The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1916-06-10
ANNUAL WOOD WASTE
Government Investigators Estimate 1t at
$4,000. 900 Cords.

There are more than $4,000 sawmill:
in the United States, and their output
of waste in the form of sawdust, shaw
Iings, slabs, and other wood refuse Is
estimated as 36000000 cords per year
four and one-half billion cubic feet OF
waste, which is the capacity of bin
one half mile high with base covering
forty-acre lot. Or, considering each
lcord to contain eight cubic feet of solid
wood with all the cracks and air spaces
taken out, these 36.000,000 cords would
make block OF " d more than quar-
ter of a mile on each edge.
Perhaps one half of this so-called
waste product is not strictly speaking
wasted, but serves a useful purpose as
fuel under the boilers. Much of the re-
naming Is million cords not only serves
no useful purpose, but in most cases is
a source OF inconvenience and danger,
and costs the mill time and money.
Sawmill waste is disposed Of in vari-
GUS ways. Some goes to the local fuel
market, some to pulp mills or to wood
distillation plants. sShayings and hog
cuttings, as well as other mill waste,
are sometimes used to fill low places in
the yard. However the most common
method of getting rid of waste is by
burning either in fire. pit having an
open fire which sometimes has protect
ing wall on the side towards the mill, or
in burner enclosed on all sides and hay-
ing a spark-srresting screen at the top
and fire CRATE near the bottom. In
both cases some kind of conveyor is
10 he az from tha
mill to the fire. This is usually sort
of trough with metal bottom along
which slowly moving chain or cable,
equipped with cleats or buckets, carries
the waste to the fire.
A closed burner and conveyor costs
about $4,000 for mill OF a hundred
thousand feet daily capacity. Forty
per cent of the larger mills, cutting
more than $4,000 board feet daily. are
equipped with closed burners. Forty,
five per cent have frepits. The remain
der have neither and dispose of their
waste in some other way.
1t is estimated that for mill of
one hundred thousand feet capacity the |
cost of conveying the waste from the !
machine where it is made and destroying !
IL III CLOSED BURNER Is " CeHls per Colu
or $l0.05 per day Burners seldom bring
in any revenue, although in a few cases
ashes are sold for fertilizer, and in
number of Others the burners furnishes
hot feed water for the boiler.
Both burners and fire. pits add to the
insurance rates on lumber, and in the
,ase of the pit on the mill itself. In
order to reduce the fire hazard to zero,
N the case of the burners, it is necessary
70 keep all lumber piles at least one hun
ired and fifty feet away from the Burn
,r. The matter is much worse in the
,ase of pits, especially the open ones,
which must be kept three hundred feet
away from the mill and five hundred
eet away from any lumber piles. When
nearer than these distances from the
Mill and yard respectively, the insurance
.stes mount up rapidly with closer prox-
nifty until they become practically pro-
libitive when the fre-pit is. nearer than
me hundred feet.
No well managed mill would produce
waste If it could be avoided. This, how
yer, is not possible, so the next best
hing is to seek out some method of
tilization of the waste so it will pay
or its disposition. The forest service
) working on this problem, but has not
ct found satisfactory solution.