HOW WARFARE TAXES THE FORESTS 



717 



The rapidity with which the camps were constructed is 

 almost beyond behef. At Fort Sheridan, in prepara- 

 tion for the officers' training camp, 86 buildings were 

 erected in 10 days. At Fort Oglethorpe 135 buildings 

 were put up in 12 days. Without highly organized effi- 

 ciency in the lumber and building industries these records 

 would have been impossible. 



This construction program, through sheer magnitude, 

 appeals to the imagination and concentrates public gaze 

 on this particular form of the demand now being met by 

 the lumber industry. Less spectacular, perhaps, but of 

 no less importance, is war's demand for forest products 

 in other directions. Consider the case of the wooden 

 packiifg box. With none of the romance attached to the 

 magic cities that have sprung up for the army camps and 

 lacking the glamor of building a thousand ships, the 

 packing box is playing a vast part in the lumber require- 

 ments of wartime. The material used for making boxes 

 for army and navy supplies has already run into hundreds 

 of millions of board feet and the demand will continue as 

 long as there are an army and navy to provide with sup- 

 plies. Other huge quantities of packing cases are re- 

 quired for the packing and transmission of munitions 

 and these likewise are consuming lumber in tremendous 

 volume. 



In the building of army transport wagons is another 

 field for the use of lumber in large amounts. The vehicle 

 of this type must be a model of strength and service and 

 into its construction must enter the best grades of pine, 

 oak and hickory. A good many thousand army transport 

 wagons are now under construction and the demand 

 from this source will last indefinitely. 



When it comes to the actual instruments of warfare 

 the products of the forest enter largely into the needs of 

 an army. Without charcoal it would be impossible to 

 make the black powder which is used in such quantities 

 in explosives, especially shrapnel. Rosin is another item 

 which has made itself indispensable. This product of the 

 pine forests of the South is used by thousands of barrels 

 in the making of shrapnel, for the purpose of holding the 

 bullets in position in the explosive shell head. The manu- 

 facture of high propellant explosives requires great quan- 

 tities of acetone and alcohol, both of which are products 

 of wood distillation. From the refuse of pulp mills science 

 procures muriatic acid, sulphuric acid and chloroform. 

 Wood pulp itself has so many uses as to make them diffi- 

 cult to specify. During the war it has found its place in 

 the manufacture of paper shirts, vests, socks and hand- 

 kerchiefs, blankets, clothing padding and kindred uses. 

 In Germany wood cellulose is extensively used instead 

 of cotton in the manufacture of gun cotton. Wood pulp 

 is even being utilized in considerable volume in the manu- 

 facture of a substitute for cotton for surgical purposes 

 and in making tough paper for surgical dressings and 

 paper board for splints. 



In other words, an army depends on forest products 

 form the time its men are mobilized in encampments until 



the wounded have received the attention of the surgeon. 

 The National Lumber Manufacturers' Association makes 

 the statement that the first twelve months of America's 

 participation in the war will probably see as much as 

 three billion feet of lumber used for purposes of national 

 defense. This is for construction purposes, and to these 

 figfures must be added the large quantities used for inci- 

 dental requirements. The figures are startling but in 

 spite of their size they represent less than seven per cent 

 of the normal annual lumber production of the United 

 States. In timber resources and manufacturing facilities 

 the lumber indutsry can take care of all ordinary de- 

 mands and supply the timber needed for war purposes. 



The abnormal need for lumber will not end with the 

 war. When peace shall have been established building 

 material in tremendous volume will be needed for recon- 

 struction of ravished Europe. Coincident with this will 

 be the resumption of normal building operations in Eng- 

 land which have been checked by the war. Already the 

 British Government is considering housing plans to re- 

 lieve the congestion now existing. It is figured that the 

 country will need to erect from half a million to a million 

 new houses within the first two years after the end of the 

 war. Since 1906 there has been a steady decrease in the 

 building of houses for working men. With the outbreak 

 of the war there was practically complete cessation of 

 even the diminished activities in this line, excepting in 

 munition manufacturing areas. To make up for the defi- 

 ciency it is believed that the government will provide 

 financial assistance for house building on a mammoth 

 scale. 



One phase of the patriotism of the lumber interests 

 was manifested in a campaign recently conducted 

 throughout the South by speakers organized by the 

 Southern Pine Association. To stimulate the woodsmen 

 to the expenditure of their best effort in speeding up the 

 production of timbers for the Emergency Fleet these 

 speakers canvassed the entire southern lumber area and 

 spoke before workers at sawmills and logging camps. 

 The appeal to the men was based on the vital need of 

 America for wooden ships and the importance of supply- 

 ing structural material as quickly as possible. A poster 

 displayed throughout the lumber regions said : "Every 

 swing of an ax, every cut of a saw, may score as heavily 

 as a shot fired from the trenches. Help our boys in 

 France. Help them win the war." As a result of the 

 speeding-up campaign it was expected to increase the 

 output of ship timbers from 850,000 feet a day to 2,000,- 

 000 feet. 



ly/flSS Grace Pickens is taking the course of forestry at 

 -'-" the University of the State of Washington. She 

 entered at the opening of the current session. Other 

 women have registered for selected forestry courses in 

 the University, but Miss Pickens is the first to specialize 

 in a work that has been considered a man's calling. She 

 is from La Grande, Oregon, and has spent much of her 

 life in the woods. 



