woon-rsix'". ixnrsTRiKs of m.mxi:. 



1^5 



Plaiiiiii/-Mill Products. 



The term "rianing-mill products" is used to include all prod- 

 ucts such as are made by a large planing mill run in connection 

 with a sawmill. Flooring, ceiling, siding, finish, sheathing, clap- 

 boards and ship laj). are manufactured by such a plant. Plants 

 which manufacture primarily sash, doors, and blinds often also 

 work up quantities of flooring and finish. Sash, doors and 

 blinds are included, however, in this report under a separate 

 industry. 



Planing-mill products require two general classes of wood. 

 Sheathing or clapboards require a wood which is easily worked 

 and which will be durable when exposed to the weather. Pine, 

 spruce, and hemlock are most used. For flooring, material 

 must be found which is hard, will work well, and which hold.s 

 its shape after being placed. Such material is supplied by the 

 native hardwoods — sugar maple, yellow birch, and beech. 

 Cheaper grades of flooring are manufactured from pine and 

 paper birch. In the manufacture of house finish, one of two 

 things is usually considered; first, a satisfactory cheap material; 

 or second, a material that has a pleasing figure and would be 

 used wdiere expense is not the first consideration. For cheaper 

 finish, white nine, basswood, and black ash arc used. For the 

 more expensive kinds of finish, the manufacturers of the State 

 draw but little on native woods, but get quartered oak from the 

 central States, red gum and cypress from the South, and ma- 

 hogany from the \\'est Indies, and Mexico. In the better 

 grades of finish, there is, of course, some native material used. 



