Part 7 (1/2)

Often the far his tree crops There have been numerous instances where farmers have been deluded by timber cruisers and others who purchased their valuable forest tracts for a mere fraction of what the woodlands were really worth The United States Forest Service and State Forestry Departated many of these cases and its experts advise faret prices for the various wood products fro plants as possible The foresters recohbors who have sold timber Sometimes it ht, as then the heavy transportation costs are eliminated Most states have state foresters who examine woodlands and advise the owner just what to do It pays to advertise in the newspapers and secure as many competitive bids as possible for the timber on the stump

Generally, unless the prices offered for such tireater returns by logging and sawing the ti it in the form of lue forest tract should have some reliable and experienced timberman carefully inspect his timber and estimate the amount and value The owner should deal with only responsible buyers He should use a written agree ti The far timber can always be held over a period of low prices without rapid deterioration In selling lumber, the best plan is to use the inferior ti and repair work and to market the best of the material

CHAPTER XVII

PUTTING WOOD WASTE TO WORK

For lected Detailed investigations of steel, concrete, oil, rubber and other otten It has been only during the last decade since the establishment of the Forest Products Laboratory of the United States Forest Service, at Madison, Wisconsin, that tests and experiments to deterun One of the big probleovernment scientists at that station, which is conducted in cooperation with the University of Wisconsin, is to check the needless waste of wood By actual test they find out all about the wasteful practices of lu in the woods and mills Then they try to educate and convert the lumbermen and manufacturers away from such practices

The laboratory experts have already performed more than 500,000 tests with 149 different kinds of native woods As a result of these experie with less waste in the building andof at least 20 per cent of the ti purposes is proe of about 40,000,000 annually as a result of strength tests of southern yellow pine and Douglas fir Additional tests have shown that the red heartwood of hickory is just as strong and serviceable as the white sap wood Formerly, the custom has been to throay the heartwood as useless This discovery greatly extends the use of our hickory supply

Heretofore, the custo the time but also asteful and expensive The forestry scientists and lumbermen have now i green lu woods such as Douglas fir, southern yellow pine, spruce, gum and oak can be seasoned in the kilns in short ti to season fir and spruce At present the artificial kiln performs this job in from twenty to forty days The kiln-dried lu and useful for construction as the air-cured stock Tests have proved that kiln drying of walnut for use in gun stocks or airplane propellers, in some cases reduced the waste of material from 60 to 2 per cent The kiln-dried material was ready for use in one-third the time it would have taken to season the ons and wheels were dried in the kiln in ninety to one hundred days It would have taken two years to cure this material outdoors

By their valuable test work, scientists are devising efficient ainst decay They treat the woods with such chemicals as creosote, zinc chloride and other preservatives The life of the average railroad tie is at least doubled by such treatment We could save about one and one-half billion board feet of valuable hardwood lumber annually if all the 85,000,000 untreated railroad ties now in use could be protected in this manner If all wood exposed to decay were similarly treated, we could save about six billion board feet of timber each year

About one-sixth of all the lu crates and packing boxes The majority of these boxes are not satisfactory Either they are not strong enough or else they are not the right size or shape During a recent year, the railroads paid out oods in transit due to boxes and crates that were daed in shi+pment

In order to find out oods are best to use in crates and boxes and what sizes and shapes ithstand rough handling, the Laboratory experts developed a novel druives theet on the railroad This testingthe box is of great importance

Tests have shown that the weakest wood properly nailed into a container is est wood poorly nailed Better designs of boxes have been worked out which save luer containers

Educating the luant practices is one of the important activities of the modern forestry experts Operators who ricultural i, produce just as good products by using 10 to 50 per cent of the tree as they do by using all of it The furniture industry not infrequently wastes from 40 to 60 per cent of the raw lumber which it buys Much of this waste could be saved by cutting the s instead of from lumber It is also essential that sizes of material used in these industries be standardized

The Forest Products Laboratory has perfected practicalup material from small pieces which otherould be throay For exa pins, base-ball bats, wagon bolsters and wheel hubs are now ether aterproof glue If this method of built-up construction can be s in our annual consuht about As matters now stand, approximately 25 per cent of the tree in the forest is lost or wasted in the woods, 40 per cent at thethe lu the lumber over into the manufactured articles This new method of construction which s offers a profitable way to make use of the 75 per cent of material which noasted

The vast i our forests is ereat nu used as a buildingpaper Further of linoleuunpowder, paints, soaps, inks, celluloid, varnishes, sausage casings, chloroform and iodoform Wood alcohol, which is made by the destructive distillation of wood, is another important by-product Acetate of lime, which is used extensively in chemical plants, and charcoal, are other products which result froood fuel and is valuable for sunpowder, as an insulating ar refineries

It is predicted that the future fuel for use in autorain”

alcohol can now be las fir or southern yellow pine will yield froallons of 95 per cent alcohol It is estiallons of alcohol could be made annually from wood noasted at the rowth, inferior trees and other low-grade material

CHAPTER XVIII

WOOD FOR THE NATION