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 U. S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service 
 
 FOREST PRODUCTS LABORATORY 
 
 In cooperation with the University of Wisconsin 
 
 MADISON, WISCONSIN 
 
 FOREST LANDS AND FOREST INDUSTRIES 
 
 By CARLILE P. WINSLOW 
 Director 
 
 
 Address giren before the 
 
 Central States Forestry Congress, 
 
 November 17, 1932 
 
 V. 8. QOVIRMIENt rRINTINO orricx: 1930 ** — 6018 
 
FOREST LANDS AND FOREST INDUSTRIES 
 
 By 
 
 Carlile p. Winslow 
 Director, Forest Products Laboratory- 
 Forest Service, U. S. Department of Agriculture 
 
 Markets for forest products are the neck of the 
 industrial bottle through which forest lands may materially 
 contribute to our economic development. It is because of 
 the magnitude and diversification of such markets that we 
 have been able to develop upon our unparalleled timber 
 resources enormous industrial , financial , and territorial 
 activities, which in capital invested, value of products, 
 and labor employed rank collectively in the foreground of 
 our national developments! It is upon the stability of sue! 
 markets that rests the security of the millions of dollars 
 invested in timber and timber lands, logging equipment, 
 mills, wood-working factories, wood-preserving plants, 
 naval-stores operations, railroads, wharves, ships, banks, 
 stores, roads, schoolhouses, and dwellings, and, of equal 
 or greater importance, the security of a yearly labor pay- 
 roll of- one and one-fourth billion dollars aggregate for 
 over 1,110,000 men in America's forest industries, includ- 
 ing pulp and paper. 
 
 The successful continuation and future development 
 of these gigantic and ramified economic interests are being 
 threatened by the declining consumption of lumber. 
 
 Had the per capita, lumber consumption from 1893 
 to 1909 continued, the 1929 gross consumption would have 
 been almost twice what it was in an era of prosperity a.nd 
 building activity never reached before (1920-29), when the 
 consumption of all other major building materials was 
 greatly increased. Gross lumber consumption actually de- 
 creased, however, and enlargement of wood consumption for 
 pulp, paper, and other uses has by no means replaced in 
 volume the shrinkage in lumber consumption. 
 
 This reduction in markets for lumber since 1903, 
 when a peak in lumber consumption was reached, has not been 
 due to a reduction in potential outlets for lumber, 
 Aj though the large expansion in farming with its lumber 
 requirements for buildings began to fall off at about that 
 ti me, industrial development increased at such a rapid rate 
 
 ^-Maintained at Kadi son. ""'is., in cooperation with the 
 
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 versify of " T isconsin. 
 
thereafter that there was no dearth of potential opportunities 
 for the use of lumber. Neither had the price of lumber 
 increased to such an extent that it had become prohibitive 
 for general construction purposes. TYith neither potential 
 outlets nor price standing in the way, what is it that has 
 caused a severe decline in lumber consumption in the face of 
 an increase in population and in industrial development? 
 The answer lies largely in that wood and other forest products 
 have not kept pace with the development of other competing 
 materials. 
 
 Uses long held by wood have been contested both by 
 old materials refined by science and by new materials of 
 scientific origin, promoted in industry with the aid of 
 extensive technical knowledge of their properties. Metal 
 lath and window sash, synthetic boards, all-metal automobile 
 bodies and airplanes, steel desks, metal doors a.nd trim, 
 composition floors, concrete bridges and piling, asbestos 
 and tile roofing, metal poles and posts, petroleum paint 
 thinners, synthetic wood alcohol — these a.re but a few 
 illustrations of the prevailing tendency toward substitu- 
 tion. The real and constant quest of modern Americans for 
 technical progress and improved products and service are 
 factors that must be candidly faced. If in the case of any 
 material, wood included, it is assumed that it will stand, 
 for all time on the strength of its pa.st a.nd present state of 
 perfection, there is almost a certainty, because of the 
 increasing interchangeability of materials, that its use will 
 steadily diminish. 
 
 A review of the facts and tendencies of the market 
 situation leads to the inevitable conclusions that our require- 
 ments for forest products in the future will not be what they 
 have been in the past, either in form or quantity; that it 
 cannot be taken for granted that because per capita consumption 
 of forest products has been high in the past it will automati- 
 cally so continue in the future; that new forms and economies 
 in the use of the basic raw materials, such as are represented, 
 by notable developments during recent years in steel-skeleton 
 construction, veneered coverage, and large-size structural 
 units of light weight, may upset the most exact predictions 
 based on past experience; and that there is an important 
 distinction between the need for wood as a cheap raw material 
 for conversion by industry into salable commodities in a 
 highly competitive field, and wood or forests essential 
 in themselves for other purposes. 
 
 Once recognizing these conditions, we may turn 
 attention to ways and means for retaining, recapturing, and 
 expanding markets for forest products. This will require 
 
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persistent and unflagging accomplishments in four distinctive 
 fields: First, a lowering of costs to the consumer; second, 
 an increase in satisfaction in the use of the product through 
 improvement of properties and qualities; third, the develop- 
 ment of new products or modified products; and, fourth, the 
 promotion of popular acceptance and use of the products by 
 all legitimate contributory means that may be effective. 
 
 The development and application of whatever measures 
 are necessary to make progress in these fields are the concern 
 of both private industry and the public. Let us consider a 
 few of the outstanding opportunities for progress toward 
 these ends. 
 
 Markets for a material are dependent primarily 
 upon its cost and the service that it will give, Industry 
 can cut costs in a number of ways. Integration of various 
 forest products industries such as lumber, dimension stool:, 
 and pulp, at central points so that each species, size, and 
 quality of wood may be most efficiently handled a.nd fabrica- 
 ted, and waste and handling reduced to a minimum, although 
 already partly under way, offers many opportunities for 
 reducing costs. 
 
 Instituting accurate cost keeping systems will show 
 up unprofitable operations and help in lowering production 
 costs. As an example, it has been convincingly established 
 through cost studies by the Forest Service in every producing 
 region that the smaller timber for a region is handled at a 
 loss in most lumber operations. In southern pine, the small 
 trees are often cut at a loss of approximately ^10.00 per M 
 which adds to the price at which the larger timber must be 
 sold to yield a profit. 
 
 Transportation charges, which always are a large item 
 in lumber merchandizing, can be reduced by better drying of 
 lumber at the mill, cutting out defective' material at the 
 mill as far as possible, avoiding excessive overlapping of 
 shipment ranges from different territories, and, in a large 
 range program, by growing forests nearer the centers of 
 consumption. 
 
 Costs can also be cut by the adoption of modern 
 methods in construction and fabrication. Mass production 
 and factory assembly so as to avoid slow and costly handwork 
 are almost virgin fields in wood construction. 
 
 The matter of eliminating waste in logging, 
 milling, fabrication, and pulping offers tremendous^ 
 opportunities for reducing costs on account of the large 
 amount of material which is wasted under present methods. 
 
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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
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Improving the service given by wood products is one 
 of the best means of assuring a continuing market in competi- 
 tion with other materials. Sills decay, floors show wide 
 shrinkage cracks, doors warp, furniture comes apart at the 
 glue joints, siding discolors and blisters paint, packing 
 boxes open up in transit, and fires originate in unprotected 
 wood near chimneys. All of these undesirable happenings, 
 however, are not basically the fault of wood, but of the 
 manner in which it is used. Enough is known about preventing 
 decay, reducing shrinking and warping, making strong glue 
 joints, designing packing boxes, etc., to prevent many of 
 the unfortunate failures" of wood in service. Much more needs 
 tc be known, however, if wood is to continue to compete 
 successfully with some of the newer materials in the con- 
 struction and fabricating fields. 
 
 Rule-of-thumb methods have carried developments 
 in these fields about as far as can be expected except for 
 occasional findings. Further progress on a large scale 
 must be looked for along technical lines. Technical 
 knowledge itself must widen and deepen or its application 
 in reducing costs, improving quality, and developing new 
 uses will reach a level beyond which further progress is 
 slow and intermittant . The continuous development of new 
 facts and principles through research is the only sound 
 basis for substantial progress. 
 
 Improved design of wooden structures so as to 
 economize on material without impairing their strength and 
 to permit of factory assembly and mass production, requires 
 greater refinement in our knowledge of the wood. The effect 
 of defects in different locations, of the orientation of 
 the annual rings, and of changing moisture content; the 
 holding power of nails, screws, and bolts; and the efficacy 
 of perhaps entirely new methods of fastening members 
 together need to be known. This requires research in the 
 fields of timber mechanics, timber physics, wood technology, 
 and wood chemistry. 
 
 Improving the usefulness of lumber through better 
 grading and selection, making paint stick better to the hard 
 summer wood of softwoods, developing cheap methods of making 
 glue joints permanent, finding out cheaper and simpler ways 
 of making wood fire resistant, reducing shrinkage in wood, 
 preventing the raising of grain in finished softwood and 
 hardwood lumber, devising new methods for seasoning 
 refractory woods, which check, warp a.nd collapse ba.dly, 
 hardening the surface of softwoods so that they will better 
 resist wear and indentation, redesigning wooden structures 
 on a scientific basis so as to eliminate weak and undesirable 
 fej^ures, and improving wood-working machinery and methods, 
 
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are some of the many problems that need research in order 
 to increase the satisfaction that wood may give in service. 
 
 A big field for the increase in markets for 
 forest products is in the development of new products from 
 them. Although plywood has been known for a long time, its 
 relatively recent increase in use has made it virtually a 
 new product for many purposes. More needs to be known about 
 its technical properties, such as behavior under stress, 
 shrinkage, and stability as affected by the thickness and 
 number of plies. Built-up beams, columns, and laminated 
 arches, although also not new products, will probably see 
 much greater use in the future and need technical data for 
 their efficient development. 
 
 Probably the largest expansion in the market for 
 wood will be in fibrous and chemical products. The "synthetic 
 board"; molded products to be used in furniture, electrical 
 equipment, novelties, etc.; the derivatives of cellulose, 
 as nitrates, acetates, and perhaps many new products; the 
 compounds of lignin, about which relatively little is known; 
 and the extraction of the other minor but highly diversified 
 constituents of wood, open up a field whose possibilities 
 can be compassed only by a liberal imagination. 
 
 Lack of stability in prices is another source of 
 demoralization in markets for forest products. Lumber, 
 newsprint, and naval stores suffer alike from a fluctuating 
 market. The periods of high lumber prices have been at the 
 sacrifice of the good-will of the buying public, have brought 
 about the substitution of inferior material which has not 
 given sa„t isfaction a.nd have opened the way for competing 
 materials. Rapidly receding lumber prices, on the other 
 hand, act to reta.rd buying. The stabilization of prices 
 through controlled production, legislation, and other means 
 has been one of the chief concerns of the lumber and naval 
 stores industries during the past decade, but so far little 
 progress has been made. 
 
 Although sound principles for the economic use of 
 forest la.nds and stabilization of forest industries must 
 largely be applied by industry, the public is vitally 
 concerned both with their development and their successful 
 application. Aside from the loss of revenue from timber 
 lands that the public itself owns when they are not producing 
 to their maximum capacity, the public foots the bill for 
 private lands which are idle for lack of markets in such 
 items as costs of governmental supervision, roads, tax 
 delinquency, fire hazard, long freight hauls of lumber 
 from other regions or countries, more expensi/e substitute 
 
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materials, lack of water-shed protection, erosion and 
 silting of streams, and loss of wild life and recreational 
 facilities. 
 
 Once it is realized that forest lands are a matter 
 of public concern, such matters as equitable taxation, tariffs 
 technically sound building codes, fair legislation for 
 adjusting production to requirements, and the expansion of 
 research in timber 1 growing and the utilization of forest 
 products should find ready public support. 
 
 The public has lifelong familiarity with and 
 attachment to wood and wood products. The nation has a vast 
 program of forestry at stake in the trend of wood consump- 
 tion. The fiscal stability of local governments is bound 
 up with profitable use of the land. The weight of public 
 opinion will be a mighty factor that may well be cultivated 
 in stabilizing forest production and safeguarding forest 
 markets. 
 
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