The Wonders of Wood

Being an address delioered by John B. Egan at the Los Angeles lunch2on in obseromr,ee ol 'National Forest Prod'ucts Week, held October 26 at the Los Angeles Clwmber ol Cotnm.erce.

T ADIES and gentlemen, there are two u reasons why I am glad I am here. One, to talk about trees. I have been living ofi them and under them, most of my life. They have given me a modicum of income. I honor and respect them. Two, because I like to talk under auspices of Hoo-Hoo, a lumberman's fraternity, unique, the only one of its kind.

There are many weeks in the year. Not 52 as we learned in school, but lB2, according to Chase's Calendar of Events. May has 30 weeks, including National Pickle Week. It is also National Tavern Month. Tavern owners are much less modest than lumbermen.

Through the year we have Large EconoSize Week, Weigtt Watchers W'eek, ::Return Borrowed Books Week. Honev for Breakfast Week and Salute the Housewife \Feek (sponsored by the Laundry Association )

This week-October 2l-27-we find National Flower Week, National Wine Week, National Thrift Week and National Down.town Week, as well as Nationa], Forest Proilucts Week.

That is. why we are assembled here to. day. President Kennedy has proclaimed this week as National Forest Products Week. He has urged tltat ceremonies be held to direct public attention o'to the necessity for recognizing that a productive forest and a thriving forest products industry are elements in our economy essential to its continued growth."

Imponiance Of Forest Products

The importance of forest products was well summarized by Senator McClelland of Arkansas in his introduction (June 20, 1960) of a resolution in the Senate of the United States asking for passage of a joint resolution by the Congress to insure the proper and deserved recognition of this vital industry in our national economy.

He said, 'oThe oldest industry in the United States, the forest products industry, deserves the public recognition of a special week set aside for the observance of a celebration honoring that industry.

"It is evident that the forest industrv. operating in every state in th" u.rion is highly significant to the well being of our nation's citizens and our nation.

"American forests cover 786 million acres and are the nation's only re-newable resource, ooForest land management has as its primary objective, the growing of repeated crops of trees. The forest practices and forest protection necessary to accomplish this objective, usually result in many additional benefits. Among them-watershed protection, preservation of the soil. recreation for people and maintenace of forage for game and livestock

'oOwnership of private commercial timberlands is diversified. Of the 4t/, million owners, 34/6 are farmers-166 million acres; l3/o are wood processing industries --64 million acres; 26/o are people like all of us here-127 million acres; and 2Wo is the federal government.

"The Forest Service of the Department of Agriculture is responsible for the management of the national forests, including selling the timber rights to private companies. Other lands are handled by the Department of Interior.

"The forest products industry, including lumber and wood products, furniture and fixlures, pulp and paper products, provides direct employement in 57,000 operating establishments to its l/2 million persons, or 9/o of all manufacturing employees. Payrolls total more than $6 billion annually and value added by manufacture exceeds $lI billion. Expenditures for new plant and equipment by the forest industry total more than $850 million annually.

"The couutry produces 30% of the world's lumber, 4O/o oI its wood pulp, 43/o of its paper and paperboard, and 5l/o oI its plywood.

"Through the transportation of forest products during 1959, the nation's rail. roads earned more than $1.3 billion in gross freight revenue, representing l5/o ol total railroad freight revenue.

"It will be to the best interests of the people of this nation, including government, Iabor and management, to have the forest industry called to their attention annually through the proclamation of a National Forest Products Week."

This subject is so broad that we want to confine our remarks to four areas of discussion, and if we want a text, we have found one in the Ogden Nash poem-

"I think that I shall never see A billboard lovely as a tree.

Perhaps, unless the billboards fall, I'll never see a tree at all."

Behind The Biitboards

Let's travel up the highway and look behind four billboards and examine what we see: l. The billboard of short supply.

2. The billboard of high price.

3. The billboard of poor quality.

4. The billboard of decreasing use of wood products.

1. The billboard ol short supply.

The United States is growing 25/o morc wood than it is harvesting. Widespread practice of reforestation accounts for this, plus more favorable tax laws which permit a land owner to hold his timber and not cut it before it is ripe.

The first actual beginning of the tree farm movement was the Clemons Tree Farm owned and operated by Weyer. haeuser and started in 1941.

Today 7,400 private timber owners are fiirnanaging more than 38 million acres of tree farms.

Tree planting has more than doubled be' theen 1956 and 1960. It has tripled since t!953. Itt the 1960 planting season, 2,135,' rp0o acres were planted. in this class of material. New processes and equipment permit utilization of smaller, poorer logs, for both lumber and veneer, mask or correct many surface defects, in' crease the service life and improve the all' round utility of wood.

Use of gasoline powered chain saws has improved forest utilization to a large de' gree. With the use of a power saw it is possible for one man to quickly and econ' omically fell, buck and limb small trees and to salvage chunks and limbs.

'' Like human beings, trees require food. They need water to drink. They cannot grow without the sun's warmth. They must ,have light. Like us, they are born, grow, reproduce, work, rest and die of old age. Some trees live 20 years and some live for :benturies, but all trees eventually die, or j are harvested for man's use.

In 1952 we find that total wood use is divided as follows:

Ltmber-52/o

Pdpwood-22/o

Veneer-plywood-A/o

Fuel wood-16lo

Other products-4/o r, I The forester might answer it in this way, ., "Trees may die, or trees may be harvested, but the forests can live forever."

2. Thc billboard ol price.

' Thi, is true, because trees grow. Trees are an agricultural crop, much like wheat

, We can have plenty of wood to build :homes, make more new products of wood ,rrnd still have plenty of wood growing in our forests if these forests are properly managed and protected. ; or corn. They can be harvested and grown I again. One of the chief difierences is that it takes longer to grow a crop of trees than does a crop of corn. iiil,iree farm is a prlvately owhed area of Iorestland and voluntarilv dedicated to the of timber as a perpetual crop. All tree farm owners agree to protect their trees from fire, insects and disease. They agree to carry out a clean, systematic log harvest and grow new trees to replace those harvested. A tree farmer realizes that a forest is not static, that it is a living, dynamic unit and that, given a chance, it will reproduce itself as a renewable natural resource.

GOVERNIIENT OWNER.SHIP

The second largest ownership of forest lands is the government, with 2I/o in its control. National forests total 181,292,000 acres. For sxample, Alaska has 20,714,000 acres; Idaho, 20,300,000 acres; and California, 19,938,000 acres.

One hundred and two million people visited national forests last year. This was four times the annual visits of l0 years ago.

As a growing population centers in traffic-burdened cities, millions more people each year seek nature's tranquil byways. . And there is no better place to change the pace, to lull the spirit and renew the soul. Apparently multitudes are learning as the poet Bliss Carmen wrote: r, '

"There is virtue in the open

There is healing out-of-doors;

The great physician makes his rounds Along the forest floors."

Tree utilization is improving each year: I9N-3O% sound wood in every tree ! converted to useful products; 1925-

37.6%; 1950-47/6; 196I-50% to 8o/o.

Let me quote you some price data lrom the U.S. Department of Labor, Bulletin 1295' Juneo 1961 (1947-49 equals rc0%). These indicate price increases of various products.

Structural clay products-160.2

Metal and metal products-153.6

Machinery and motive products-I53.O

Rubber and rubber products-l44.S

Non-metallic minerals--137.7

Gypsum products-I33.1

Pulp, paper and allied prbducts-I32.2

Concrete products-l29.7

Prepaied paint-198.&

Lum,ber and wood products-l2S.8

Price is an often misunderstood thing. It is the price applied that the customer looks at, not the price per foot. Thus, labor' saving devices and modern tools all help to reduce the price.

An analysis was made in 1958 in Idaho on school construction costs, as follows:

Exterior wall with masonry block and brick veneer-$4.92 per foot.

Wood frame with brick veneer-$3.87 per foot.

Wood frame with wood siding-$2.98 per foot.

3. The biUboard ol qwlity.

As quality timber in terms of large size, straight, fine textured, knot free logs be' comes scarcer, there have been important developments in technology which have in part made up for the growing deficiency

In tronscribing ilr. Egon's nolcs for thir wrilten lert of his qddrass, we feel fhql we mcy hove lost rome of the chorm ond personol louch of his very effective prcsenlolion. For his cbiliry to od lib, to develop his fhoughrs by edemporoneou3 commenl' is whql oddr "leovec" lo lhe 3lruclurr of lhe lree,

Eorly in his remorks llr. Egon rqid thot he hoc o love for trees, ond o lovc for the peopte who orc in the fbr.3t producls industry. The genuineness of his scnllmenl shown through oll of his words, ond mode him o delight to listen to. Should lhc oppor' tunily ev.r prercnl ltself fo hesr fhir wonderful gentlemon tpeok, don'l miss ill And, olthough lir. Egon oficiolly retired on Oclober lrt, wc believe lhot he ls going lo be qclive for o long, long timc on lurl ruch orsignmentr os this In odvoncing "lhc Wonders of Wood."-*dilor.

A good deal of progress has been made and will continue to be made toward better and closer utilization of lumber by gluing short, narrow pieces into larger members, laminating t'echniques, and in combining lumber with other materials to improve properties and performance of fabricated products. These and other products of technology should not be minimized in apprais' ing the future need for qualitY.

We are no longer limited bY what can be sawn from a tree. Toilay the size of structural timber elements in assembly is limited only by transportation and erection facilities.

Nhw Horizons

The use of timber as an engineering material has now been extended to new horizons by the improvement of glues and gluing techniques. No longer are we co-n' fined to the lengths and sizes that can be cnt frorn I saw log. Beasn cen be built up for spans of over 100 feet. Arches and spans of over 200 feet are structurally ex' tiemely efrcient since the individual plys are bent as they are glued so that the grain of the wood follows the line of principle stress.

Laminated glued structural units are timbers made up of ordinary boards glued face.to face under uniform pressure of over 100 pounds per square inch. Upon setting the glued joint actually becomes strong€r in reiistance to shearing stresses than the wood fibers in the individual PlYs.

4. The billboard ol limiteil use ol lorest proilu,cts.

We think too often of forest products as lumber we see at the lumber yard and used in construction.

Remember what we said that lumber was 52/o of. the product of the tree, and the balance goes into plywood, plup and other products.

.I was intrigued by a chart produced by the American Forest Products Industries, showing the use of all the products of the tree. These uses were divided into several categories, and with category: many uses for each specialty mills--8

Saw mills and produets.

Wood distillation plants-I4 products. Wood hydrolysis plants-9 products.

Pulp mills--6 products.

Plywood, veneer mills-7 Products. Hardboard and particle board mills-2 products. -

(Cont'inucil on Page 66)