'll
worth knowing, as an independent fact,
that 40 per cent of the weight of q green
tree consists of water.
The technical terms about q lumber