26 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



measure. The fact that the quantity is itemized is important, because 

 if errors are suspected it is easier to test the figures than -n-hen a 

 single total is given without any items. 



Transportation companies are interested in tonnage, and forest 

 products supply a great deal of it. The weight of wood varies 

 according to species and according to state of dryness. Many kinds 

 of green wood weigh 5,000 pounds or more per thousand feet, while 

 some dry woods weigh little more than half of that. Averages 

 figured out for many kinds, and in different degrees of greenness 

 and dryness, including lumber, ties, cordwood, poles, and other com- 

 modities, sliow that an average weight is about 4,000 pounds to the 

 equivalent of 1.000 feet board measure. The average of lumber 

 alone is not so much, but lumber does not constitute half of the wood 

 cut annually. On the basis of 4,000 pounds per 1,000 feet, the total 

 output of the country's forest products amounts to 210,000,000 tons. 



It is not all carried by transportation companies, but a surprisingly 

 large part of it is. In 1909 the railroads of the United States carried 

 1,.556,.5.59,741 tons of freight of all kinds, and the Interstate Commerce 

 Commission's figures show that 11.75 per cent of it was forest 

 products, or a total of 182,000,000 tons. On the 4,000 pounds per 

 1,000 feet basis, this represents 91,000,000,000 feet of such products, 

 leaving only about 14,000,000,000 feet not carried by public carriers. 

 In numerous instances the same material is carried two or three times 

 after it leaves the stump and before it reaches the final consumer. 

 That means that the actual material carried is somewhat less than 

 91,000,000,000 feet, and the quantity which is never handled by public 

 carriers is more than 14,000,000,000 feet. 



Firewood is usually not shipped far. It is heavy, and it supplies 

 a great deal of tonnage, but the average short haul places it far 

 below lumber as a revenue producer for carriers. It may be shown 

 by statistics, which need not be reproduced here, that the average 

 haul of all kinds of forest products in the United States is near 299 

 miles. Firewood probably has a shorter average haul than any other 

 important forest commodity, and does much to reduce the general 

 average to 299 miles. 



Lumber is without doubt the largest revenue producer of all forest 

 products. From the fact that statistics of lumber shipments are not 

 generally kept separate from tliose of other products of a similar 

 kind it is impossible to say what is the average length of lumber haul. 

 Shipments go long distances, some entirely across the continent, others 

 halfway across, and others from the Gulf region to the East, North, 

 and West. The softwoods of the I^ke states, and to some extent the 

 hardwoods also, are shipped hundreds of miles, sometimes thousands. 

 While Pacific coast sugar pine and Douglas fir are entering the Lake 

 states' factories, hardwood flooring is on its way from the Lake states 

 to the Pacific coast. Shorter hauls — though r\inning into hundreds 

 of miles — carry lumber into every corner of the country. 



Bailroads carry large numbers of crossties, not only for the use of 

 the line on which this freight originates, but for connecting and 

 distant lines. Ties are heavy and are not often thoroughly seasoned. 

 Hewed ties only are listed in the foregoing table, because sawed ties 

 are included in lumber. 



Pulpwood is not usually carried far, and it belongs with the short- 

 haul commodities. It is cheaper to erect the mill convenient to supply 

 than to transport the wood long distances to the mill. It is not 

 always practicable to do this, because some of the mills are driven 

 by water power, and raw material nuist be brought to them, whether 

 the haul is long or short. 



Fence posts are an important connnoctty, demanded in all parts 

 of the country and supplied by not less than one hundred kinds of 

 wood. The total annual output is not definitely known, since govern- 

 ment statistics and other figures on the subject are fragmentary. The 

 total of 2,000,000.000 feet given in the table was reached by calcula- 

 tion based on the best available information. Many communities 

 supply their own posts, and transportation companies are not called 

 . upon to haul thein far, if at all; yet some posts arc carried hundreds 

 of miles. A single order of 100,000 Osage orange posts was recently 

 shipped from Oklahoma to Illinois, and another of equal size went 

 from tlie same region to Kansas and Nebraska. Western cedar posts 

 are sent lumdreds of miles eastward, and posts of northern and 



southern cedar furnish fencing material far away from the regions 

 where the timber grows. 



Shingles probably are carried farther than any other important 

 forest product of this country. Nearly three-fourths of the whole 

 output are made in the state of Washington and are distributed over 

 the United States. They are made of western red cedar. Most of the 

 others are of northern and southern white cedar, sawed in the Lake 

 states and near the Atlantic coast, and the markets are hundreds 

 of miles away. A few shingles are produced in all timbered regions 

 of this country. 



Most of the wood cut for distillation jairposes Ijelongs to the hard- 

 wood species; but the softwoods, particularly the southern yellow 

 pines, are rapidly growing in importance. The hardwoods are con- 

 verted into charcoal, alcohol, oils, and other articles; the pine into 

 turpentine and rosin. The material is usually in the form of cord- 

 w'ood. Shipments are generally short. The most valuable hardwoods 

 for distilling are birch, beech, and maple. 



Tanbark is bought by the ton or cord, but statistics are in cords. 

 Nearly all of the bark is hemlock and chestnut oak, and it is calculated 

 that one cord is equivalent to 600 board feet. Tanbark is not a long- 

 haul commodity, because it is customary to build tanneries contiguous 

 to bark supply rather than haul the bark long distances to tlie tan- 

 neries. 



Cooperage stock consists of staves, heading, and hoops. Tight 

 cooperage is made into barrels meant to contain liquids; slack cooper- 

 age is for dry commodities. The cooper shop, where barrels are made, 

 is the market for the staves, hoops and heading; and shipments of 

 hundreds of miles are not unusual. Cooperage material is important 

 as a revenue producer for the transportation companies. 



Veneers follow much the same course as lumber in transportation 

 channels, but tlic quantity is very small compared with tlie output 

 of sawmills. 



The manufacture of lath is as universal as the manufacture of 

 lumber, for lath is a by-product of the sawmill. The supply being 

 widel.v distributed, long hauls are not generally necessary. Any wood 

 that makes hunber will make lath, but statistics do not show the 

 various woods entering into the product. 



Poles are (.dasscd with long distance shipments. They are jiroduced 

 in three principal regions of the United States — the western cedar 

 country, the northern cedar country, and the chestnut range in the 

 Kast. More than three-fourths are cedar. The prevailing species is 

 the northern white cedar of the Lake states, but the western red 

 cedar is rajiidly coming to the front as a source of poles. Pacific 

 coast poles occasionally reach the Atlantic states; but such shipments 

 usually consist of poles of large sizes only. 



Unsawed exports are so listed because exports of sawed stuff are 

 included in the lumber cut. Some logs are hewed and others are 

 exported in the round. Tlicy are generally carried by rail to the 

 shipping ports. 



Excelsior is of no great importance from the viewpoint of the 

 transportation companies, because the quantity is rather small and 

 it is not shipped far. The principal regions of manufacture are 

 Wisconsin, Virginia, New York, and New Hampshire; but it is made 

 in twenty-seven states, ranging from Maine to Washington, and 122 

 plnnts are engaged in turning out the product. 



Simply Explained 



Boston seems to have nuulo desperate L'llorts to understand tlie 

 esoteric significance of cubist and futurist art. A city that boasts 

 so many thousands who can understand a Browning stanza when 

 given backward on a phonograpli, who can discourse learnedly on the 

 most obscure passages in George Meredith, and can even tell pre- 

 cisely what Henry James intended to say, is not going to bo puzzled 

 easily by a mere cubist or futurist. The Transcript says that stout 

 old gentlemen ran the risk of apoplexy by bending painfully double 

 to view the paintings upside down; while aesthetic women would 

 amble past the canvases to see whether the vibrations of motion 

 would help them to grasp the secret meaning. And all the time the 

 simple explanation was written legibly on a tag in the corner of each 

 picture. It was the legend, "Sold." 



