256 REPORT 0;F THE FORESTRY COMMITTEE 



quality, more than it would if he had selected a quality to meet his require- 

 ments. He does not consider how much of this lumber that contains knots, 

 splits, shake, some decay and other defects, might be used in the construction 

 of his dwelling, barn or other purpose and not lower the quality and use- 

 fulness of the finished structure. The mechanic who does the constructing 

 will very naturally recommend a quality that is free from defects because 

 with the best only he can do his work quicker and easier. 



"The consumer does not stop to consider that, of all lumber produced 

 from our forests, probably not more than one board in five is of the quality 

 he wants and will have, if his means permit. He chooses one and rejects 

 four. What shall we do with the four boards that are rejected by the discrim- 

 inating consumer who is able to make his selection — the eighty per cent of 

 production ? A part of it, because of his inability to make so critical a selec- 

 tion, may be accepted by some other consumer, but there is still a large ^ 

 proportion of the entire lumber production that is rejected. 



"It costs the manufacturer of lumber just as much to produce the board 

 of lower quality as it does to produce the one that is free from defects. 

 Many times — in fact, practically always — the lumber manufacturer finds the 

 good boards and the poor ones done up in the same package, so that he can- 

 not take the good boards and leave the poor ones. To be more explicit, no 

 forest contains all good trees and no poor ones, and, going further down the 

 line, no log contains all good boards and no poor ones. In fact, among a lot 

 of choice selected logs it is difficult to find one that does not contain more 

 boards that would be rejected by the average consumer than boards of the 

 quality that meets his choice or favor. The lumber manufacturer cannot 

 separate the approved boards, the boards of high quality, from the rejected 

 boards, the boards of lower quality, until after he has incurred the expense 

 of purchasing the forest, constructing and equipping railroads to haul the 

 logs out, constructing sawmills, planing mills, dry kilns, and various other 

 expenses, amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars and, in some very 

 large operations, even millions of dollars. After all this expenditure and 

 the further cost of cutting the logs, hauling them to the mill, sawing them 

 into boards, piling the boards to dry, and holding them until they are ready 

 to market, the manufacturer finds a large proportion of his boards of a 

 quality that are rejected by the consumer whose means permit him to do so. 



"These are facts, serious facts, that influence forest conservation, facts 

 that in reality are of as much concern to the consumer as to the manufacturer. 

 If the consumer rejects half or more of the product of the lumber manufac- 

 turer, what is to be done with this immense quantity of lumber, this large 

 proportion of one of our greatest natural resources, the forest ? The natural 

 law of supply and demand furnishes a remedy in part, but in part only, 

 because the consumer wants and favors only the best of the lumber, the 

 grade that is free from defects. Naturally, the demand for that grade is in 

 excess of the supply, and just as naturally the price for this grade advances. 

 Then, because of scarcity and high price of the grade of lumber in favor with 

 the consumer, necessity may compel him to consider a lower quality, but 

 just so soon as the supply of the higher quality increases and the price is 

 lowered, he will again reject the lower quality. From this you will readily 

 reason that the higher the price of the better grades of lumber, the more of 

 the lower grades will be consumed and less be wasted. 



"The advance in the price of lumber during the past twenty years has 

 compelled the use of more and more of the lower grades, thus tending to 

 a greater degree of forest conservation now than formerly, but we have not 

 yet reached the pomt where nearly all of useful valuable lumber of the tower 

 grades will be accepted by the consumer. Nor will that point ever be reached 



