1446 



Canadian Forestry Journal, Dzcemhcr, 1917 



The Dawn of Science in Lumbering 



By Hugo Winkenwerder 

 Dean of College of Forestry, University of Washington 



Logging and lumbering is not the 

 game it used to be. We still call it 

 a game, but if it is it looks a good deal 

 like a hand in poker when the jackpot 

 holds all your resources and the dealer 

 hands you nothing better than a pair 

 of deuces. It was no trick to make 

 money in the lumber business 20 

 years ago, but during the last 10 

 years it took a genius. Logging 

 chances are every year becoming 

 more and more difficult, more effi- 

 cient, though at the same time more 

 ■ complex machinery is necessary, so 

 that logging is becoming a highly 

 specialized and technical engineering 

 problem; mean and discouraging labor 

 problems, that can no longer be solved 

 through the labor agency, but re- 

 quire a thorough knowledge of econ- 

 omics and human nature and the 

 patience of a divinity for a solution, 

 are constantly bobbing up; more 

 efficient methods in manufacturing 

 have become a necessity; transporta- 

 tion problems are now almost con- 

 stantly in need of attention; and the 

 marketing problem which didn't exist 

 at all 10 years ago, has, in its war 

 A\ith the substitutes, become one of 

 the most important in the industry. 

 These are only a few of the more im- 

 portant general problems in the ever- 

 growing load the industry has to 

 carry on its shoulders. There is a 

 limit to human capacity, and if these 

 problems are ever to be solved it will 

 have to be done by experts, who have 

 the technical foundation and the 

 time to work them out thoroughly. 



The Forest School Can Help 



You know as -well as I do that in 

 looking after the daily routine of 

 your business, both you and your 

 present administrative organization 

 of managers, superintendents and 

 foremen don't have the time to make 

 extended studies on the problems 



that are in need of investigation, and 

 that it would be done better and 

 much more thoroughly if you had 

 some one with the proper technical 

 training who, working under your 

 general supervision, could give all, 

 or nearly all, of his time to this work. 

 Every other really big industry is 

 doing it. You've got to come to it. 

 Your industry is shouting from the 

 housetops right now for just that 

 kind of thing. Why not make a 

 start immediately? You know that 

 you have a hundred and one prob- 

 lems that you would like to work out, 

 any or all of which may mean greater 

 efficiency resulting in smaller oper- 

 ating costs. 



Technical Questions 



That you will look to the forest 

 schools to supply you with men of 

 sufficient technical training so that 

 you can gradually work them into 

 positions where they will be a help 

 in the solution of these problems is 

 evident from the demands that have 

 been made on the technical schools 

 of other industries and are now being 

 made on the forest schools by the 

 lumber industry. Our work as an 

 information bureau concerning tech- 

 nical questions that arise in the in- 

 dustry has been growing tremendous- 

 ly, and it is a barometer that shows 

 your technical difficulties. 



One of the most expensive woods 

 used in America is boxwood. It sells 

 for about $1,500 per thousand board 

 leet. 



News has reached Ottawa that the 

 son of Mr. E. W. Beckett, Crown 

 Timber Agent at New Westminster^ 

 B.C. has been killed in action. 



