Hello again eveyone:

It seems that we are all learning a bit from each post, Ken yours was very scientific and interesting, I sort of agree that growth slows to a real c-r-a-w-l when the weather is -30 in this part of the hemisphere. The trees get so cold that frost can split them, a rarity but it does happen.

My opinion is that if there is a best time for cropping logs for harvest it would be when as much of the moisture, sap or whatever is not present, and in my books that would be in the slowest growing season, to me it just makes common sense, and less moisture to get rid of in the drying process.

I do realize though that commercial lumber harvesting goes on throughout the whole year, and plays no favourite when it comes to seasons.

All the major mills would and did float their logs to the mills if that means of transportation was available, it was the cheapest, and it kept the logs from drying out too fast before sawing happened.

The waterpowered sawmills usually required and had a good 3 or 4 acre mill pond to accomodate logs, with the only problem being bark and debris floating into the raceways and jamming the turbines.

Hardwood logs though would sink and needed to be handled in adifferent manner than softwood like pine which would not sink.

We would just roll in the hardwood logs along the shorelines, and when the water level was down in the mill pond, and we needed say an oak log for a particular purpose we would attach a mooring line that we could use to retrieve it when needed.

It seems to me that water seems to be different than natural moisture, and does not seem to be as much of a problem to remove as the natural juices, and if anything imparts an improvement to the quality of the lumber. I have had some of the old sawyers say to me over the years that "if you want good quality lumber float your logs for a while before sawing"

Small country sawmills situated away from water sources and powered by diesel, or steam engines (originally) didn't have access to water sources on any great scale, and the logs simply were cut and brought to the mill, sawn and then trucked home and piled until curing or use was needed, which ever come first.

NH