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Hardwood Record — Veneer & Panel Section 



June 25, 1919 



improvements that will increase the safety of operation, then they 

 realize that he means business and then they are usually ready 

 to give him whole-hearted co-operation in his efforts to reduce 

 accidents. 



Russian Lumber Industry 



Roger E. Simmons, trade commissioner, U. S. Depart- 

 ment of Commerce, addressed the meeting on the subject 

 of the Russian lumber industry, and the economic aspect 

 of bolshevism as it has manifested itself in Russia. The 

 speaker was in Russia during the first year of the revolu- 

 tion and witnessed the rise of bolshevism. That portion 

 of his address dealing with the lumber situation was 

 largely statistical. 



There was a meeting in 1912, in Paris, of the foresters of the 

 world, who undertook to estimate the stands of timber in the 

 world. The result of their deliberations was the figure of 4,12 7,- 

 000,000 acres of standing timber. Of that vast area, according 

 to continents, the Americas led with 38.7 per cent; Europe, 18.8; 

 Asia, 23.1 : Australia, 5.7; Africa, 13.7 per cent. 



in Africa, Australia, South and Central America, the composi- 

 tion of the forests is of hard, dense tropical woods which are not 

 suitable for commercial purposes. In the quantities of stands of 

 marketable woods it was concluded that there were three billion 

 acres of such forest, of which Russia leads with 45.2 per cent, 

 Canada, 26.7; United States, 20.2, and the European countries 

 with the insignificant amounts from 1.7 to 4 per cent. 



Russia owns nearly one-half of the standing timber of the world, 

 and in the export markets of the world Russia is the crux of the 

 situation. Over three-quarters of the timber area in Russia is 

 pine and spruce. Birch is small and insignificant for merchant- 

 able purposes. Along the Amur river in Manchuria are 90,000,- 

 000 acres of timber, similar in species to that in the north of our 

 own country. Exploitation has been very limited so far. There 



VENEERS AND PANELS 



REY EL 

 |[' MAPLE 

 BASSWOOD 



RHINELANDER, WIS. 



were 18 sawmills cutting about 350,000,000 feet before the w^ar. 

 There is also a modern equipped veneer plant situated near 

 Vladivostok, cutting principally oak, pine, ash and basswood. Its 

 output was in the neighborhood of 800 tons of veneers to England 

 just before the war. In this section grows the widely known 

 Siberian oak. The oak stands by itself and Vk'ould not average 

 over five to six inches, breast high in diameter. 



The foresters of that section who were educated in Germany — 



and the association of manufacturers assured me that there was 

 not enough oak, sawlog size, or veneer size, to supply in raw 

 material another industry as large as that veneer factory now 

 utilizing oak. About one million and a half feet, log scale, is all 

 the oak that that veneer manufacturer is able to get hold of. You 

 are never going to have, therefoie, any great competition for oak 

 lumber or veneers from eastern Siberia. 



When you come to the ash, basswood and elm, the average is 24 

 inches, breast high, and it opens up very well, the trees coming 

 down solid. I believe in the future the hardwood industry will 

 be of some size and importance, but that is going to be years in 

 the future. The rest of Siberia, in what is known as the Tundra, 

 contains principally a mossy growth. 



In the Caucasus it is principally Circassian walnut and split oak 

 staves and very difficult to work. The forests comprise 40 per 

 cent of beech, 2 I per cent of oak, about 1 7 per cent pine and 

 spruce, and the rest innumerable hardwoods. The pine and 

 spruce would average about 4 ft. in diameter, the oak between 

 24 and 36 inches That is the section where a valuable hardwood 

 industry will be developed some day, and it offers a great op- 

 portunity, especially to the makers of veneers and panels. It will 

 require considerable railroad building to get out those logs. 



On the Archangel section the material is logged down the river 

 to the city of Archangel. In the central section, which supplies 

 60 per cent for local consumption and 40 per cent for export, 

 the lumber is transported through the canal which Peter the 

 Great established. All material exported, principally softwoods, 

 is put into barges which at the end of the journey are sold for 

 wreckage, as they are never used again. 



In the sections of the south, the timber is not merchantable, 

 and is only cut for fuel. The 20,000,000 acres of hardwoods 

 situated along the w^estern part of Russia, along the Baltic, supply 

 the veneer mills of that section with raw material. The industry 

 is composed of 200 factories w^hich get their logs from that section, 

 the material being rafted down the Vistula, and of the total amount 

 of one billion and a quarter feet logged dovvn every year, 33 ^m 

 per cent consists of hardwoods, oak, basswood, ash, etc. That 

 section has been maintaining that industry for 80 years and this 

 forest section has been within the battlefield of the east front. 



The Russian foresters say that of this 20,000,000 acres men- 

 tioned, that about 16,000,000 acres have been destroyed through 

 the ravages of war, but a more conservative estimate is 1 1,000,000 

 acres. 



Mr. Simmons then explained at considerable length 

 that war and revolution have put Russia out of the export 

 business for years to come, and that the needs of the 

 world must be supplied largely by America. 



The membership committee reported the following ap- 

 plications for membership: Batesville Lumber & Veneer 

 Company, Law^renceburg, Ind. ; Southern Veneer Com- 

 pany, Rutherfordton, N. C. ; Ashby Veneer & Lumber 

 Company, Jackson, Tenn. 



On Tuesday evening the members and visitors enjoyed 

 a splendid dinner at the Auditorium hotel, the entertain- 

 ment features being furnished by the Benson Amusement 

 Exchange. Song books were provided the diners, who 

 apparently were highly delighted with their own efforts 

 in a vocal way, and were much gratified with the good 

 things provided by the professional entertainers. 



