240 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



TRUCK LOAD OF TRIANGULAR CROSS TIES READY FOR TREATMENT AT THE GREAT NORTHERN 

 RAILWAY Co.'s TREATING PLANT. SOMERS, FLATHEAD COUNTY, MONTANA. 



the annual output of a large lumber 

 manufacturing plant is more or less 

 regulated by the investment, and the 

 operator who has large carrying charges 

 to meet both on the investment in 

 the raw product and in plant facilities 

 will still maintain his average output, 

 but will leave in the forest to rot such 

 material as can not be sold at a profit. 

 This means that all of the usable ma- 

 terial is not removed and the lumber- 

 man, therefore, must cut over a greater 

 acreage to secure the amount of raw 

 product he requires. This hastens the 

 exhaustion of his timber supply and 

 likewise affects every citizen who in the 

 future must use wood. 



It is essential both from the stand- 

 point of national economy as well as 

 from the direct standpoint of forestry 

 that this material shall continue to find 

 a profitable market in addition to the 

 saplings and other small material which 

 may result from the thinning of arti- 

 ficial forests. We are all, therefore, 

 vitally interested, or should be, in the 

 creation and maintenance of profitable 

 markets for this class of material. 



The marketing of high-grade lumber 

 is not so difficult since there is a steady 

 demand for this class of material, and 

 as timber becomes scarcer the problem 

 of placing the better grades on the mar- 

 ket will become more simple even than 

 it is today. 



One of the largest markets for low 

 grade material and for trimmings from 

 the sawmill and the planing mill has 

 been in the manufacture of crates and 

 boxes for holding all sorts of vegetables, 

 canned goods, soap, starch, crackers, 

 etc. A recent estimate of the Secre- 

 tary-Manager of the National Lumber 

 Manufacturers' Association places the 

 annual consumption of wood for the 

 above and similar purposes at more 

 than six billion feet, or about 20 per 

 cent of the total lumber production of 

 the entire country. Much of this lum- 

 ber was not valuable for other purposes, 

 and if it had not been used as stated 

 the logs which contained it either would 

 have been left in the forest, or the 

 lumber of box quality would have been 

 burned at the mill. 



The importance of the box trade to 



