18 MISC. PUBLICATION 247, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



The first instance is one of an investigation made by the Northern 

 Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station of the Forest 

 Service, in cooperation with the Bureau of Animal Industry. This 

 showed that overgrazing short-grass range during a series of years 

 near Miles City, Mont., was costly to the stockmen. During the 

 drought of 1934, so little forage was produced that hay was required 

 as a supplement in all pastures. On controlled experimental areas 

 over a ton of hay to each cow was required on overgrazed range, as 

 compared to an average of approximately a half ton per cow on range 

 not normally overgrazed. It was also found that over a 2-year 

 period, calves from cows on the latter range averaged 72 pounds 

 heavier at weaning time than calves from cows on the overgrazed 

 range, The cost of range and supplemental feed per pound of calf 

 produced in 1934 was about &% cents for the overgrazed lot, as against 

 about 3/2 cents for the more conservatively grazed lot. In other 

 words, this greater cost of feed per pound of beef is a penalty — of 

 about 240 percent — paid during drought periods for overgrazing. 



The second illustration has to do with the acute need in the United 

 States today for small, inexpensive homes of such simple but sound 

 design and construction that upkeep, obsolescense, and first costs 

 may be slashed liberally. To meet these requirements successfully, 

 prefabrication is essential; the more difficult and tinie-consurning part 

 of construction and assembly must be done inside the factory. 



A prefabrication 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 covering the economic side of forest 

 research. Investigations by the Forest Service have brought out 

 widespread need for a sounder credit basis for forest production. In 

 cooperation with the Farm Credit Administration, a basis for sound 

 forest-credit legislation has been worked out. The general scheme is 

 to parallel, as nearly as the character of forestry organizations permit, 

 the Nation-wide plan already in effect for farm credits. An essential 

 feature is the granting of loans only in connection with bona-fide 

 sustained-yield forest enterprises. This will put a penalty on the 

 old cut-out-and-get-out methods of ruthless forest exploitation. 



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 



