AMERICAN FOREST CONGRESS 157 



of our logs, now furnished for these purposes, but they 

 are worth in railroad ties, at this writing, less than 

 $6.00 per thousand feet of manufactured lumber, 

 while the cost of hauling and sawing exceeds that 

 figure. Then, too, while hauling one of these tops, 

 a surface clear log could be hauled, worth $6.50 or 

 $7.00 per thousand feet, against $3.50 per thousand 

 for the top in question. Again, while sawing this 

 top into $6.00 lumber the mill could have sawed a 

 $7.00 log into lumber, of which 40 per cent, would 

 be clear, 40 per cent, good building grades, and only 

 20 per cent. $6.00 lumber. Sawing the top the "saw" 

 bill would be $2.50; on the good log perhaps $5.00 

 or $6.00 per thousand feet, and the same is true of 

 the hemlock, yet the hemlock is the best of box ma- 

 terial, and the small per cent, of clear, different entirely 

 from eastern woods of the same name, is a beautiful 

 interior finish. 



Were we a little nearer the great markets of the 

 United States, or were our freight rates less, or were 

 the demand a little larger, these tops and hemlock 

 could be handled, and the greatest difficulty in perpet- 

 uating our forests thus removed. 



The bark of this hemlock is superior in tanning 

 qualities; tanning extract plants would help solve the 

 problem; pulp mills could use to advantage our hem- 

 lock and waste spruce ; fir tops, stumps, and roots are 

 well supplied with pitch, and experiments indicate the 

 values obtained from those sources in turpentine, tar, 

 pitch, rosin, wood alcohol, creosote, lamp black and 

 charcoal, and other chemicals, are greater than the 

 balance of the tree affords in lumber. Short lengths 

 of our cedar make shingles ; short lengths of our 

 spruce make staves; short lengths of our fir make 

 porch flooring and car siding; fir bark and limbs 



