5. Attention to methods for limiting, describing and illustrating such points as “knotty,” “rough,” “doty,” “fire scarred,” “heart-rot,” “sap-rot,” etc. All of these defects detract from the value of the material, but to just what extent is not at present generally established.
6. Other points, such as standard methods of determining the dry weight and moisture content of the wood, or of measurement of wood fiber dimensions, also require attention.
Guesses About Pulpwood Supply of Future
One of the most interesting papers read at the convention dealt with the Pulpwood Supply of the Future. It was by Prof. P. S. Lovejoy of the University of Michigan.
Mr. Lovejoy pointed out that the amount of cotton or corn raised in the country each year, the regions of production and the approximate costs and the sale values were known, and that with about the same relative degree of accuracy the principal items of timber production were known. In the case of pulpwood, statistics compiled from reports of the mills showed the consumption by species, by States, the amounts and kinds imported and how these items compare with past performances.
Attention is now being devoted, Mr. Lovejoy said, to learning where our remaining forests are and what is in them, but the results are far from satisfactory as compared with the record of manufacturing. He asserted that we did not know now, within 25 per cent., what our stand of saw timber is for the whole community or for a given region or State. Practically nothing is known about the existing pulpwood supply, so that guesses as to the future cannot be accurate, but Mr. Lovejoy explained that there were many things upon which such guesses could be based.
Competition Between Saw Mill and Pulp Mill.
A condition that would have to be met was greater competition between pulp mill and sawmill, Mr. Lovejoy said, as the value of lumber was constantly increasing while the merchantable grades of lumber were declining. The pulp mill is at a disadvantage in this respect; that it represents a greater capital than the sawmill and cannot be moved to a new location.