Excerpt from The Lumber Industry and Its Workers

In Agriculture the farmer must have lumber to build his dwelling house, barn, granaries, silos, etc. To fence his fields he must have wooden posts; often the entire fence is made of wood. He picks his fruit from a wooden ladder, packs it in wooden boxes, with wood pulp paper, and hauls it to the railroad in a wooden wagon. Wood forms a part of all agricultural tools, implements and machinery. Late statistics show that the present demand for wood for farm implements exceeds feet a year, and if the wood that goes into agricultural hand tools were added the total would probably exceed feet.

In the Mining Industry wood is used to timber the mines to prevent them from caving in. Wooden ties support the tracks in and around the mines. Wooden cars transport the coal or ore from the working to the shaft. Shaft houses and other build ings around the mines are built wholly or partly of lumber. In coal mining, timber forms the principal part of tipples, washers, etc. Wood forms part of some of the mining tools and machin ery. Without lumber it would be practically impossible to carry on mining.

In the Construction Industry lumber is one of the principal raw materials. Even when the main part of a building is of some other material (such as brick, stone, steel or concrete) lumber is used for floors, ceilings, laths, window frames, doors, and in many other ways. On buildings lumber is used for stag ing. On concrete work to construct the forms, and for temporary supports. On railroad and general construction work timber is used for bridge building, for culverts, for piling, railroad ties, etc. Wood forms an important part of the machinery of con struction, such as derricks, steam shovels, dump cars and the like. Most of the tools used in this industry are part wood. Lumber is used to build the camps which shelter the men and animals employed. If the supply of lumber were cut off it would only be a short time before the entire building industry would be forced to shut down.

The Transportation Industry is literally supported by wood. The miles of railroad track in the United States rest on wooden ties. It is estimated that the railroad and electric lines of the country use approximately one hundred and twenty mill ion ties every year. The vast network of telegraph and tele phone wires that covers the country is upheld by wooden poles. By far the greater part of the rolling stock is built of lumber.

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