GROWTH AND UTILIZATION 



177 



preservatives and treating methods has greatly 

 extended the life of wood in outdoor service, thus 

 reducing replacement requirements; and funda- 

 mental studies in wood properties, wood structure, 

 wood chemistry, and wood physics have developed 

 a background for many more utilization advances. 



Utilization in the Woods 



Improved Equipment and 

 Logging Methods 



Changes in equipment and methods of logging 

 have been responsible for a large part of the 

 progress made in utilizing material in the woods. 

 Fast-working, labor-saving equipment for cutting, 

 skidding, loading, transporting, and road building 

 has steadily broadened the limits of profitable 

 logging — including better use of defective ma- 

 terial, salvage logging following the main opera- 

 tion, and greater integration of logging operations 

 wherein parts of trees, suitable for different 

 products, are distributed to the industries that can 

 use them to the best advantage. 



Felling and bucking have become largely 

 mechanized. Chain saws, now widely used 

 throughout the country for felling and bucking, 

 and power-operated circular saws now prominent 

 in southern logging operations, have greatly in- 

 creased output per man at generally lower costs. 

 In 1950 about 70 percent of the felling and bucking 

 operations in the lumber and pulp industries and 

 about 60 percent in the veneer industry were 

 performed with power saws. Power saws have 

 brought about certain improvements in utilization 

 such as lower stumps, greater use of tops, and 

 increased use of sound material in otherwise 

 cull logs. 



Skidding is now done largely with tractors, 

 rather than cable-yarding engines. Because 

 tractors permit greater flexibility in logging, 

 material considered too costly to operate with 

 various forms of cable yarding can often be 

 handled economically with tractors. And, when 

 handled properly, tractors are also less damaging 

 to residual timber or down timber. Tractor j^ard- 

 ing accounted for 55 percent of tlie total yarding 

 job in the lumber industry in 1950, 48 percent in 

 the veneer industry, and about one-third in the 

 pulpwood and other industries. 



Other woods practices such as yarding full 

 tree lengths to a central point for bucking and 

 package handling of logs and bolts, particularly 

 in relogging cutover areas, have been stimidated 

 by the development of suitable equipment. 



Loading is now done faster, more easily, and 

 more cheaply with mobile power equipment, thus 

 broadening the range of profitability for material 

 previously passed up. The job of transporting 

 logs and bolts has also undergone development. 

 Motortruck hauling has become so efficient that 



it is fast replacing the logging railroad even in 

 the West. In 1950, considering both distance 

 and volume transported, it was estimated that 

 about two-thirds of the total job of hauling saw 

 logs, 70 percent of the total for veneer logs and 

 bolts, and 40 percent of the total job of hauling 

 pulpwood was done by truck. Probably most of 

 the logs and bolts that eventually arrived at miU 

 sites by rail or water were transported part way 

 by truck. 



The shift from rail to truck has been greatly 

 accelerated by continued improvements in motor- 

 trucks, by the construction of public motor high- 

 ways, and by the bulldozer, the tractor grader, 

 and other equipment for building low-cost woods 

 roads. Truck hauling and low-cost roads have 

 in tuin opened up remote timber and the more 

 scattered stands to profitable logging and have 

 increased the opportunities for greater salvage 

 of dead trees and other material formerly con- 

 sidered too costly to handle. 



Expanding Markets 



Expanding markets for pulp and other forest 

 products have made it possible to take from the 

 woods much previously unsalable material, thus 

 lessening the impact on growing stock. Dead 

 and cull trees and trees from noncommercial 

 forest land form an increasingly large proportion 

 of the cut for lumber, veneer, pulp, fuelwood, 

 posts, mine timbers, and various miscellaneous 

 products. And tops of felled trees, broken and 

 cull pieces, and other material previously left in 

 the woods are marketable to an increasing extent 

 for such products as pulpwood, fuelwood, posts, 

 and mine timbers. Currently about 12 percent 

 of the pulpwood in the South is derived from tops 

 left after logging for other products. 



Shortages Force Better Utilization 

 of Veneer Timber 



The veneer and plywood industry offers a 

 particularly fine example of technological adjust- 

 ment to a changing resource. When quality 

 timber was more plentiful, only the large clear 

 logs were sought for veneer. But as competition 

 developed for quality timber and demands for 

 veneer and plywood increased, specifications had 

 to be correspondingly lowered. Thirty inches 

 used to be the minimum diameter for softwood 

 veneer logs and these logs had to be clear. Now 

 logs as small as 18 inches in diameter and with 

 many defects are used. Sound sections of cull 

 trees are also salvaged. 



Smaller logs also are used for hardwood veneer, 

 often only 12 to 15 inches in diameter, and as 

 small as 9 inches for some products. Slices are 

 used to an increasing extent as a means of utilizing 



