FOREST SERVICE. 339 



•drying common lumber, benefiting 40 per cent of the Douglas fir 

 •cut. A similar investigation on a larger scale was started in coop- 

 eration with the Southern Pine Association, where the annual losses 

 due to improper drying of southern pine aggregate $10,000,000 an- 

 nually. The practices of southern pine manufacturers in five States 

 were surveyed and drying experiments conducted which showed 

 how to eliminate most of their losses without additional expense. 



The laboratory is continually bringing to light sources of waste 

 and loss in the use of wood. In one sense practically all forest- 

 products investigations are designed to reduce waste. Yet accu- 

 rate statistics have been collected as to the extent of only a few of 

 these losses. For preliminary research on the technical phases of 

 a problem, it has been sufficient in most cases to know that the wastes 

 were there and were of considerable proportions. One of the more 

 recent undertakings of the laboratory is a more exact measurement of 

 the wastes encountered in all of its field and factory studies and an 

 assembling of this statistical information with the object of pre- 

 senting a more graphic, comprehensive, and convincing picture of 

 the present inefficiency in wood utilization. Such figures will make 

 it possible to point out to the industries many losses that can be 

 eliminated without further technical research, to determine more 

 precisely the point to wiiich refinement in factory processes may 

 profitably be carried, and to lay out more certainly the future course 

 of research in forest products. Waste in part unavoidable, but in 

 part preventable, now amounts according to the best data available 

 to about 41 per cent of the total volume of timber cut from the for- 

 ests. The reduction of this waste is as essential a part of forest 

 conservation as the prevention of forest fires or the growing of tim- 

 ber crops. 



INVESTIGATIONS IN FOREST ECONOMICS. 



The problems of timber supply and forest-land use in the United 

 States are at bottom economic problems. One of the primary requi- 

 sites of the present situation is detailed and accurate facts on present 

 and future timber supplies and consumption, on forest-land use in 

 relation to agriculture, on timber and forest-land taxation, on the 

 transportation of forest products, on timber values, and on the 

 prices of lumber and other forest products. 



Enough is now known about many of these questions to make clear 

 the broad lines along which action must be taken, but the public, 

 as well as individual industries, is handicapped by the lack of 

 specific information. The pulp and paper situation is a case in 

 point. General information is available, but the detailed facts on 

 pulpwood supplies in specified States and regions are so meager 

 that it is exceedingly difficult for the Forest Service to give the 

 industry satisfactory assistance in planning for its future. 



One of the most important of these economic questions concerns 

 the kind, quality, and distribution of existing timber supplies and 

 their availability for various purposes. Exact knowledge is also 

 needed on the present requirements of individual industries as to 

 the amount and quality of timber. Such information will give per- 

 rnanency and stability to industries and safeguard the public against 

 disastrous fluctuations and shifts. 



