HARDWOOD RECORD 



35 



a prophet is not without honor except in his own country. 



Doubtless a considerable number of the gum doors put on the 

 market in the course of a year are not sold under their true name. 

 The wood is finished in imitation of others, among which are cherry, 

 maliogany, walnut, and oak. It is stained, grained, or printed in 

 a way to resemble closely the wood which it passes for. A southern 

 factory owner stated the facts pretty well when he said: "We 



biing nothing but red gum into the shop and send nothing but 

 oak out. ' ' 



Imitation doors made of gum may be expected to decrease in 

 use, while the genuine article grows in popularity. The wood takes 

 such handsome finish that there is little excuse for palming it off 

 as something else. It is able to stand on it« own merits and to 

 build a reputation of its own. 



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/:o^^x.wi«y^j/iiaiTO»sa «tiaw;t»>yity)i<:^^ 



^1 Southern Wood-^Using Industries 



i 



The South is a land of opportunities for industries engaged in 

 manufacturing rough lumber into finished commodities. Develop- 

 ment along that line is progressing rapidly from Maryland to Texas. 

 Raw material is plentiful, labor is reasonably cheap, transportation 

 fatilities are good. This is a combination which inevitably leads to 

 development. The almost total absence of statistics until recently 

 has made comparisons with former periods difficult or impossible; 

 but the fact is apparent that rapid, healthful growth of wood-using 

 industries in the South is widespread. 



The government has been publishing a series of reports, state by 

 state, dealing with tlie amount of wood manufactured yearly into 

 finished commodities, such as furniture, flooring, vehicles, boats, ma- 

 chinery, and many otliers. Many interesting and highly significant 

 facts are shown by the published statistics. The figures point un- 

 mistakably to remarkable growth in wood-using industries in the 

 South. The manufacturing considered in those reports is not the 

 production of rough lumber at the saw mills, but that which passes 

 through shops and factories to be prepared for the ultimate con- 

 sumer. 



A very good summary for most of the states is contained in the 

 Ohio report which was recently published. Figures are there brought 

 together which before were accessible only in scattered and individual 

 reports. It is ascertained that the annual demand for wood by 

 factories located in the southern states reaches the vast total of 

 between nine and ten billion feet. The items, state by state, which 

 make up this total, are set forth in tlie following list of sixteen 

 states, each one of which is credited witli wliat it uses in the course 

 of a year. 



Wood T'sed Ykari.v iiv Siltiieun Tactories. 



Feet, B.M. 



Arkansas 1,361.000,000 



Louisiana 1,355,000,000 



Virginia 893,000,000 



Texas 762,000,000 



Alabama 727,000,000 



North Carolina 076,000,000 



Mississippi 618,000,000 



Georgia 535,000,000 



Florida 521,000,000 



Missouri 443,000,000 



South Carolina 424,000,000 



Tcnncsspe 414,000.000 



Kentucky 410,000,000 



Maryland 284,000,000 



West Virginia 260.000,000 



Oklahoma 28,000,000 



Total 9,643,000,000 



These figures include dressed flooring, ceiling, and siding and 

 general planing mill products, and these account for the very large 

 output of manufactured forest products in Arkansas and Louisiana. 

 For the purpose of comparison, it is proper to give the annual 

 sawmill output of rough lumber in those states. Tlie figures are for 

 the year 1911, as that period corresponds very nearly with the man- 

 ufacturing statistics given aliovo. It is apparent that the sawmills 

 supply abundance of raw material for the factories which turn out 

 finished products. 



.Vnnual Lumber 

 State. Cut. Feet. 



Louisiana 3,566,450,000 



Mississippi 2,041,615,000 



North Carolina 1 ,798,724.000 



.\rkansas 1,777,303,000 



Texas 1,681,080,000 



West Virginia 1,387,786,000 



Virginia 1,359,790,000 



Alabama 1,226,212,000 



Florida 983,824,000 



Tennessee 914,579,000 



Georgia .- 801,611,000 



Kentucky '. 632,415,000 



Soutb Carolina 584,872,000 



Missouri 418,586,000 



Maryland ' 144,078,000 



Oklahoma 143,869,000 



Total 19,442,810,000 



It appears that approximately fifty per cent of the rough lumber 

 sawed in the South is further manufactured in the South before 

 being sent to market. That is a low percentage compared with some 

 of the northern and eastern states where manufacturing has long 

 been highly developed. For instance, Michigan further manufactures 

 eiglity-seven per cent of the rough lumber turned out by its saw 

 mills. Massachusetts manufactures twice as much as its sawmills 

 cut, and of course much must be brought in from the outside. Ohio 

 manufactures more than twice what its mills saw, and New York 

 between three and four times as much as its forests produce. 



What those old manufacturing states are doing in the way of 

 manufacturing may be accepted as a prophecy of what the South will 

 do when it has made further progress in development. It is rising 

 rapidly to that position. The progress is apparent all over the 

 South, but of course development is more active in some sections than 

 in others. 



Take as a concrete example the manufacture of furniture in North 

 Carolina. That state, like all other southern states, is rich in timber 

 resources, and it has become rich in manufactures also. It is not 

 generally known that more furniture is made in North Carolina than 

 in any other state, either north or south. Its closest competitor is 

 Illinois, which uses annually 128,861,930 feet of lumber in manufac- 

 turing furniture. New York is a little below Illinois, and uses 126,- 

 064,292 feet yearly; but North Carolina uses 182,861,250 feet. 



A fact which is somewhat significant is shown by a comparison of 

 southern with northern furniture factories. At least, it is so shown 

 if North Carolina is considered a typical southern state and New 

 York is taken as typical of the North. The southern furniture fac- 

 tory is much larger than that of the North. The average yearly con- 

 sumption of the wood by the North Carolina factories is 2,438,147 

 feet, wliile in New York the average consumption is 555,349 feet. 

 The southern factory thus appears to be four times as large as the 

 northern. 



This indiAtes large opportunities in wood-manufacturing in the 

 South. Capitalists are seeing the opportunities and are taking ad- 

 vantage of them. The.se opportunitifs consist of abundance of raw 

 material in the form of standing timber, both hardwoods and soft; 

 access to good markets, both at home and abroad ; and plenty of 

 reliable labor at fair prices. These constitute a combination of cir- 

 cumstances wliich have already produced results, and promise even 

 greater for the future. 



These opportunities stand close inspection. Take the timber to 

 begin with. Everybody familiar with the southern states knows that 

 the region has great forest resources. The timber streti'hes from 

 Maryland to Texas, and from the Ohio river to the Gulf; but a 



