PHILIPPIAIE MAHO GAA{IZ

EXCLUSIVE NORTH AMERICAN REPRESENT/4TIVE FOR FINDLAY MILTAR TIMBER CO.

MANILA, R. P.

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Edward M. Sills, executive secretary of the Home Builders Council of California, recently said it is difficult to find any land within 75 miles of Los Angeles at less than $4500$5500 an acre, with land values increased 20-25% in the last three years. SoCal builders put up close to 120,000 houses last year and, since 1950, the suburban area has added more than 750,000 people, equivalent to a city the size of New Orleans or Pittsburgh.

A cold deck of 4l million feet was stacked up this summer in an arc around the Scotia logpond by The pacific Lumber Company to forestall any chance of inaccessibility during winter months; 90% of the stockpile is redwood.

Townspeople noted the passing this year of an historic Eureka, Calif., landmark and showplace when the fambus old Buhne mansion was dismantled. It occupied a complete block since the mid-1880s at the upper end of the downtown district. The old mansion was built by Capt. H. H. Buhne, who steered the first sailing ship into Humboldt Bay in 1850. It housed the Buhne family for three generations and recent ownership was in the fands of Mrs. Dorothy Redmond of the Buhne estate. Furnished with art treasures and objects, the house was the epitome of Victorian architecture and living. Part of the site will be occupied by the H. H. Buhne Company, hardware concern founded by the captain.

The pier at Arena Cove, Santa Rosa, was crowded with spectators recently as the first bargeload of logs destined for Japan cast off for San,Francisco. It was the first shipment of logs to leave the timber-rich Mendocino coast in Z2 years.

Chairman Melvin H. Baker recently announced that National Gypsum Co. was increasing its emphasis on sales to prefabricators and franchised contractors.

Demolition of a group of business buildings began this summer on lower Market street in San Francisco to clear land for Crown Zellerbach's Z?-story glass skyscraper. Completion is scheduled for mid-1958.

A century-old planting of eucalyptus trees that has outlived two ambitious promotional campaigns is proving to be the farmer's friend in western Sonoma county, where the trees have become foundation stock for present-day fence posts, rvith area farmers growing their own longlived, sturdy posts.

650 members of the Pacific Coast Chppter of the Railway and Locomotive Historical Society recently visited the Calaveras Cement Company plant at San Andreas, Calif., in commemorating the 75th year of the Mother Lode, San Joaquin and Sierra Nevada Narrow Gauge R. R. The Calaveras plant is situated at Kentucky House, once a trading post and stagecoach stop for early-day miners. The stand_ ard gauge train which made the weekend pilgrimage to the cement plant was met by Wm. Wallace Mein, Jr., Calaveras president, who hosted the rail fans on a plant tour. The junket began at the Ferry building in San Francisco and engines were changed at Sacramento for the ascent into the Mother Lode hills. Oldtime railroaders were on board to recall the early days of the ML, SJ and SN, which u.as absorbed by Southern Pacific many years ago.

NIMA Economist Worns Foresf Service To Quir Predicring 'Timber Fomines'

Portland, Ore.-A leading forest economist lvarned that "timber famine" forceasts of the U.S. Forest Service "could lead to government dictatorship" of the nation's forest resources. A. Z. Nelson of the National Lumber Manufacturers Association said the latest example of these forecasts shows up in the Forest Service's interpretation of its own Timber Resource Revier,v.

Nelson challenged the agency's position that "forest management appears unequal to providing a balance between cut and growth at the year 20ffi." Actually, he said, the TRR statistics sho.rv that "nationwide, an abundance of rvood material is novu available and will be in the future." Addressing an annual meeting of the Western Pine Association, he said predictions. of an eventual timber shortage have been made by the Forest Service and others over a period of nearly 50 years.

While these forecasts have proved "as thin as the homeopathic soup that was made by boiling the shadow of a pigeon that had starved to death," there is danger that such "gloomy statements" -ay discourage consum€r use of forest products and set the stage for "unwarranted or undesirable" legislation or forestry programs, he asserted.

The trade association representative said the Forest Service forecasts also might: (l) lead to the "sultsidized retiiement" of millions of acres of cropland to forest cover; (2) encourage some forest products manufacturers to overexpand their productive capacity; and (3) encourage world trade in timber products with Communist nations rvhile discouraging trade with the U.S.

Nelson said these are some of the facts brought out by the TRR:

The U.S. liad 489 million acres of commercial forest land rn 1952, against 641 million acres in 1945; 2,@4 billion board feet of santimber in 1952, compared with 1,601 billion board feet in 1945; cubic volume growth of all timber 32/o greater than the cut in 1952, against an approximate balance betvi'een cut and growth in 1945; sawtimber growtlr and cut about in balance in 1952., against a growth deficit ot 50% in 1945.

Hcrncock Nomed Presidenf of DFPA

B. V. Hancock, executive vice-president of Cascades Plywood Corporation of Lebanon and Portland, Oregon, has been named president of the Douglas Fir Plywood Association, it was announced from DFPA headquarters in Tacoma, Wash. He will serve out the unexpired term of Howard Garrison, rvho resigned after leaving the fir plywood industry. Hancock is a former president of the plywood association, having served a term in that office from June 1951 to June 1952.

Charles Snellstrom was named a member of the board of trustees of DFPA, trade promotional organization of the western fir plywood industry. He replaces Robert Kelly, former sales manager of the M & M Wood Working Company of Portland, who also recently resigned.

BIR Heors Rishell on Pqrticle Boord Outlook

Washington-Present and potential uses of wood particle board, and the lucrative building and consumer-product markets in which it will offer stiff competition to other materials, 'ivere cited by Carl A. Rishell, vice-president of Timber Engineering Company, at the Building Research fnstitute's fifth annual meeting this year in Niagara Falls, Canada.

The veteran wood researcher and particle board authority prefaced his predictions of the new product's bright outlook with descriptions of its foreign and domestic developments, the economics of its production, and the rapid growth of the new industry in the United States.

Mr. Rishell cited the value of wood particle board as a practical, profitable'outlet for forest thinnings and mill residuals, formerly considered waste, and as a scientifically engineered product with a place of its own, not as a substitute for any material.

Turning to the product's present and potential uses, and the markets in which it will compete, Rishell pointed out that particle board is produced most economically, at present, in thicknesses of over fu-inch and up to two inches.

"The particle boards will find the easiest markets rvhere thick material is desirable. For example, in building interiors where it is desirable to construct partitions, closets, and storage units, without using a great deal of framing. Particle board has the depth and stability to permit its use with a minimum of framing," he stated.

Pointing out that particle board can now be used in many places where it will compete with plywood, Mr. Rishell predicted that lumber, too, would experience competition with the newcomer.

Timber Engineering Company, research affiliate of the National Lumber Manufacturers Association, has enlarged its laboratory to accommodate a particle board pilot plant for the lumber and wood products industries' use in developing the product.

Open House qt Plains Lumber Go.

Garden Grove, Calif.-Walter G. Rodenmayer, Carl Elder and George Eyer were on hand all day for two days a recent weekend to greet old customers and friends and take them on an inspection tour of their beautiful new quarters at 10332 Stanford Ave. here in the Plains Lumber Company. The yard started in a modest way in 1948 and has grown with the booming community. The new store places the stock in easy access of the patron and modern design is noted throughout. Free gifts and refreshments were provided at the open house, with a drawing for a first-prize drill press and three door prizes.

SoGol Cobinet Mqkers to Meet

Representatives of the Southern California Assn. of Cabinet Manufacturers attended the first annual meeting of the National Institute of Wood Kitchen Cabinets at Crawford Notch, N. H., Oct.2-4. Going from Los Angeles were Philip DeMarco, president of the local group, and Paul Stember, past president and advisor. Affiliation of the local group with the NIWKC was to be discussed.

AIR, CONDITIONING TO BOOST SATES OF BUITDING MATER.IAIS

The appetite for air conditioning on the part of the public is big and getting bigger. Lumber dealers everywhere can take advantage of the demand for air corrditioning to sell rnore and thicker insulation-as rvell as more storm windows, storm doors, rveatherstripping and other products that also help to reduce year-rouncl air conditioning costs. Air conditioning cconomy promoted by adecluate insulation gives the salesman of insulation a ner,r. and effective sales approach for both the huge nerv and old homes market.

A close clollars-and-cents rel:rtit-rrrship betu.eerr irrsulation and air conditioning is proved in a study recently conducted at the University of Illinois by \V. T. Gilkey and D. R. Bahnfleth. Their research shor,ved that a builder or homeownelivho sltencls $2.tr0 on insulation can sa\rc $70O to $900 on the initial cost of air-conditionir-rg ecluipment and, at the same time, can reduce operating costs lty 58%. They found that mineral t'ool in a 'rvall thickness of three inches and a ceiling thickness of fonr inches rvoulcl make it possible to eliminate five-ancl-six-ton summer air conditioners in favor of less expensive trvo-ton units.

The University of Illinois studies were basecl on a onestory frame structure with a large amount of glass exposure and a full basement. The sole purpose of the research was to determine the effectiveness of mineral wool insulation in reducing air conditioning costs. Cooling ar-rd heating loads rvere computed for identical residences in each of seven cities widely separated geographically and typical of varied climatic conditions found in the United States.

Research was based on the house with:

1. No insulation in the ceilings or walls.

2. Three inches of mineral wool insulation in the walls and four inches of mineral wool in the ceilings. The study showed that a house of this type can be yearround conditioned (heated and cooled) in most any city in the U.S. for not over $140.00 annuallv.

| 8,OOO Christmqs Trees Sold

Susanville, Calif.-An estimated 18,000 Christmas trees u'ere sold here at an oral auction in the government office of the Lassen National Forest in October. Six bidders took part for the trees in the Ashurst Lake area. A portion of the stumpage price will be used for forest improvement after the trees have been removed. Another Christmas tree sale, in the Plumas National Forest, cleared away red and rvhite firs of less than six inches in diarneter to provide better grou'ing conditions for sugar and ponderosa pine. An additional sale of silver tip firs in the Emigrant Creek area \\'as to be held later last month.

[o Hqbrq Building Goins

La Habra, Calif.-The 1956 building pace here is three times that of 1955, with $11 million in building permits issued in the year's first seven months. Last year's figure rvas $3,250,000.