HARDWOOD RECORD 



21 



Metal lias to some rxti-nt taken the jilaoc 

 of wood iu farm iiii|ilpmonts, but surpris- 

 ingly lar^e quantitii-s of lianlwood an- still 

 HSOit. Kei'cut reports from ItJT nianufaetur- 

 «-rs show the use i>f IJIl'.tiia.dOO feet of lum- 

 ber annually, by far the larger part of which 

 is hardwood. Sinee in lildo there were 648 

 inanufaeturing pstablislinients in the United 

 ' States, the quantity used must really be 

 very great. Hardwood will undoubtedly be 

 used in this industry as long as it is avail- 

 ■,l.le. 



I'ar building has requireil, and still re- 

 <(uires an enormous amount of hardwood 

 material. Though steel is being employed 

 more largely than in the past in the con- 

 •itruetion of both freight and passenger cars, 

 rhe great majority of both elasses of cars 

 are still marie of. wood ami the speeifications 

 <if the railroads indieate that much of the 

 timber used is hardwood. 



Hardwoods have beeu, :iiiil still are, most 

 <>ssential for railroad ties. Half of the 

 hundred million ties used yearly are of 

 hardw^ood. Hundreds of patents exist for 

 ties of other material. Xoue has commended 

 itself to railroads as a geiu'ral substitute for 

 the wooden tie. Very large quantities of 

 hardwood are likewise used for bridges and 

 ' trestlework. 



The jiole lines of the country have also 

 •called for a great deal of hardwood timber. 

 Every year the demand is increasing. Xo 

 other material iias proved satisfactory for 

 the support of the network of wires which 

 now binds together every part of the coun- 

 I ry. 



House finishing, including iuterior wood- 

 work, doors, window sashes, stair work, and 

 mantels consumes each year a great deal of 

 I hardwood. For durability and acceptability 

 •iirdwood finds here one of its most desir- 

 I le uses. In well-built houses in many 

 ji.irts of the country hanlwood finishing is 

 I .almost as commonly found as is hardwood 

 furniture. 



From this it is rea<lily seen that if the 

 hardwood timber supply were to be speedily 

 ^-xhausted the great industries which now 

 •Icpend upon it would be severely crippled 

 or ruined. To consider how important these 

 are, take, for instance, the state of Illinois. 

 Though Illinois is not kiRiwn as an impor- 

 tant hardwood lumber state, it is second 

 only to New York in hardwood manufactur- 

 ing industries. Jn these industries Illinois 

 lias invested, according to the census of 

 190.5, a capital of $14s,llo,8nr)— almost one 

 fifth of the total capital invested in raauu 

 facturing. It employs .jy.SII wage-earners, 

 and it turned out, in 190.5, a product valued 

 at .•fl.S9,970,.59l). or 12 ])er .'ent of the total 

 value of manufactured products. 



A general failure in crops may affect in 

 • lustrial conditions for a few years — a 

 f.-iilure in the hardwood supply would be a 

 blight upon onr industrii's through more 

 than a generation. 



The situation in brief is this: We have 

 api)arently about a fifteen years' supply of 

 hardwood lumber now reailv to cut. Of 



the four great hardwood reginns, the Dhio 

 valley states have been almost completely 

 turneil into agricultural states, ami the lake 

 slates and the lower Jlississippi valley are 

 r.ipidly follnwing their example. 



In the .\])|>alacliiau mountains we have 

 extensive hardwood lands which have beeu 

 culled and greatly damaged by fire. These 

 are practically all iu private lands, and 

 while they contain a large amount of infe- 

 rior young timber, they are receiving little 

 iir no protection, and even such young tim- 

 ber as exists is making but slight growth. 

 Even if these cut over lauds be rightly man- 

 aged they cannot greatly increase their 

 yield of merchantable timber inside of 

 from thirty to forty years. 



There is sure to be a gap between the 

 supply which exists and the supply which 

 will have to be provided. How large that 

 g-ap will be depends upon how soon and 

 how effectively we begin to make provision 

 for the future supply. The present indica- 

 tions are that iu spite of the best we can do 

 there will be a shortage of hardwoods run- 

 ning through at least fifteen years. How 

 acute that shortage may become and how 

 serious a check it will put upon the indus- 

 tries concerned cauuot now lie foretold. That 

 it will strike at the very foundation of some 

 cif the country's most important industries 

 is unquestionable. This much is true beyond 

 doubt, that we are dangerously near a hard- 

 wood famine and have made no provision 

 against it. It is important to seek diligently 

 the best means to avert it. or if that is not 

 wholly possible, tu reduce its injuries to the 

 minimum. 



There seems to be but one practical solu- 

 tion, and that is to maintain permanently 

 und(>r a proper' system of forestry a suffi- 

 cient area of hardwood land to produce by 

 growth a large proportion of the hardwood 

 tiiid)er which the nation requires. 



Where is this land to be found.' Xcit in 

 the Ohio vallev. the lake states, or the Mis- 

 sissippi valley, for the reasons ali-ea<ly given. 

 It is to be found in the Appalachian moun- 

 tains. They bear the greatest variety of 

 species and the best remaining hardwood 

 growth anywhere to be found. Freed from 

 their enemies — fire and unwise cutting — 

 their forests readily re]>roduce the best 

 kinds of lind)er. Outside of local areas of 

 the I'Mcific Coast nowhere else is forest 

 grrmlli so rajiid. Kven land cleared Jind 

 farmed to the complete exhaustion of its 

 soil will iu this region in time reclothc itself 

 with forests, if only it is ]U'otected. 



Kield estimates by counties show that 

 south of Pennsylvania there are iu the Aji- 

 palachians .5.S million acres of forest land, 

 practically all of which is covered by hard 

 wiM)d and over H~) per cent of which is in a 

 iiit-over or culled condition. Including the 

 mountains of I'ennsylvania, New York, and 

 .New Kngland it is probably safe to estimate 

 lh;it the entire Appalachian area includes 

 as much as T.'i million acres primarily adapt- 

 ed for hardwood timber. Only a very small 

 part ot' this is still in virgin growth. Ky 



tar the great part of it has been cut over, 

 ancl some of it has been cleared. 



Well managed and protected from fire, 

 this area has enormous j-roducing powers. 

 Studies by the Forest Service of average 

 virgin and cut-over lands iu eastern Tennes- 

 see show that under protection these lands 

 are capable of producing 50 cubic feet of 

 wood per a'cre annually. Kven taking the 

 production as 40 cubic feet, this means for 

 the area of 7o million acres a possible an- 

 nual production of 'A billion cubic feet. 



How does this comjiare with the annual 

 reciuirements? The 2o billion feet, board 

 measure, used annually (allowing a product 

 of 8 feet B. M. for each cubic foot, which is 

 believed to be not too high under present 

 utilization) represents a little over 3 billion 

 cubic feet. This is just about equal..-to the 

 amouut which the Api)alachiau forest is 

 capable of producing. When it is remem- 

 bered that the Appalachians will probably 

 not be called upon to furnish more than 

 three-fourths of the total supply, it is clear 

 that there is a good margin of safety. 

 Therefore, if the Appalachian forests are 

 rightly managed and taken soon enough, 

 they will insure continuously the hardwood 

 supply of the country, and do it without 

 exhausting the forest. In fact, it can be 

 done so that the systematic treatment will 

 at the same time improve the forest. 



Much of the Appalachian forest has been 

 so damaged that years will be required for 

 it to reach again a high state of produc- 

 tiveness. Its present average production is 

 jirobably not over 10 cubic feet per acre 

 |)er year. The increase would of course be 

 gradual and it would be slow at first. It 

 would be some time before it could average 

 the 40 cubic feet per acre used in the above 

 estimate. Until it does we can expect a 

 shortage in hardwood timber. The longer 

 the delay in putting this forest under con- 

 trol, the longer continued and more extreme 

 will be the shortage. 



Sullivan-Sanford Mill. 



'I'hc sawmill pUmt of llic t>ullivaii-.Sani:.ii(l 

 l.uinlicr I'ompany at Najilcs, Tex., has Just been 

 1 iiuipletcd. It will mauufacture hardwoods from 

 uhout 40,000 acres of land iu tlie Sulphur river 

 liottom. The mill (ontuius some unique fea- 

 tures and is equipped with the newest and best 

 machinery on the market. The log yard con- 

 tains 1,500 feet of double track and has slor- 

 atfc room for logs surticienf to run the mill dur- 

 ins the lainy season, itk Ingrfjlni; can ouly be car- 

 1 ied on for about eiRlu months of the year. 



The otlicers of the company are S. K. Sauford, 

 president : M. II. Sullivau. vice-president : 1). K. 

 Sullivan, secretary ami treasurer; the latter will 

 iiave his iieadquartcrs at Naples. 1'. \V. Bax- 

 ter, formerly president of tlu* Tennessee Coal 

 and Iron Compauy, is also interested. Mr. San 

 ford was formerly of the Sanfra*ri I.nailicr v'om- 

 pnny of Caryviile. Fla., an<l the Messrs. Sulli- 

 van of the Sullivan Timlier Compiiny of Ten- 

 sacola, I'la. The compauy was organized aliotu 

 a year ago with a capital of $750,000. 



The Lieber Cypress Company of -Monroe, La., 

 lias been incorporated w:ltli *iuO,000 capital 

 stock by L. L. "Lieber ituil others, to erect ami 

 operate a .sawmill, shingle mill ami wo<id\\ork- 

 Ing plant. 



