The silver state news. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1907-1909, 1908-09-01
UNCLE SAM EXPERIMENTS
WITH FOREIGN WOODS

country to which forest experts have
turned in seeking substitutes for the
valuable American woods used by tn,
similar wood-using industries.
Manufacturers in this country Rave
been facing constantly decreasing
supply of available hardwood timber
for a number Of years and the time is
already at hand when efforts must
be made to look to the preservation OF
the American species most in demand
and to scour foreign lands for the trees
which may prove valuable as substi-
tutes.
Seven different New Zealand hard
wood trees have just been put through
a series of tests by the United States
forest service in cooperation with the
University of California in the timber
testing laboratory at Berkeley. The
trees showed up remarkably well in
comparison with the white oak, which
is one of the strongest woods in the
United States, developing under test
when in an air dry condition crush
ing strength of $500 pounds per
square inch and a bending strength of
1900 pounds per square inch.
Four of the seven New Zealand
woods tested developed a bending
strength even greater than white OAK
and three of the woods showed great
or crushing strength. The New Zea-
land woods found to have a bending
as high or higher than oak were the
Black Marie, Natal, Puriri, and silver
pine. while the first three of these
have in addition developed a greater
crushing strength than oak.
An idea of the true strength of
these woods Is given in the technical
report which shows that the white oak
at LOO the compressive or crushing
strength of the New Zealand woods
is as follows: Black Marie, LIS; Mata.
LOS, and Puriri, 1.2l. The woods which
developed an equal or greater bending
strength are as follows: Natal, 1.22;
Silver Pine, LOO; Puriri, l41 and Black
Marie, 1.56 The last figure shows
that this wood has more than one and
one-half times the bending strength
of oak.
The woods tested which fell below
the strength of oak (1.00) were Rimu,
.6S for compression or crushing strength
and Sc for bending; Kauri, 10 for
and "a for bending, an1
Totara, 81 for. compression and 20
for bending. The showing even for the
last three woods is not bad when it
is considered that the compression is
made with clear straight grained white
oak.
These strength tests of seven of
New Zealand IS most valuable timbers
may prove of the greatest benefit to
certain American manufacturing inter
ests if experiment shows that the
woods can be introduced into this coun-
try and planted with the same success
as the eucalypts of New Zealand and
Australia or if it is found that the ISL
ands have enough of the various spe-
cies to import little to this country.
The United States will not be able
to depend on imports to any great ex
tent, for wood users realize that there
is an approaching shortage of tlmb n
in other countries as well as in this
and each nation must cultivate AMI
protect its own forests. 1t is there
fore likely that planting experiments
will be made with many of the valu-
able foreign woods: in view of the
success made with the eucalypts in
California.
American hardwoods are in a con-
stantly decreasing supply and if for
eign trees are found to meet the same
uses to which white oak and hickory
are put it will afford an opportunity
to replenish the native supply by well
planting. The hardwoods prae-
tically all grow in the eastern and cen
trail western states, where there are no
national forests, although a plan has
been proposed number of times for
their establishment in the White noun
tains of New England and the Appala
chians in the South For the present
the protection and conservation of the
country's hardwood resources depend
upon the individuals and corporations
which own the land.