40 BULLETIN 1437, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
particularly true of factories producing chairs exclusively, because 
of the character of the articles manufactured and also because the 
majority of these factories utilize round-edged lumber. Even the 
factories remanufacturing square-edged lumber into dimension stock 
exercise care to avoid waste, as a rule. Some occurs of necessity in 
the cutting-up process, but a large percentage of this is utilized in 
the form of glued or built-up stock for cores and different parts of 
the articles manufactured. Scraps of lumber 1 by 4 by 6 inches or 
even smaller are utilized in this way. 
Only one furniture company is known to use round-edged alder 
lumber. This company, like trie chair companies, produces its sup- 
ply of alder lumber at its own factory from purchased logs. It may 
not be economically feasible for all factories to utilize round-edged 
lumber, but the general adoption of the practice would unquestion- 
ably result in a considerable saving of wood. 
From the fact that the chair companies using round-edged lum- 
ber produce it at their own factories, the inference is that this policy 
is economically sounder under existing conditions than that of buy- 
ing such lumber in the open market. The difference between log 
and lumber transportation costs, together with the large overrun in 
sawing alder logs may of course be a factor in some instances. 
Round-edged lumber costs somewhat less to produce than square- 
edged lumber, but the cost of transporting it to the factories is 
greater per unit of cutting than for square-edged lumber. Also the 
percentage of material which is lost in the factory remanufacturing 
process is, when based on the gross content of round-edged pieces, 
proportionately higher. Nevertheless, if care in cutting up is used, 
a round-edged board of a specified commercial board-foot content 
should, because of the nature of cuttings required, yield more net 
footage, other conditions being equal, than square-edged material. 
Because many short cuttings are required, the board can be cross 
cut at advantageous points and the maximum width of that short 
section be utilized. 
Data collected in detailed studies of eastern chair factories on the 
use of round-edged, mill-run lumber 8 show a higher loss of material 
in comparison with the material lost in cutting up square-edged 
pieces. This is due principally to two facts: Mill-run material in 
the eastern chair factories is usually No. 3 and better, cut from a 
rather low grade of log, and in the factory no care is used in cross 
cutting at points which will yield the greatest quantity of cutting 
possible. 
VOLUME TABLES 
Table 16 shows the average contents in board feet of trees of dif- 
ferent diameters for various total heights. The trees on which this 
table was based were all actually scaled by caliper ing them as 8- foot 
logs, the stumps averaging about 1 foot in height. The trees were 
considered merchantable up to 6 inches in diameter inside the bark. 
8 These studies were made by the Forest Products Laboratory as a part of the general 
study of the wood requirements of the chair industry, with the following report : Upson, 
A. T., and Benson, A. O., Production and Use of Small Dimension Stock in the Chair 
Industry. 104 pp., illus. Chicago, 111., 1923. 
