Future Requirements for Timber 



739 



estimated at six billion board feet 

 annually. 



THE TOTAL ESTIMATED REQUIRE- 

 MENTS for lumber for all purposes can 

 be summarized thus (in million board 

 feet) : 



1950-55 1999 



Construction (total) __ 31,500 28,000 

 Housing other 



than farm 1 1 , 000 9, 000 



Farm, including 

 maintenace and 



repair 6, 500 6, 500 



Railroads 2, 300^ 



Mines 500 



All other new con- 

 struction 8, 500 > 12,500 



All other mainte- 

 nance and re- 

 pair 2, 700J 



Fabricated products.. 5, 000 5, 000 



Shipping uses 6, 000 6, 000 



Total 42, 500 39, 000 



THE USE OF VENEER AND PLYWOOD 



has grown phenomenally in recent 

 years. 



Plywood is strong and stiff in pro- 

 portion to its weight and relatively 

 free from warping and shrinking. It 

 can be molded into various forms, in- 

 cluding shapes with compound curves. 

 Adding further to its versatility are 

 developments in bonding surface plies 

 of other materials, such as metals and 

 plastics, to wood inner plies; and the 

 so-called sandwich construction that 

 employs varying combinations of mate- 

 rials. The famous British Mosquito 

 bomber used in the Second World War 

 had wing surfaces of sandwich con- 

 struction with a thick, inner core of 

 balsa wood and an outer surface of 

 yellow birch veneer. 



The main uses of veneer and ply- 

 wood are in construction, containers, 

 and fabricated products. In building 

 construction, the use of softwood ply- 

 wood has grown enormously for 

 paneling, sheathing, subfloors, and 

 even siding. "Stressed skin" plywood 

 panels are especially adaptable to pre- 

 fabricated housing. Container veneer 

 is widely used in boxes, crates, baskets, 

 hampers, and various other types of 



packages made of both softwood and 

 hardwood. Fabricated products such as 

 furniture, radio cabinets, and small 

 boats require large quantities of the 

 highest grades of plywood, much of it 

 from woods chosen for their natural 

 beauty. 



In 1925 the production of softwood 

 plywood was 150 million square feet. 

 Now the industry has an annual 

 production of about 2 billion square 

 feet. Hardwood plywood likewise has 

 spurted ahead from a production of 

 800 million square feet just before the 

 Second World War to nearly 1,200 

 million in the latter part of the war. 



Potential annual requirements for 

 veneer and plywood in 1950-55 are 

 estimated to be 1.3 billion board feet 

 (log scale) for construction, 600 mil- 

 lion for containers, and 500 million for 

 fabricated products. The total is 2.4 

 billion board feet. 



Because veneer and plywood produc- 

 tion requires high-grade logs, the fu- 

 ture of the industry is linked closely 

 with forest management, especially 

 the extent to which high-quality trees 

 in the larger sizes are grown. For the 

 present, the industry is faced with a 

 diminishing supply of the high-grade 

 veneer logs and is gradually being 

 forced to resort to patching defects and 

 using less desirable species and smaller 

 logs, other facing materials, or wood 

 faces from imported woods. 



FOR COOPERAGE STOCK the staves 

 and heading from which barrels, kegs, 

 tubs, hogsheads, and similar contain- 

 ers are made logs and bolts are 

 needed. Cooperage may be either tight 

 or slack, the former being tightly fitted 

 to hold liquids, and both hardwoods 

 and softwoods are required. Wood of 

 high quality free from defects is re- 

 quired for tight cooperage. Large 

 quantities of the finest white oak have 

 been used for barrels, and the present 

 stand of such timber is inadequate to 

 meet potential requirements. 



With the growing use of metal bar- 

 rels, multiwall paper bags, plywood 

 and fiber drums, tank-car shipments of 



