Determining the effect of storage conditions on the natural drying of radiata pine logs for energy use

New Zealand Journal of Forestry Science

Table 3 Comparison of moisture content wet-basis obtained through destructive gravimetric sampling (Actual, MC _wb ) and stack weighing (Predicted, MC _diff )

Season	Size	Treatment	Actual MC_wb^1,2	SD	Predicted MC_diff^1,2	SD	Difference
Summer	Small	Uncovered	21.3 a	1.5	18.0	2.9	3.3
	Small	Covered	24.8 b	2.2	23.0	1.2	1.8
	Large	Covered	33.5 c	3.4	32.0	1.5	1.5
	Large	Covered & Split	27.0 b	3.7	20.0	0.5	7.0
Winter	Small	Uncovered	44.9 d	7.3	47.5	1.5	-2.6
	Small	Covered	45.8 d	7.5	51.9	10.5	-6.1
	Large	Covered	45.8 d	5.0	51.9	-	-6.1
	Large	Covered & Split	44.9 d	8.8	45.9	-	-1.0
	Large	Uncovered	50.3 d	7.4	55.8	-	-5.5
	Large	Uncovered & Split	50.9 d	8.5	48.4	-	2.5

¹At 24 weeks for the summer trial and 17 weeks for the winter trial.
²Average initial moisture content was 53.2% for the summer trial and 57.7% for the winter trial (all treatments).
Note: different letters on the average values in the same column indicate differences with statistical significance at the 5% level.