218 AGRICULTURAL APPROPRIATION BILL, lf)24. 



FOR I'l !{( MASK AM) MMVTENAXCE OF FIELD OFFICE AND LABORATORY 



SUPPLIES, ETC. 



Thcii" H ii«> rliaii;^'!' in the itoin for supplies on pn^c lol. Tluit 

 fund is cmiplctcly used in (ho purrhase of firt>-ii<i:hting eouipment. 

 needed oflice e(|uipment. und administrative ec|uipment like com- 

 passes, scale sticks, and the like. We have to supplement it to some 

 extent hy huving ^^iinilur supplies and (Hjuiptnent fn>m other lump- 

 sum items. 



INVESTKJATION OF METHODS OF WOOD DISTILLATION. ETC. 



A net ino«rease of -SI. '),()()() is provided in the next item, for invest ipi- 

 tion of forest products, on |)age 152. The actual increase indicated 

 in the item itself is .?10.S00, hut it is proposed to transfer three 

 <-lerical positions previously paid out of this fund to the statutory 

 roll so that the net increase available for this work will be Slo.OOO. 



I take it that it is unnecessary to <;o over the general scope and 

 character of these investigations. The increase is asked with three 

 specilic purposes in view. The first is to enal)le the Forest Products 

 Lahoratorv at Madison to carry through the technical work which 

 we have been asked to do by a central committee representing 

 lumber manufacturers and users which the Secretary of Commerce 

 has been insti-umental in having established, for the standardization 

 of lumber grades and specifications including nomenclature, dimen- 

 sions, and grade sp(>cilications. Tlio Forest Products Laboratory 

 has done a great deal of work bearing on this subject for a good 

 many years. 



.\s an example, on the basis of our mechanical tests of timber, the 

 laboratory was a]>le to work out a method of grading structural 

 timbers of southern pine in which the grade reflects the actual 

 strength and structural value of the timber. It is the so-called 

 "density rule," l)ased upon the number of rings and the proportion 

 of heavv ''smnmer" wood which gives the timber strength. 



The Departments of Commerce and .Vgriculture are now endeavor- 

 ing to develop more uniform and effective system of grading all kinds 

 of lumber. A committee of manufactunM's and consumers is covering 

 the whole field — factory lumber, yard lumb(>r, heavy structural 

 tiiubers. hardwood lumb(>r that goes into furniture and t)ther forms 

 of remanufactures, etc. The Forest Products Laboratory has been 

 designated as the agency to get the teclmical data. It is a very 

 large order and represents probably a two or three years' job. The 

 nroject is a very irn[)or(ant oiu' and we expect to use at least one- 

 naif of the SI .'),()!)() increase for that purpose. 



The other dcNclopments that we have particularly iii mind in con- 

 nection with this increase are a study of wastes in the manufacture of 

 paper and a study of improving methods of finishing wood with paints 

 and varnishes. The paptM* manufacturers of the country who use 

 chemi<'al jiroccsses for converting wood into pul]). like suliihite pulp 

 from which newsprint is made and soda pulp from wnich book 

 paper is nnidc, have been unable to avoid a loss of from 10 to '20 per 

 cent of the raw material. They know that so many tons of pulp wood 

 go into their digesters nnd that so many Ions (jf chemical pul|) come 



