28 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



While the percentage of waste varies greatly in different parts 

 of the country and in different operations, it appears that in pro- 

 ducing forty billion feet of lumber in the United States the fol- 

 lowing quantities of material, expressed in terms of cubic feet of 

 the original tree, have not reached best use at the mills: 



900 million cubic feet of wood in sawdust 



550 " " ' slabs 



550 " " ■* " *' ' edgings and trimmings 



230 " ■■ " careless manufacture and acci- 



dents 



133 " " standard lengths and widths 



1,000 ■■ ■■ '■ •■ bnrk 



Taking the loss in stumps, tops, broken and defective trees, and 

 trees left for other reasons, in the ratio to production as reported in 

 Wisconsin, 5,700 million cubic feet of such material is left in the 

 woods annually. The total quantity of all material amounts by 

 these estimates to approximately 9 billion cubic feet, or the equiva- 

 lent of 100 million cords. Of this about one-third is sawmill waste. 



The species furnishing the greatest quantities of material and 

 the most material at a single point are, of course, yellow pine in 

 the South, Douglas fir and redwood in the West, and white pine 

 and hemlock in the North. Yellow pine furnishes over a third of 

 these totals. 



CONVERSION OF THE LOG AND WASTE MATERIAL IN FURTHER MANU- 

 FACTURE 



This phase of the subject in fact must include present efficiency 

 in the manufacture of lumber, the present disposition of the lower 

 grades, and the unusual use of waste material. 



Waste wood can now be used to a limited extent either by fur- 

 ther manufacture, resulting in the production of certain classes of 

 short lumber and small wooden articles, or as the raw material in 

 industries in which it loses its identity as wood through mechanical 

 distintegration or chemical processes. In the- latter case such 

 articles as wood pulp, alcohol, etc., are produced. Small mills, for 

 reasons which will be shown later, are chiefly limited to the first 

 method in the utilization of their waste, while the problems of the 

 large operations apparently must be met by both, but largely by the 

 chemical industries. 



While much has been accomplished, there are many reasons 

 operating to prevent the general use of wood waste in manufacture 

 of wooden articles or products other than lumber. First, there may 

 not be enough waste annually at a given point to warrant the 

 installation of the special machinery required; second, the waste 

 may be of innumerable sizes, shapes and species, and the cost of 

 sorting thereby made prohibitive; third, location of supply and 

 markets may be such f;hat freight charges would absorb the profits; 

 fourth, the fuel value of the material may be greater than the 

 profits from further manufacture; fifth, the market for the product 

 may be very limited; sixth, the necessary machinery may be ill 

 adapted to handling the form of waste or not open to general use 

 on account of patents. It is, therefore, a distinct problem in each 

 ' locality and for each mill. 



On the other hand, if the amount of waste is relatively large, 

 the sizes and shapes few in number, the market for the product not 

 too distant or overstocked, it often happens that wood waste can 

 be profitably made into other articles. The opportunities for 

 unusual applications of this method are greatest in connection with 

 the more valuable hardwoods, and least often feasible in the case 

 of cheap coniferous woods. There are a number of localities where 

 the waste of hardwood mills can be converted into squares and 

 other small dimension stock for the use of nearby furniture fac- 

 tories, novelty mills and other wood industries. The present diffi- 

 culties lie in the disposal of assorted lengths instead of a few 

 sizes, the assembling of sufficient quantities of this material sub- 

 ject to regular shipment to several industries, incompetent manu- 

 facture of the stock, and loss in handling due to checking, stain, 

 etc. Some central agency in such localities would often solve the 

 difficulties mentioned above. As practical miljmen, you know now 

 about how far it is profitable to manufacture lath, box lumber, 

 moldings, pickets, etc., from material which might not otherwise 

 be used. 



Short hardwood parquetry flooring stock is common in Europe, 

 while here it is common to see hardwood flooring cut into 12-inch 

 lengths by carpenters laying flooring in patterns in apartment 

 houses. In France short pine pieces are used for pine parquetry 

 flooring, which is often laid direct on the joists in the herring 

 bone pattern, the joints being thus supported by the joists. This 

 utilizes short flooring less than two feet long of uniform size. 

 No market exists at present for this stock in this country, but it 

 offers a suggestion. This example is representative of manj' similar 

 ones and illustrates the opportunity and the difficulties. 



The manufacture of paving blocks is one of the growing uses 

 of wood in this country which deserves your attention. The equiva- 

 lent of 10,000,000 cubic feet of lumber was used for paving in 1911. 

 Strong coniferous woods which take a heavy creosote oil treatment 

 readily will probably prove most acceptable for this use. In Europe 

 the heavy, dense hardwoods, up to this time, have not given 

 results equal to treated conifers. The complete list of American 

 woods which will give satisfactory service as paving has not been 

 determined and test pavements should be laid to test them. The 

 installation of a wood preserving plant permits the treatment of 

 paving blocks, crossties sawn from the poorest part of the log, poles 

 and piling. Such a plant permits greater flexibility in the utili- 

 zation of the timber in the woods and the products of the mill 

 since the durability of timber can be brought up to commercial 

 requirements of wood preserving processes. The growth of these 

 processes and the amounts of material treated in the United States 

 in the past ten years has been remarkable. 



In favorable situations it is desirable that other industries be 

 conducted in conjunction with lumbering for closer utilization. 

 For instance, there are cases where cooperage manufacture, pole 

 and tie production and lumbering are conducted on the same opera- 

 tion profitably. Trees and other material which would be left in 

 the woods by the lumberman can be utilized by the cooperage manu- 

 facturer. The manufacture of such stock, however, from mill 

 waste or slabs will not likely prove profitable, except in the case 

 of heading under certain conditions. 



The box industry, which aids greatly in utilizing the tree, is 

 injured by that competition within and outside the industry which 

 forces down the quality of the package by a lack of standards. 

 The loss to shippers and railroads through improper packing is 

 enormous. In my judgment, one of the best steps which could be 

 taken would be to work out standard strength and other require- 

 ments for all the leading classes of shipping containers, through 

 co-operation between the manufacturers of all such containers, the 

 shippers and the railroads. Such tests should be reduced to a 

 scientific basis. The standards could be made obligatory or ship- 

 ment refused. The best form in which material can be used in 

 order to manufacture the strongest container for a given purpose at 

 a cost limit needs to be determined. 



The veneer industry is growing very fast and making good use 

 of the material handled, largely gum. In some cases even the 

 cores are being sold to paper mills for manufacture into pulp, used 

 as mine rollers or cut into crating for vegetables. More gum mine 

 rollers are used in Pennsylvania than any other wood. Formerly 

 maple was preferred. The growing tendency to market fruit and 

 vegetables in fancy packages is increasing the market for cheap 

 veneer, while the use of built-up lumber is increasing rapidly. 



The lumber associations can assist utilization in important ways. 

 In transportation, differential rates for low-grade lumlier and low 

 rates for mill waste would help considerably. It is their work to 

 increase the use of odd lengths and short lengths and to see that 

 specifications of important consuming industries are adapted to 

 the material which can best be furnished. The Forest Service is 

 doing considerable work along this line. 



The article then reviewed the possibilities of close utilization 

 through turpentine extraction from waste and through the manu- 

 facture of wood pulp. 



In the destructive distillation process the wood is heated in a 

 retort until it is broken down chemically, vaporizing a number of 

 compounds which are later recovered. Turpentine, charcoal and tar 



