PREFACE 



THE object of this book is to present to the student or reader the chief 

 commercial features involved in the manufacture and use of the princi- 

 pal forest products except lumber, and to serve as a reference book for 

 those interested in them. The treatment of the subjects, therefore, has 

 necessarily been very brief. A book could easily be written on each sub- 

 ject, but the curricula of the professional forest schools usually do not 

 provide for extensive study and investigation of each product, unless 

 special and separate courses are offered in such subjects as pulp and 

 papermaking. 



It is impossible to include in a book of this kind some of the wood- 

 using industries which are closely associated with lumber and its uses, 

 such as the furniture industry, ship building and car construction, etc., 

 because they belong in a separate category. The important problem 

 has been to determine what to include in a book of this kind, and to 

 discriminate and to exclude some of the less essential material. It is 

 planned to make this volume a brief treatise preliminary to a more 

 complete and exhaustive work or group of books to be written at some 

 later date. 



Although there are more or less statistical data available on some of 

 the industries treated in this book, there has been very little written in 

 American forestry literature on the principles and practices followed 

 in the production of materials other than lumber. From the viewpoint 

 of invested capital, and value of products,they are of greater importance, 

 collectively, than lumber. 



The values and conditions used in this book are largely given for the 

 period prior to the participation of this country in the war. This has 

 been deemed advisable because of the wholly abnormal and somewhat 

 temporary conditions brought about by the war itself. 



Much of the data has been obtained as the result of personal investi- 

 gation and inspection of operations in the South, the Lake States, 

 the Northeast, and the Far West during the past ten years. Some mate- 



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