meet the needs of her livestock industry. 
225,000 gallons of sugarcane molasses are brought 
into the State each year, but livestock people esti- 
Montana lacks sufficient supplemental feed to 
mate that molasses consumption might increase 
to one million gallons if a cheaper and more reli- 
able source of supply is developed. 
It is estimated that the potential feedlot market 
for molasses in Montana could be met with the 
processing of 15 tons of wood waste daily. If wood 
molasses is used extensively for range feeding of 
cattle and sheep sometime in the future, however, 
the Montana market for the molasses would rise 
| 
| 
far above one million gallons yearly, possibly to the 
point where the demand could not be met by 
processing even 200 tons of wood waste daily. 
The sawmill industry is giving more attention to 
the matter of remanufacturing and byproducts. — 
Some mills have enlarged their operations by selling 
less of their output as lumber and diverting part of 
it to making boxes, window frames, etc. The re- 
| manufacturing process in some instances more than 
doubles employment. For example, lumber gives 
_ 18.4 man-hours of employment per thousand board 
feet of production; boxes and shook, 29.9 hours; 
_ window frames and sash, 42.4 hours. All three fig- 
ures include the labor from tree to finished 
product. 
One of many other products that can be made 
is laminated wood. The war-time difficulty of 
Forest Resources of Montana 
Some 
obtaining wood of the large size and high quality 
necessary for bridge stringers, mine guides, ship 
keels, and several other purposes, the advance in 
glues and gluing techniques, and the opportunity 
for tailoring the product for a specific use, brought 
laminated wood into the industrial picture. With 
the decline in quantity of large, high-quality virgin 
timber, the demand for laminated stock is gradually 
increasing. Advances in glues and gluing tech- 
niques also open new possibilities for edge-gluing 
narrow boards together to make wide ones to meet 
customer specifications. 
There is some possibility of making panel sheath- 
ing from lumber to compete with composition 
wallboard. Much of the lumber shipped from 
Montana is later cut up to remove the knots and 
defects in order to produce clear, small pieces. It 
might be profitable to do the cut-up work before 
shipment to avoid the freight charges on material 
later discarded. 
Plywood mills, though they compete with saw- 
mills for high-grade logs, are another means of 
making effective use of timber. By peeling or slic- 
ing a log rather than sawing it, a high-value prod- 
uct can be made with less waste. Thus, to the 
extent that plywood mills can be operated without 
unduly encroaching upon the lumber industry, 
they will be a worth-while addition to the indus- 
trial picture. 
41 
