ENLARGING THE CONSUMPTION OF FOREST PRODUCTS 



By CARLILE P. WINSLOW, Director Forest Products Laboratory 



CONTENTS 



Page 



Introduction: the changing demand for forest products 1355 



The importance of maintaining and increasing consumption 1356 



Action proposed and recommended 1357 



Industrial organization and practice 1358 



Transportation 1 358 



Selective logging and sustained yield 1360 



Integration of industries 1360 



Production from small timber holdings 1361 



Improvement of production 1362 



Merchandising 1 364 



Research in forest products 1365 



Better use of wood in construction and fabrication 1367 



More marketable products and lower costs 1372 



Pulp arid paper 1379 



Wood its structure, composition and properties 1386 



Cooperation in forest products research 1391 



Meeting the challenge of consumption trends 1393 



THE CHANGING DEMAND FOR FOREST PRODUCTS 



There is the same call for aggressive, farsighted action in main- 

 taining the consumption of forest products that there is in providing 

 for the growth and protection of timber stands. 



Upon the unparalleled timber resources of the United States hitherto 

 have been built industrial, financial, and commercial activities of 

 enormous magnitude, which in capital invested, in value of products, 

 and in labor employed, rank collectively in the foreground of our 

 national developments. Such facts, considered alone, might be taken 

 as a guarantee of the permanent place of forest commodities in our 

 civilization. But present industrial trends outweigh the past in ob- 

 taining a realistic picture of forest industry and its economic importance 

 to the country. 



Wood in the past has for many purposes been practically the only 

 available material for use, and this has been a controlling factor in 

 pioneering and in the middle period of development in the United 

 States. Under primitive conditions, wood is the only fuel. Hun- 

 dreds of logs make the dwelling. 



Even for crude machinery, wood serves as a ready makeshift. At 

 a later stage, with railroads opening up new farming, forest, and 

 mining territory, forest and sawmill products came into their own 

 for the settlement of the countryside and the rapid erection of whole 

 towns, with their full complement of stores, warehouses, and first 

 industrial plants. The wooden house becomes in a measure stand- 

 ardized and is then often elaborated as an expression of wealth. 

 Such developments are perfectly familiar to Americans. They mark 

 a very recent period of our history. Continuing to some extent even 

 now, they help to explain our relatively high per capita consumption 



1355 



