and compete with the furniture industry to secure what they need
of this timber. Most of these plants are located in the Middle
West but they draw their timber chiefly from the South. Hickory
is a necessary wood to the vehicle industry for use in spokes and
wheels. The factories exert every effort to secure adequate
supplies of timber from the farm woodlands, sawmills and logging
camps. The automobile industry now uses considerable hickory in
the wheels and spokes of motor cars.

Most of the stock used by the vehicle industry is purchased
green. Neither the lumber nor vehicle industry is equipped with
enough kilns for curing this green material. The losses in
working and manufacturing are heavy, running as high as 40 per
cent. Many substitutes for ash, oak and hickory have been tried
but they have failed to prove satisfactory. On account of the
shortage and the high prices of hickory, vehicle factories are
using steel in place of hickory wherever possible. Steel is more
expensive but it can always be secured in quantity when needed.
Furthermore, it is durable and very strong.

Thus we see that our resources of useful soft woods and hard
woods have both been so diminished that prompt reforestation of
these species is an urgent necessity.




CHAPTER VI

THE GREATEST ENEMY OF THE FOREST--FIRE