consumers could transact business to mutual ad- 
vantage. 
The base of the industry’s wood supply could be 
broadened by more general integration with other 
industries. Pulpwood demand can be met in part 
from thinnings in young stands, from species not 
favored for lumber or other uses, and from waste 
in sawlog operations or in lumber manufacture. 
Integrating the production of a combination of 
products, the specifications of which represent a 
progression in size and quality, should be profitable 
for small timberland owners, should reduce wood 
costs in the pulp industry, and should save timber. 
The Veneer and Plywood Industry 
The veneer and plywood industry has grown 
rapidly in the past 25 years. Its employment in 
1944 is estimated as the equivalent of 54,170 full- 
time workers. Although it consumed only 6 per- 
cent as much timber as the lumber industry, and 
30 percent as much as the pulp and paper industry, 
these figures do not measure its potential im- 
portance. 
The industry has three main types of products: 
(1) Face veneers, made chiefly from high-quality 
hardwoods and used in furniture, cabinetmaking, 
paneling, and similar manufactures; (2) contain- 
er veneers, made from southern pine, ponderosa 
pine, sweetgum, tupelo, birch, beech, maple, elm, 
cottonwood, etc., and used for orange and egg 
crates, baskets, hampers, and boxes for shipping 
fruits, vegetables, and other commodities, and 
crating for refrigerators, radios, etc.; and (3) ply- 
wood, made chiefly from Douglas-fir, and used for 
construction, door panels and other millwork, small 
boats, refrigerator cars, and hundreds of other pur- 
poses. New waterproof glues, improved methods 
of bonding, and the process of molding into various 
curved shapes have added greatly to the utility of 
plywood. In almost all its major construction uses, 
plywood is interchangeable with lumber and has 
several advantages. It can be produced in large 
sheets free of knots and other defects and can often 
be put into place with less labor. 
Of the 1.5 billion board feet, log scale, used for 
veneer and plywood in 1944, 58 percent was hard- 
wood and 42 percent softwood. Over half the 
total production of hardwood veneer was for con- 
tainers. Furniture veneer, although in great de- 
mand and bringing high prices, constitutes a small 
part of total production. 
806034°—49—5 
Forests and National Prosperity 
Hardwood veneer plants, of which there are 
about 600 varying greatly in size, are widely dis- 
persed throughout the East. Container production 
is concentrated chiefly in the South and face-veneer 
production in the Central and Lake regions. 
In contrast, the softwood plywood industry is 
compact. At the end of 1944, there were 34 active 
plants, 32 of them in the Pacific Northwest and 2 
in California, all but a few large and modern. 
Total capacity is about 2,150 million square feet 
(34-inch, 3-ply basis), but peak production (1942) 
has been only 1,850 million square feet. 
Large, good-quality logs used by the veneer and 
plywood industry are becoming scarce. There are 
current or imminent shortages of logs for face ve- 
neers in each of the important hardwood regions. 
The Central, Middle Atlantic, and Lake regions 
probably have less than 10 years’ supply of high 
grade veneer stumpage, at present rate of cutting. 
Possibilities of expanding the face-veneer industry 
in other regions are small. Container veneer, how- 
ever, has less exacting requirements and there is 
enough hardwood to maintain the current level of 
production. 
The hardwood plants buy logs from every avail- 
able source—lumber manufacturers, independent 
loggers, farmers, importers (about 20 percent of 
face veneer). Attractive prices can be offered and 
logs can be transported long distances. Buyers for 
the larger concerns scour the country, purchases 
usually being made in small lots. High-quality 
face-veneer stumpage is often purchased as indi- 
vidual trees. 
The softwood plywood industry of the Pacific 
Northwest is little more than two decades old. 
Yet there is an acute shortage of peeler logs in the 
Puget Sound, Grays Harbor, Columbia River, and 
northern Oregon coast areas, which had about 75 
percent of the total installed capacity in 1942. The 
industry must adapt itself to new conditions. 
Procurement of peeler logs for softwood plywood 
was almost exclusively in the open market until 
about a decade ago. Between 1937 and 1942 soft- 
wood plywood production more than doubled, 
while open-market supplies of all grades of logs 
decreased sharply. By 1944, only one-fourth of 
the industry’s requirements was being drawn from 
log markets. Many good peeler logs now go into 
lumber. 
The softwood plywood industry does not own 
enough timber to maintain production. It still 
relies largely on other owners because the high- 
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