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Builders of Lumher History 



NUMBER CXVII 

 H. S. SACKETT 



It will come as a siuprise to many who are interested in the 

 ofiiee of Wood Utilization of the United States Forest Service, 

 located at Chicago, to know that H. S. Saekett who has been its 

 chief for several years and has done such efficient work, has 

 resigned from this service to join the Munson-Whitaker Company, 

 forester, in charge of this company's Chicago branch oflSce. 



Mr. Saekett has contributed in a notable degree to the building 

 of lumber history, as a zealous and intelligent department chief in 

 the handling of the manifold problems of wood utilization that 

 have come before the Forest Dejiartment for several years. He 

 has done remarkably efficient service for the trade, and while 

 lumbermen generally will regret his retirement from this service, 

 they will congratulate Mr. Saekett upon not only bettering his 

 position, but of being perhaps of increased value to the lumber 

 industry in his new connection. 



H. S. Saekett was born in Avon, Livingston county. Xew York. 

 May 1, 1884, and graduated from the high school in that town in 

 1900. He took a two years' postgraduate course and in the fall 

 of 1902 entered Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y., taking the 

 forestry course. He attended one year when the school was 

 abolished. He then entered the University of Michigan at Ann 

 Arbor, where he graduated from the Forest School in 1906. Dur- 

 ing the summer of 1905 he spent four months estimating tie 

 timber for the Northern Pacific Railroad through northern Min 

 nesota. He entered the Forest Service in 190fi as forest assistant. 

 He spent the summer estimating dead and green timljer on the 

 forest reserves ir. central and western Colorado. During the 

 winter of 1906 and the spring of 1907 he had charge of the timber 

 testing station of the Forest Service at Seattle, Wash. Part of 

 the summer of 1907 he spent at the timber testing station of the 

 Forest Service at the University of California, at Berkeley, and 

 the remainder in the redwood district of that state, where a 

 study of utilization of tanbark oak was made. 



Mr. Sackelt returned to Washington, D. C, in the winter of 

 1907, and assisted in the compilation of the report of the National 

 Conservation Commission. In 1908 he was promoted to "Chief of 

 the Section of Lumber Trade. ' ' At this time began the develop- 

 ment of certain lines of work, which culminated in the "OflSce of 

 Wood Utilization," of which he has ever since been chief. The 

 Office of Wood Utilization was moved to Chicago in October, 1909, 

 and has since been located in the Fisher building. The prini'ipid 

 lines of work covered by the field of work of which Mr. Saekett 

 has been chief are: 



Methods of manufacture and uses of commercial woods; markets 

 for and ilistribution of forest jjroducts; collection of statistics on 

 production and consumption of wood in the United States anil 

 other countries; study of grading and inspection rules; collection 

 of statistics on exports and imports of forest products; efiFect of 

 and extent and growth of the substitution of other materials for 

 wood, and sales of timber from the national forests. 



The work of the office has had remarkable growth since its 

 renioxal to Chicago, and has had to be transferred to larger 

 quarteis on three different occasions. Under Mr. Saekett 's intel- 

 ligent direction the office has been of immense benefit to lumber- 

 men and wood users who have taken advantage of its central loca- 

 tion to secure information on various forestry subjects of interest 

 to them. 



On May 4, 1910, at Batavia, ill., Mr. Saekett was married to 

 Miss Louise Christy, daughter of Baroness Ovidia von Wemberg 

 of Norway. Miss Christy at that time was traveling and studying 

 in this country incognito under the name of Dreier. 



Mr. Saekett is the author of several publications issued by the 

 Forest Service, principal among which ;ire those relating to the 

 — 2()— 



wood-using industries of various states, and to the collection of 

 statistics on forest products. He has also written numerous 

 articles dealing with the utilization of wood waste in its various 

 forms. 



The Munson-Whitaker Company, forester, with which Mr. 

 Saekett will in the future be allied, was organized in Boston in 

 1905, to carry on a general forestry business. The president of 

 the company is C. L. Whitaker; vice-president, W. H. Weber; 

 secretary, J. K. Whitaker; treasurer and general manager, H. S. 

 Sehroeder. Mr. Saekett becomes western manager with office at 

 Chicago. The company also maintains offices in New York and 

 Boston. At the outset this company 's main line of work was tree 

 surgery, in which it has been eminently successful. This depart- 

 ment of the business has now assumed large proportions and it 

 undoubtedly does more work than any other concern in the 

 country engaged in this line. This work has been done largely in 

 eastern states, although considerable has been can led on as far 

 west as the Mississij)pi river. In 1909, the company branched out 

 in forest engineering, and in the New England and Appalachian 

 regions, the particular field in which it has up to the present time 

 confined its operations, is recognized as the foremost appraiser of 

 timber lands. 



In connection with the com))any"s timber estimating for oper- 

 ating concerns, it also makes working plans for the utilization of 

 woods and sawmill waste, a feature in practical forestry which 

 has been attended with most satisfactory results. The company 

 has also established fire ]>rotpction plans for timber owners as 

 well as outlines for afforestation and reforestation. The comjjany 

 has done much in combatting the work of insect enemies of the 

 forest in the New England states, and has made a special study 

 of the utilization of chestnut which now is being so rapidly killed 

 in many of the eastern states. In this latter work it has evolved 

 means of profitably dis])osing of the disease-killed timber in 

 numerous instances. 



The companN believes in the priiieiple of conservative expan- 

 sion, and hence it has secured the co-operation of Mr. Saekett 

 to develop this business with the aid of an efficient organization in 

 all departments in the West. The company will specialize in the 

 appraisal of timber lands in which work it is well-fortified with 

 men of long experience and good judgment, who are capable of 

 doing excellent work. The company 's cruising methods embody- 

 some features not used by other concerns, but in general they 

 conform with the jiractice of the leading timber appraisers. In 

 speaking on this subject, Mr. Saekett said: 



"It is the policy of the company, no matter whether the cruise 

 is for the purchase of timber by a going concern, or for a timber 

 bond house or for whatever purpose, to urge or even insist that 

 the cruise be of such a character that all the timber is seen, 

 and that its quality be fully investigated. In addition we deem 

 it most advisable that there he made a topographical map of the 

 tract, and that the logging and manufacturing facilities and the 

 markets be looked into most carefully, and then reported on. 

 Check estimates of old appraisals and cruises which have for their 

 basis the proportionment of sample areas or sample strips to th» 

 whole area, unless the entire area is again traveled over, are 

 extremely dangei'ous and should never be relied on for the purpose 

 either of purchasing or bonding." 



With the advent into the company of Mr. Saekett, the company 

 is considerably broadening the scope of its work, and in the future 

 will be able to render service to the public along the lines of a 

 iiiiire intensive use of the country's great, but rapidly declining 

 natural resource — the forest. This service covers not only the 

 utilization of wood in its natural form, but also its utilization in 



