20 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



July 25, 1921 



beyond the opportunities offered by the Program of Standard Dimen- 

 sion Stock. Tlio only I'uitlier lioi)0 alou},' tliis line is that a sjweial 

 freight classification might enable the rail shipment of waste to con- 

 siderable distances. Tlie writer has in mind several operations where 

 this jilan is successfully operated. 



As an approach to the problem, on tlio basis of proven commercial 

 feasibility, it is the mill or group of mills with an annual accumulation 

 of the waste from the manufacture of from twelve to fifteen million 

 feet of board lumber which offer reasonable assurance of success. The 

 writer wishes the reader to understand that in discussing this aspect of 

 the question, ho is speaking by information only. He had had no 

 operative experience wlialover. Tlie information used is partly from 

 the investigations of the Forest Products Laboratory and partly from 

 investigations of his office staff. 



Assistance of the Forest Products Laboratory 



During the ]iast ten years, and under the handicai) of meagre ap- 

 propriations the laboratory has done wonderful work in laying the 

 foundation for tho commercial utilization of wood wastes. The last 

 Congi'ess made an adequate appropriation strictly limited to the in- 

 vestigation of the technical problems with which this paper deals. 

 A visit to Madison will richly repay any millman who is studying his 

 own program from the view point of modern conditions. Arthur 

 T. Upson has been designated as f orester-in-charge. His able handling 

 of the preliminaries is a trustworthy promise, not only of personal 

 ability and tact; but much more of the broadgauge and whole-hearted 

 sujqiort which the whole Forest Service has put behind this undertak- 

 ing. 



Assistance from Accimmlated Experience 



The problem we are discussing is by no means new either in this 

 country or abroad. It is a proposition which is well worked out, and 

 not a pioneering adventure. In a recent publication by the Department 

 of Commerce on the Swedish Lumber Industry (Special Agents Series 

 No. 195) the author, Axel M. Oxholm, shows a sawdust pile which 

 most American mills would give a thousand dollars to be rid of. He 

 marks this pile, "Worth $10,000.00." Is Mr. Oxholm telling the 

 truth? The final figures given in the chart are taken from the 

 practice of a well known plant in the north middle west which con- 

 verts the entire tree, practically, to chemical and' other products. 

 In a word, the problem is chiefly one of organization, and easily 

 within range of practicability. 



The Size of the Problem 



Figures, charts, and pictures are all helps. But one of the mental 

 blights which is part of war thinking is that we have lost our keen 

 perception of ' ' relativity. ' ' Not a few of us are still muddled as to 



the ratio between a million and a billion. Is a billion ten, a hundred, 

 or a thousand times greater than a million, or is it the other way 

 around? So perhaps the way to get a moral grasp of the size of this 

 problem is to keep before one 's mind the easUy understood fact that in 

 getting out the board we are selling about three times its bulk in 

 wood content of the tree has been wasted, as we New Englanders say, 

 " Sin fuUy wasted." 



After all, is not aU waste fundamentally sinful? A recent trip 

 through the once famous hemlock areas of northwestern Pennsylvania 

 — now an almost hojieless barren — would tend to confirm this opinion. 

 Much, if not most of the hemlock was felled for the bark; and the 

 rotting, firoscarred trunks lie thick, as far as the eye can sec. One 

 wonders if the annual losses from floods and the annual interest on 

 investments in flood prevention do not total a larger amount of money 

 each year than all the money ever received from the slaughter of the 

 hemlock forests in the drainage area of the upper Alleghany. From 

 this point of view, we invite your serious study of the following at- 

 tempt to chart the whole problem of the conservation of Forest Prod- 

 ucts. 



Text to Explain Chart 



Data from which the accompanying chart was constructed was ob- 

 tained from the following sources : Publications and unpublished data 

 from the Forest Service, technical investigations by the Forest Prod- 

 nets Laboratory, Special studies by the technical staff of the National 

 Association of Wood Turners, experience tables compiled by indi- 

 viduals and associations who are users or producers of lumber, also con- 

 siderable data which was secured in obtaining a degree from the Uni- 

 versity of Hard Knocks. 



This chart is a careful and fairly accurate compilation of all avail- 

 able data bearing on this question of wood wastes. It is to be noted, 

 however, and regretted, that so little has been done in this country to 

 determine and establish the basic data involved in the problems of 

 the Conservation of Forest Products that it is necessary to make note 

 of the fact. 



This chart assumes that the total content of the tree is 100 percent. 

 This total is understood to be the practicable total and does not in- 

 clude such items as leaves, underground growth, etc. The studies of 

 the Forest Service are followed as to the content of this practicable 

 100 percent. The lumber wastes are taken from experience data of 

 the National Association of Wood Turners, also the totals for salvage 

 from slabs, edgings, and short or crooked logs. The total theoretical 

 salvage possibilities were worked out entirely from basic data analyti- 

 cally derived, but cai-efidly cliei-ked from laboratory as well as com- 

 mercial operations. 



Forests Should Be Public Utilities 



i <'ontiiitud from pa<;r 17) 



The t'hiof Forester concluded this part of his testimony with 

 the statement "that there is no use talking about cost" of refor- 

 estation, as this will go right into the market price of the timber 

 and be absorbed by the consumer. 



Here C. H. Worcester of Chicago, one of the largest hardwood 

 lumber operators in the northern territory, raised the question 

 that the public would not stand for this added cost. 



In reply to this Col. Greeley said that the cost of reforestation 

 would be a mere bagatelle as compared to the added cost of trans- 

 portation that would be imposed upon the consumer if reforestation 

 is neglected. "The increased cost of transportation because of 

 deforestation will be many times what reforestation would cost," 

 he said. "We face the prospect that within ten or a dozen years 

 the only source of soft wood suppl3' will be in the Far West, with 

 a transportation charge of $12 or $25 a thousand feet. I do not 

 think the intelligent consumer of lumber is going to hesitate very 

 long over the cost of reforestation when facing such a cost. We 

 should have no fear of meeting the issue on this basis." 



Col. Greeley answered the suggestion that reforestation might be 

 left largely to natural economic processes, with the statement that 



a certain amount of reforestation is taking place because of eco- 

 nomic causes, but this process is so slow and inadequate that the 

 public would some day wake up and find that it was too late to 

 correct the loss of its timber except after a long period of eco- 

 nomic hardship. 



We must adopt the attitude of the French, he said, whose forests 

 stand apart from all other property in the public interest because 

 of the long time required to produce trees. The American public 

 is rapidly coming to this vievrpoint, he continued. We should 

 recognize very clearly that some form of national forestry policy 

 must be worked out in which the country's forest lands are recog- 

 nized as a public utility. Owners of forest lands .should then 

 receive compensation from the public for the proper handling of 

 the land. 



By placing the forest lands in the class of a public utility, refor- 

 estation by the private owner in cooperation with the public can 

 be made a reasonable proposition, he said. 



Forester's Testimony Was Basic 

 The Chief Forester's statement formed the basis of much of 



