Woll Street Journql Prints Big R.edwood Srory

(From Woll Streei Journol, December 31, 1953)

EUREAK, Calif.-The towering redwood tree, long a California tourist lure, is turning into a fast-rising attraction for the home and factory as well.

Here in the 3O0-mile-long "Redwood Empire" of Northern Californa, sawmills are gobbling up the tree's dark logs and spitting out redwood boards at a rate more than double that of pre-war days. Production in 1953 promises to top last year's record 870 million feet; major mills are chalking up an ll/o gain. The lumber industry generally recorded a gain of less than 4/o for the first 10 months this year, most recent period for which figures are available.

Behind these statistics: A steadily climbing demand foi redwood by builders of modern houses and makers of a wide range of industrial and commercial products frotn cocktail tables to brewery vats.

Against the Trend ft's true that the most recent monthly figures show some interruption of this pattern of annual increase. Shipments and new orders slipped below a year ago in November, although production continued to run ahead. Most redwood men continue optimistic.

"We're confident that demand for redwood will continue strong because it's a specialty wood, more a finished product than a raw material," says Kenneth Smith, vice president of Pacific Lumber Co., one of the largest redwood producers. "'It's not really in the same market with pine and fir," he adds.

"We've got the glamor girl of the conifers," declares Sherman A. Bishop, sales manager of Union Lumber Co., another big producer. He adds: "Today it's a 'must' in lumberyards in the Eastern states. Where ten years ago these yards might have had a single bin of redwood, norv they have whole alleys- and there's at least one l0o/o redwood yard there now."

The reddish, tight-grained wood from the 30O-foot-high forest giants hereabouts has scored its most notable success in homebuilding. Its resistance to weather and decay and its color have made it a favorite of many modern architects. Its main use in houses is for external sidings; it's also widely used for interior paneling and exposed interior beams.

Part of Design

Says Philip Farnsworth, general manager of the California Redwood Association: "It's not just a raw material which may or may not be used in building-it's an integr:ll part of the architect's design."

Such styling isn't found only in more expensive, customdesign houses. It has appeared in developments such as the 3,000-unit "Pueblo Gardens" at Tucson, Ariz., and the Del Rosa development at Jackson, Miss., among others.

Redwood is also showing up in storefronts and sholvrooms of such shops as the House of Cashmere in Nerv

York, Peacock's jervelry store in La Grange, Ill., and Rich's department store in Atlanta. It's used for the seating irr the new memorial stadium at Selma, Ala., and in 30 other stadiums across the land. It's also used in the construction of several modern churches in the U. S., in the new municipal airport building at Greenville, S. C., and in some of the latest Pennsylvania Railroad stations such as the one at Edgewood, N. J.

"As successful as redwood is in construction we're counting heavily on industrial uses, too," says sales manager Bishop of Union Lumber. The wood's resistance to moisture, decay and insects has already led to its use in vats in such rot-favoring surrour-rdings as rvineries, distilleries and breweries, as well as in containers for greenhouses, pulp mills and chemical plants.

Refineries and Power Plants

About 60 million board feet of redwood a year are used to build water-conserving "cooling tolers" for oil refineries, power generating plants and atomic energy installations. Water absorbs the heat, cools by circulating through reclwood towers, then is re-circulated.

The rot-resisting wood is also finding increasing use in "gas scrubbers," towers in which escaping u'aste gases from industrial plants are "washed" by being circulated with water through many-layered grids of redrvood plank.:. This treatment helps prevent air pollution. Sixteen redwood gas-scrubbing towers, each 10 feet u'ide and 50 feet tall, are used at the Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corp. plant at Spokane, Wash.

Redwood's "dimensional stability"-it shrinks less rvhile drying than any other commercial wood-is a quality rvhich makes it good for such special flooring problems as the underlayers of warship and aircraft carrier decks. It's also used for pattern-making in foundries, rvhere its shapeholding powers are of prime importance.

The redwood trees are native only to this stret,ch of California coastal ridges. They are the tallest type of tree. When one of these titans is felled in the forest near here, it must be carefully aimed to its 150-ton-falling-u'eight doesn't shatter its own wood when it crashes to the ground and doesn't ruin nearby trees.

Then it's hacked into 4O-foot pieces by big circular sau's, and the 3-to-16-foot-wide logs dragged away by dieselpowered tractors. The wood is next hoisted onto trucks and hauled to the sawmills along special roads built ro hold 17o-ton loads that would buckle ordinary highways.

From the sawmills rvill come almost one billion feet of redwood boards this year, industry leaders predict. There are 34 billion board feet contained in thc redrn.ood trees still standing, almost all of them on land orvned by private lumbering concern. More trees are being cut today than are being replaced by natural growth, hon'ever. So in future years the production rate may be slowed somewhat to avoid eventual exhaustion of California's redwood stands, while an "indefinite sustained yield" is sought through improved forestry methods.

Industry authorities can't pinpoint future production prospects, however. Professor Emmanual Fritz, forestry consultant of the California Redwood Association, says the existing redwood forests could eventually provide a continuous yield even a little above today's annual output 'rvithout exhausting the tree supply. To do this, there rvould have to be great utilization of tree products (30lo of each tree is now wasted), improved tree "farming" techniques to.make them grow faster, and rigorous application of selective cutting.

Since tree farming-which includes careful cutting cf older trees to give the remaining younger ones more room, sunlight and air to grow in-and increased tree utilization probably won't reach this theoretical maximum, there will likely be a return to a yearly production somewhat belorv today's. Selwyn J. Sharp, the Redwood Association's statistical expert, even talks of an output level that might go as low as 400 million feet a year.

Smaller Impact on Better Grades

Any production decline, however, need not mean anything like a proportional decline in supplies of those better grades of redwood most in demand for home styling an<l industry. Here's why:

Redwood lumber is divided into two principal categories. The "uppers" are the grades where the wood's reddish, tight-grained appearance and durability are at their best. Most of these "uppers," which make up about half the industry's output, are dried, planed to a smooth surface and "manufactured" into special sizes at the larger California mills.

The "common" grades, which are sold undried and unfinished, are cheaper and are used for general constructioir purposes, mostly in California.

The large mills, the biggest of which produce as much as 100 million feet a year, have the equipment and financial resources to afford the costly but profitable drying and finishing operation. The many small mills, with an average annual output of about 15 million feet generally don't have the capital to invest in a planing mill-which cost just about as much as a sawmill-or to hold almost a year's production in drying yards. So they generally market only green, rough lumber themselves, aird sell much of their upper grade production to the bigger mills for processing.

A Shakeout?

The large mills account for about 50/o of total production nowadays. But there's reason to believe some of the smaller mills may, be "shaken out" of the industry by a recession in the market for their green, unfinished product. This would concentrate a larger share of production in the hands of the big mills-so even the reduced production that would result would contain a higher percentage of dried and finished upper grades than today.

The market in California for green, common grades h:rs been soft this year, reacting to similar. softness ifi the Douglas fir with which this wood is competitive. A lowergrade rough redwood lumbed called "No. 3 common" sold for about $50 a thousand feet in January, but is now being quoted. by some mill as low as $31 to $35, by.others at $42 to $43. :

With costs averaging about $50 a thousand feet, withdrawal of some small mills is likely if there isn't a .price upturn. The demand for their unfinished lumber will be further affected by any sag in the building market.

The premium prices of the uppers, cn the other hand, haven't wobbled in the past five years and show no signs of weakening. The mil! price for standard upper-grade 1by-72's used for interior paneling and trim, is about $215 a thousand feet, compared with $182.50 to $195 for fir. Upper-grade redwood is less expensive, however, than such other specialty woods as Ponderosa and sugar pine, which sell for $268 to $275 a thousand feet for Ponderosa and $270 to $28O for sugar pine.

Price Confidence

"We feel sure of a continuing price averaging at least $200 a thousand feet for dried and finished uppers, r,vith some special items over $30O," says the manager of one big Eureka mill.

The big mills accounted for 95/o of the redwood production back in 1940, when there were less than 60 sawmills in the Redwood Empire. By 1951 there were 392 mills in the same area. While output has doubled since pre-war, the big mills share of total production has been cut in half.

Though the influx or small (Continued on is largely responsible 3e)

R. R. llocattney Refir€s--Succeeded

By H. B. Compbell

R. R. Macartney, manager of Weyerhaeuser Timber Company's Klamath Falls branch for the past 27 years, will retire January 1, it was announced by Chas. I{. Ingram, Tacoma, vice-president and general manager.

Succeeding Macartney, Ingram said, will be Hugh B. Campbell, assistant branch manager since i938.

director of Western Pine Association and now is chairman of the board of National Lumber Manufacturers' Association. He was elected president of NLMA in 1952, and board chairman in 1953.

Campbell, who will succeed Macartney as branch manager on January 1, joined the Weyerhaeuser organization in 1926 after association with logging companies operating in northwestern Washington. For two years, he directed tree harvesting on the company's Vail, Wash., logging operations. After moving to the company's contract department at Tacoma, he then transferred to the Klamath Falls branch in 1931 as logging superintendent.

Campbell also has been active in industry affairs. Currently he is serving as a member of the conservation committee of Western Pine association. He has been president of the Klamath Forest Protective Association since 1944.

The new branch manager, a forestry graduate of the University of Minnesota, began his forest industry career in the Lake States. He came to the Pacific Northwest in 1914.

Home Finonce Agency Report Avqiloble

Macartney is senior among the company's branch managers in length of service. ,I{e joined an early-day Weyerhaeuser affiliate at Cloquet, Minn., in 1910, after graduation from Yale University. His service with the company has been continuous.

Macartney came to Klamath Falls in 1927 to manage the company's only logging and sawmilling operation in the western pine region. When he arrived, construction had not yet begun on Weyerhaeuser's Klamatlr sarvrnill.

Under Macartney's direction, the company's Klamath Falls branch has grown to an integrated group of forest products plants. Manufacturing units now include, in addition to the sawmill, a box plant, Pres-to-log plant, and hardboard plant.

Construction of the hardboard plant, which will shortly be producing a line of products from white fir, came as a climax to Macartney's managerial career.

Under Macartney's direction, the first western pine tree farm was established in 1942. Dedication of this Weyerhaeuser tree farm touched off a movement which was to establish many other privately owned tree farms in the western pine area.

During his Weyerhaeuser career, Macartney has been active in industry affairs. From 1933 to 1935, he served on the lumber code authority of the NRA. He is a past president and

The full text of the report of the President's Advisory Committee on Housing Policies and Programs, one of the most extensive assernblies of current housing inforrnation and data available, has now been issued in printed form and is available from the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D.C.

The Committee's recommendations to the President. released publicly on December 15, are contained in the first 20 pages of th 375-page report. The remainder consists of the detailed studies and data of the five subcommittees which worked for three months on their intensive review of housing problems and programs. The full report sells for a dollar a copy and discounts can be arranged for quantity purchases of 100 or mofe.

The subcommittee reports, with data and exhibits assembled in the study, deal with the FHA and VA housing programs; the field of slum clearance. rehabilitation. and conservation of housing and cities; housing credit policies ; housing of lowincome families; and organization of housing activities in the Federal government.

New Sonto Pouln Yqrd

Wm. Reeder announces that he has opened a new retail lumber yard in Santa Paula, California. He states that plans are being drawn for a new plant for this company.

Woll Street Journcrl Prints

Big Redwood Story

(Continued from Page 37) for the doubling of production, this does not mean the increased output has all been in the form of the green, unfinished lumber they produce. Production of dried and finished upper grades has about doubled along n'ith total production. Before the u'ar the big mills sold a large part of their production green and unfinished-even some r.,f their upper grades. Today much more of their production is dried and finished uppers. One reason: They buy uppers from the vastly expended operations of small mills. Another reason: They're drying and finishing more of their own output to meet the heightened demand for this class of lr.ood.

The small mills poured into the Redrvood Empire during and after World War II rvhen returns on unlinished lumber were speedy and adequate in the California building boom. The investment required may not have been as great a.s for a large mill equipped for dryine and finishing operations, but even so small redrvood mills are not small compared rvith mills cutting other u'oods. They tend to be twice the size of Douglas fir mills in the same region.

$200,000 Investment

Those mills that operate only seasonally. have a singie bandsa.lr. or yearly production of less than 15 million boarcl feet are considered small in redrvood. A rech,vood sau,mill of economical size requires an investment of $200,000 ancl a daily capacity of at least (IO,0OO ltoarcl feet, though, whereas nearby fir operators can profital>ly run mi1ls .r,l'ith half that capacity and costing from 940,000 to 9100,000.

Though today's oldest redwoods first sprouted over 2,000 years ag-o, the most profitable trees are about 500 years. Many commercially usable trees are much younger and u'ith an increase in "tree farming" the average age of commercially-cut redn'oods u'ill decline.

"Rotation need be no more than 100 years, and returns can lre obtained at N to 25 year intervals," says lrrofessor Fritz, the forestry consultant of the Redwood Association. "Starting from scratch, rvith a ne\\, forest from seeds and sprouts, rotatit>n may range from 2O years for pulprvood and posts to S0-plus years for higest quality veneer and salv logs." That's the ltasis for l-ris estimate that today's redwood supply could continuously yield a billion board feet a year u'ithout exhaustion.

Terrible Twenty Tournqment Jonuory 2l

Announcement was made by H. M. Alling tfiat the second half of the Terrible Twenty match play rounds will start January 21 when members of the fraternal organization will hold their first tournament of the year at Hacienda Country Club, La llabra, California. The warriors of this famous golf- ing group have been rvarned to bring along their barranca wedge and short legged side hill chipper clue to the ruggecl Hacienda course.

Son Fernqndo Volley Boom

During the year 1953 there was a vast building boor.n in the San Fernando Valley. The branch office at Van Nuys issued 27"865 building permits during the year, having a total value of $207,464,121.

His Bethony

It is no mere luxury, it is a necessity for a man's best work, that he should have a Bethany to which to retreat at eventide when the toil of the day is over,-a place where, as he enters, he can shake off from his feet the dust of the world's arena, the anxieties, the disappointments, the harsh criticisms-where he can lay aside the conventional affectations behind which even the sincerest of men instinctively shield themselves from the cold stare of the world,-a place where he can rest and be himself with full certaint57 that he will be understood and appreciated, that love will overlook his faults and not chide him for them, a place where the atmosphere will put him at his best and lure his soul out of its hiding place. It is this which every man who has it lrnows to be the finest thing in his life. In the strength of it he goes his day's journey and into the joy of it he returns weary at night. There they call him by some familiar name, and let him do as he pleases, and know how to let him alone and how and when to companion him. It matters not how small may be the cottage or how shabby the furnishings, it is the most sacred thing in all his life, his home, his Bethany.

-Willard Brown ThorP

Swimming or Nighr

We went down through the summer to the sea, Slipped from our robes and to the ebbing tide

Completely gave ourselves; so hushed were we'

So filled with some strange languor that beside

The wash of heavy ripples on the beach

There was no sound. We bent and touched our lips

Against the moon, now well within our reach, And ttailed her glory with our finger-tips.

The silence cradled us; we were caressed

By wine-water waves and by the cooler air

That licked white brow and scarcely breathing breast;

The nibbling seaweed caught our foating hair, And seemed to urge us gently, gently down. How lovely, had we only dared to drown.

By Oriana Atkinson.

Helpfulness

He who forgetting self, makes the object of his life service, helpfulness, and kindness to others, finds his whole nature growing and expanding, himself becoming largehearted, magnanimous, kind, loving, sympathetic, joyous and happy, his life becorning rich and beautiful. For, in. stead of his own little life alone, he has entered into and has part in that of others; and every happiness coming to each of these comesl as much to him.

-RalPh Waldo Emerson

Ben Johnson

What a full life some men, without any effort of their own, simply because they could not help themselves, have been able to live. Take Ben Johnson. His recent biographer, John Palmer, tells us that Ben was a finished scholar, a bricklayer, a soldier, and married before he was out of his teens; he had killed a man, been convicted of homicide and suspected of treason, had collaborated and quarreled with a number of his contemporaries, and written a famous comedy before he was twenty-five. He died in poverty but he was buried in Westminister Abbey. He was honest and tactless and truculent. His life was in danger more than once. The great ones of his age welcomed him to their homes and he bent the knee to none of them. He was an aristocrat in the realm of intellect.

Troubles of Her Own

The teacher was having her trials and finally wrote the mother:

"Your son is the brightest boy in my class, but he is also the most mischievous. What shall I do?

The reply came duly: "Do as you please. I am having my own troubles with his father."

Tqctful

Husband: "My dear, a man was shot by a burglar but a bgtton on the front of his pajama coat saved his life."

Wife: "So what?"

Husband: "Nothing, only it occurred to me that the button must have been on."

Mixing'Em Up

The preacher had been advised by one member of his congregation to preach the old-timey gospel, and by another to be broadminded, so he mixed 'em up as follows:

"IJnless you repent (iq a measure) and are saved (so to speak) you are (I regret to state) in danger of hell fire (to a certain extent)."

Mounlqins

By John Ruskin

"They seem to have been built for the human race, as at once their schools and cathedrals; full of treasures of illuminated manuscript for the scholar, kindly in simple lessons to the worker, quite in pale cloisters for the thinker, glorious in holiness for the worshipper-these great cathedrals of the earth, with their gates of rock, pavements of cloud, choirs of steam and stone, altars of snow, the vaults of purple traversed by the continual stars."

Another Good Building Year Predicted

our complele inventory of rooftng items will be ol your disposol so don't lurn owoy ony business on mqteriots nol in your yords. Keep in mind the fine fomily of Olympic products designed to help you "gel more in 54"

SO. PASADENA YARD:

SYcqmore 9-1197

PYrqmid l-1197

855 El Centro Streel

Western Red Cedcrr, Douglos Fir Sove Hoy fior 64 Yeors

GARDENA YARD: Plymouth 6-l I l2

MEnlo 4.1196

1858 W. Rosecrqns Ave.

Today that 1889 crop of hay is still pretty good. All these 64 years the last harvest of Farmer Woolery has been kept dry and ventilated under a cedar roof that remains sound and tight. One wall has had some of its shakes taken off by a tree farm crew of the St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber Company, exposing the aged hay.

The Douglas firs and West Coast hemlocks that have grown on the clearing from which the hay was cut are up to 60 years old, says Forester Roy Stier of the company's tree farm.

The area of the original clearing was about 9 acres. The tree growth around the barn crowds the walls so heavily that a few more years would see the structure crushed by swelling trunks and spreading boughs.

However, Silviculturist Bent Gerdes of the St. Paul and Tacoma Lumber Company's Tree Farm has marked selected trees for a thinning-operation. The harvested trees will go for sawlogs and pulpwood. The staunch old barn will be left standing. What of the 64-year cured hay?

Bcnt Gerde:, lefi, silviculturirt of the Sr. Poul & Tscoms Lumber Compony, ond Forecter Roy Srier mork Douglos fir qnd West Coost hemlock trees for thinningr on land lhal wor o hoyfield 54 yeors ogo. The hoy cop of thot yoor wo3 left in o bqrn thqt wor wqlled qnd rofed with Western red cedqr shoker. lt hcs been kepr dry qnd unlottod io'the cedcr bcrn oll these ycrs. Douglos firs hqve grown to sowtimber size o tha one-time 9-ocre hcyflcld qnd qre now crowding: into thc born irself. fhe troe form thinning operqtion mqy 3ove the bqrn from being grown over by the new forest.

In the fall of 1889 Farmer Jacob F. Woolery died, leaving as part of his estate a new crop of hay, well cured and rightly stored in a ner,v small barn franred with Douglas fir poles and rvalled and roofed with Western red cedar shakes.

Well, there were once loggers who would eat hay, if you'd sprinkle whiskey on it. But tree farm loggers of today are nothing like that-are they ?

Charles P. Henry, C. P. Henry & Co., Los Angeles, and Mrs. Henry, spent the Christmas holidays in Wickenburg, Arizona, rn'here they rvere the guests of his son, Dr. Willian, Henry, his vi'ife and children.

Baugh Inc., Los from a pleasure Angeles, and Mrs. trip to the Central 8ac7 /aon/reo &, I REDtYooD. DouGLAs FfR I PoNDERoSA Ptt{E . WHTTE FtR Phono: orl'Jood+rssr 834 FTFTH AVENUE - p. O. Box 711 - SAN RAFAEL, CAL|F. IliXLr25