1 68 THE NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [ 4 :s-may, 1908 



identical. In order that the thread may afterwards be wound upon the 

 spools without difficulty, accuracy in manufacture is a prime requisite. 

 This necessity has led to the invention of a number of very ingenious auto- 

 matic machines which not only turn the spool with great accuracy, but 

 also with great speed, some of them at a rate of a spool a second. 



In order that all of the spools of a particular type may be absolutely 

 uniform, the wood must be thoroughly seasoned before it is used and it 

 must also be of some species which holds its shape after it has once been 

 seasoned. Paper birch possesses this quality to a large degree, and this is 

 one thing which adapts it so well to spool manufacture. 



Still another industry which uses nothing but paper birch is that of the 

 manufacture of shoe pegs and shoe shanks. These are used quite largely 

 in this country in making the cheaper grades of shoes; they are also ex- 

 ported to quite an extent to foreign countries, principally to Germany and 

 Japan. The industry does not consume so much wood as the spool 

 industry, but it is nevertheless an important one and helps to make inroads 

 into the forest. 



The toothpick is still another article for which the paper birch is used 

 almost exclusively. Perhaps it may seem to some that so small an article 

 as the toothpick can not consume very much wood. In comparison with 

 many other things, this is relatively true, of course; yet a single mill in 

 Maine uses 2,000 cords of birch every year for this purpose alone. Quite 

 recently important shipments of toothpicks to England, France and Ger- 

 many have begun to be made. 



Still another very interesting peculiarity of these industries, particularly 

 of the three first mentioned, is that they not only confine themselves to 

 paper birch, but that they are also limited almost entirely to a very small 

 section of the country, Maine and eastern New Hampshire. Although 

 paper birch is one of the few North American trees with a transcontinental 

 range, being found from Newfoundland and Labrador on the east to 

 Alaska on the west, it occurs in the United States only along the northern 

 border, and is most abundant and most accessible in the extreme north- 

 east. Maine, in particular, is the great paper-birch state, and here large 

 tracts of it in almost pure stands are found. This is due to the fact that 

 the birch readily takes possession of land that has been burnt over, and the 

 great Miramichi fire in 1825, together with other similar fires of about that 

 same period, gave it a chance to obtain quite a foothold there. 



Unfortunately the paper birch is a short-lived tree and becomes red- 

 hearted quite early in life, so that many of these stands are now over- 

 mature, and ought to be cut at once. The red heart is inferior wood and 

 can not be used except for the cheapest grade of spools and novelties, so 

 that these old stands are constantly decreasing in value. The birch near 

 the railroads has also been very largely cut out and the lumbermen are 

 having to go far back to get the necessary supply. In the case of these 

 species, as well as practically all others in the country, the decreasing 

 supply is beginning to make itself felt, and conservation in its use must be 

 practiced if the woodworking industries now dependent upon it are to 

 continue. [Press Bulletin of U. S. Forest Service] 



