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Show We Are Becoming Less Dependent Upon Wood for Home Construction By HOWARD F. WEISS, Research Enquirer. Each year we are becoming less and less dependent upon wood for the construction of our homes. Both the per capita and the total consumption of lumber are rapidly declining, and for the more modern types of buildings wood has been almost completely supplanted by other materials. In the vast majority of cases wood is used as a building material not because it is the best material available but because it is the cheapest. The extent to which it is grown and the price to which it goes will depend upon the ability of wood to compete with other products in the world's commerce. While it is true that our use of wood as a construction material ia on the decline,' nevertheless, our consumption of it for other purposes is on the increase. This is particularly true of the manufacture of pulp and Paper and allied products. Here the consumption is increasing every year and will undoubtedly continue to do so. |