18 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



.July 2.-,. lt)21 



* By William A. Babbitt 



If a tree might spoak ! Somewlipro in the Holy Writ it is said 

 somewhat to this effect, "When tliou hearest the whisjjering iu the 

 tops of trees, then'' had arrived the zero liour for a new dispensation. 

 What more the good Dominie might liave said I know not, for I 

 was away and off. It was not the wisest possible selection for a text 

 because the Sabbath morning was still and sultry, even stuffy; and 

 the Preacher spoke of whispering in tree- tops. Holy Mackerel! 



"To sleep,. to dream; aye there's the rub." It always is when one 

 falls asleep iu church on a warm Sunday morning. But before my 

 eldest daughter caught on to what her Daddy was doing and yanked 

 me ruthlessly back from the cool shade of :f giant oak on a heaven- 

 kissing rlream-hill, 1 hoard enough of the whisperings of a real tree 

 possil>ly to make it worth the telling. 



A Man of Dim Vision 



"Here's that Standardization Chap," quoth the Oak, "Not a bad 

 one; well meaning in fact. But he has blundered on a proposition far 

 too big for him and his whole Committee. In fact he only sees one 

 small part. I wish I could make him understand just how a tree 

 looks at this standardization thing. ' ' 



When he saw that he had my attention, the Oak continued, "No real 

 tree objects to be cut down if he is used right, but when the Creator 

 has spent five hundred years growing a tree, that TREE ought to be 

 used right ! Every tree has a real job while he is maturing. He is 

 enlisted in the greatest conservation project of all time — the conserva- 

 tion of fertile land. And when he is matured, he is then ready for his 

 final service to man 's welfare. ' ' 



' ' But men have not used us as they ought. If they had, there 

 would be three other trees here with me, and all of us would have been 

 better for man 's use. Look at me ! I have lived 508 years, and have 

 a life ring to show for each year. When you look at those 508 toil- 

 heavy years, and realize that you waste all the effort of 408 years of 

 growth and the whole 508 years of conservation of the soil and water- 

 courses, and only save for human use from fifteen to twenty percent 

 of my body and bones, I want to say it is shameful waste. Here's 

 the whole matter in an acorn-cup . . . . " ' 



How importunate and inopportune woman often is. I never got 

 "the whole matter in an aeorn-cup. '' Next thing I heard was 

 Daughter's indignant whisper, "Father, you have been snoring I '' It 

 has been noticed heretofore that it is hard to tell what a fat man is 

 thinking about when he is snoring. 



When Monday morning came, refreshed but nagged by a curious 

 dream, we had a staff council, and decided to make, by main strength 

 and awkwardness a real attempt "to get the whole matter in an acorn- 

 cup ' ' as the Dream Oak evidently would have done, if unhindered. 



A great deal of water has run past the mill, and many sheaves of 

 calculations and estimates have gone into waste baskets since we 

 started on this attempt. Indeed, it would have failed but for the op- 

 portune and friendly aid of the Forest Products Lalioratory. But 

 we have finally been able to construct a sort of picture of acorn-size, 

 which may avail to show that while the "Standardization Program is 

 a con.<» — ation measure second to no other," to quote substantially 

 our Chicl Forester ; still it is merely foundation ; the preliminary step 

 to the major problem of the Conservation of Forest Products. When 

 the standardization is 100 percent complete, with all its vast savings, 

 the Conservation project is still less than 25 percent accomplished. 



A 'Vision of the Whole Problem 

 Evidently the Oak of the dream intended to get two problems 

 crowded into his acorn cup. This is beyond us. We shall have to 

 leave to others the task of iMcsenting the ])icture of the position of 



•Chairman of the conuiiitt*' 

 Wooil I'sin;; Industries. 



>f standarjization, the Association of 



forests in the dom'estic economy of our countrj- and of the duty rest- 

 ing upon this generation to preserve the natural functioning of forests 

 to the necessary degree of efficiency. 



Our task is to show a picture of the wastes now developed in our 

 mctliods of handling a tree, and to state the steps tliat might be taken 

 to eliminate these wastes so far as commercially practicable. We wish 

 to repeat that it is idle to consider any conservation measures which do 

 not rest on the solid basis of commercial soundness. They must stand 

 or fall by the economic test. 



Everything Saved But the Squeal 



— And Edison has cai^tured that in his voice "Re-creations." But 

 tiie high standard set by the great Packers is certainly not too high. 

 The same fundamental reasons apply to forests which are the result 

 also of organic chemistry. It is the' concentration of WASTES in the 

 packing plants that made the modern meat industry possible, and 

 which differentiates it from the country slaughter house. The Pack- 

 er's wealth is the country butcher's waste, horns, hoofs, viscera, blood, 

 etc. Is it a rash forecast to say that in the very near future, the 

 wood butcher's waste will be the lumberman's wealth, sawdust, slabs, 

 edgings, cutoffs, limbs, cull logs, and the like? What other interpre- 

 tation can be made of the rapid degrade in the average quality of 

 commercial lumber? What other lessons do miUyards, crammed with 

 lowgrade logs and lumber, shout at the mill owner? 

 Chief Function of Standardization 



While there are many considerations of tlie highest importance in- 

 volved in the Standardization Program, it seems to the wTiter that its 

 chief strategic importance lies in the fact that it automatically CON- 

 CENTRATES the WASTES OF LUMBER PRODUCTION IN 

 QUANTITIES SUFFICIENT to maintain proven processes of com- 

 mercial utilization. Indeed the principal object of the accompany- 

 ing chart is to show the astounding volume and value of this waste 

 when accumulated at the producing mills. In fact, any mill or 

 neighboring group of mills that manufacture twelve to fifteen mil- 

 lion feet of board lumber have a waste accumulation sufficient to 

 operate successfully a wood waste salvage plant. 



Under the present system of lumbering, more than forty percent 

 of hardwoods and a somewhat less percent of soft woods are not 

 utilizable by the fabricating plants to which these woods are shipped 

 at heavy freight cost. The Standardization Program is designed to 

 make it profitable to producer and user alike to eliminate both material 

 and freight waste by producing at the mill the net dimension which 

 the fabricating plants require. 



Barely One-Sixth 



Just over one-sixth of the wood content of the average tree is the 

 amount that the present system averages to transform into stock for 

 producing marketable commodities. The rest goes up in smoke, both 

 actually and figuratively speaking. The Standardization Program 

 should raise this one-sixth to one-fourth of the wood content of the 

 tree. So after Standardization has effected its maximum economies, 

 there still remains nearly three-fourths of the wood content of the 

 tree as tlic major problem of the CONSERVATION OF FOREST 

 PRODUCTS PROGRAM. . 



Approach of the Major Problem 



To get a right perspective, one may well refer again to the experi- 

 ence of the meat industry. The development of the great packing 

 plants did not eliminate the country slaughter house, nor home butcher- 

 ing on the farms, where the wastes stUl go on as they have done from 

 the beginning. The reason is that the amount of waste developed in 

 these small operations is not sufficient to warrant commercial utiliza- 

 tion. No change of these conditions can be expected. 



In the same way, it will probably never be feasible to improve con- 

 ditions in the operations of small and remotely located portable mills. 



