RUDBACH. GARTIN & CO. ,

Iliff Representofives For DOUGLAS FlR, REDWOOD ond PONDEROSA PINE LUMBER

New Plywood Plant Operating

Operations at the newest United States Plywood Corporation plant, located at Shasta, Cal., will probably reach a production rate of 60,000,000 feet per year by January I, according to Lawrence Ottinger, president of the corporation.

The Shasta plant, which began operation on August 30, at full production r,r'ill manufacture as much pine plywood as the entire present production of other existing mills. lfowever, Mr. Ottinger stated, demand for pine plywood has always exceeded production by a huge margin, and even the Shasta output will not meet the demand. The total production of pine plywood when the Shasta mill is in full production will be approximately 120,000,000 feet as compared with two and a half billion feet of fir plywood.

The Shasta. plant has a floor space of approximately 130,000 square feet exclusive of the barking and veneer cutting section. The mill has back of it over one billion feet of the finest Ponderosa and Sugar Pine timber remaining in this country, located within 40 miles of the plant.

"The layout of the Shasta plant," Mr. Ottinger said, "is along entiiely new lines with mechanical loaders for the veneers. which are then carried to kilns instead of the usual automatic drives. The purpose of this is to better control the drying of the veneers and to remove the excess resin.

"The company has built modern bunkhouses and kitchens for its logging crews, as well as a beautifully located village with modern houses containing refrigerators, electric stoves and all modern conveniences.

"Fine plywood occupies a unique place in the industry because its soft, smooth surface takes paint or enamel without check or grain raise and the edges can be smoothly molded, both with and across the grain. It is expected that the plant will reach a capacity of 60,000,000 feet per anum on a 3/8" basis by January 1 and is ultimately keyed to approximately 75,000,000 feet. The demand for Pine plywood has alu'ays exceeded production."

Big Log Drive

New York-The story of one of America's few remaining big log drives will be told in pictures and text in the November issue of Argosy Magazine.

Photographers accompanied the rugged rivermen of The Diamond Match Company down ldaho's Priest River through 67 treacherous miles to get the pictures that iIlustrate the story of what may be the last drive of the company which delivered 26,000,000 million board feet of lumber to the sawmills.

"Now," the article says, "The Diamond Match Company is replacing the dangerously adventurous river run with modern trucks. Although more expensive, the trucking of logs reduces damage to valuable timber and supplements the company's other conservation policy-selective cutting for maintenance of [orests."

Since 1901 when logging operations were begun in the Priest River area, the annual drive has been a period of high excitement and great danger to the'crews who worked the "sixty most vicious miles of water used to transport logs." Except for the six weeks which the drive lasts, the crew works at the relatively peaceful job of lumberjacking.