Under the Pines and These Timely Tales Are Redwoods Gathered

J. H. YANCY A BAY CTTTES VTSTTOR

J. H. Yancy, of the Yancy Lumber Company, Newman, was a recent visitor to San Francisco and other Bay City points where he attended to several business matters and atso sp:nt a few days calling on the lumber trade. He re'rort-c that the building situation in hl$'seCtion is very good.

INLL AI.D NEW MEXICO HANDLE TIMBER LANDS

An agreement whereby timber on lands belonging to New Mexicq and lying within or near the national forests, will tbe handled according to the rules and regula- tions for handling timber- on national forests has been made between the United States Department of Agricul- ture and the Statq Commissioner of Lands. Approximate- ly 215,000 acres of land, estimated to con,tain 5SO,OO0,OOO board feet of timber, are involved.

The State of New Mexico has no organization equipped to administer the use of timber on State-owned lands so that continuous timrber production may be assured, and in recent years the Forest Service has informally aided the State in han'dling sales. Under the agreemeht recently iigned and approved the Federal government will now lend full cooperation to the State in handling the timber on its lands.

A similar agreement with the State of Arizona was entered into in 1914 and is still in full force and effect. Under its provisions forest officers of the Departm,ent of

Agriculture have supervised the cutting of many millio_ns of feet of timber from State-owned lands within the Coconino and Tusayan National Forests.

The agreement with Arizona and the new agreement with New Mexico both provide that the salaries and expenses of Federal officers while engaged on State work shall be paid by the State concerned.

Fire Season Ended In Most National Forests

No more big fires are expected to break out in the eastern, western, and northern national forests during the rest of the 1923 fire season, 'according to the United States Department of Agriculture. However, in the southern national forests the autumn fire season is just beginning and the menace of serious fires in those regions still confronts forest officers.

Recent snows and rains helped to control the fires which were being fought in October in inany of the northern forests. Fires in several California forests have also been brought under control and no further outbreaks are expected.

Merryman Goes North On Business

Mr. A. C. Merryman, advertising manager of the "Cali- v fornia Lumber Merchant," left Los Angeles last week, to go by auto and train to Humboldt County on an inspection trip of the redwood timber land owned by the Merryman estate.

Chance To Earn Money

Washington, Nov. lO.-Lumber, during the process of its conversion from th,e standing timber into the finished product, is subject to greater waste than almost any other raw material. The lumber industry is deeply concerned in this element of waste, and because the industry desires to improve such condition, the National Lumber Manufacturers' Association again has set aside $2,000, which it offers as prizes for ,improved manufacturing methods or devices. These ,prizes are offered annually.

The present contest is limited to persons actually employed in the lumber industry and it is desirous of enlisting espec,ially the attention of technical men wh,o derive their income from the industrv. The entrv must relate specifically to manufacturing piocesses, wholiy practical in application, and designed either to prevent waste or to provide for a closer utilization of waste which cannot be entirely prevented. Manufacturing processes which are dependent upon economic conditions cannot be considered in this contest.

Special attention is directed to the major wastes which occur in the wo,ods and in the sawmill. Of the timber being cut, about 25 per cent is unavoidably left in the woods as waste, and about 40 per cent is lost in the mill. Perhaps one-half of this aggregate loss cannot be avoided under present economic requirements. The other half probably could be avoided if improvements in manufacturing methods could be evolved. Logging practice, everywhere, is possible of improvement. A satisfactory po'wer saw for the felling of trees has yet to be developed. In the sawmil.l, similar opportunities for mechanical in,genuity are open. The band headsaw takes one-half of the kerf which the old time circular headsaw consumed but it still amounts to at least one-eighth of an inch, which means in the making of 1 inch boards a quantity of material is reduced to sawdust equivalent to l2l per cent of the prod- to per uct. Another problem, therefore, is to produce a thinner bandsaw that will do the work and maintain production.

Entries are now being accepted for the 1924 contest. All suggestions and practices that are submitted will ,be analyzed and ,passed on to a committee of lumber manufacturers at the annual meeting of the Assoc'iation in March, 1y24. Employees in all departments of the lumber industry are urged to present their ideas even though these ideas are not entirely developed. The Engineering Department of the National Lumber Manufacturers' Association, Washington, D. C., to which material should be sent, will be glad to give all possible assistance in the way of developing i'deas so, that they can be formally entered in the contest. The award will be divided as follows: First prize $1,000; second prize $500; three prizes of $100; four prizes of $50.

BAKERSFIELD LU"MBERMAN CITECKS IN AT LOS ANGELES

Mr. Jarnes Curran, proprietor of the Ea&ersfield Sand Stone and'Lumber Company, at Bakersfield, was a visitor in I-os Angeles last weeli.

'Mr. Curran is a brother of Mr. Frank Curran, rrianager for the E. K. Wood Lumtrer Company, at Los Angeles.

Whiting Visits Los Angeles

Mr. R. L. Whiting, of the Shingle Branch of the West Coast Lumbermens' Associatio,n, stopped off in l-los Angeles for a week, and was in,con{erence ,for several days with Mr. Barrett Hanawalt, of the Hanawalt Spaulding Company, stained shingle manufacturers of tos Angeles.

Mr. Whit,ing has just retutned from the conference of fire chiefs, held at Richmond, Virginia, last month.,