STABILITY OF LOCATION, EMPLOYMENT AND OUTPUT 183 



ing should be discontinued if the young growth is to be encouraged 

 and the sugar bush properly maintained. 



11. Rubber. Crude rubber or latex is obtained by scarring the 

 trunk of the rubber tree, the Hevea braziliensis, a native of the Ama- 

 zon River region of South America. Many plantations of this tree 

 have been made in Malaya, Sumatra, Java, Ceylon, Burma, in the 

 East Indies, and Liberia in western Africa, by British, Dutch, and 

 American rubber companies. Trees are tapped for latex daily, except 

 during February and March when the leaves are shed. The enormous 

 consumption of rubber for tires and many other articles has caused 

 many companies to invest large sums of money to establish planta- 

 tions to assure the continued and reasonably priced supply. Great 

 advances have marked the planting of rubber trees together with the 

 collection of latex and its manufacture into rubber. 



7. TRENDS TOWARD STABILITY OF LOCATION, EMPLOYMENT 



AND OUTPUT 



Until recently, the American lumber industry has been notable for 

 its nomadic and migratory characteristics. Lumber production has 

 been largely from the immensely large sawmills. For many years, the 

 practice of "cutting out and getting out" has been followed. 



Within recent years there have been marked tendencies in the 

 direction of greater stability of location employment and output. 

 These trends are primarily due to: 



1. The change from the large to the small sawmill unit. Probably 

 70 to 80% of all the lumber produced east of the Rocky Mountains 

 now comes from the small sawmill cutting generally 5000 to 15,000 

 b.f. or less per day. 



2. The improved highways and better motor-car design and manu- 

 facture have resulted in motor-truck transportation of logs for long 

 distances to the sawmills rather than moving the sawmill to the woods, 

 as has been done with small sawmills until recent years. 



' 3. The rapid growth of timber in most of the regions, especially 

 in the South and Southeast, making possible a permanent supply of 

 logs tributary to the stable locations. Frequently the small sawmill 

 is the principal local industry. Community life, income (wages and 

 employment), banking, and trade revolve around these small mills 

 together with the moving of lumber from mills to market and the 

 transportation of logs to mills. 



4. The encouragement and construction of small forest industries 

 on a permanent basis. The management plans of some National 



