HARDWOOD RECORD 



27 



What wood-using injustries now unilivclop<'(J slionlii he (■specially en- 

 couraged ? 



Wliat advantages Ims ttie region under investigation in the matter of 

 transportation faeilities. liutli rail and water? 



Is ■■driving" or •rafting" practiced on tlie streams'; Are sneli methods 



What are tile prineipal niarltets for the wood products ot the region'.' 



Special Use Beports 

 Another series of reports which is being prepared by the division 

 of Industrial Investigations of the Forest Service is known as 

 "Uses of Commercial Woods of the United States." These differ 

 in several points from the reports by states. They are not statis- 

 tical, in that they do not deal with quantities and prices. Each 

 report covers only one wood or group of woods, but it includes the 

 whole United States instead of a single state, and it deals with 

 l)ast history as well as with the present. It is a history of the 

 uses in this country of the wood or the woods under consideration, 

 together with the properties which are most valuable in the woods 

 when used for certain purposes. 



Three of the "special use reports" have been published to the 

 ])resent time. The first was "Cedars, Cypresses, and Sei]uoias"; 

 the second, "Pines"; and the third, "Beech, Birdies, and 

 Maples." 'When the series has been completed, it will ineluclc all 

 of the important woods of the United States. 

 Annual Lumbep. Cut 

 Sitwiiiiil iiwiicrs, lumbermen, statisticians, and a large jjart of 

 the genernl luililie have learned to look forward every year to 

 the appearance of the bulletin which announces the annual cut of 

 lumber. 'When it was stated some months ago that owing to lack 

 of funds the yearly lumber report would be discontinued, there was 

 general disappointment among lumbermen. Fortunately, arrange- 

 ments have been made to continue the work in part. 



These valuable bulletins have been the joint work of the Bureau 

 of the Census and the Forest Service. The Census did the office 

 work, while the Forest Service scouts took to the woods to round 

 up information that was beyond the reach of office work. It is 

 understood that, though funds are scarce, this valuable work will 

 go on, and in some respects it promises to be more interesting than 

 ever, because more in detail. Each mill is now asked to give 

 the exact name of the wood cut, while formerly the information 

 was often so general that it was not wholly satisfactory. This will 

 result in securing more knowledge than ever before concerning the 

 cut of species which have not been reported separately up to this 

 time. Information will also be obtained concerning the common 

 names under which various woods are milled in different parts 

 of the country. It is well known that confusion and uncertainty 

 often result from ignorance of local names of commercial woods. 



New work is constantly coming up to be done, and old projects 

 are continued. The range of activities is wide, as must necessarily 

 be the ease in a work of a practical nature which keeps pace with 

 jirogresg. A mere enumeration of things undertaken along certain 

 lines will show this. This division of the Forest Service has 

 charge of the collection of statistics concerning the use of wood 

 preservatives in the United States. It has much to do with rules 

 and practices of inspection of timbers and other wood used by the 

 government. It prepared hickory handle specifications for the 

 War Department, Navy Department, and the Isthmian Canal Com- 

 mission, which regulations designed to secure the use of red or 

 heart hickory and to provide a cheaper yet equally serviceable 

 handle. The navy and the canal commission are using them, and 

 it is said that the War Department will soon do so. They have 

 been adopted by a number of large railroads, and the leading 

 handle manufacturers have heartily approved them. 

 Chestnut Blight-Killed Timber 

 Various bureaus of the government as well as societies and state 

 organizations have been combating the chestnut blight in north- 

 eastern states, and large appropriations have been made to assist 

 in curbing the disease. The Forest Service, through the division 

 of Industrial Investigations, got busy, too; but it asked simply, 

 "What can be done with the dead chestnut timber?" That was 

 an intensely practical question. Something ought to be done to 

 prevent the heavy financial loss resulting from dead timber being 



left to rot. Men were set to work to find uses for it, and jirol)- 

 able markets. Manufacturers who could do so were urged to use 

 chestnut, and lists of prospective users, and the kinds they miglit 

 be able to use, were sent to thousands of owners of chestnut tim- 

 ber. By that means great losses were prevented. It was a case 

 of hunting users for what otherwise would have been waste mate- 

 rial. That is really the keynote to the saving of waste — find the 

 man who wants it. That is the practical solution of most waste 

 problems. It is better than the way of the theorist who tries to 

 think out some new use, and is seldom able to get anywhere. 



Much of the work relating to blight-killed chestnut has been in 

 direct charge of Jesse C. Nellis, who, representing the division of 

 Industrial Investigations, has made a thorough study of the whole 

 question, not from an office desk, but in the woods and at shops 

 and factories. 



TiGET Cooperage Industry 

 The makers of tight cooperage — barrels for liquids — are now put 

 to it about as hard as any other class of manufacturers to find 

 suitable material. There is still enough to be had, but the quality 

 of the wood must be high, and available supplies are rapidly 

 going. It is well known that the toughest proposition for the 

 stave-maker is the enormous waste which nearly always must lie 

 left in the woods. 



The problem has recently been attacked in much the same man- 

 ner as the chestnut blight. John T. Harris was given the job. He 

 is well known to thousands of lumbermen in the Mississippi valley 

 through his work on various state wood-using reports from Canada 

 to Mexico. He knew all about the woods, and his first pass was 

 to go to Arkansas, where they make staves, and he camped for 

 months in the woods among the stave-makers. He took the sen- 

 sible view that the men who make staves know most about them, 

 and the place to get information was among those men. He was 

 1,500 miles from his office. His headquarters were temporarily 

 near Womble, where he measured the tops and other abandoned 

 material strewing the ground over hundreds of acres; and he fig- 

 ured out how much of it was suitable for railroad ties, chair stock, 

 barrel heads, and other purposes. He carefully studied the defects 

 in rejected stave bolts, and came to the conclusion that fifty per 

 cent of the loss in that area is due to "water-soak" and "punk." 

 and not more than ten per cent to worm holes. 



This instance is cited as an example of the manner in which the 

 work is carried on. The next step will doubtless be to find users 

 for the waste Arkansas oak, if possible. If the stave-maker can 

 sell his left-overs for something, he can utilize more closely and 

 make more money for himself. 



The Waste Problems 

 Nearly every user of wood has a waste question on his hands. 

 No general remedy has been discovered. The Forest Service's rule 

 of procedure is to find some one who can use what another is 

 obliged to throw away. Unless that can be done, there is no sure 

 way of lessening waste in woodworking. Those in charge of 

 Industrial Investigations have exceptionally good facilities for 

 bringing together the person who has waste material and the per- 

 son who can use it. Lists of thousands of woodworkers, in many 

 lines and in all parts of the country, afford the means. For exam- 

 ple, if a veneer manufacturer has cores of black and Circassian 

 walnut which he cannot dispose of in his business, the natural 

 place to look for a market for them is among manufacturers of 

 firearms, who employ such woods for pistol grips and fore-ends 

 for shotguns; or if vehicle manufacturers have small blocks of 

 hickory left, markets may be found by communicating with makers 

 of small tool handles. If small maple blocks are a waste in a 

 factory, it is important to know where stuff of that kind is useful. 

 These are some of the lines along which the division of Indus- 

 trial Investigations of the Forest Service is making itself widely 

 useful. New problems constantly come up, and new solutions are 

 sought. Results are. not always wholly satisfactory, but they gen- 

 erally are encouraging. 



The name Industrial Investigations occasionally leads to erro- 

 neous ideas as to the line of work done. Some suppose the purpose 

 is to investigate various industries to see if they are complying 



