cars loaded with this so-called waste would fill a double line of tracks reaching from Washington, D. C., to Trenton, N. J. (a total length of nearly 265 miles); converted, this material would produce 190,000 tons of wood pulp, and in the form of lumber it would build nearly 50,000 average small dwellings. This material, however, is not always suitable for pulpwood or building purposes.

The amount reported by no means represents the total nonutilized wood produced annually in North Carolina. A small percentage of the questionnaires was not returned. In addition, waste occurring in

FIGURE 2.-A portable mill, in Alamance County, N. C., which is cutting blanks for oak wagon spokes and hickory automobile spokes. The large amount of waste shown in the photograph results from the strict requirements of the consumer and is mostly nonutilized because the operation is located 11 miles from a railroad shipping point. (Courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Conservation and Development)

the woods was not listed, and material which was used as fuel was not considered as nonutilized.

THE OCCURRENCE OF WASTE

Considering the United States as a whole, it is estimated that two-thirds of the entire forest drain is lost during manufacture and use. Waste occurs in the form of decay, woods losses, mill losses, seasoning, remanufacture, and unclassified losses. This last item includes the following: Improper design of structures, unsuitable grading rules, failure to use short and odd lengths of lumber, destructive turpentine orcharding methods, staining of sapwood and wasteful

processes in the manufacture of chemical pulp. The following table shows the approximate percentages of these different types of waste:

The amount of seasoned rough lumber which is wasted in the final manufacturing process depends largely on the industry in which the lumber is used. Many woodworking industries have wastes of 30 to 40 per cent.

Obviously, 100 per cent utilization of the tree is impossible. Even in using the most efficient methods some parts of the tree, such as needles, leaves, bark of some species, and small branches, will be wasted. However, it is possible and practical to effect a much closer utilization of our timber resources than we are doing at present.

The problem of wood waste may be solved in two ways-by reducing the production of waste at the source through the use of improved machinery and methods, and by increasing the uses for the waste which is produced.

In most European countries a mill that does not utilize twothirds of the tree can not operate at a profit. The following tables show a comparison between American and European methods of utilization:

Bark.

TABLE 3.-What becomes of the wood in a log in the United States

Per cent

13. 0

TABLE 4.—What becomes of the wood in a log in Sweden 5

1 Report of the National Conference on Utilization of Forest Products, Washington, D. C., Nov. 19 and 20, 1924. U. S. D. A. Misc. Circ. 39, pp. 92-96. Although more efficien* utilization has been obtained in this country, these results are typical of many operations.

2 Based on the total forest drain.

a This item includes stumps and tops, trees shattered in felling, small and defective logs, trees of littleused species, material wasted through bucking, and losses resulting from carelessness and lack of judg ment in sky-line logging.

Report of the National Conference on Forest Utilization, Washington, D. C., Nov. 19 and 20, 1924. U. S. D. A. Misc. Circ. 39, pp. 93, 94.

3 Swedish Forests, Lumber Industry and Lumber Export Trade. Special Agent Series 195, Department of Commerce, 1921.

WHY INTENSIVE WOOD UTILIZATION HAS NOT BEEN PRACTICED

Close utilization of wood as applied to the American lumber industry is a comparatively recent development. The attention of this industry has been so absorbed with production in the woods and at the mill that the process of profitable waste utilization has appeared to be of secondary importance. However, the lumber industry is now realizing that the use of mill waste by remanufacture, or by disposal to other industries, holds possibilities for additional profits; and many progressive lumbermen are giving close attention to this branch of their business.

In all commercial processes the profitable disposal of waste products is dependent upon supply and demand. In many cases large quantities of wood are wasted because the manufacturer does not know of the existence of a demand for his waste; and, conversely, many wood

FIGURE 3.-Close utilization of pine slabs. A shows edge and width of material usually passed into the lath mill, but in this instance it is passed through a horizontal resaw, producing a waney edged and ended board, such as B, which is then conveyed to the dry kiln. After the load is dried the kiln stacks are removed, passed to a place where they are torn down, conveyed to a double surfacer, and dressed to appearance C. The C material is then passed to the ripsaw, where it is worked into short lengths-to be end matched-or converted into crating material. The bark of the entire process is consigned to the hog and burned

working industries may be purchasing logs or lumber for their raw material when they might find it more profiatble to use nonutilized wood. However, in some instances the material is produced so far from a consuming center that the cost of transporting and handling leaves no margin of profit for either the seller or buyer. Under such conditions the manufacturer must dispose of his waste in the best manner possible-by remanufacture, for fuel, or by way of the refuse burner.

At the present time the success of commercial reforestation hinges upon the ability of the manufacturer to utilize mill and woods waste. Such utilization increases the potential value of standing timber and makes commercial reforestation economical. There are many lumber manufacturers who claim that they can not obtain a legitimate profit from the utilization of "waste" or nonutilized wood. Because of variations in markets, materials, manufacturing costs, and other

economic factors some of these operators may be justified in their belief that close utilization is not profitable. The fact that the utilization of mill waste is profitable has been demonstrated under many conditions. For example, several mills operating in the Southern States utilize slabs and edgings in the manufacture of furniture squares, plow-handle stock, refrigerator-car lining, yard and kiln stickers, etc.

The word "Waste."-Strictly speaking, the material reported by the survey of nonutilized wood in North Carolina can not be called waste, since waste is defined in the dictionary as "refuse; anything worthless; rubbish." The particular meaning of the word waste as used in the lumber industry can be defined as "that which has no original value, or no value for the ordinary or main purposes of manufacture." This term is applicable to surplus wood only in exceptional cases-nonutilized material may be wasted but is not waste.

HOW TO REDUCE THE QUANTITY OF NONUTILIZED WOOD

It has been stated that nonutilized wood is produced from the following sources: In the woods; in manufacturing; in seasoning; and by the consumer.

In the woods.-The word "waste" may be applied accurately to a certain percentage of nonutilized material which is now left in the woods. Such items as leaves, needles, bark of certain species, and small branches are not at present utilized. Stumps are also usually included as woods waste but in some cases have been utilized by the pulpwood and wood distillation industries. A considerable quantity of the material now left in the woods, consisting of 24 per cent of the total forest drain, can be utilized by cutting stumps to a minimum height, and by the use of tops and small branches for posts, poles, pulpwood, extract and distillation wood, excelsior, and dimension stock.

This large percentage of waste left in the woods can to a great extent be reduced by more efficient logging practices. Probably the greatest difficulty experienced in the woods is the efficient cutting of logs to such lengths as will minimize loss. For example, frequently the log cutter will measure off his logs in standard lengths, regardless of where defects may be found on the log. After measuring one or two log lengths he finds that there will be a usable part of the tree still on the top which must be left as waste, unless he can rearrange the length of log cuts. It is obvious that much usable material may be salvaged by establishing an odd log-length system, such as 15, 17, 19 feet, etc., and that considerable additional material may be saved by cutting short-length logs. Present-day logging practices will not permit the utilization of low-grade logs for lumber purposes except in rare instances, and as a result the logger will bring to his mill only those logs which class as common and better. It is true that the quality of a log can not be determined by its outside appearance, but there is no doubt that a little more care in measuring log lengths and bucking will reduce greatly the amount of nonutilized timber now left in the woods.

In manufacturing.-From 45 to 50 per cent of the log is converted into nonutilized material in the process of manufacture. This percentage includes the following items: Bark, slabs, edgings, trimmings, sawdust, and loss resulting from careless manufacture.

BARK. The bark which accumulates at a sawmill rarely has any value except for fuel purposes. The bark of hemlock and chestnut

oak, however, is utilized commercially in this territory in the tanning industry. The cutting of bark is primarily a woods operation and is carried on by professional bark cutters employed for this purpose. Recently, bark has been used in small quantities for such purposes as filler in paper and in the manufacture of cardboard, wallboard, roofing felt, composition shingles, and oatmeal wall papers.

SLABS. Slabwood is produced in the process of squaring logs by the head saw, gang saws, or slab resaws. The amount of slabwood produced depends upon the size and taper of the logs being sawedsmall logs and logs having excessive taper producing the greatest amount of slabwood in proportion to their volume. Tests have been made on the Pacific coast to determine the amount of usable lumber which is wasted or burned in the form of slabs. Although the results

FIGURE 4.-Hemlock bark to be used for tannin. The bark of chestnut oak is also used for
this purpose. (Chestnut wood furnishes a high-grade tannin, and for years supplied about
one-half of the domestic production for leather manufacture. The decreased use of chest-
nut tannin is due to the ravages of the chestnut blight disease)

of these tests are not directly applicable to conditions in North Carolina, they do emphasize the fact that a large amount of valuable material is often found in the slabwood pile. Three piles of slabs were tallied. The first pile contained slabs which were a little larger than the average; the second pile was made up of average-size slabs; and the third pile contained slabs which were below average size. No slabs were tallied which would not yield a 1 by 4, 4 feet long. The results of the investigation showed the first pile would yield 721 board feet of lumber per cord, varying in size from 1 by 4 to 2 by 6; the second pile would yield 549 board feet per cord, ranging in size from 1 by 4 to 2 by 8; and the third pile would produce 482 board feet per cord, ranging from 1 by 4 to 2 by 6. The fact that the best grade of lumber in the tree is cut near the bark should stimulate interest in reducing the slabwood production. Boards and strips show