SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry - Empire Forester Yearbook (Syracuse, NY)

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ood eclmolocjq Du. l-Ixuuxv P. BROWN HIC American public is now cognizant of forestry as such, as the result of a long campaign in education initiated before the beginning of the twentieth century. The Society of American Foresters, the associa- tion of professional foresters in the United States, has just celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in the national capitol. H ence, forestry may now be considered as well launched among the professions. NVood technology is an important phase of forestryg it deals with the principal forest product, wood. Specifically, it is concerned with the study of the technical properties of wood, that is, with those properties which must be taken into consideration when wood is used for any purpose whatso- ever. Our forefathers arrived at the uses of wood largely by trial and error methods , with the infor- mation thus accumulated handed down to succeeding generations. Frequently this information was er- roneous and proved expensive in application, the more as the cost of wood has advanced. This has resulted in the 'birth of the science of wood technology, the scientific utilization of wood. Students undergoing training in wood technology are required to take courses the subject matter of which is directly pertinent to this natural product. lfn addition they are thoroughly grounded in bas- ic subjects such as physics, mathematics, statistics and chemistry which provide the information and the tools to essay the technical properties of wood for their worth. Among the practical responsibilities of a wood technologist is not only the ability to select the proper kind of wood for the purpose in view, knowing' its intrinsic properties in advance, but also the skill to select the proper stock of that kind of wood. As is to be expected, a tremendous backlog of information on the technical properties of wood has been built up to date. The scarcity of metals during Worlcl Wzir lf and the ready accessibility of wood as a suitable substitute under the proper conditions of inspection advanced wood technology very rapidly. However, -because of the exigencies of this period of national emergency, the research on wood was often hurried and far from conclusive. Since Worlcl Wai' Il, wood technology has continued to advance at a steady pace, with increasing emphasis on fundamental research. Students contemplating specialization in wood technology with a view to making it a life profes- sion quite naturally ask themselves what the future holds with respect to positions. The opportunities are good for the man with the proper aptitudes, with remuneration in proportion to abilityg he will be undergoing training as a wood technician, with considerable emphasis on the engineering approach. The analytical type of mind is a prime requisite, bespeaking as it does success in courses in mathemat- ics, physics and chemistry. A prospective wood technologist must -be the type of individual who not only wants to know that a thing is so but why it is 503 this last statement is highly important in gauging 'his possibilities of success in this field of endeavor. Re- search should 'have appeal, not as a vehicle to grind out a living, but as a horizon that ever beckons. Sealed from Inf! to right! Dr. Anderson, Dr. DeZeeuw, Dr. Brown, Dr. Harlow. Standing: Mr. Skaar, Mr. Core, Mr. Leney, Mr. Caldwell, Dr. Kitazawa, Mr. Cote. t21i

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ti we gs if -5 - -Q ax ..a...sBr ood Utilization ii NELSON C. BROWN HE field of forest utilization has advanced to a very important place in the field -of forestry. Years ago it was scarcely regarded as a part of the American forestry program. Now graduates of the college are largely entering into the business aspects of forestry which means, logging, lumber manufacture, the wholesale lumber business, the retail lumber business, light construc- tion and work with timber preservation, veeneers, plywood, crossties, coopcrage, woodworking, small di- mension, furniture and many other industries dependent upon the forest as a source of their raw mate- rial. A recent compilation of 600 graduates of this department of Forest Utilization indicates that 88 percent of them are in these fields of interest. Qnly 12 percent have elected to take lines of work other than in forestry. This compilation shows that most of our giaduates are working in New York State and bordering sections such as New England, Pennsylvania and in the South. The above listing illustrates only a beginn The following table shows their field of ac- tivity: Occupational Status Percent Lumber Manufacture ,.........,,. .,,,.. 1 1 Wood-Working Indu'stries .. .. 10 Education and Research ...,i.. . 10 Wholesale Lumber ......7,,.. 10 Retail Lumber ...e,ee,e,.,r,e.i,iii. ., 9 Logging ..i...,,,..,.........,,,,,,,.....,..v,,,.,,,,,,., 6 Veneers, Plywood and Adhesives .,Y,,......,..,. 5 Timber Treatments .,,....,, ....,.....,,..,i....,.....,,,..... . .. 3 Lumber and Forest Products Associations t,i,,,ii, 2 Unre-lated Fields ,,,.........,.....,.....,,,.,,.. .,.,.....,......, . 12 Miscellaneous ......e ,,., . 22 Total .........,.. .,,.,....,,....,,...,,,,.,i,, e..,,,,,,,.,,,,,,, 1 0 0 The geographical distribution of the graduates is as follows: State Percent New York State above the Metropolitan Dist. 28 New York State-the Metropolitan District , , , 16 Southern States-Virginia to Texas , ,,,, . , , , 13 New England States ....,,.. ,,.. , . . ,. . ., A 8 West Coast States .,,,. ,,.i . , . . , . 7 Pennsylvania .e.,,e. . . 5 New Jersey .,,,. . ,.,..,. . ,. ,. 5 Wisconsin ..,.,.,.,., ,, ,s,. ........ , .. ,, , ,i.. . . . .. . 4 Illinois ., ..,,.....,,,ii. ,ir. , . ...,., . ..,, . . ,. 3 Foreign Countries, including 11 men in Canada and others in Africa, Germany, India, Italy, Switzerland- Malayan Union, Philippines, South America .. ., . . 5 Miseellaneoluis, largely in Central States, Rocky Mountain States, Michigan, Minnesota and Washington, D. C. . . ,. .... .. . . , . 6 Total .,r. , ,i..., , ...,. ,. ,, ,, 100 ing of interest among our graduates in forest industrial employment. There are some 80,000 logging operations concerned with the harvesting of forest pro- ducts in this country. There are some 60,000 sawmills, some 25,000 retail lumber yards, about 15,000 wholesale lumber companies and at least 75,000 other industries and activities dependent upon lumber and other forest products for their existence. It is patently evident that more men skilled in the tech- nical knowledge of wood, its manufacture, seasoning, grading, treatment, distribution and use. are in demand among these great industries of the nation. The lumber industry is the oldest and one of the most successful and largest industries in these United States. It is believed that there will always be an important lumber industry and its associated activities in this country. The fear of a timber famine has passed. VVe are, and will continue, grow- ing all of the timber we need but because we have wasted about 50 percent of all of the material produced in our woods, it is believed that new technical knowledge and skills will improve the efficiency of utiliza- tion in the future. Left io right Professor Bishop, Professor Hen- derson, Professor Smith, Professor Brown, Nr. Yavorsky, Dr. Vtiylie, Professor Hoyle. l20l

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pulp, pa efz plastics CLARENCE E. LIBBY ULP and paper manufacture is currently the sixth largest indus- try in the United States. ln Canada it is the number one industry. What are the prospects that papermaking will become the leading indus- try in this country also? Immediately they are not good for we do not now possess the forest resources to make such an industry possible. Qlf we did possess such resources, or if we can develop them in the future, there is every reason to expect that the pulp and paper industry will continue to advance in rank until it becomes one of the three leading manufacturing industries in the United States. The old saying necessity is the mother of invention was never more forcibly demonstrated than during the late war years when pulp and paper products were successfully substituted for hundreds of items formerly made from textile fibers, wood, glass and metal. liven the manufacture of war's most vital material-smokeless powder-shifted largely from its old lbase of cotton linters to wood pulp. Mil- lions of pounds of munitions and foodstuffs were shipped to our armed forces abroad in newly de- veloped, strong, paper V-boxes which replaced the heavier and bulkier wooden boxes that had been used heretofore. Soldiers in the field were fed from paper K-ration boxes thereby conserving vitally need- ed tin for more essential uses. Many of these paper substitutes which were forced upon us by the grim necessities of war proved to be so satisfactory that they have quietly taken their pla-cc alongside the more common necessities of life. Indeed, it would be unusual for today's housewife to find less than a dozen kinds of paper -in a day's supply of groceries, these papers encompassing a wide range of qualities from the coarse paperboard of the Coleen carrier to the transparent moisture-proof wrapper of the frozen food package. These few examples illustrate the rapidly expanding use of paper and forecast a future so filled with paper products that the next hal f-century may well be called the paper age . The usefulness of paper in many new products has been greatly enhanced by combining it in different ways with another fabulous newcomer on the industrial horizon - plastics. Many of the most useful plastics are themselves made from woodpulp and the rapid growth of the plastics industry has had its effect in materially increasing the consumption of the better grades of wood pulp. Sheets of paper, interleaved or laminated with plastic films, may be treated with heat and pres- sure and molded into structural shapes of great strength and beauty. These new products are now appearing on the 'market as table tops, flooring, tiling, and furniture and are being machined into hun- dreds of articles designed for everyday living. Their use seems icertain to multiply astronomically with- in the next few years. The magnitude of the paper industry of the future is dependent upon our forests and our for- esters. Yale need to grow more treesi fast- er and at the same time learn how to uti- lize the wood we have more completely and economically. The solution of these two problems requires all the brains and imag- ination that we can bring to bear on them. In any case it is a comforting thought to know they are 'big enough to keep us all employed for many years to come. Left io right Prof. Libby, Dr. Nazzara, Dr. Scliuerch, Prof. Holmberg, Mr. lrlitchings, Mr. Church, Prof. Casey. Prof. O'Neil, Prof. Dono- frio. f22l