American Forestry 



VOL XX 



APRIL, 1914 



No. 4 



WOOD VERSUS SOME OF ITS SUBSTITUTES 



By R. C. BRYANT 



THE lumber industry has begun 

 to view with alarm the rapid 

 encroachments which substi- 

 tutes for wood have made and 

 still continue to make in the field of 

 wood products. This inroad is not 

 confined to any particular kind of wood 

 or class of material, but it has been felt 

 most keenly in the inferior grades of 

 lumber which have been consumed in 

 immense quantities for boxes, crates, 

 and innumerable other purposes. 



Economy and the public welfare de- 

 mand that we use in a conservative 

 manner the resources at our command 

 and therefore, the substitution of steel, 

 concrete or other materials is to be 

 commended where the public at large 

 is benefited either directly or indirectly. 

 There are instances, however, where it 

 is not for the public interest to make 

 such changes, since the final result is 

 not an economic gain but a loss. 



The substitution of other building 

 materials for the high-grade lumber 

 formerly used may be justified in some 

 cases on the grounds that better wood 

 material was used than was necessary 

 or that the demands for the high-grade 

 lumber by new or expanded forms of 

 industry has so increased that our de- 

 pleted forests are unable to supply cer- 

 tain kinds of material in sufficient 

 quantities to meet the public needs in 

 those industries unless retrenchment is 

 made where it will be least felt. It is 

 an economic waste to use better wood 

 materials than are required for a spe- 

 cific purpose, but it is regarded as a 

 direct economic loss when low grade 

 woods suitable only for a few specific 

 purposes are displaced by substitutes 

 and the wood product thereby rendered 



of such low value that the lumberman 

 can not market it, and therefore de- 

 stroys it at his manufacturing plant or 

 else leaves the timber in the forest to rot. 

 The extent to which close utilization 

 of stumpage can be effected is dependent 

 directly on the markets for and the 

 prices which can be secured for the low- 

 grade material which comprises more 

 than 50 per cent of the lumber cut of 

 the United States. The lumberman 

 removes from the forest only as much 

 of the stand as he believes can be 

 marketed at a profit, although every 

 defective log may contain some cull 

 material which must be handled in order 

 to secure the higher grade lumber on 

 which a profit can be made. The last 

 few years has seen a marked change in 

 the character and amount of timber 

 which is taken from a given acre of 

 land, a fact well illustrated in the south- 

 ern pine region. Where formerly only 

 the choicest trees and the best logs 

 from these same trees were taken, 

 lumbermen have now reached a point, 

 due to higher stumpage values and in- 

 creased market prices for lumber, where 

 the entire stand of pine is removed down 

 to a diameter of from twelve to fourteen 

 inches, in some cases still lower; where 

 low stumps are cut and where defective 

 and knotty top logs are taken to the 

 mill. The yield per acre for stands of 

 the same character has increased from 

 four hundred to five hundred per cent 

 for the above reasons. It is a mistaken 

 theory to assume that a competition 

 in low-grade lumber, which comprises 

 much of this increased yield per acre, 

 reduces the lumber cut and thereby 

 prolongs the life of the operation. On 

 the contrary, the reverse is true, since 



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