392 REPORT OF THU FORESTRY COMMITTEE 



We find that the utilization of raw materials depends largely on the location 

 of the saw mill with reference to markets. For instance, in New England, where 

 the saw mills are located more closely to large consuming centers than those of 

 any other section of the country, they are able to transport their products to the 

 consumer with the least expense. White pine timber is so closely utilized that 

 30,000 board measure feet per acre is obtained. This simply means that there is 

 a market for practically every portion of the tree. The same timber in the Lake 

 States, farther removed from the market, will produce not to exceed eight to ten 

 thousand feet per acre of marketable material. On the Pacific Coast millions of 

 feet of good material are wasted either in the woods, or at the saw mills, because 

 the cost of handling and shipping it to the markets where it could be used would 

 be more than the price obtainable. As the consumption of lumber increases in 

 closer promixity to the mills, it is possible to sell a greater portion of the trees. 



Lumbermen are studying their markets as closely as the producers of any 

 other material. They are not particularly alarmed about the inroads of substi- 

 tutes, for they are willing to concede their markets to those substitutes which 

 perform a greater service. Many present will remember when the sidewalks of 

 the smaller towns and cities were made of wood, and while this represented an 

 enormous consumption of lumber, the lumbermen have made no complaints about 

 the loss of this market, simply because they have recognized that the cement walk, 

 now universally used, is a superior article. They further know that lumber pos- 

 sesses qualities not inherent in any other material. 



They are engaging in the advertising of their products for the purpose of edu- 

 cating the public how it can cooperate in using forest materials for which no 

 market now exists. The manufacturers can influence custom to only a slight de- 

 gree. There are several customs now generally in vogue, which could be changed 

 with a swing of material, and without any detriment to the consumer. There is 

 now a large amount of raw material wasted at the saw mills because the public 

 will purchase only even lengths and widths in standard building sizes. It is only 

 in those sections of the country where lumber prices have reached the highest 

 point that this is not true. Throughout more than two-thirds of the United 

 States it is impossible for the lumbermen to sell anything but boards and dimen- 

 sion lumber in even lengths, the odd foot being cut oflf and wasted at the mill, and 

 the same is true of widths in inches in all but the highest grades. The lumber 

 manufacturers are anxious to educate the public to the fact that by cooperation 

 with the carpenters, contractors, architects, retail dealers and lumber jobbers, 

 much material now wasted at the mills can be utilized. 



The question is asked why lumbermen do not practice forestry. They do 

 not feel that economic conditions have reached a point where the application of 

 so-called scientific forestry methods can be undertaken without financial loss. 



Lumbermen are practicing the first step of forestry in the measures which 

 they are taking to prevent fires. The conditions on the Pacific Coast are most 

 favorable for the easy reproduction of the forest because of the climatic condi- 

 tions, and the species of timber. Where fire has been successfully eliminated the 

 young forest is growing rapidly. This work, which has been so successfully 



