1372 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



MORE MARKETABLE PRODUCTS AND LOWER COSTS 



Like all other materials, primary wood products are susceptible 

 to improvement through research in form, properties, and costs. 

 Assets capable of withstanding strong competition lie latent in the 

 present forms in which wood is marketed high strength per unit of 

 weight, integrally bonded structure, impregnating qualities, non- 

 conductivity, working and finishing qualities and chemical deriva- 

 tives, all in supplies that are continuously renewable. But other 

 materials in recent years have established standards of service 

 which necessitate changes hi wood products. 



Improvement, in order to yield maximum benefit, must be based 

 first of all on better compliance with the requirements of the consuming 

 market. Refinement of product with lowered cost is unquestionably 

 the outstanding consumer demand and the largest factor controlling 

 the future markets for wood. Refinement beyond an elementary 

 stage involves also diversification of product to deal with the inherent 

 variability in the wood itself and in the trees and forests from which 

 it is cut, and diversity in any adequate degree involves the integration 

 of producing units. The main lines through which improvement is 

 to be worked out, discussed under a previous heading, call for factual 

 information, some of which is already at hand, but much of which 

 still is to be obtained. Further research in this field consists chiefly 

 in working out the means of applying in practice the results from 

 more fundamental scientific knowledge. 



THE FORM OF PRODUCT 



Research has advanced the use of materials competing with wood 

 through the development of sheet or fabricated units of large size, 

 high strength, and light weight. The advantages from the stand- 

 point of both structural and architectural design and installation 

 costs have given rise to a consumer demand that is permanent and 

 irresistible. Forest products have given partial recognition to such 

 demand, but the possibilities have only been touched and are limited 

 only by the amount of research that is devoted to them. The 

 possibilities and actual developments in pulp and cellulose products in 

 this field are well recognized. In the field of plastic and molded 

 products there has come to partial realization a method whereby the 

 cellulose and lignin of wood are combined with aldehydes to form a 

 product which can be molded under pressure to give a hard material 

 very resistant to moisture change and with no tendency to shrink or 

 swell. 



Since the lignin, cellulose, and aldehyde can all be obtained from 

 the wood, the process may be considered as self-contained, and only 

 the small amount of mineral acid needed to effect the reaction need 

 be supplied from other materials. If the results thus far obtained are 

 substantiated by further work, large-scale production of new products 

 from what is now waste material is made possible. Additional 

 possibilities lie in the discovery of a satisfactory binder for consoli- 

 dating fine particles of wood and also in the glutinizing of the sur- 

 faces of wood particles to produce adhesion when pressure is applied. 



Plywood as a major wood product commands attention on account 

 of the possibilities it holds in units of large size, high strength, and 

 lightweight ratios, in low cost treatments to guard against fire, 



