ECONOMY TUMBER

By H. v. SIMPSON Executive Vice President West Coast Lumbermen's Associction Portlcrnd, Oregon

'Ihe big story in the Douglas fir lumber industry lies in about 25 per cent of its production.

Our annual production is roughly 8l billion board feet a year. Of this about 6l billion feet is top quality, high grade lumber. About 2 billion feet is lower grade lumber.

Those 2 billion feet are important because they represent a fundamental change in the industry-a change that is taking place in every major lumber producing region.

They are important be.cause they stand for economy in home building and for conservation of our forest resources.

Since the first settlers landed in America, standing timber has been in surplus, and lumber has also been almost lvithout exception in surplus. It has been at all times a cheap building material.

.Increased values, however, now prevail on timber lands. Lumber is no longer available in such large surpluses, with the result that it fits into its competitive position on a higher level. Lumber has always been used extravagantly. Generally too much lumber of too high quality has been used in construction. This was a natural result oI the low price at which it was sold. The higher values of today do not reflect a lumber shortage now or foreshadow one in the future. Nor do they indicate that unsuitable lumber is to be employed. They mean simply that for the first time in American history lumber must be properly used. We began to work on this problem about a year ago.

We studied scores of houses, old and new. We dug into building records. We enlisted the talents of engineers, lumber grading experts, builders and building inspectors. We came, up with some startling findings. Too much of our lumber has been outlasting the house.

We found that there are plenty of places where low grade lumber can render fully satisfactory service. This means economy for the lumber user. It places us, curiously, in the position of promoting a loss item, for there is no manufacturing profit in low grade. Still, if no cheaper lumber were produced, the overall supply would be short, and the higher priced lumber would be even more expensive. And some markets now existing for the better grades would be lost. Thus, proper utilization of low grade would seem to benefit both the industry and the public, in ad. dition to being a prime conservation mea$ure.

The increased value of lumber has been accompanied by a wider spread in the price relationship of various trades. No. 3, for instance, has recently sold at from $20 to $30 per thousand feet less than No. 1, whereas the prewar spread was only $3 to $2. There was little incentive to use low grade lumber since the economies it made possible were relatively unimportant. With the present spread in price, proper utilization of the lower grades would obviously make a substantial saving in all construction.

No. 3 Douglas fir lumber inay properly be used in many

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places. As an example in house construction, No. 3 boards adequately serve as sheathing and sub-flooring, while No. 3 dimension may properly be.used in one-story dwellings for studs, plates, fire stops and bracing.

Low grade lumber contains the fine insulating qualities inherent in all grades of wood. In the uses suggested above it provides more strength than is normally required. Nor is its use for these purposes by any means experimental. Properly employed, it has given wholly satisfactory service.for many years, particularly in the manufacturing areas of the Pacific Northwest.

Nearly all low cost housing can use a large percentage of low grade lumber. By the substitution of No. 3 for No. 1 in most of these houses the cost oT the lumber in the house will not be 216/o over prewar as suggested by Bu, reau of Labor Statistics figures, but will probably be about ' l@%, which is certainly not out of line with the increase in other materials.

Of primary consideration in this picture are the conservation aspects. While costs of production have risen sharply, the advance in market value of the product has made it possible to harvest stdnding timber which as recently as 10 years ago was regarded as of doubtful value.

It has been estimated that we are now bringing in 25 per cent more timber per acre than we did a decade ago. This accounts in part, of course, for the augmented production of lower grades of lumber and the harvesting of species for which no large market existed before the war.

This trend toward greater utilization of our forest is conservation of the highest order. Not only does it extend our present stands of mature timber, but it also leaves the forest lands in better condition for the new harvest and reduces the fire hazard. by the removal of much inflammable material.

The Douglas fir industry is taking active steps to obtain more specific information on the technical qualities of the product as well as its end uses. We are currently,proceeding on a program with the Forest Products Laboratory in Madison, Wisconsin, aimed at improving the utilization of lumber, particularly low grade lumber. Oregon State College is also conducting tests which will increase our knolvledge of low grade potentialities.

The Douglas fir industry is well aware that the changing status of lumber in the competitive field has sharpened the need for accurate grading. The West Coast Bureau of Lumber Grades and Inspection has enlarged its field staff from 58 men in l94l to more than 300 today. Altogether there are 2,000 men capable of grademarking lumber produced in the Douglas fir region. The number of mills using Bureau services stands at an alltime high.

On the whole we are making very substantial progress. The story of "economy and conservation" is beginning to catch hold. Nothing has been more encouraging than the steadily increasing support which full understanding has rvon for this program. 1948 witnessed its inauguration, and. 1949 may be expected to see it much farther along its way.