appears as finished lumber. Sixty-five to seventy 

 per cent of the original tree is left on the ground and 

 the mill waste amounts to over a cord per 1,000 feet 

 of lumber. Frankforter, who had exceptional oppor- 

 tunities for studying the lumber industry in the mid- 

 dle, northern and western states, reports that in these 

 sections of the country the best equipped and most 

 skilfully operated mills utilize a little less than 40 

 per cent of the total weight of wood in lumber, lath 

 and shingles. Our own large scale studies on long- 

 leaf yellow pine have proved that under the best 

 operating conditions only 33.42 per cent of the aver- 

 age tree becomes available as lumber, box shooks, lath 

 and shingles; two-thirds is wasted. In the estimate 

 of total annual waste given above an average of 60 

 per cent of the entire tree was reckoned as waste but 

 in view of the loss on yellow pine, which is our most 

 important timber tree, and the far greater propor- 

 tionate loss on hardwoods, it is evident that the total 

 annual waste is substantially more than 75 billion 

 feet and may even reach 90 billion feet. Frankforter's 

 estimate of 100 billion feet on a smaller annual cut is 

 undoubtedly too high and not in accordance with his 

 other figures. 



Of all our timber trees none lends itself more readily 

 to waste utilization than long-leaf yellow pine. It is 

 cut more largely than any other species and the indi- 

 vidual operations are commonly on a great scale which 

 ensures the local concentration of waste in vast amounts. 

 For these reasons and because my associates and I 

 have studied the waste utilization problems presented 

 by this wood more carefully than those of any other 

 species, 1 shall ignore hardwood distillation, the use 

 of extracted chestnut chips for pulp and paper making, 

 and the occasional use of mill waste from northern 

 conifers in sulfite pulp mills, and ask you to direct 

 your attention solely to the utilization of wood waste 

 from long-leaf yellow pine. 



The present annual cut of this species is about 15 

 billion feet, board measure. The waste is equivalent 

 to 30 billion feet. It may be said at once, without 

 fear of successful contradiction, that the potential 

 profits in this waste are far greater than any actual 

 profits which this branch of the lumber industry 

 can be made to yield from lumber. When this waste 

 is intelligently considered, not as waste but as raw ma- 

 terial, it will be seen to afford a basis for building up 

 the greatest group of co-related by-product industries 



(2) 



