120 F(JREST COM -MISS [oxer's REPORT. 



but this is mostly the upper grades of sugar maple, and yellow 

 birch, together with a little oak. • 



Sluiftlcs, Sl^ools and Bobbins. 



The manufacture of spools and spool stock is one of the most 

 important wood-using industries of the State. Reside the 

 16,960,000 board feet of paper birch manufactured within the 

 State into spools, three or four million feet of spool bars are 

 now exported annually to Scotland. The spool industry is the 

 most important of those depending upon the paper birch supply. 

 Only the best of birch can be used and the wood must be sound 

 and clear, free from red heart, mildew, stain or pith. In the 

 spool wood operations the trees are usually cut into 4-foot bolts, 

 or sometimes logs, and these are brought to the mill during the 

 fall or winter and are sawed into squares which are usually 

 four feet long and of various sizes, from 5-8" up to more than 

 3". These bars should be sawn out before the month of May 

 to prevent staining. After sawing, the green bars are stacked 

 in open piles under cover and left to season for several months. 

 Just before further working, they are kiln-dried. The process 

 of spool manufacture varies somewhat in various mills, but the 

 general process is the same. The squares are turned into a 

 dowel. This dowel is cut into short lengths and an automatic 

 machine perforates the blank and turns the spool. In some 

 plants the square is first thrust into a revolving chuck which 

 perforates and rounds it. while a small saw cuts ofif the spool 

 blanks. The blanks are fitted to an automatic machine which 

 turns out the spools. The spools are next polished by placing 

 them in revolving drums, together with several balls made of 

 wax, paraffin, or a mixture of beeswax and spermaceti. This is 

 the general process by which the ordinary small sjjool for sewing 

 thread is made, and the only further work is the sorting and 

 packing for shipment. J'ajjer birch is ])ractically the only wood 

 used in the manufacture of small spools, and onlv sapwood is 

 accepted. It is stated that vcr_\- often in spool-wood operations, 

 sound gray birch trees of sufficient size are cut into bolts and 

 ])ass through tlie mill with paper birch. It is almost impossible 

 to distinguish the wood of the two species and it is quite proba- 

 ble that ^-pool mills can make a satisfactory product out of the 

 best gray birch. 



