Evening star., 1922-01-15

United States, owning
quarter of all the standing
timber in tho country, is showing all
industries dependent upon lumber
supply-the furniture industry. the
tool industry. all businesses using
crates and boxes and barrels, the
news print and writing paper indus
% try-how to conduct their business
with an actual economic saving or
many hundreds of thousands of dol
lars, and got a higher rate of return.
He is showing the industries how to
save the annual bill of 500, 100000 for
damages in transit from producer to
consumer on account of defective
shipping containers. He Is teaching
the writing paper manufacturers how
to use cotton linters. waste product
of the cotton gin. thereby increasing
The paper supply of the country 2OO,-
900 tons year. He is showing the
paper plants of the United States how
to save S1O,000,000 a year that has
previously been lost through decay In
manufactured pulps and pulpwoods.
He is teaching the furniture manufac-
turers how to save 40 to so per cent
of their lumber bill.
He is teaching the entire lumber in
dustry and all building operations de-
pendent upon lumber now to save
more than % per cent of the cost or
lumber by reducing the water freight
bill and at the same time culling out
the warped and otherwise unusable
Loards. thus reducing the volume TO
be hauled and improving the quality
of the shipped product.
i. X X Il
besides this work on the policy
- that an ounce of care will save
pound of cost, Uncle Sam. the lum-
Der magnate, is promoting big de-
velopments of new industries. He Is
also giving immediate relief to the
unemployment situation and stimula-
ting all business by building good
roads through the national forests.
Under the various appropriations
made for the construction of ROADS
and trails within and adjoining the
national forests. including the stand
ing appropriat ton of 10 per cent OF
the gross income from the natlonal
forests, for the Improvement of trans
portation, work will be started be-
tween now and June so. 1922. on
projects aggregating approximately
s6.5O0.000.
Additional national forest roads
and trails will be built during the
twelve months beginning next July
TO an aggregate amount of approx
mately s1I,4OO,OO0. This construction
program covers national forests in
twenty-seven states, the territory Of
Alaska and the island of Porto Rico.
1t means the direct employment of
large number of men with corre-
sponding purchases of equipment and
supplies, and Il vast Improvement in
the transportation facilities on a
great majority of the national forests.
The appropriations themselves and
the policy followed in their eXpendi-
ture, which is made in cooperation
with the bureau of public roads, dis
tribute the benefits of this work
among all interests concerned in the
development and utility of the ma
tional forests. Many of the roads
built will be linked in the state or
Interstate highways where national
forests are traversed. Other roads
will connect isolated communities
within the national forests with the
outside world, furnishing access to
markets for their products. Still
other roads will open up timber
regions. facilitating the extension OF
numbering operations.
In reducing 1.-THE cost of wood as
raw material the forest service is
doing one of it's biggest jobs, most
helpful to industry. Many investi-
cations conducted at the forest
products laboratory are of direct
benefit to manufacturing industries
which require enormous quantities
of wood in one form or another for
fabrication. The laboratory is doing
intensive work On a wide scale to
eliminate the waste in the manu-
facture of many American hardwood
products, which results from cutting
the log into planks and then re-
saving the planks at the factory into
the sizes required for making chairs,
desks, handles and what not.
x X X
TN the present manufacture OF hlck-
1 ory handles two tons of lumber
are often bought to obtain 400 pounds
of finished handles. The average
manufacturer of furniture cannot
utilize from 40 to 60 per cent of the
lumber which is shipped to him from
the sawmill. The forest products
laboratory, in cooperation with in
dustrial organizations like the AS
sociation of Furniture Manufacturers
and the American Wood Turner's AS
sociation, is putting over the idea or
cutting the log into stock of the
sizes adapted to the particular
groups of factories requiring tnat
material, SO that the plank stage in
che process will be eliminated, and
waste in the finishing plant reduced
20 a minimum. The slogan Is to cut
@be logs in sizes adapted to factory
use.
collecting the basic facts to carry
out this idea and actually getting 1t
In current practice will mean a saving
of MANY million. board feet of material
yearly and a reduction of many million
dollars in cost simply through an effici-
ent correlation of the work of the man
who saws up the log with that of the
he finiS nrndnrt