484 



TIMBER RESOURCES FOR AME'RJCA'S FUTURE 



cutting that accompanied the early and rapid 

 growth of population and indust^5^ Needed 

 growth of eastern species groups can be produced 

 only by building up these depleted inventories. 



High- Quality Timber Will Still Be 

 Needed 



Previous discussion of needed gi'owth and in- 

 ventory was limited to consideration of timber 

 volume. The qualit}^ of the growth and inventor}" 

 necessary to meet projected demands is also im- 

 portant, but no single standard of quality is possi- 

 ble because of the wide variety of products made 

 from wood. For that reason, future demands for 

 high-quality timber can be discussed only in 

 general terms. 



In recent years, many advances in the tech- 

 nolog}^ of wood utilization have made possible the 

 production of good quality products from wood of 

 low-quality logs and bolts. New glues, gluing 

 methods, and other techniques, for example, make 

 it possible to use low-quality lumber for laminated 

 products of widely varied shapes and sizes. 

 Nevertheless, good laminated arches, ship tim- 

 bers, and other structural members cannot be 

 made from wood of nondescript quality. Even 

 the inner laminations for most structural members 

 must meet certain requirements for density and 

 strength and be relatively free of knots, steep 

 cross gi'ain, and other strength-reducing charac- 

 teristics. 



The rapid expansion of the pulp, paper, and 

 wood-fiber industries is sometimes interpreted as 

 indicating a revolutionary shift to uses of wood 

 where higli quality is not needed. Even so, fiber 

 length, strength, felting properties, uniformity of 

 raw material, and other quality characteristics are 

 extremely important in the making of many such 

 products. 



Projections in the section Future Demand for 

 Timber provide indications of trends in future de- 

 mand for high-quality wood. Such indications 

 cannot include all uses of high-quality wood, be- 

 cause demands are projected in terms of total 

 volume for some products in which both high and 

 lower qualit}^ wood is used but with the volume of 

 high-quality wood unknown. Examples are coop- 

 erage and poles and piling. However, an indica- 

 tion of trends can be derived from projections of 

 demand for furniture, "other manufactured prod- 

 ucts," veneer and plywood, millwork, and siding 

 which are products requiring that the basic wood 

 supply consist largely of high-quality material. 

 With substantial allowances for substitution of 

 other materials for lumber, medium projections 

 for these selected products show that demand 

 would exceed 1952 consumption by more than 60 

 percent in 1975 and by about 140 percent in 2000 

 (table 288) . Even though the proportion of high- 



Table 288. — Consumption in 1952 and projected 

 medium demand in 1975 and 2000 Jor industrial 

 wood used in selected products requiring substantial 

 amounts of high-quality wood 



Item 



Con- 

 sump- 

 tion 

 1952 



Projected 

 demand 



Change 

 from 1952 





1975 



2000 



1975 



2000 



Furniture ' 



Bil- 

 lion 

 bd.- 

 ft. 

 1.9 



2. 



3 1. 9 



.7 



1. 

 1. 6 



Bil- 

 lion 

 bd.- 



ft. 



2.7 



2.9 



* 2. 8 



1.0 



1. 7 

 3.9 



Bil- 

 lion 

 bd.- 



ft. 



3. 3 



4.7 



<3. 9 



1. 2 



3.0 

 6. 



Per- 

 cent 



+ 42 



+ 45 

 + 47 

 + 43 



+ 70 

 + 144 



Per- 

 cent 

 + 74 



Other manufactured 



products 2 



Millwork 



+ 135 

 + 105 



Siding 5 



Veneer and plywood: ' 



Hardwood 



Softwood 



+ 71 



+ 200 



+ 275 



Total 



2. 6 



5.6 



9.0 



+ 115 



+ 246 



Total 



9. 1 



15. 



22. 1 



+ 65 



+ 143 







' Assumes that lumber use per dollar's worth of furniture 

 output (at constant 1953 prices) will decrease by 11 per- 

 cent during the period 1952-75 and bv 19 percent during the 

 period 1952-2000. 



2 Assumes that lumber use per dollar's worth of products 

 output (at constant 1953 prices) will decrease by 11 percent 

 in the period 1952-75 and bv 16 percent during the period 

 1952-2000. 



3 Estimate based on reported consumption of lumber by 

 millwork plants, Census of Manufacturers, 1954, adjusted 

 to 1952 on the assumption that numbers of production 

 workers reported as emploj^ed by millwork plants in 1952 

 and 1954 were in direct proportion to volume of lumber 

 consumed. 



^ Includes millwork for both residential and nonresi- 

 dential construction. For residential construction, as- 

 sumes that volume of millwork for dwellings (estimated at 

 1 thousand board-feet in 1952 on basis of reports by 

 Stanford Research Institute and Housing and Home Fi- 

 nance Agency) would decrease by 10 percent during the 

 period 1952-75 and by 12 percent during the period 1952- 

 2000. For nonresidential construction the corresponding 

 decreases assumed were 15 percent and 25 percent. 



5 Based on number of single family dwellings built in 1952 

 and projected demand for single family dwellings in 1975 

 and 2000. Volume of .siding used per unit (600 board-feet 

 in 1952, derived from "The ISIaterials Use Survey, Housing 

 and Home Finance Agency, 1950") assumed to decrease 10 

 percent during the period 1952-75 and 12 percent during 

 the period 1952-2000. 



' Log scale. International 14-inch rule. 



quality wood used in these products may be re- 

 duced by future technological developments, the 

 indications are for increasing rather than declining 

 demands for high-quality wood. 



Although tree size takes no account of man}^ 

 important characteristics of wood, it reflects 

 quality in a general way and is the most compre- 

 hensive standard available for estimates of future 

 quality demands. The distinction between saw- 

 timber and growing stock is a basis for separating 



