October 25. 1916 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



23 



dogwood billets or logs are collected over wide are&s, because the 

 trees are scattered and much ground must be raked over to get 

 enough to pay a niiU to come to saw the billets into blocks. The 

 blocks may be hauled by wagons thirty or forty miles to market 

 or to a railroad over which they may be shipped to market; but 

 it does not pay to haul the round billets so far, because so much 

 is rejected as waste at the mill which saws out the blocks. The 

 round billets bring six or eight dollars a cord at the portable mill. 

 A cord of round billets will yield considerably less than half a cord 

 of shuttle blocks. 



Persimmon. The persimmon tree attains a size larger than dog- 

 wood, but the two are put to nearly the same uses, principally as 

 shuttle blocks, and occasionally heads for golf clubs. Shuttle makers 

 use sapwood only of both persimmon and dogwood ; but since the 

 heart wood of these trees is very small, not much is lost. 



Black Gum is reputed to be the most unsplittable wood in our 

 forests. This gives it some value as wagon hub material, but gen- 

 erally black gum is cut into lumber and is sold in the general mar- 

 ket for no purpose in particular. Yet, when quarter-sawed it pos- 

 sesses an attractive grain, and it ought to be worth much more than 

 is usually asked for it. It ranges over the whole of eastern Ten- 

 nessee. 



White ash is the common ash of the region, and while not par- 

 ticularly abundant in the mountainous part of the state, it is 

 found in nearly every locality. 



Chekrt was once abundant, but the long period that has passed 

 since it was called upon to meet demand has rendered merchantable 

 cherry very scarce in the region; yet an occasional log still finds its 

 way to sawmills. 



SiLVERBELL reaches its highest development among the mountains 

 of eastern Tennessee. It is not an abundant timber, but the attrac- 

 tive bird 's-eye figure found in some of the trunks gives them value 

 for furniture and interior finish. Plain silverbell lumber sometimes 

 is substituted for cherry in the manufacture of interior finish. 



Ivy or mountain laurel owes its value to the enormous root de- 

 veloped when the part above ground is repeatedly killed or damaged 

 by fire. Some roots weigh 500 or 600 pounds, though the portion of 

 the tree above ground may not weigh ten pounds. The roots are 

 lifted out with cant hooks or pulled out with oxen, and after being 

 trimmed of stems and irregularities are hauled to railroad stations 

 and sold for about five dollars a ton to manufacturers of tobacco 

 pipes. The mountains along the borders of Tennessee and North 

 Carolina supply the best ivy roots of this country, and they exist 

 in enormous quantities. 



Eed Cedar. This does not belong in the class with hardwoods, 

 according to the usual understanding; but since the wood is put to 

 special purposes, it may properly be regarded as one of the sub- 

 stantial resources of the Knoxville region. At the present time 

 clothes chests and lead pencils are the best known uses of this 

 fine wood; but a few generations ago it was one of the common 

 timbers which were split for fence fails; and the builders of log 

 cabins and frame structures employed large amounts of it. At the 

 present time many a mile of wire or plank fence is held up by 

 red celar posts in that region. 



Cedar lumber that reaches the market is bought by manufac- 

 turers of clothes chests, wardrobes, and furniture; and makers of 

 interior finish for houses find good demand for it, notwithstanding 

 the rather high price at which it sells. Timber suitable for good 

 lumber has been becoming scarcer for a long time. This condition 

 may change in years to come, because many farmers who under- 

 stand the value of this cedar are protecting the cedar timber on 

 their land, pruning the trunks and causing them to grow long, 

 smooth, and shapely. They will ultimately produce first-class lum- 

 ber or pencil stock. 



Red cedar bears abundant crops of seeds which are scattered 

 widely and grow vigorously. The tree, however, is of slow growth, 

 compared with some other woods, and a long term of years is re- 

 quired to produce a large trunk. The tree does well in thin, rocky 

 or gravelly soil, and the farmer can thus make his poor land yield 

 an ultimate profit by keeping it busy growing cedar. 



As late as 1900 from 2,000,000 to 3,000,000 feet of good cedar 

 were rafted down the Cumberland river from the vicinity of 

 Lebanon, Tenn. It is not expected that this can be repeated soon 

 in that or any other locality. There seem to be no reliable sta- 

 tistics giving the present annual output of red cedar in the United 

 States or in any state. 



One reason why our export trade in furniture and millwork has 

 not given more satisfaction and grown faster is that we turn to it 

 as a dumping ground when business is dull at home and neglect it 

 more or less when the domestic trade is lively. It should be culti- 

 vated and enlarged steadily and properly, taken care of at aU times, 

 if we would hold all we gain and seek to gain more from year to year. 



WHITE OAK 



There are many patterns in the old standard moulding books of 

 special moulds and casings that might well be eliminated, and im- 

 prove not only the appearance of the books but their usefulness. 

 AU the old gingerbread patterns are out of date, most of the work 

 now being of simple lines and few curves. For this reason one 

 looking for something new and modern is so confused and annoyed 

 by the multitude of old intricate patterns in the standard books, 

 that he is rather disposed to get along without it and design some- 

 thing special. 



