THE HARDWOOD RECORD. 



15 



this sketch are anywhere from 1,000 to 

 1,200 years old. What wonderful events in 

 the world's history have transpired during 

 their lives! 



There is something awesome in the gigan- 

 tic proportions, tall column-like trunk and 

 strangely cut leaves of this tree, when it 



LEAVES AND BLOoM OF POPLAR OR 

 WHiTE WOOD. 



is approached for the first time, and the 

 fancy is bred that the world would be a 

 very different place if trees should ever lose 

 their meek defenselessness and strut about 

 arranging things to suit themselves. Man 

 would appear very small then, while the 

 poplar tree might be king of the globe. 



One of the most truly splendid sights of 

 the forest in the springtime is to climb the 

 ridge of some eastern Tennessee or western 

 North Carolina mountain range and look 

 across the landscape of waving trees just 

 starting forth into bloom. You may be 

 able to see for miles, and the feature that 

 grasps your attention is the unmistakable 

 flower-laden tops of the poplars. These 

 trees advance in leaf and flower before any 

 of their fellows, — they waken early in the 

 spring. 



The seat of the largest production in 

 poplar at this time, which is the approach- 

 ing period of gradual extinction of this 

 magnificent wood, is in West Virginia, Ken- 

 tucky, Tennessee, and western North Caro- 



lina. Poplar of an excellent quality grows 

 in other sections, but in the portions of the 

 country named the wood reaches its highest 

 perfection. 



The large size of the timber, its growth 

 in the rough mountain country, and its dis- 

 tance from the main lines of transportation, 

 make the production of poplar lumber one of 

 the most expensive operations known in the 

 lumber business. In the early days of lum- 

 bering, in comparatively level counti-y like 

 Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, the making of 

 poplar lumber was not very expensive, but 

 now when lumbermen have to build costly 

 logging railroads to penetrate a wide-spread 

 territory and gather up the scattering 

 growth, the cost piles up to a remarkable 

 degree. To the layman it is astonishing 

 that poplar lumber can be produced at a 



TRAIN OF POPLAR LOGS ON TRESTLE. 



HOLLY LUMBER COMPANY, 



PICKENS, W. VA. 



PAP.- THE GRAND POPLAR OF 

 SEVIKR COUNTY, TENN. 



profit at the price that the wood commands. 



In earlier times, generally the poplar tim- 

 ber was floated to the saw mills down the 

 streams, but Ti'ith its extinction near these 

 water, courses, there is but a small portion 

 iif the logs that now are floated in rivers. 

 Poplar lumber production is fast resolving 

 itself into a logging railroad proposition. 

 A picture herewith presented shows part of 

 a traiuload of large poplar logs on the 

 trestle of a logging railroad near Pickens, 

 W. Va. ; and another illustration shows a 

 car loader engaged in handling wide poplar 

 boards into a box car. These pictures were 

 made by the writer at the operations of the 

 HoU.y Lumber Company at Pickens, W. Va., 

 an allied concern of the Crosby & Beckley 

 Company, of New Haven, Conn. 



The photograph of the tree inscribed 



"Pap" was made ten years ago, and it was 

 on a part of the timber area that has since 

 been acquired by the Little Eiver Lumber 

 Company, of Townsend, Tenn. The central 

 picture of the splendid poplar tree in this 

 group of engravings was felled on the 

 W. M. Kitter Lumber Company's property 



SPECIMEN POPLAR BOARDS. 



two years ago, shortly after the writer 

 made the photograph. 



Poplar or whitewood is one of the popular 

 and almost essential timber growths of this 

 country, and is also very highly regarded 

 abroad. It is used in works of construc- 

 tion, interior finish, boat building, pump 

 stock, ear building, in carriage and automo- 

 bile bodies and in an infinity of places 

 where white pine was formerly employed, 

 and especially where planks of extreme 

 width are desired. A great quantity of the 

 wood is shipped abroad and constitutes one 

 of the chief items of American lumber export. 

 Several leading American poplar manufac- 

 turers maintain oflices and even yards in 

 various parts of England and Germany, and 

 nearly all of the large producers have at 

 least foreign wood brokers who handle their 

 products. 



Expansion and Improvement. 



Dennis Brothers and the Dennis Brothers 

 Salt & Lumber Company, whose principal 

 ofiices are located at Grand Rapids, Mich., 

 have made some recent and important 

 changes in their business. The salt and 

 lumber companv which has in the past oper- 

 ated a saw mill at Stronach, a suburb of 

 Manistee, has closed down its plant, and in 

 future will manufacture lumber from its 

 big hardwood tract east of Manistee, by 

 means of a series of mills located within the 

 timber. Two vears ago this company pur- 

 chased the Canfield hardwood tract of some 

 12,000 acres Iving between the Grand 

 Eapids & Indiana and P^re Marquette Rail- 

 roads, and ill the past has shipped its logs 

 to the Stronach mill over the Manistee «; 

 Grand Rapids Railroad, which penetrated 

 the timber from the west. The log haul 

 has been long, expensive and unsatisfac- 

 tory, and the' company thinks that it can 

 exercise a good deal of economy in manu- 

 facturing by its new plan. 



Dennis Brothers have recently taken over 

 a maple flooring plant at Reed City, Mich., 

 and will enter into this line of trade in con- 

 nection with the large wholesale hardwood 

 business at Grand Rapids and at North Tou- 



awanda, N. Y. . , .^^ ■ 



The corporation identified with Dennis 

 Brothers' name produce large quantities of 

 all varieties of Michigan hardwoods, and 

 Dennis Brothers are handlers not only of 

 Michigan hardwood lumber but also of 

 southern hardwoods. 



