WHAT OUR FORESTS SUPPORT 



BY FRANKLIN H. SMITH, STATISTICAN IN FOREST PRODUCTS 



THE American public has a vital interest in the per- 

 petuation of our forests. This interest is not only 

 in the daily necessities and comforts that the for- 

 ests provide; the continued productivity of our forests 

 has a deep economic significance for all the people. 

 Wood in one form or another rough, perhaps, as in the 

 case of fuel, or refined, as in the case of a beautifully 

 finished piece of furniture is the principal raw material 

 that enters into the making of thousands of manufac- 

 tures and the turning out of these varied products in- 

 volves the labor of millions of persons, backed up by 

 the capital investment of billions of dollars. Should 

 the forest crop be shortened, the manufacturer would 

 be deprived of his raw material, and labor, in turn, 

 would lack employment. So whatever tends to maintain 

 an abundant annual forest crop is perforce an ally of the 

 public, and whatever tends to diminish such a crop, 

 whether it be poor utilization, carelessness, or fire, robs 

 labor and the public of just so much of their rightful 

 heritage. 



The average man sharpens a lead pencil and notes 

 the softness of the wood, the ease with which it cuts, 

 and the smoothness of the sharpened surface; he feels 

 the "give" or elasticity of his golf stick as he drives the 

 small ball on its course toward the next hole; he gazes 

 at the beautiful wavy grain of his highly polished desk 

 or table top; but seldom does he stop to consider the 

 source of the raw material, the means of utilizing the 

 various woods, or how dependent he is upon the forest 

 for the necessities, comforts, and even health of his 

 every day existence. He takes the pencil, or the golf 

 stick, or the desk as a matter of course, along with the 

 other daily conveniences provided, without stopping to 

 reflect upon what they really represent to him in facili- 

 tating his day's work, play, or rest, and how inhar- 

 monious his work-a-day world would be without these 

 indispensable articles of wood. 



Hardly for a moment from the time in the morning 

 when Mr. Citizen rolls out of his walnut four poster on 

 the second floor of his cozy shingled house, sets foot 

 on the polished hardwood floor, stubs a toe against the 

 rocker of his comfortable arm chair, and takes his razor 

 from its veneered box on the wooden shelf in the bath- 

 room, until he tumbles into the same four-poster at night 

 does he lose contact with wood in some form or other. 

 He may rest his elbows on the breakfast table of 

 mahogany from an easy position in his wooden chair, 

 while he glances over the headlines of the morning paper 

 made of wood pulp. Selecting a cigar from the cedar 

 box, which he lights with a match of pine, he closes 

 the wooden door behind him as he goes out and takes 

 either the plebeian trolley car of wooden type, or if 

 he is fortunate enough to own one, a motor car, many 

 parts of which are of wood, and so reaches his office. 

 Thus it goes all day long much that he touches or em- 

 ploys is of wood. In his office he is surrounded by 



desks, and chairs, and filing cabinets, and bookcases 

 made of wood. The surface of the street he crosses, 

 dodging heavily laden wagons in his hurry, may be paved 

 with wooden blocks. And those same heavily laden 

 drays bear merchandise of every sort securely contained 

 in wooden boxes and crates. The very toothpick he may 

 reflectively stick between his lips after luncheon is of 

 wood. All of which brings us down to the point 

 where we can seriously consider the great value of our 

 forests and their economic importance to the wealth, 

 independence, and prosperity of our country. 



The wood-producing and wood-using industries of the 

 United States form an important and interesting divi- 

 sion of the country's industries. Some of them we im- 

 mediately recognize as directly associated with our 

 daily doings, while others we may look upon as being 

 rather remotely related to the work or play of the day. 

 Perhaps not all of the following named industries are 

 completely descriptive, but the list will serve to indicate 

 to the reader the general products manufactured : Lum- 

 ber and timber products; planing-mill products, sash, 

 doors, blinds, and general millwork ; window and door 

 screens and weather strips ; wooden packing boxes ; cigar 

 boxes ; barrels and kegs ; turned and carved wood ; lasts ; 

 wooden furniture, including rattan and willow; show 

 cases ; billard tables and materials ; looking glasses and 

 picture frames ; sewing-machine cases ; baskets and rat- 

 tan and willow ware ; coffins and burial cases ; rules ; 

 matches ; pulp goods ; wood carpet ; charcoal ; treated 

 and preserved woods; carriages and wagons; air- 

 planes ; agricultural implements ; dairymen's, poulterers', 

 and apiarists' supplies; wood for engraving; musical 

 instruments and materials ; paper and wood pulp ; phono- 

 graphs and graphaphones ; tobacco pipes; refrigerators 

 and kitchen cabinets; ships and boats; toys and games; 

 turpentine and rosin ; washing-machines and clothes- 

 wringers ; wood distillates ; artificial limbs ; professional 

 and scientific instruments ; handles ; clocks ; playground 

 equipment ; printing material ; trunks ; shuttles ; spools, 

 and bobbins ; firearms ; pulleys and conveyors ; patterns 

 and flasks ; pumps and wood pipe ; tanks and silos ; bungs 

 and faucets; brooms and carpet-sweepers; paving 

 materials ; plumbers' woodwork. 



A mere glance at the list must awaken in even the 

 unobservant person a realization of the great diversity 

 of those forest products that enter into his or her daily 

 routine. Wood is peculiar in that while it is not fabri- 

 cated like iron or steel it readily lends itself to almost 

 any combination or fashioning where the main requisite 

 is strength, lightness, toughness, softness, ease of turn- 

 ing, quickness of working, beauty of design or finish, 

 durability, or a grouping of several of these qualities. 

 The uses of wood are multitudinous and so common- 

 place that its indispensability is rarely given a thought. 

 To deprive man, even to a limited extent, of such a 

 friend as wood, which nature has so lavishly provided 



