Cnapler 18 



WOOD AND ITS USES 



I From earliest Colonial times the forest industries have played 

 a most important part in the wealth and welfare of the American 

 people. The forest and woodworking industries employ over a 

 million workers, and the building industry, which depends 

 largely upon forest products, employs more than two million 

 more. In Washington and Oregon, where the forest industries 

 account for an income of $250,000,000 annually, 12% of the 

 total employment is accounted for by them. In the past, the forest 

 has served mainly as a source of lumber and fuel, and while it is 

 true that these two products still make up about 75% of the total 

 volume of wood used, they by no means exhaust the category of 

 forest products. Indeed, the waste from the lumber industry 

 alone supports a host of minor forest industries. Formerly about 

 66% of the total volume of standing timber cut annually was 

 wasted. About one-third of this amount was left in the woods in 

 the form of stumps, tops, branches, broken trunks, and decayed 

 logs from improper storage. Losses in manufacture, in the form of 

 bark, sawdust, slabs, edgings and trimmings, etc. accounted for 

 two-thirds of the total waste. Recent years have witnessed great 

 progress in reducing these classes of waste. 



Woods waste is being reduced by the cutting of lower stumps, 

 and closer utilization of the tops, which increases the length of 

 the felled trunk and often gives an extra log length, while care in 

 the felling of trees prevents breakage of logs. In felling the giant 

 trees of the Pacific coast area, it is often necessary to build a bed of 

 limbs and brush upon which to fell the tree in order to prevent 

 breakage, which would occur if the massive trunk were to fall 

 upon a large rock or across smother log. 



Manufacturing wastes are being reduced by using thinner 

 saws which reduce less of the wood to sawdust, remanufacturing 



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