August 25, 1915. 



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iSJew Jersey'^sWood- Using Indus tries 



The Forest Park Reservation Commission of New Jersey has pub- 

 lished a rejjort covering the uses of wood in that state for the year 

 1911. The publication has been somewhat delayed, but since it is 

 the first of the kind ever published for New Jersey it contains much 

 information valuable as statistics and history. The report was com- 

 piled and written by Albert J. Piorson of the Forest Service. It is, 

 therefore, a co-operative work between the Forest Service and the 

 New Jersey commission. It is the thirty-tliird state wood-using report 

 of the series to be published. The work for the whole country has 

 been in progress, state by state, for several years, and is now nearing 

 completion. 



New Jersey long ago ceased to be an important lumber-producing 

 state. The entire sawmill output scarcely amounted to one-tenth of 

 the demand of the factories, to say nothing of the lumber used in 

 the rough. If all kinds of uses are included, it is probable that New 

 Jersey does not grow one foot for every twenty that comes in from 

 elsewhere. For that reason there is special interest in a report of the 

 uses of wood by the factories in the state. The ideal condition would 

 exist if a state produced all the wood its people need. An enormous 

 increase in forest output must take place before that condition is ful- 

 filled in New Jersey; yet there is enough vacant land in the state to 

 grow as much wood as the people need. 



IDE.M. MaNUP.\CTUR1NG CENTEI: 

 Though backward in the growth of timber, the state is ideally 

 situatei-l for manufactures in which wood supplies a large share of the 

 raw material. The demand for manufacturocl products is strong. The 

 population is dense and consumption is extensive. Large cities, in- 

 cluding New York and Philadelphia, lie close to the borders, supple- 

 menting the local demand. The result is that New Jersey manufac- 

 turers consume annually 261,436,895 feet of wood in supplying the 

 markets for furniture, boxes, cars, vehicles, interior finish, doors, 

 caskets, boats, musical instruments, and many other classes of articles. 

 There are twenty-five well-defined wood using industries in the state, 

 besides several classed under the common head of miscellaneous. 



The Leading Industries 



All industries are not of the same rank or importance, judged by 



the quantity of wood consumed. The following list gives an idea of 

 their relative importance in New Jersey: 



Feet used 



Industry. annually. 



Boxes and crates 102,087,85.5 



Doors and general mill work 44,383,800 



Planing mUI products 28,876,000 



Musical instruments 15,582,316 



Car construction 13,359,330 



Ships and boats 13,341,796 



Professional and scientific instruments 4,612,000 



CofSns 3,529,000 



Tanks and silos 3,474,000 



Furniture 2,916,100 



Vehicles 2,740,740 



Trunks 2,217,000 



Baskets 2,174,350 



Fixtures 2,003,300 



Cigar boxes 1,701,500 



Machine construction 1,660,880 



Patterns and flasks 1,643,400 



Refrigerators 1,319,500 



Electrical apparatus 970,100 



Woodenware 654,305 



Miscellaneous 12,589,613 



Total 261,436,895 



Kinds of Wood Used 

 New Jersey draws upon many parts of the world for its supply of 

 wood. Fifty-six different kinds are listed, and fourteen of them come 



from foreign countries. Of the foreign woods, more mahogany is 

 used than of all others combined ; but the total amount of woods that 

 come from beyond the borders of the United States is less than ten per 

 cent of the total consumed in the state. 



White i)iue leads all others with nearly one-fourth of the whole, 

 but it falls short of the amount .supplied by the combined yellow 

 pines. The softwoods constitute much more of the total than is 

 furnished by liardwood.s. Sixteen species of softwoods, grown in the 

 United States, arc listed, and twenty-two of hardwoods. Chestnut 

 leads the hardwoods in quantity consumed, and is followed in the 

 order named by yellow poplar, wliite oak, red oak, basswood, red 

 gum, and sugar maple. The smallest in quantity used is holly. Of 

 the fifty-six woods on the list, thirty-six come wholly from outside 

 the state. 



I'lUCEs Paid fok Lumber 



The prices jiaid for the various woods are averaged for the whole 

 state, for each species separately, and then for all together. Aver- 

 age prices serve as guides only and are not otherwise valuable as in- 

 formation, because the average is not necessarily the price in any par- 

 ticular place. The average cost per thousand feet paid by factories 

 for all the lumber and other forms of wood purchased in New Jersey 

 during the .year was $32.32, and the total sum paid in the purchase 

 was $8,448,850. The highest priced wood on the list is Turkish box- 

 wood at $713.89 per thousand feet. Much of the box wood so bought 

 is reduced to board measure, though it is purchased by weight or by 

 cubic contents. The blocks used for engraving and for printers' 

 type are cross-.sections, cut from the ends of logs. That of second 

 highest cost is Circassian wahaut at $331.17. Woods which cost more 

 than $100 a thousand feet are the following: 



Wood. Cost per M. 



Turkish boxwood $713.89 



Circassian walnut 331.17 



Rosewood 319.34 



Ebony 271.65 



Satinwood 250.00 



Teak 249.67 



Lignumvita? 232.22 



Prima vera 220.00 



Granadillo 217.00 



Cocobola 208.93 



Persimmon 195.00 



Mahogany 121.80 



Holly 115.38 



The foregoing list of valuable woods is unusually long for a single 

 state, and some of the prices are uncommonly high. The cheapest 

 wood reported in the state is pitch pine, at $10.65. 



A wide difference is shown in the average prices paid for wood by 

 ilifferent industries, as the following list illustrates : 



Industry. Average cost per M. 



Boxes and crates $18.78 



Baskets 19.03 



Coffins 25.87 



Trunks 33.10 



Chairs 36.50 



Handles 41.03 



Boats 46.86 



Patterns 52.85 



Tanks and sUos 57.84 



Vehicles 62.91 



Cigar boxes 63.92 



The foregoing prices include the highest and the lowest paid. All 

 other industries fall between the extremes here set down. Taking 

 the lowest as the basis of comparison, there is a difference of 

 more than 300 per cent in the cost of the woods used by the dif- 

 ferent industries in New Jersey, which employs it as raw material. 



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