Corporations: A Profit Lovely As a Tree

Dozens of industrial giants seeking new fields to conquer in the '60s have been tempted by the backward and fragmented housing industry. Most of them —including Alcoa, Union Carbide, Humble Oil, Reynolds Metals and General Electric—have found the resulting problems formidable and the profits elusive. Among others, National Gypsum, Certainteed and Sunset International Petroleum have retreated with bruises from construction ventures. But not ebullient Boise Cascade Corp., the Idaho-based paper, timber and building products maker. Having spread successfully into prefabricated homes and conventional housebuilding, the company last week moved into...