Arizona republican., 1908-11-11
THE LUMBER INDUSTRY
 FUTURE DEVELOPMENT
Depends Upon a Closer Utilization oi Forest Preserves.

The future development of the lum- Der industry in this country lies in the direction of a closer utilization of forest products. Both foresters and practical lumbermen now agree on this point.
 Just what can be done in this field is well illustrated in the operations of the mill of the Great Southern Lumber company, which has just re- opened it's plant at Bogalusa, La, in ! response to the increased demand for lumber after the recent slump in business. This is perhaps the largest sawmill in the United States, if not in the world, and is capable of turn ing out the enormous amount of 600.000 feet of sawed lumber board measure per day. A reader can get a fair idea of this quantity of lum- Der when he is told that its output is enough to build a little town of forty houses, a long with a good sized church and school house every day.
 This company was quick to graps the significance of the rapid deple- tion in timber resources. Last year it began a cooperative investigation in wood utilization with the United States forest service and arrange ments have just been completed for a renewal of the experiments. The work will be along practical lines and will be aimed to secure a closer utilization of the products of the southern lumber mills and at the same time produce a margin of profit in excess of that obtained by the mthods which are now practiced.
 The field for work along this line is broad. It is well known that the superior grades of lumber are ob- tained from old mature trees, pro- vided they are not weakened by de- cay or other influences. In other words. a thousand feet board meas ure of lumber. sawed from a tree two feet in diameter. costs less and is worth more than a thousand feet sawed from a tree only eight inches in diameter. Moreover, timber cut from young trees generally contains large amount of sapwOOd. If ties, poles, etc. are cut from such ma terial, they will decay far more rap idly that if cut from heartwood It is not good business polisy, however, in a great many cases to saw the most valuable timber into commodi- ties which are relatively low in cost, such as ties and poles. It is the intention, therefore. of the company to find out just what size and classes of timber can be best util- iZed for the cheaper commodities when given a preservative treatment
 To this end a careful study will he made to ascertain the amOunt and value of the products sawed from trees of different sizes and just how each can be best utilized so as to secure greatest economy and profit. For example, can a tree eight inches in diameter he best utilized for ties or for flooring, and how will the profits compare if treated with those sold untreated? It seems reasonable to suppose that the profits derived from the sale of treated timber will exceed those from untreated timber.
 Moreover, the greater use of chem ically preserved wood will undoubt- edly result in that wood giving a greater life in service. Hence, the amount of timber cut annually in the United States. simply to replace that which has decayed. will be materially decreased. and further conserva- ton of forest resources will result. Recent estimates by the forest serv- ice place this reduction at 10 per cent of the total timber cut. The practical benefits of these experi- ments and of the investigations for the utilization of sawmill waste are at once apparent.