mattter. When it comes to length and strength. Occasionally a board is just to short to make the part you need. One solution other than going to find a longer workpiece is to join two or more pieces together end to end. This is not normally a good choice but there are work arounds that make end to end acceptable. End grain to end grain is a problem waiting to happen but exposing side grain or face grain with large glue surfaces and/or mechanical joinery possibilities can save the day.
http://www.woodmagazine.com/woodworking ... end-to-end