HARDWOOD RECORD 



27 



and grow for centuries, as it is known to do in its native country. 

 It is unquestionably the most interesting tree of this great group of 

 evergreen trees. The general characters of its shoots, even when 

 the tree is young, are singularly bold and picturesque, and quite 

 different from that of every other tree of this tribe. The leaves 

 are usually eight together, ovate, lance-shaped, thickened at the 

 base, stiff, straight, with persistent sharp points at the tips. The 

 cones are globular at the ends of the branches and about the size 

 of a man 's head. The scales are beautifully imbricated. 



In its native country this tree attains a height of from eighty to 

 one hundred feet, with a trunk like a pillar. The crown is shaped 



like a depressed cone, the side branches proceeding from the trunk 

 in a horizontal direction, and ascending slightly at the tips. Over 

 those branches, which arc arranged in whorls, the leaves are thickly 

 set, like scales, which give an appearance of richly-embossed work. 

 From the thick coating of leaves, which pervades the whole outline 

 of the tree, an idea of brittleness is conveyed to the mind. The 

 wood, however, was successfully used in shipbuilding in 1780, for 

 which it is peculiarly suited. The tree is also particularly orna- 

 mental, and no plant can be used with greater effect in distin- 

 guishing particular spots of country appropriated to art. It 

 should be on every lawn. It is both elegant and unique. L. L. D. 



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0:, More Efficient Wood Utilization 



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Editor's Note 



The following is a report of the speech delivered by 0. T. Swan of the United States Forest Service before 

 the annual meeting of the North Carolina Pine Association, Norfolk, Va., March 20; " ^' "^^"^^ 



Eising stumpage values, increasing costs of production, and a 

 market at times liable to oversupply and always subject to com- 

 petition from other materials, have turned the attention of lumber 

 manufacturers during the recent years to the possibilities of secur- 

 ing increased profits from stumpage through better utilization. 

 It is in fact the competition of wood substitutes which is forcing 

 the attention of lumbermen to this question since through closer 

 utilization on a large scale it is hoped to secure a more profitable 

 and a more stable industry notwithstanding other limits of the 

 lumber market. The vulnerable points of the lumber industry and 

 the possible extent of substitution may be more clearly seen by 

 noting the quantity of lumber used for different purposes and 

 determining in which uses wood has a natural monopoh'. Esti- 

 mates made by the Office of Wood Utilization subsequent to sta- 

 tistical studies of the amount of wood consumed by all the wood- 

 using factories in twenty states indicate that about thirty per cent 

 of the entire lumber cut goes into planing mill products, where 

 competing materials are weakest. About twenty-six per cent goes 

 into rough lumber and structural timbers, where it meets steel, 

 brick, and concrete. About ten per cent goes into boxes and 

 crating where fiber and veneer are having their peculiar effects 

 on the industry. About five per cent goes into car construction 

 and is to no small extent being driven out by steel. Over three 

 per cent goes into furniture and two per cent into vehicles where 

 the peculiar and valuable qualities of wood offer strong resistance 

 to any encroachment of other materials. Two per cent of the cut 

 is used for sawed ties and there is now no substitute for the 

 wooden tie. Over five per cent is exported. This quantity wiU 

 probably increase greatly since the United States is one of the 

 few great timber-producing countries. The remainder of the lum- 

 ber produced, or about fifteen per cent, goes into a great many 

 miscellaneous uses.* In all of these leading avenues of wood 

 consumption which I have mentioned, with the exception of that 

 of crossties and export stock, wood is subject to the competition 

 of other materials, and advancing cost of wood for these purposes 

 will tend strongly to bring about the increased use of the com- 

 peting products. 



In those articles for which wood possesses valuable qualities, 

 which present substitutes lack, or in those articles in which the 

 cost of the wood used is a relatively small per cent of the cost of 

 the finished product, wood can meet competition. But in those 

 classes of products in which the cost of the wood used is a high 

 per cent of the cost of the finished article, and for which more or 

 less suitable substitutes are available, wood is liable to gradual 

 commercial displacement as its cost to the consumer increases or. 

 as the cost of sustitutes decreases. Further, there is a distinct 



*When the final figures for all states are available it Is believed that 

 the modification, if any. of these estimates will be in the direction of a 

 larger per cent of lumber in construction. 



trend toward a cheaper production of substitutes and toward more 

 permanent construction. 



From this it appears that it may be difficult to continue indefi- 

 nitely to market annually the present average total product of 

 the lumber mills it economic conditions force a continual rise in 

 price of lumber for some of these major uses. Certain species 

 and certain grades of lumber can compete with substitutes, even 

 at considerably higher values than at present. It is the output of 

 the mills as a whole — the disposition of large quantities of certain 

 woods — which presents a difficult situation. Decreased output 

 will not balance this possible conditio^ since the higher grades 

 will probably be required in present or greater quantities. On the 

 other hand, the natural increase of the country in population, the 

 development of new uses for wood and the growth of the world 

 demand for timber reflected in the export trade are counter- 

 balancing factors of great weight, Nevertheless, the outlook 

 demands that waste products of this industry be made to produce 

 revenue and that present conversion methods be improved. 



Wood, in its course from the tree to the finished article, is 

 subject to greater losses than any other important raw material, 

 since much less than one-half of the tree reaches the final user of 

 the wood. The bulk of this loss of raw material has been necessary 

 to the processes of conversion, to the cost limits in handling or 

 transportation, to the practical requirements of commercial grading, 

 or to the lack of definitely proven profitable systems of close utiliza- 

 tion having general applicability. No one of these limiting factors 

 is fixed and it is worth while to have in mind what utilization 

 changes can follow changes in these limits. Conversion processes 

 have steadily improved, new machines reduce handling costs, trans- 

 portation charges are not unchanging, commercial grades often fail 

 to meet specifications for new uses properly, while there is a con- 

 stant advance in the knowledge of processes by which further 

 products can be made from wood in its waste forms, 



QUANTITIES AND FORMS OP WASTE 



In order to find out just how much waste material is available 

 the Office of Wood Utilization secured reports from a large number 

 of the most prominent sawmills in the state of Wisconsin, showing 

 the quantities and forms of waste in that state. Reports from 136 

 mills, cutting 860,000,000 feet, show that they have available 

 annually 576,000 cords of sawmill waste, and 1,373,000 cords of 

 wood waste, making a total of 1,949,000 cords. Thirty-five per cent 

 of the total is sawmill waste, the remainder being woods waste. 

 This material will cost, on an average, $2,12 per cord f. 0. b. 

 car at the mill, with an additional cost of 30 cents per cord for 

 sorting the species for separate shipment. The woods waste may 

 be purchased at an average price of $3 f, 0. b. car at the mill. 

 About one-third of the mill waste is now sold or used as fuel. Con- 

 ditions, as reported in Wisconsin, are duplicated in the other 

 lumber producing states to a greater or less extent. 



