HARDWOOD RECORD 



17 



Raw Material Cost 



The wocd-using industries of Georgia pay an average price of $14.33 

 for all wood that reaches the factories. That price includes free 

 deUvery at the factory. There are great differences, as the accompany- 

 ing table shows. Excluding foreign woods, the highest in price is 

 cherry, the lowest Cuban pine. The industry that pays the highest 

 average price is fixtures, that which pays the lowest is excelsior. The 

 one is nearly five times as much as the other. 



The southern ivood-using industries obtain their raw material more 

 cheaply than those in the northern states. I'ollowhig are average 

 prices paid for wood f. o. b. factory in certain s-outhern states: 



.Xvor.ige factory cost 



South Carolina .$14.80 



North Curolina 14.60 



Georgia I4.33 



Texas 13.30 



Florida 12.41 



Alabama 12.24 



Mississippi 12.22 



Louisiana 11.64 



Ariiansas 11.49 



For purposes of comparison, the corresponding average cost is given 

 for certain northern states: 



Average factory cost 



Iowa $30.92 



Ohio 30.47 



Illinois 28.76 



Kew York 27.30 



Michigan 23.12 



Massachusetts 21.29 



Industries are more diversified in the northern states than in the 

 South. More kinds of wood are used and a greater diversity of 

 articles is manufactured. Large amounts of raw material are cut in 

 southern forests and shipped to northern states to }>e manufactured. 

 That is due partly to the fact that better markets for finished products 

 are to be found in the Xorth, but is due more to the higher develop- 

 ment of northern manufacturing facilities. In the case of lumber, as 

 with many other natural resources, the raw material seeks the factory 

 rather than the factory seeking the raw material. But for that eco- 

 nomic law, the diversified manufacture of forest resources would be 

 much further developed in the South than it is, and the owners of 

 southern timber might be getting as much for it as northern owners 

 get for theirs. 



The collection of statistics and publication of reports, state by state, 

 of wood-using industries have done much to throw light on forest 

 utilization in the different parts of this country. The output of lum- 

 ber, year by year, has been known and published for a considerable 

 number of years ; but there was a sad lack of information as to what 

 was done with the lumber after it was sawed. The investigation of 

 utilization by states has supplied a vast amount of information on this 

 subject, and has furnished the means of comparing the manufactures 

 of different sections of the country. 



V V.-o-.s:;gu/i.>;x>K;x>im:;K;K/.H;;g^^ 



•^S" Thank the Thousand-Legged Worm -J^ 



The lumberman or timber owner who finds the familiar thousand- 

 legged worm by his path in the woods should hesitate if the impulse 

 comes to him to put his foot on the creature which may be scurrying 

 out of his way, or if overtaken, may curl up like a spiral watch spring 

 and lie as if dead. If the lumberman will make the acquaintance of 

 the somewhat unprepossessing little reptile, he will thank it instead of 

 putting his foot on it. It has done a mighty work for the American 

 forests. Few persons realize — in fact, few have the means of know- 

 ing — how enormous that work has been, or how poor our forests would 

 be but for the activities of this ucngainly creature which does most 

 of its work at night while everything is still. 



Charles Darwin 's investigation of the activity of the earthworm as a 

 soil builder proved a revelation in its day. No one had even thought 

 of the earthworm as being of any importance, though Darwin showed 

 that it had done much to make the earth habitable. 



The thousand-legged worm was a long time in falling under the eye 

 of a competent investigator, but its work finally attracted the notice 

 of Frederick V. Coville, one of the foremost scientists of today. He 

 is a botanist, and a good many other things thrown in. There are few 

 nooks or corners of the United States with which he is not person- 

 ally acquainted. He has done much work for the government, espe- 

 cially along the line of investigating forage plants in the national 

 forests and on other public lands. Many persons who have seen a sun- 

 tanned man, with sleeves rolled up, digging around among rocks and 

 in ravines, have supposed that a herb doctor was collecting snake- 

 root or sarsaparilla; but, if it was Coville, he was digging for the 

 purpose of solving some botanical or biological problem which had 

 baffled other scientists. 



The activities of the thousand-legged worm (spirobolus marginatus) 

 attracted his attention. This worm attains a length of three inches 

 and a diameter of a quarter of an inch. Its legs are supposed to 

 number 1,000, but they fall short of that number. Its food consists 

 of decaying leaves, though it may feed on other diet. Its teeth cut 

 the leaves into fine pieces, and prepare them for soil formation, 

 through the intermediate stage of leaf mold. Otherwise, decay would 

 act more slowly, and the layer of leaves might be lost, so far as en- 

 riching the sou is concerned. 



A single thousand-legged worm would make a small impression on a 

 forest's leaf carpet. Its day's work consists of masticating and 



preparing a mass about as large as a small bean. But the worm does 

 not work alone. Mr. Coville gives figures from which it appears that 

 an acre of leaf-covered ground, like the areas investigated, supports 

 a population of about 180,000 of these worms. Though the mass of a 

 bean a day represents the work of a single individual, the combined 

 work of the acre's population during a season prepares about 

 4,000 pounds of the finest soil-building material. 



If this material is spread over an acre, the accumulation of a single 

 season makes a rather insignificant showing; but the worms have 

 been chewing leaves during the past centuries, and the soil has been 

 enriched thereby. Forests have been supported on soil already pre- 

 pared before they came into existence; and in time they have con- 

 tributed their leaves to make soil for future forests; and the worms 

 have always been ready to do their part of the work. 



The thousand-legged worm is largely nocturnal in its habits. Il 

 hides by day and crawls forth to its feast of decaying vegetation at 

 night. Its habits of concealment by day account for the relatively 

 small number seen. However, an observant person will see consid- 

 erable nimibers in cool, shady places, even by day. 



It is easy to understand how much damage a moderate forest fire 

 may do, if it runs through a forest only once in ten years, and does 

 no more than consume the carpet of leaves. Not only is the layer of 

 loaves lost, but the millions of worms are destroyed. None will be on 

 hand to attack the next crop of leaves that falls. Many years must 

 elapse before the worm population can come back, particularly where 

 fire bares extensive areas; and meanwhile the layer of leaf mold is 

 thin and poor. Fungi and bacteria, borne on the wind, may return 

 quickly to a burned area, but the thousand-legged worm must crawl, 

 in from distant, unburned areas, and during the period between its 

 destruction and its return, its work remains undone, for fungi and 

 bacteria alone are not equal to the task of manufacturing the mold 

 which the soil needs. 



Mr. Coville sums up a portion of the subject in these words : 



' ' Were Solomon to write a new edition of the Proverbs today, I am 

 sure that he would tell us : ' There be four things which are little upon 

 the earth, but they are exceeding strong,' and that among them be 

 would include: 'The little brothers of the forest, they seek not the 

 light but the leafy earth; they prepare for the oak the strength that 

 is his.' " 



