The Western news. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1933-current, 1942-02-26
Learn Much
About Forests
And Logging
Libby Club Members
Enjoy Program Put
On by Forestry Committee.
PICTURE FIRE FIGHTING,
LOGGING METHODS

LOGGING METHODS
Anything that touches on
defense work has an especial
ly strong interest to everyone
these days. And for that rea-
son a number of highlights
in the Libby Commercial
Club program last Thursday
night were especially inter-
esting.
Maybe not many people fully
realize that Libby is closely con-
nected with defense work. But
that was brought out in talks given
by thre espeakers. Alfons Agather,
of the ]. Neils Lumber Company
staff, described some of the things
that company is doing in defense
activities. He said the company has
large order for Idaho white pine
that will be made into grill
work to be placed in the bottoms
of pontoons used in pontoon bridges.
These pontoons, he said, are of very
light aluminium and the grill-Work
is placed in the bottom as a pre-
caution against a soldier sticking
his foot through the bottom of one
of them should be slip and fall.
Twenty-Five cars per week of this
material had been shipped to Cali
fornia, he said
Lumber for Defense
Agather also said the company
had an order of five and a half
million feet Of lumber to go direct
TO the government, which will be
over 200 carloads. Some of the
government orders are being held
and will be shipped out as desig-
mated Mr. Agather also said a large
quantity of lumber is going indi-
Tectly into defense, such as lumber
for freight cars which is vitality
needed in providing the required
transportation.
Another interesting point brought
out by Mr. Agather came when he
was describing some of the less
known angles of production at the
big local plant Nearly all the lum-
Der is dried in kilns, he said. This
uses prodigious amount of water
1vaporized into steam--about 10000
gallons of water daily for this one
purpose Another interesting poin
was that for the entire plant. abou
medium sized tank car of water
is required per minute--vaporizes
into steam--to keep the plant il
operation.
Carloads OF Shell Cases
Ted Kessel, foreman of the j
Neils box factory, also held the in
terest of his audience for few
minutes. He had an exhibit of
few Of the products manufacturer
in the box factory. These, too, ar
going into defense He said the,
had been producing for some tim
car a week of 80 calibre shell
cases. Large shipments of mea
boxes are going out to the Armou
and Cudahy meat packing plants
he said, also lard boxes to England
These boxes carry meat and lar
to our allies. Mr. Kessel said it wa
the policy of the company to tax
care of government orders first an
after that the requirements of thei
regular customers.
Mr. Kessel said the box factor
was started about 10 years agt
employing 10 men. Today it en-
ploys from 80 to 81 men and has a
annual payroll in the box factor
alone of about $4,000.
Fire Fighting Organization
The first speaker on the regula
program was G.. H. Duvendack, as
sistant supervisor of the Kooten;
national forest. Mr.. Duvendack de
scribed in detail the fire fightin
organization that is SO necessary Il
the protection of the forests, gre;
national resource. All of this w;
highly informative and covered
great deal Of ground. AS an exam
pie of better methods he said lool
outs are no longer always placed c
the highest points. Instead, aftt
extensive surveys, they are place
on location giving the create
coverage of territory. ~
As indicative of a problem II
war is forcing on the service,
said they had lost 80 out of 80 me
in their fire fighting organizatio
These had gone into the army al
other better paying jobs. He e,
pected this loss of men might eve
tually be as high as SO per Ger
Mr.. DuVendack. gave. figures shoy
ing great reduction in man-causl
fires and thanked the public for
hearty cooperation.
Forest Service Has Paratroops
The addresses were IntErspers
with the showing Of number
highly instructive movies. O
showed fire fighting forces at wo
in the timber. Much of that wo
was done incorrectly and col
mentator explained how it shou
have been done. Another high
interesting film pictured the trai
ing of men for the parachute fort
men who would be dropped ir
Continued on page 81