Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-11-11
STUDY TIMBER CONSERVATION.
One Concern Which Turns Out an
 Enormous Supply.

The future development Of the lumber industry in this country lies in the direction of 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 at the mill of the Great Southern Lumber Co, which has just reopenad 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 turning out the enormous amount of 600,000 feet Of sawn lumber, board measure, per day. A reader can get a fair idea of this quantity of lumber when he is told that it's output is enough to build little town of forty houses, along with good sized church and school house every day.
 This company was quick to grasp the significance of the rapid deple- tion of timber resources. Last year 1t 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 closer utilization of the products of the southern lumber mills and at the same time produce margin of profit in excess of that obtained by the methods which are now practiced.
 The field for work along this line is broad. It is we'll 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 tree only eight inches in diameter. Moreover, timber cut from young trees usually contains a large amount of sapwood. If ties poles, etc, are cut from such material they will decay far more rapidly than If cut from heart wood. It is not good business policy, however, in great many cases to saw the most valuable timber into commodities 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 utilized for the cheaper commodities when given a preserva- tive treatment.
 To this end careful study will be 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 se- cure greatest economy and profit. For example, can tree eight inches in diameter be best utilized for ties or for flooring, and how will the pro fits 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 chemically preserved wood will nn- doubtedly result in that wood giv- ing greater life in service Hence the amount of timber cut annually in the United States simply to ie- place that which has decayed will be materially decreased. and a further conservation of forest resources will result. Recent estimates by the for est service 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