HARDWOOD RECORD 



27 



of wood will bring into the market species and 

 grades not l>efore nitrfliantable. The uses of 

 wood for by-produots will reduce waste and en- 

 able the lumbermen to use material now fre- 

 quently left in the woods or wasted at the mill. 

 The extensbui of the use of treated timber will 

 enable the niarketing of the less valuable species 

 for uses now requiring the most vahuible. There 

 will thus be a constant tendency to extend the 

 market and to decrease the loss in utilization all 

 along the line from the stump to the manufac 

 tnred product. 



There are. however (ither factors influi'ncing 

 the market which will noi be directly touched bv 

 the investigations at the laboratory. These fac- 

 tors must not be ov<'rlooked in the consideration 

 of the relation of the market for forest products 

 to conservation. Problems connected with the 

 methods of logging and manufacture of lumber, 

 grades and sizes of lumber, rates for low-grade 

 lumber, the car stake question, etc.. concern con- 

 servation. In some of these problems the I'*orest 

 Service can be of assistance through its work of 

 products. 



One of the most serious problems, however, in 

 the whole realm of foi-est conservation is that of 

 iiverproduction of lumber. In some sections of 

 (he country more lumber is being manufactured 

 than is ni'Cded. 'I'here is. in cotiseciueuce. a poor 

 market for tlie lower grades and :i great deal of 

 waste in the wouds and at the mill. From the 

 standpoint of conservation the condition woidd 

 not be so serious if the forests were being re- 

 placed after cutting. Rut tile conditions whidi 

 lead to waste in utilization prevent also the 

 practice of forestr.v. There is. then, a double 

 loss — waste of the present resources and preven- 

 tion of the production of new resources. 



I doubt it this situation can be met at once or 

 by the application of any one remedy. It is clear 

 to my mind, however, that in this case, as in 

 other conservation problems, there must 1h» some 

 present public investment for the future welfare 

 of the country. ' This investment will take two 

 fi>rms. First, an increased price of products 

 which must approach the cost of producing these 

 by growth, arid, second, direct investment in 

 public forests and forestry. ,So far the public 

 has not appreciated this condition. There have 

 been public appropriations for the administration 

 of the federal forests, but the various states are 

 not now making the investments necessar.v to 

 solve their local problems of forestry : the gen- 

 eral public is apparently not yet prepared to pay 

 more for the products in order to cover the cost 

 of conservation. One of the first necessary steps 

 is public education regarding our resources and 

 the conditions of theii utilization. A better ap- 

 preciation by the public of the conditions of 

 forest production, logging and manufacture of 

 lumber is essential to work out this phase of con- 

 servation and bring alxmt a proper adjustment 

 between the limited resources and the needs of 

 the people. 



I have felt .iustifled in calling attention to this 

 problem because it is ver.v closely related to the 

 work of forest products and the application of 

 the investigation in this branch of the service. 



As I have only recently become connected with 

 the Forest .Service. I lee'l that I can speak with- 

 out reserve in praise of the work which has been 

 undertaken. I wish especiaily to compliment th" 

 work of Mr. Hall. Mr. ('line and their associates 

 in their work of forest products. I wish at this 

 time to expres-s my deep appreciation of the sup- 

 port and cordial coijijeration of President Van 

 Hise and other authorities of the university who 

 have made possible the Forest I'roducls Laborii- 

 tory. 



I regard the cooperation with the universitv 

 of the greatest value. It is not only in the 

 general educational work in forestry that tJie 

 Forest Service will be greatly aided, hiit the asso- 

 ciation with the university will be very valuable 

 in the conduct of the scientific work at th.- 

 liihoratory. We wish to maintain among our 

 workers that spirit of search after liuth svhich 

 characterizes this great institution. The science 

 of forestry is still in the creative stage. A great 

 deal of the research and of the work of estao 

 llshing the practice of forestry must be done In- 

 the government. To carry oii this work I con- 

 sider it of the greatest importance that there be 

 no les.sening of that spirit of individual initiative, 

 personal responsibility and high ideals which has 

 characterized the mi'mbers of the service under 

 the inspiration of Oiflfcrd I'inchot. 



Capt. J. B. White of Cincinnati, eharmain 

 of the Committee on Conservation of the 

 N^ational Lumber Manufacturers' Association, 

 the next speaker, expressed the sincere appre- 

 ciation of himself and his association at hav- 

 ing the lumber trade recognized in a celebra- 

 tion of this sort. Captain White's remarks 

 are always of vital interest both from a .scien- 

 tific and practical point of view. He spoke 

 in part as follows : 



Address of J. B. White 



In this age of progress if the lumheruien of 

 the Fnited States or any other class of <-iiizens 

 should object to the principles of conservation 

 it would not condemn conservation, but it would 

 condemn the objectors without regard to place, 

 position or party. Once the farmer reaped and 

 put nolhing back for the soil. He gathered all 

 and the consumer got the benefit of cheap farm 

 products. IJut he has now learned that he nuist 

 ijut back into the soil the chemical food neces- 

 sary to sustain it. He must add this to the 

 cost of the in-odiu-t and the consunuM- must pay 

 the bill. 



Hence, conservation does not mean necessarily 

 that through its practice everything is to be 

 cheaoer. but it does mean that all the neces- 

 saries c)f life, with its comforts and blessings, 

 shall continue, and that there never shall lie 

 famine, human suffering, or want caused b.v use- 

 less waste and extravagance. There will be no 

 more Ill-cent corn and no more $11) lumber. 

 The farmer who feeds ."lO-cent corn to his hogs 

 and his steers will necessary get higher prices 

 for his beef and bacon. And the Inmiierman. 

 now that the day has passed when there was an 

 enormous surplus of timber, when it had to be 

 burned to make way for settlement and <'ultiva- 

 tion of the land, now that he has to crmserve 

 and grow his forest, has got to add thereto the 

 cost of forest growth, and the consumer will pay 

 the bill. Yet we are each and all consumers of 

 each other's products, and thus it is all evened 

 up by our paying each other's bills. There is 

 no economical principle through which one can 

 continue to secure to himself any product at 

 less than it costs to produce that product. 



I5ut we may learn through experiments to be 

 made in this laluiratory how to sta.v the adv.-mce 

 in the price of luiilding material and yet leave a 

 fair enough proht to the manufacturer and to the 

 grower (tf the forest. On an average one-third 

 of the tree is wasted in the woods, and in the 

 process of manufacturing. Now I believe that 

 through exjieriments and investigations here ni;i.v 

 be discovered some wa.v of saving to a pnitit this 

 enormous waste of tops, limbs and of mill refuse. 

 There will yet be made good sheathing, ceiling 

 and finishing lumber from pulp ground from 

 limbs and wood waste of all kinds which can 

 not now be utilized profitably, and this after 

 they have first extracted valuable iiyjiroducts. 



In the I'nited States we are cutting 4ii.(iiiii.- 

 OiKt.ObO feet of lumber annually, and if we are 

 only saving two-thirds, we are as a nation sus- 

 tainin.g a loss of what would be equal to i!n.tMio.- 

 (loft.inio feet of lumber and at an etiuivalenf 

 stumpage valuation, it* it could be saved, say. S:; 

 a thousand, it would mean an annual loss of 

 :?tj(). 1)00.000. besides many millions of dollars lost 

 to transportation companies and to labor. 



Twenty years aao the lundiermen of the South 

 raised a sum of money to purchase a large tim- 

 ber testing machine for the use of Prof. .1. P.. 

 Johnson, of Washington I'niversity. and I had 

 the pleasure of furnisliing some of the mateiial. 

 und meeting with a committee of lumbermen in 

 the laboratory to witness the various tests on 

 different woods. This interest was induced by 

 the efforts of Chief Forester Fernow. In-. Charles 

 Mohr and Professors .J. B. .lohnson and Filbert 

 Roth. 



The forestry report of the Department of .Vgri- 

 fultnre for 1S!>1 shows as furnished for these 

 tests. twenfy-tw(t trees of white pine from Wis- 

 consin, and from the pines of the South twenty- 

 three trees of longleaf, ten trees of shortleaf. 

 fifteen trees of loblolly, and fifty-nine trees of 

 various species of oak. I had the pleasure of 

 having in m.v company's forest at that time Dr. 

 Charles Mohr and his assistant, who superin- 

 tended the cutting of blocks of diseased timber, 

 whicli I shipped with sound logs, two carloads 

 in all. some to Washington I'niversity at St. 

 Louis and part to the I'niversity of Michigan 

 at Ann Arbor. And today in this new laliora- 

 tory I found installed a laVge apparatus for dis- 

 tilling turpentine from refuse, for which the lum- 

 bermen of the South furnished the money in 

 1!)0T. 



So the lumbermen of the South responded 

 early to this call, and were given creditable men- 

 tion in Chief Feruow's report of l.sill. and they 

 have since enjoyed the expressed appreciation of 

 Chief Forester (Jifford I'inchot. and of his suc- 

 cessor. Chief Forester Craves. As lundiermen. 

 we are vitally interested in the tnechanical use 

 and commercial values of all tree products, the 

 process of growth, the inter-relation of species, 

 and in all the ccmdilions upon which tree growth 

 depends; and in all that may be learned in this 

 laboratory of new uses f<M' wood and of the 

 numerous byproducts already and yet to be dis- 

 covered, the object being to obtain a better 

 knowledge of the properties of our woods and of 

 their adaptation in a technical manner for 

 various useful purposes. 



We have now no. (100.000 of population, which 

 will be rapidly increasing. The consumption of 

 timber and its products is rapidly increasing, 

 while the source of supply is rapidly decreasing. 

 We are now using lumber from trees L'tO to 'MM) 



years old. from which we get out c!<*ar and upper 

 grades. Succeeding generations can not wait 

 to reproduce and grow trees like these, and when 

 this old growth is gone, they must use younger 

 trees of fifty to sixty years of jige. For there 

 will come many competing substitutes, so that 

 from an economical stan<lpoint. they can never 

 atTord the cost of growing older timber. Hence 

 liu' value to lumbermen of a Forest Products 

 Laboratory in which to study .idapiability and 

 experiment upon the best technical ntili'zatiou 

 ,)f. and the best means of saving, wood waste ; 

 and also urevenling destruction of wood by dis- 

 ease and other caused. 



President Van Hise of the University of 

 Wisconsin expressed his sincere appreciation 

 irf the honor bestowed upon the university by 

 the establishment of the laboratory and by the 

 recognition of the movement as evidenced by 

 Ihe large attendance of lumbermen. He 

 ittlked intcjligently on the various phases of 

 iumbering and conservation, and appealed 

 especially to the lumber trade to avail itself 

 as fully as possible of the facilities offered 

 at the laboratory and of the information re- 

 sulting from the experiment conducted. He 

 pointed out that there would undoubtedly be 

 mistakes and recommendations impractical in 

 themselves, but pleaded for a recognition of 

 tlie efforts of tfie service in behalf of con- 

 servation, and asked that the same consider- 

 ation be given this matter as is given any 

 other busLnes.s proposition. In summing up 

 he defined conservation as that which accom- 

 plishes the greatest good to the greatest nuin- 

 lier for the longest period. 



The pulp manufacturers of the country 

 were represented by B. R. Goggins of the 

 .Vmerican Paper and Pulp Association, who 

 went into detail as to the pulp industry in 

 Wisconsin and the possibilties of the future. 

 The main theme of his addre&s -was that the 

 oaper industries must conserve in this country. 

 Iiv more full.y utilizing the available sources 

 of pulp supply and by thoroughly experi- 

 menting with a view to ascertaining any 

 legitimate new source. O. B. Bannister, repre- 

 senting the hickory vehicle manufacturers, 

 preseuteil some interesting figures and facts 

 in connection with that industry. He stated 

 that in 19(57 there were 20,000,0110,000 cubic 

 feet of material used. Of this amount 60 per 

 cent was waste, which represents a total of 

 4.800,000 earload.s. Tliis appalling amount 

 certainly indicates tliiit somethiug is radically 

 wrong. 



Mr. Bannister's remarks were followed by 

 a brief talk by Chairman Hoard, who then 

 dismissed the attendants, bringing to a close 

 a most enjoyable and noteworthy event. The 

 most noticeable thing in connection with the 

 celebration was the apparent feeling of ab- 

 solute confidence on the part of all those 

 present in the full ability of the laboratory 

 and those connected therewith to .?olve many 

 of the perplexing ()Ucstions coustanth' pre- 

 senting themselves before the woodworking 

 industries of the country, and in the course 

 of time to put conservative methods of manu- 

 facture on a basis which will render their 

 adoption by lumbermen a money-saving de- 

 parture, and not merely an experiment in- 

 duced by their patriotic feeling. It is cer- 

 tainly to be hoped that himbennon will do 

 their part. 



