1360 A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY 



facts is obvious, but reliance on education as now conceived is not very 

 promising. 



Holding back the cutting of growing stock to safeguard future pro- 

 ductivity means, it is true, a higher average transportation cost for 

 the immediate present as a larger percentage of lumber comes from 

 the West. The loss in competitive position of lumber products that 

 might arise from this cause should be resisted by the development of 

 improved and economical timber products such as mill-fabricated 

 items, plywood for sheathing, concrete forms, siding, and the like. 



From the single standpoint of minimum transportation costs it is 

 obvious that the North Atlantic States, the Lake and Central States, 

 and the South, by their greater accessibility to the chief centers of use, 

 warrant first attention in intensified forest management. 



SELECTIVE LOGGING AND SUSTAINED YIELD 



Markets are being supplied with lumber from private holdings at 

 higher production cost and of lower average grade than would be the 

 case if selective logging were generally practiced. It has been con- 

 vincingly established in every producing region that the smaller tim- 

 ber is handled at a loss in most lumber operations. In southern pine, 

 for example, the small trees are often cut at a loss of approximately 

 $10 per thousand board feet, which adds to the price at which the 

 larger timber must be sold to yield a profit. 



Three important steps toward lowered costs become possible as the 

 principle of selective logging and sustained yield is put into effect: 

 (1) Elimination of material that fails to pay its way; (2) saving the 

 investment in plant, mill town, and forest land that in the case of 

 migratory operation must be charged off in the price of the products at 

 a rate as high as $2.50 per M for typical southern mills; (3) realiza- 

 tion of lower raw-material costs by making possible the stable opera- 

 tion of integrated secondary industries. The last point is considered 

 in more detail under the next heading. 



From an economic point of view, timber owners can now hardly 

 afford to neglect the practice of selective logging wherever the charac- 

 ter of the timber permits. But often important obstacles to its 

 practice or privately owned lands remain to be overcome. Further 

 discussion of measures that are required to realize the benefits of 

 selective logging and sustained yield occurs elsewhere in this report. 

 The fact that needs to be borne in mind at this point is that substan- 

 tial reductions in current production costs are made possible by 

 selective logging. 



INTEGRATION OF INDUSTRIES 



Integration of the sawmill with pulping plants, veneer and dimen- 

 sion mills, and the like, is a major requirement for lowered costs. For 

 the most part, forest industries have been specialized, and each has 

 made its independent draft on the raw material supply. The result- 

 ing wastes are proverbial. However, enough has been accomplished 

 thus far by industrial integration to point out possibilities of improve- 

 ment. Within recent years the pulp industry on the West coast has 

 come to operate to a large extent on the waste from logging and saw- 

 milling operations, with the result that pulp mills 2,000 miles from 

 Chicago can compete with those 200 miles away. In the Lake States, 



