WOOD for Different Uses Needs Different Degrees of Dryness

Dry wood will absorb moisture from a damp atmosphere and wet wood will lose moisture to a dry atmosphere.  These changes may take several weeks or longer to become complete, since daily fluctuations in atmospheric humidity have a slight effect upon the dryness of wood. However, wood in use changes in dryness from season to season, and as these changes take place they are accompanied by swelling and shrinking.  Changes in dryness, particularly rapid changes in large timbers, are apt to damage the wood. Keeping wagons, implements, and other articles made wholly or partly of wood under cover will serve to hold the damage to a minimum.

Lumber to be used in a warm, dry place, like the inside of a house, should be correspondingly dry ; if time permits, it can be brought to the proper dryness by leaving it in such a place for several months. Lumber to be used in barns or sheds need not be so dry. Posts and lumber for fences can often be rather green without detracting from their usefulness.

Lumber air dried during the summer may pick up moisture if left outdoors all winter, and it is becoming very common for lumber manufacturers and users to put dry stock under cover in the fall. If reasonably dry, it can be piled compactly and will then pick up moisture much more slowly than if piled in open stacks, and, of course, still more slowly than if left outdoors.