The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1913-12-03
FINE LECTURE ON
LUMBER GRADING
A. w. COOPER, SECRETARY OF
WESTERN PINE MANUFACTURE
ERS ASSOCIATION TALKED.
Addressed the Forestry Club at the
University and His Remarks Were
Most Instructive.

MOSC INSTRUCTIVE.
Monday evening Mr. A. w. Cooper
secretary of the Western Pine Manu-.
facturers association, addressed the
Forestry club of the university on the
subject Of Lumber Grading and In
spection.'' The lecture was extremely
interesting and instructive not only
to the foresters, but to all others pres
ent, as it was not too technical to be
easily understood by anyone.
Mr.. Cooper began his lecture with
a general definition of lumber grading.
He said:
Grading is nothing more or less
than the practical recognition that all
the same quality or value" By the
process of grading then boards are
thrown into classes. These classes
were at first few, but with time have
increased with the increasing number
of uses of wood.
| The history of lumber grading has
| followed, geographically, the progress
of the lumber industry. 1t began in
Maine and spread to the lake states,
becoming more and more highly de-
veloped with the development and
perfecting of mill machinery
Was Much Confusion.
There was no uniformity in the
grades of lumber put out by various
mills and this led to endless confusion
and loss to the manufacturers. These
manufacturers finally decided that the
only remedy was to form an associa-
ton to promulgate uniform grading OF
lumber. The Mississippi valley lum-
bermen first organized and issued
printed rules for lumber grading. They
also employed an inspector to travel
around to all the mills to see that the
graders interpreted the rules correct
ly.
The Mississippi valley rules do not
adequately describe the lumber of the
Inland Empire so three years ago The
Western Pine Manufactures rules
were adopted, modelled after the Miss
issippi valley rules, but changed to
suit local conditions.
THE effort to classify the prod
uct of the log has gone hand in hand
with the uses to which the lumber is
put" For example, board with large
coarse knots would hardly be suita-
BILE for the interior finish of a nice
ly built house, while the same board |
would answer perfectly for purposes
specialized the uses of wood be-
come, the more grades are necessary. |
The Grading Rules.
Grading rules are only statements
in general way what type of lumber
dozen or more examples are given for
every rule. This of course makes it
necessary for the grader to use his
Judgment in their application. There
uldy U0 ulucICuI lAlcl PISIdtlOuS VI
these rules by different mills, so it
IS necessary that in every lumber dis
-rict there must be a central organiza-
lion which will constitute standard,
and by inspection of the grading at all
mills, see that the lumbermen live up
to this standard. Lumber is not a
Uniform commodity and two graders at
points will not grade alike
1nless they are checked up by an in
spector who keeps the grading in his
district uniform.
Buyers as a rule regard a grade as
/ fixed line, while it more nearly re-
;embled the space between two lines
Tor example if all the boards cut from
me tree were laid side by side in or
Ter, from the best board down to the
poorest, and we should at intervals ,
raw lines separating these boards
nto groups, we should be doing ex- :
city what grading rules attempt to {
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