Falls With \T"yerhaeuser at Klamath

Ponderosa Pine is Servins Widelv and \ilell in California

Up in the Klamath country they have their eyes on the needs of the market before "They Cut Down The Old Pine Tree." For roughly a dozen years the Weyerhaeuser Timber Co. has been falling the mature trees in the widespread forests of Ponderosa Pine and Sugar Pine on the mountainsides surrounding Klamath Falls, Oregon, and hauling them away to the big mill which operates with unusual steadiness and with remarkable efficiency. Much of the lumber manufactured there has found its way into use in the California market during all those years. Now, with defense injecting its new problems in lumber demand and supply, the quantities of Pine rolling into California from up Klamath way are heavier than ever. Even more significantly, the uses to which these good Pines are being put are more extensive than ever. Hundreds of lumber dealers, contractors, carpenters and others in the building trades have established a new acquaintance with Ponderosa Pine and Sugar Pine during the past year or two as the old law of supply and demand has called forth more and more ingenuity. Thus custom and common usage have in many cases been tossed to the winds. Out of all this has come a new appreciation and a genuine respect for the multitude of needs the lumber from these species can meet rryhen given the opportunity.

But, to go back to the mill, or, more accurately, to the woods behind the mill. Written prominently into the

Weyerhaeuser policy is the firm conviction that "Timber Is A Crop." Accordingly, the woods eperations are projected on a long-term basis which maps out the logging on principles of scientific forestry under which the mature trees will be harvested at the proper time with maximum efficiency and minimum waste and the land left in perpetually productive condition. That such a policy is being effectively carried out may be seen by the most casual visitor. There are strips of road where one side has been logged within the last few years and the other has not. Yet, to the passer-by, no difference can be noted.

In this Weyerhaeuser logging operation, both truck and rail transportation are used to keep an adequate supply in the log pond which has a storage capacity of about 10 million feet. It takes a large and steady supply of logs to feed the four SZ-foot double-butting band saws in the sawmill per eight hour shift.

The big gangsaw in the center of the mill is an important aid in maintaining the overall production figure. The cutting is fast and the lumber rolls ceaselessly down through the mill, but there is rhyme and reason to it all. Even before the log heads up out of the pond, the "eye-on-themarket" policy is exerting its influence from headsaw to car door. That's why the mill at Klamath Falls has been able to maintain a record during the years not only for steady operation but for getting maximum useful products out of the tree.

The job of sorting out the lumber for eventual use really gets its start on the green chain where two and sometimes three graders walk miles a day with chalk sticks in hand classifying the bright new rough lumber into groupings according to the seasoning requirements of each piece. The green chain, or sorting table, is 505 feet in length and is said to be the longest in the world. It is completely enclosed so that the lumber stays under roof and the men who sort it and pull it off have ideal working conditions the year 'round. This is an outstanding feature of the operation-the fact that practically all the lumber stays under roof from the time the log comes in until the finished product is carefully loaded into the car. Only a minor proportion goes to the yard green.

Manager R. R. Macartney and his crew are rightfully proud of the careful kiln drying process to which the lumber is subjected. They are proud of the fact that the lumber thev send to market is properly seasoned and thereby fitted to serve the best interests of the ultimate consumer'They have a long battery of forty modern dry kilns to do the seasoning job and more recently have supplemented their seasoning capacity by the installation of a special type of kiln known as the Macartney kiln. Approximately 1,750,00C board feet of lumber are undergoing seasoning at all times. The drying period, of course, varies according to the size and species of each batch or kiln charge.

Once dried, the lumber stays under roof as it passes from one building to another until it finally reaches the car. The main stock is held in rough dry storage and then run through the planing mill on order and loaded directlyusually the same day. One look at the rough dry storage shed, 1250 feet in length, will convince even the most skeptical that the mill has adequate storage under roof. It will hold 35,000,000 board feet at one time. The shed is a splendid advertisement for timber construction, too, because the roof is supported on bowstring type timber trusses.

As for planing mills, they boast one of the finest layouts in the lumber industry at Klamath Falls. This department not only has large capacity-600,000 board feet per eight hour shift-but it has exceptionally good layout and a wide variety of machines which permit high speed surfacing and manufacture ranging from boards thirty inches wide to .small quarter rounds. The heavy equipment consists of six machines into which rough boards can be fed. automatically, surfaced on all four sides, matched and run to profile, all in one operation. Thirty-five cars can be loaded at one time at the shipping dock where exceptional care is taken in cleaning cars and sealing them from dust and dirt in transit.

While the product of the box factory operated in conjunction with the mill does not go through the dealer, it is,

(trbove) Two double-cutting bcnd scws, 52 leet in length, provide the mill with the ccrpccity oI cpproximctely 400,000 bocrd leet per eight-hour shilt.

(Center) Looling down crlong the green chain in Weyerhtreuser'r Klcrnath Folls mill. Length is 505 teet-believed to be world's longest. Note that this depcrtment is entirely enclosed.

(Below) The rough dry etorcae ghed hcs c ccpcrcity ol 35 million bocrd leet. Buildins * trlfrj":l long-believed to be lcrsesl struc- nevertheless, of considerable importance to the dealer because its close utilization of low grades and what might otherrvise be waste releases an equivalent amount of good lumber for the normal building trades. The box factory utilizes off-grade stock, broken pieces, short lengths and similar items and cuts them into usable items, some of which are no longer than one's thumb. A thousand carloads of Pine for crating and boxing of all kinds go out of this factory in the course of a vear. fn normal times much of it is used to package fruits, vegetables and industrial products, but in these defense times there are many strange nerv items such as stout boxes for ammunition, bombs, artillery shells, and other urgent needs of war.

In southern California Ponderosa Pine is being used for many purposes. In residential construction it is winning new laurels as an exterior siding. Here is a wood which, because of its grainless texture, nails easily and resists splitting. It is light to handle and unusually free from slivers. Because of its light color and satin-like surface it takes an unexcelled paint job.

For interior use Ponderosa Pine has a high rating for trim, 'ivindow sash, doors, cabinet work and many similar items. Here again the smooth finish and easy working qualities of the wood are unexcelled. Where fine p4int jobs are a requisite, Ponderosa woodwork has much to its advantage. Great quantities of Ponderosa Pine have gone into individual residences of the finest kind as well as nrass housing projects.

For furniture, Ponderosa has such excellent qualities that some of the manufacturers of fine furniture will have nothing else. Here the careful seasoning is most important if drarvers are to slide easily and the furniture is to be free from checks. The grainless texture of the wood is most important in a trade where it must be worked in all directions and to patterns that are often intricate.

The movie studios have long since discovered the virtues of Ponderosa Pine. It is said that nearlv all the woodwork that meets the eye is of this excellent species. Here good working qualities are important, but even more important is the necessity of having a wood that is light in color and very smooth so that a perfect paint job may be applied quickly and economically. The light color of the rvood frequently cuts down the painting job by one coat. fn department stores Ponderosa Pine is used extensively for making effective department interiors, display windou's and shelving. It serves eQually well on defense jobs where wide boards have been used extensively for rough sheathing. Here the builders find an added advantage in handling wide boards, usually l2-inch, because they nail up fast, can be nailed close to the ends, are light to handle, have feu' slivers, and form a tight job because the lumber is fully seasoned when put in place.

Among industrial users Ponderosa Pine finds an increasing number of proponents for such uses as crating plumbing fixtures, oil industry machinery, aircraft products, and many others too numerous to mention.

Ponderosa Pine is serving both widely and well.

There is but one regret as one leaves this story of the Weyerhaeuser Timber Co. mill at Klamath Falls and its products. fn many sections of the trade Ponderosa Pine is known, called, and ordered under the designation of "knotty pine." This is distinctly a misnomer, and a somewhat unfortunate one for the species. Certainly, Ponderosa Pine does offer some lumber that is without peer for the many "knotty" uses, but it is far from the truth to say that all such pine is "knotty." One has only to look over the 800,000 or more board feet in all widths and sizes and lengths that go out of the Klamath Falls mill in the course of a day to realize that a great percentage of the lumber cut from the perpetual crop of logs has never the semblance of a knot or blemish in it. A lot of dealers are reacquainting themselves with that fact and are adding to their "knotty" stocks more and more of the selects.

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