record load

practice not only provides a visual trademark but also helps prevent the lumber from checking.

As the lumber is unloaded it is transferred by a half dozen or so forklifts into an adjacent dockside inventory that can run in excess of 15 million B.F. of lumber. Their terminal is at Pier A, Berth 6, in the Port of Long Beach.

Packaged to length, the lifts range from 8 to ?A feet in length. Either Douglas fir or hemlock, the shipments include dimension lumber, boards and timbers. No random length packaging is done, and all packages have attached stickers.

Story at a Glance

Some new names in the Canada/California connection. .distribution patterns expected to remain unchanged...huge ships carry multi-million dollar car. goes ol lumber and paper.

Far West Fir Sales has nine sales people to sell the lumber to retail and industrial accounts. Most is sold in Southern California, with an occasional lot sold in Nevada and Arizona. Now in its 30th year in business, Far West uses trucks to transport lumber from dockside, though some firms send their own trucks to pick up the lumber.

Some domestic lumber is received by rail and barge for inclusion in the dockside inventory. A small amount of the lumber is taken to Far West's eight acre facility in Huntington Beach for remanufacture. Company president John Weston estimates the inventory turns every 30 to 45 days.

The receiving, unloading and dispersal of the lumber is but one step in the long chain of distribution. It is estimated that the lumber, which began as standing trees on Canada's Vancouver Island and other mainland forests, travels as much as 2500 miles before reaching its final destination to become the homes and other products Americans use every day.