July 10. 1922 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



13 



By Arthur T. Upson- 



At your annual convention last year you heard a very able ad- 

 dress upon a subject of much interest to you. I refer to Mr. E. E. 

 Parsonage's address on "The Common Interest of the Hardwood 

 Producer and Consumer." He spoke from first hand knowledge 

 and long experience as a lumber manufacturer, small dimension 

 stock producer, and wood fabricator, on a subject most vital to the 

 hardwood lumber industry: that of ways and means of profitable 

 disposition of Xo. 2, Xo. 3 and cull logs, of heavy slabs, wide edg- 

 ings and long trimmings, and of the enormous production, compara- 

 tively, of low-grade lumber. He told you that the answer to your 

 great problem was, to his mind, "dimension stock." He also told 

 you that the U. S. Forest Service, through the Forest Products 

 Laboratory, had undertaken a detailed study of the small dimen- 

 sion stock problem and asked, for that movement, your support 

 and co-operation. 



We of the Forest Service have felt for many years that great 

 savings in raw material could be effected through manufacture 

 of the small clear stock required by the various wood-using indus- 

 tries from the lower grades of lumber; the slab, edging and short 

 lumber by-products of the sawmill; and the lower grade logs now 

 left in the woods. This information came to us through our gen- 

 eral study of forest conservation and in fulfilling our duties of 

 service to the wood producing and consuming industries and in 

 advancing forestry practice in the United States; we also appre- 

 ciate the fact that the subject represented the greatest problem 

 confronting the hardwood lumber industry. 



The Low Grade and Wood Waste Problem 

 While we are not lumbermen or wood consumers in the modern 

 sense, we do realize the enormity and astounding proportions of the 

 general low-grade and wood-waste problems. Many loggers, mill 

 men and manufacturers realize the great waste going on in their 

 own operations, yet there are many who are not fully aware of the 

 magnitude of the problem throughout the country as a whole, or 

 its relation to the critical situation now existing with respect to 

 our remaining timber resources. Without going into the subject too 

 far let me illustrate what this appalling loss of wood amounts to 

 annually. Forest Service studies show that nearly 67 per cent of 

 the volume of the merchantable bowl of the forest tree is wasted 

 in the manufacture of seasoned, unplaned lumber. In other words, 

 for every board foot of lumber manufactured nearly two feet are 

 wasted in the woods or at the sawmill. The lumber cut in the 

 United States in 1920 amounted to about 34 billion board feet. 

 Hence, in harvesting this annual crop of rough lumber an equiva- 

 lent of nearly 60 billion feet of waste material was produced, ex- 

 clusive of the lower grades. Xow you are fully aware that 10 

 billion feet or so of this lumber is again remanufactured at wood 

 consuming plants into smaller shapes and sizes. Considering all 

 grades of lumber, the wastage here averages about 40 per cent. 

 Hence, 4 billion feet more waste is added on to the already stu- 

 pendous amount of 60 billion or so. 



There are many reasons for this high waste and no one element 

 or branch of industry working with wood is entitled to more criti- 

 cism than another. In general, it is due to the American way of 

 doing things — the desire for quantity production, the lack of appli- 

 cation of results of research and of principles of economy, and the 

 thought that our timber resources are inexhaustible. 



The last thought is the greatest fallacy of all. They are not. Of 

 the original 5,200 billion feet of timber in the United States only 

 two-fifths is left and not where we want it or where it will do the 



'Delivered at twenty-filth annual convention yational Hnrdaood Lumher 

 Association. Conffi-ess Hotel, June 2.3. 



*In charf/e Section of Indiistriat Invcittigations, Forest Products Labora- 

 tori/, f- S.^Forest Serncc, Madison, Wisconsin, 



most good. Our annual wood bill, including destruction by fire 

 and insects, is 14 billion cubic feet, and our annual growth only 

 about 4 billion cubic feet. The cut is 3% times the annual growth. 

 Thus, our rate of consumption is just as serious as our wasteful 

 methods. 



The Answer to This Problem 



There are two methods of attacking our wood-waste situation. 

 One is its elimination, or the elimination of a portion of it, and 

 the other is its utilization. Elimination is the ideal and much bet- 

 ter than trying to utilize the waste after it is made. Both, of 

 course, are governed by economical conditions. In addition, there 

 are two kinds of wood-waste, unavoidable or necessary, and avoid- 

 able or unnecessary. The first class, such as saw kerf, narrow 

 edgings, shrinkage, etc., cannot be avoided, though much of it is 

 usable through chemical means. This, however, is not so much a 

 lumberman's business and it need not be discussed here, other than 

 to say that under certain conditions the utilization of woods and 

 mill waste is very profitable. It is different, however, with the 

 avoidable waste, for there are ways and means to either eliminate 

 it, utilize it, or both. 



The answer to this, from the viewpoint of the Forest Service, 

 as well as from the viewpoints of the manufacturer and consumer is, 

 as Mr. Parsonage stated, "dimension stock." This solution can 

 come earlier in hardwoods than in softwoods for, as you know, the 

 requirements of the hardwood using industries are such as to lend 

 themselves with comparative ease to the use of raw material in 

 small sizes. This solution applies equally as well to the low-grade 

 and short-lumber question as it does to the woods and mill by- 

 products situation; while probably the low-grade problem is in- 

 creasingly serious. One prominent manufacturer reports that in 

 1920 his cut of FAS and No. 1 Common lumber for all species 

 amounted to but 66 per cent of all grades milled, while ten years 

 before it was 92 per cent. 



The actual investigations on the ready-cut stock problem by 

 the Forest Products Laboratory have been under way for over a 

 year. It first surveyed the whole field to determine the present 

 and potential ready-cut dimension stock requirements. Laboratory 

 representatives interviewed hundreds of wood fabricators and lum- 

 ber manufacturers. They heard all arguments for and against di- 

 mension stock advocated by either class. The laboratory was then 

 in a position to undertake detailed studies in the most logical 

 places. The first industry to be selected was the chair industry. 



Detailed Work in the Chair Industry 

 There were two distinct phases of this work: (1) The determina- 

 tion of the amount of waste occurring in the production at the fac- 

 tory of the small dimension stock required in chair manufacture 

 from lumber of various species, grades and thicknesses, and the 

 cost of these remanufacturing operations; and (2) the determina- 

 tion of the kinds, sizes, shapes and amounts of all wood stock 

 required in the manufacture of chairs of all styles and types. Both 

 phases of the study have reached a point where definite result - 

 can be forecasted and within a few weeks accurate and detailed 

 information furnished producers and consumers. 



Detailed Chair Factory Studies 

 The first phase of this work consisted of detailed waste and 

 cost studies at ten representative chair factories located through- 

 out the United States, east of the Mississippi Eiver. Briefly, the 

 methods eniployed in these studies were to tally into the factory 

 certain lots of lumber by species, by thicknesses, and when pos- 

 sible, by grades. The individual lots were kept entirely separate 

 from all other material until the final dimension stock form was 



