14 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



season the sap is down and the wood as light 

 as it ever will be while the tree is standing. 

 The legs are rafted with cypress, ash or Cot- 

 tonwood, to keep them from sinking, and 

 floated as soon as high water comes. Where 

 railroad logging can be practiced the work is 

 much simpler, of course. Unless red gum is 

 located within one or two miles of the river or 

 railroad to which it is to be hauled, it cannot 

 be handled profitably at present prices. Be- 

 yond this there lies a supply, the amount of 

 which is only vaguely known, which is un- 

 profitable to cut. It is therefore impossible to 

 estimate the total amount of this timber. 



The timber now being cut for the market 

 is chiefly that growing along the streams flow- 

 ing into the .Mississippi river, from the Ohio 

 on the north to the Yazoo on the south. Such 

 streams as the St. Francis, Wolf and Arkan- 

 sas have large tracts of overflow lands, usually 

 extending from five to ten miles from the 

 river on either side, which are now being cut 

 over. It is estimated that in about twelve 



PRINT OF RED GUM DEAF, ONE-THIRD 

 ACTUAL SIZE. 



years all the timber from these lands will 

 have been removed. Considerable gum is also 

 being rut along rivers flowing into the At- 

 lantic ocean. The timber of this region is not 



as ^ I as that of the Mississippi valley, but 



it is near a market which consumes a large 

 amount of sapwood, so that it finds a ready 

 sale. 



Tli. theory that by girdling a tree and al- 

 Iowing it tn 'lii- thr amount of heartwood will 

 hi I' reased lias been abandoned. In selecting 

 trees for cutting, those with doty tops, rotten 

 stum]!-, and heavy bark, indications of an 

 old tree which contains a very small propor- 

 tion of — .- « i « % % 1. are mra chosen. These are 



found mainly in the drier localities. In low, 



wet places the trees have more sapwood and 



mailer. Owing to the large supply of 



red gum in the sunt lorn forests prices will 



i their present standard 

 - at least. But with the grad- 

 ual exhaustion of the old trees, since the 

 younger ones cannot be used for the same pur- 

 . red gum will increase rapidly in value. 

 The l»st grades of lumber, No. 1 and 2 

 clear heart, find a market almost exclusively 

 in the export trade, though some is used here 

 fur interior finishing. The Commons and other 



clear sap are used in the manufacture of 

 cheap furniture, desks, the better grade of 

 boxes and novelties. The poorer stock, which 

 is practically log run, goes into boxes, barrels 

 and other articles for which short, narrow 

 boards can be used. The inner portion of the 

 hearts of trees, which are of little value for 

 boards on account of shakes and other defects, 

 are of small value in the large markets, but 

 near the mills the local trade exhausts the 

 supply. 



Practically 60 per cent of the stock coming 

 from the tree is common or sap grade, and 

 is largely used for boxes. The export trade 

 requires clear heart, six inches wide and over, 

 and of all thicknesses from three-eighths of 

 an inch up to two inches. About 75 per cent 

 of this lumber is exported to England, France 

 and Germany for use in the manufacture of 

 furniture, interior finish, stairs, etc. Export 

 timber is usually dried before shipment from 

 sixty to ninety days, and upon its receipt 

 abroad is given a further air drying for from 

 m\ I,, i ight months, or is kiln-dried. 



In this country a constantly increasing 

 quantity of red gum rs used in the manufac- 

 ture of furniture. The commoner grades are 

 made into drawers, frames and backing for 

 desks, tables, etc. Considerable clear heart is 

 used for surface \wrk, solid or veneer. Other 

 representative uses are for fence posts, sills, 

 coffin boards. BCreen doors, moldings, broom 

 handli irrows, brush backs and pulley 



facing. 



The wood takes stain so well that it is 

 often made to imitate mahogany, oak, wal- 

 nut and other furniture woods. The furniture 

 Factories in the cities use annually between 

 40,000,000 and 60,000,000 board feet, which 

 thai red gum is now a thoroughly estab- 

 lished wood. For the manufacture of slack 

 Is red gum is one of the most important 

 woods in the country. 



During the last few years lumber dealers 

 have been introducing red gum flooring on the 

 market. They advertise it as lasting longer 

 than any other wood now used in flooring, as 

 having a smoother surface, and as being eas- 

 ier to handle. They claim that they dry the 

 timber thoroughly before disposing of it to 

 the trade, and in this manner overcome all 

 objections to it. Some of these statements 

 I be accepted with caution, although it is 

 a fact that red gum makes good flooring. As 

 ;i thior is seldom exposed to the weather, and 

 as the temperature in a building is practically 

 the same most of the time, then- is little doubt 

 that its use will increase. 



A large amount of red gum is cut into 

 wagon-box boards. Owing to the size, the 

 straight noss of grain and few knots, a larger 

 percentage of such boards can be cut from red 

 gum than from any competing species. The 

 weigh! of gum and its tendency to warp are 

 objections to its use for this purpose, but it 

 numbers among its advantages cheapness, the 

 small amount of paint necessary to cover the 

 boards, and the growing scarcity of other 

 woods used for the purpose. 



From 1900 to 1002 much of the clear heart 



of red gum was cut into 3x9-16 foot stock to 

 be used for street paving in London. In 

 1902 the London market gave way, and a 

 number of mills were left with quantities of 

 this stock on their hands. They are now try- 

 ing to introduce gum as a paving material in 

 the United States, and several large cities are 

 considering such a use of this wood. 



Bed gum boards should be piled in the 

 yard with plenty of space between the tiers 

 and half a foot beneath them, so as to per- 

 mit a free circulation of air under and 

 through the pile. In the first ten or fifteen 

 layers the boards should be laid from six to 

 eight inches apart, and the remainder from 

 two to three inches. The piles should not be 

 over six feet wide and should have a pitch of 

 fully twenty inches to sixteen feet lengths. 



FLOWERS. FOLIAGE AND FRUIT OF RED 

 GUM. 



The strips should be placed from one and 

 a half to two feet apart. To prevent stain- 

 ing, which often occurs where the stickers are 

 laid, they must be thoroughly dry, and prefer- 

 ably of oak or the heartwood of gum. Stain- 

 ing is much more apt to occur in the sapwood 

 than in the heartwood. By using these meth- 

 ods of piling, and allowing the lumber to 

 stand in the yard from three to six months, 

 mills have furnished fairly straight, clear 

 boards, and the extra care has advanced prices 

 materially. 



Gum boards are also successfully dried in 

 the kiln, but pieces over two inches thick are 

 apt to case-harden, and consequently to sea- 

 son on the outside only. The sapwood should 

 be kiln-dried rather than air-dried, as it is 

 more liable to stain if put in the yard. On 

 ;n ' mint of the tendency to stain if piled when 

 green, and the difficulty of kiln-drying thick 

 pieces, it is usually advisable to saw green 

 sapwood into boards only. In kiln-drying, the 

 same attention is paid to piling as in the yard. 

 Win-never possible, cypress should be laid on 

 top of the cars before they go into the kiln, 

 to prevent the top boards from warping. 



In kiln-drying, two methods are used. In 



