20 MISC. PUBLICATION 2 4 7, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



design and construction that upkeep, obsolescense, and first costs 

 may be slashed liberally. To meet these requirements successfully, 

 pref abrication is essential ; the more difficult and time-consuming part 

 of construction and assembly must be done inside the factory. 



A pref abrication system of marked promise, with wood as a building 

 material, is now under development at the Forest Products Labora- 

 tory. The basic unit is a panel consisting of two plywood faces glued 

 to either side of an inner structural framework. This forms what is 

 virtually a box girder with all the strength essential for high-class 

 construction. Under tests, floor panels were found capable of sustain- 

 ing maximum loads of 300 or more pounds per square foot over a 13- 

 foot 6-inch span, and wall panels, under a 60-mile-per-hour gale, 

 developed a fiber stress less than one-third the allowable safe stress 

 for the material. 



To test the practicability of this new method in prefabrication, a 

 five-room demonstration house was constructed. As a further test, 

 this house included combinations of such panels as might be needed in 

 larger houses. The scheme of assembly is so well adapted to the 

 requirement of speed in construction that the demonstration five- 

 room house was erected complete in 21 hours by seven men. 



The third example cited is one concerning the economic side of forest 

 research. Investigations by the Forest Service have brought out wide- 

 spread need for a sounder credit basis for forest industries. Credits 

 in the past have been derived from private sources. Lately these 

 credits have in large measure dried up. This has raised the question 

 of public or publicly sponsored credits like those available through 

 the Farm Credit and Federal Housing Administrations and the Re- 

 construction Finance Corporation. 



In general, the studies have indicated that private credits to forest 

 industries have tended to force quick liquidation of the basic forest 

 resources. This has not made for the public welfare. They have shown 

 the need for public or publicly sponsored credits definitely adapted to 

 forest industries, embodying relatively long periods of time and low 

 interest rates. It has been suggested that such credits might logically 

 be extended to owners who operate in accordance with national 

 policies designed to protect the forest resource. Modeled along farm- 

 credit lines, and with provision for administration by an accredited 

 Federal credit agency, the plan evolved should form an integral part 

 of a progressive program of public cooperation. 



UNIVERSAL USE OF WOOD 



It is literally true that wood in some form enters into most daily 

 lives, from the cradle to the grave. Births and deaths are published 

 in newspapers that, in the United States, require close to 4,500,000 

 cords of pulp wood annually for their manufacture. Our system of rail 

 transportation calls for 110,000,000 wooden railroad ties yearly; 

 annual requirements for telephone and telegraph total close to 

 4,000,000 wooden poles; cellulose is transformed into clothing and fiber 

 containers ; forests furnish, each year, 65,000,000 cords of firewood and 

 1,500,000,000 barrel staves; wine is stored in wooden vats and casks; 

 wood is preferred for handles on many tools and utensils; few, indeed, 

 are the homes into the construction of which wood does not enter. 

 And these are but samples of the countless purposes to which wood 

 is put. 



