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Making Stumpage More Valuable Q 



Editor's Note 



This article is liased very largely upon two addresses recently deliyered before the i^ociety of American For- 

 esters by Howard F. Weiss, director of Forest Products Laljorutory at Madison, Wis., and Koyal h. Kellogg, secre- 

 tary of the Northern Hemlock and Hardwood Manufacturers' Association. 



One of the live questions before the lumberman today is the 

 reduction of waste in all his operations. It is a question of the 

 efficiency with which our forests are now utilized and the possi- 

 bility of increasing this efficiency. The lumber industry cannot 

 expect to be maintained in a permanent flourishing condition unless 

 waste in operation is eliminated. The problem is quite similar to 

 that which faced the meat-packing industry, the petroleum indus- 

 try and others, and while not easy of solution, nevertheless will 

 be solved. 



It has been as owners of stumpage and beneficiaries of rising 

 stumpage prices, rather than as manufacturers and sellers of lum- 

 ber, that timber owners have made money. Only during periods 

 of quick rise in lumber values do lumbermen make any considerable 

 profit purely out of their manufacturing operations. Stumpage 

 prices respond quickly to rise in lumber values and it is almost 

 axiomatic that the price of stumpage never goes down. For in- 

 stance, just prior to the depres- 

 sion in 1907 lumber prices had 

 reached their maximum. During 

 the next four years the prices 

 of the most important kinds of 

 lumber averaged from three to 

 six dollars below the previous 

 level. During all this period, 

 however, stumpage prices either 

 remained stationary or in some 

 instances actually increased. 



In the words of R. S. Kellogg, 

 ' ' There are only two waj-s for 

 the owner to make money out of 

 his timber, and, like the rest of 

 us, he would not have bought 

 timber in the first place had he 

 not expected to make money out 

 of it. The first method is to 

 hold his timber for a rise in 

 stumpage prices and sell it 

 when he is satisfied with the in- 

 crement. This is judicious in- 

 vestment, the same as one buys 

 favorably located farm land, 

 city lots, or other property that 

 in all human probability will rise in value. The second method 

 which the timber owner has of making money is to log and saw 

 and market the products, the net balance at the end of the opera- 

 tion being the price he realizes for his stumpage. This necessi- 

 tates that the timber owner becomes proficient in the manufactur- 

 ing and merchandising of a great commodity. 



"The increase in the use of substitutes for wood, of which lum- 

 ber prices are one contributing cause, together with the natural 

 limitation of the lumber output, will bring about a decrease in per 

 capita lumber consumption. Present uses for wood and many uses 

 which will be developed will, however, cause an increase in the total 

 demand, which will be reflected in higher price levels for lumber. 

 The increase will probably be least in the lowest grades and in 

 structural timbers, for here substitutes compete most strongly, while 

 the increase in prices will be greatest in the upper grades of woods 

 which supply fine finishing material and other products for which 

 no rean3' satisfactory substitute is likelj' to come into general use. 

 Moreover, the lumber production of the future will contain a larger 

 percentage of low grades than at present, due to increased cutting 

 of smaller and more inferior timber, unless other methods of utiliza- 

 tion for timber of this character are developed. ' ' 



—30— 



STUMP OF TULIP TREE CUT 4' 

 BUTTED BY CUTTING OFF 2' PIECE 

 XACLE CREEK, WEST VIRGINIA. 



What are the lines for improvement in forest utilization? How- 

 ard F. Weiss points out three, namely, (1) utilization of waste mate- 

 rial resulting from manufacture; (2) improvement in sawing logs; 

 (3) the conversion of timber into the use for which its intrinsic 

 properties best fit it. He divides trees into three classes, namely, 

 (1) resinous conifers like the southern pines; (2) non-resinous 

 conifers like white pine, spruce and hemlock; (3) hardwoods. For 

 the first two classes the following operations are possible: The 

 stump, top, slab, and edgings and trimmings can be hogged, 

 shredded and mixed with the sawdust and shavings for conversion 

 into ethyl alcohol, collecting turpentine (from resinous woods) and 

 some acetic acid as by-products. After conversion about sixty-five 

 to seventy per cent of the material will still be available for fuel. 

 The Du Pont Powder Company has now in operation a plant for 

 manufacturing ethyl alcohol from mill waste, and what formerly 

 found its waj- to the refuse burner is now converted into refined 



' ' grain ' ' alcohol at the rate of a 

 tliousand gallons a day. The 

 Fullerton Lumber Company is 

 erecting a similar plant at a 

 cost of three-quarters of a mil- 

 lion that will have a capacity of 

 live thousand gallons of alcohol 

 daily. 



A modification of the above 

 plan is to make the slabs, edg- 

 ings and trimmings into pulp, 

 while the rest of the waste goes 

 into the alcohol plant. Some 

 progressive lumbermen in east- 

 ern Texas were not satisfied 

 with the old method of the 

 refuse burner and erected a pulp 

 and paper mill to utilize them. 

 Today they are underselling 

 their competitors in the Minne- 

 ai>i)lis ])aper market. 



Hardwoods afforcl a different 

 proposition, as they are for the 

 most ])art ill-suited for paper 

 making and contain no volatile 

 oils or resins. The waste can, 

 however, be profitably utilized for the manufacture of ethyl alcohol, 

 though practically nothing has been done along this line. A proc- 

 ess that has every indication of going far to solve this problem is 

 now being perfected by the Chicago Wood Eeduction Company. 

 In brief, their plan consists of briquetting dry sawdust or hogged 

 material and carbonizing these briquettes in a retort so arranged 

 that each block is in intimate contact with a heat radiating sur- 

 face, and the entire action is under entire control of the operator. 

 It is claimed that the yield of products so made is in all eases fully 

 equal to that of older methods, while the yield of acetic acid is 

 nearly or quite doubled. A commercial plant is being constructed 

 in Arkansas in connection with a large cooperage concern. 



Mr. Weiss cites the following illustration of the operations now 

 possible for the utilization of hardwood waste from a yellow birch 

 tree 16 inches in diameter and containing 35 cubic feet: 



"Operation 1. Suppose the usable top, limbs, slabs, edgings and 

 trimmings, comprising about 22 per cent of the tree volume, are 

 destructively distilled. They will yield 14 pounds of acetate of 

 lime, worth 35 cents, 0.7 gallon of methyl (wood) alcohol, worth 20 

 cents, and 3.6 bushels of charcoal, worth 22 cents. According to 

 the usual practice, the tree would simply be cut into lumber yield- 



HIGH WITH AXE, and LOG 

 SEEN IN FOREGROUXn, PIN- 



