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The Wood^Using Industries of Georgia 



The report of the wood-using industries of Georgia, which the 

 United States Forest Service completed some time ago, has been 

 published in full through the New Orleans Lumber Trade Journal. 



This investigation was not concerned with sawmUls or the quantity 

 of lumber produced by them, but gave consideration only to the use 

 of wood in shops and factories. Except that rough lumber was 

 employed as raw material, it was not considered in the report. The 

 figures collected and used in the totals all belonged to the year 1911. 

 The total factory consumption of wood in Georgia that year was 

 556,938,926 feet, while the output of lumber by sawmills in the state 

 totaled 801,611,000 feet. This considerably exceeds the factory use; 

 yet in spite of that, the manufacturers found it necessary to bring into 

 the state from outside regions nearly 94,000,000 feet to meet demands. 

 The meaning of that is that while lumber was being sent out of the 

 state, other was coming in. That happens with nearly all states. No 

 matter how much they produce from their own forests, their factories 

 must procure some from the outside, and the imported lumber does not 

 always consist of kinds not produced in the state. For example, 

 Georgia factories bought 33,000,000 feet of longleaf pine away from 

 home, though the finest grades and plenty of them are produced in 

 the state. 



The following table lists the different kinds of woods used, and 

 gives the annual consumption of each, with the average cost per thou- 

 sand feet delivered at the factories. Only thirty-four species are 

 listed. Some states report twice that many. Two of the woods, 

 mahogany and padouk (often called vermUlion) are foreign and are 

 more expensive than the most costly of the home woods. 



SUMMARY OF KINDS OF WOOD USED IN GDOBGIA 



Quantity Avpragc Total cost 

 usod nnnually cost per 

 Common name Uotanical name Feet B. M. 1.000 ft. 



Longleaf pine Piniis palimtris 2S9,74.3..ViG 



Shortlcaf pine '''"<'» cdHnata 1'J2,24S.357 



Bald cypress Tamdium diatichum. . 16.467,000 



White oak Qucrcu;i sp 10,777,636 



Red oak . . . . ! Qiicrcua »p 9,OS.'5,330 



lyjblolly pine Pinus tacda 7,6.'!0,000 



Yellow poplar LirindcmlrontuUpifcra 7,378,080 



Red gum Llqvidamhar stiiraciflua G,671,.i00 



Cuban pine! .!.!.! !'''"^"» '"^''■"P''""" 2,800,000 



Chestnut f'tml'inea dcntnta 2.284.000 



j^gl, \ Fraxinus up 2,2:!G,877 



Sugar maple Acer eaccliarum 1,983,500 



Hickory Ilicoria sp 1,453,7.^0 



Cottonwood Popiitus deltoidea. . . . 1,275,000 



White pine Pinus sirohua 1,246,269 



Cotton gum (tupelo) Vi/«x<i aquatica 875.000 



Birch Betula ap 



Bg^cl] Fttgtia atropunicea. . 



Water oak Quercua nif/ra 



Pond pine Pinus aerotina 



Sweet magnolia .... Maunolia glaiica .... 



Mahogany Siiictenia mahagoni. 



Soft maple Acer ap 



Hemlock Tauga canadcnaia . . . 



Cherry Pninua aorotina 



Basswood Tilia americana 



White elm Ulniua americana. . . 



Hackberry Ccltia occidcnialia . . . 



Sycamore Platanua occidentalia 



I'adouk PIcrocarpua indicus. 



Black walnut fuglana nigra 



Red cedar Junipcrua rirgin4ana. 



Black locust Rohinia pacudacacia. 



Spanish oak Quercua digitata. . . . 



630,711 



605.000 



500.000 



250,000 



231,000 



218,500 



120,000 



50.000 



46,253 



45,000 



38,000 



10,000 



10,000 



8,000 



7,000 



5,000 



5,000 



5,000 



$13.30 

 13.03 

 19.31 

 27.08 

 37.20 

 10.03 

 24.04 

 14.04 

 8.07 

 15.21 

 20.83 

 16.01 

 29.36 

 12.22 

 13.53 

 15.24 

 53.44 

 9.74 

 27.00 

 11.20 

 11.51 



127.58 

 22.50 

 24.40 

 80.62 

 30.00 

 26.71 

 18.00 

 20.00 



500.00 

 53.57 

 60.00 

 25.00 

 20.00 



f. o. b. 



factory 



$3,854,838 



2,504,759 



317,963 



291,890 



337,892 



76,535 



177,399 



93,680 



22,600 



34,740 



46,005 



31,757 



42,678 



15,575 



16,857 



1.3,337 



33,705 



5,895 



13,500 



2,800 



2,659 



27,877 



2,700 



1,220 



4,564 



1,350 



1,015 



180 



200 



4,000 



375 



300 



125 



100 



556,938,926 $14.33 $7,981,670 

 USES BY INDUSTRIES 



The wood-using industries of Georgia are less diversified than in 

 many other states. There are only fifteen industries in all, and four 

 of these consume less than 1,000,000 feet of lumber each per annum. 

 The largest industry is that which makes planing mill products, the 

 principal items of which consist of flooring, ceiling, and siding. This 

 industry consumes more rough lumber than all the other wood-using 



—16— 



industries iu the state combined. As might be supposed, longleaf 

 pine is the chief wood demanded for that industry. 



The making of sash, doors, blinds, and general mUlwork constitutes 

 the second largest of the fifteen industries, but here shortleaf pine 

 is ahead of longleaf. The following table gives the industries and 

 shows how much lumber each uses a year, with the average price paid 

 for it at the factory: 



SUMMARY OP WOODS USKD BY INDUSTRIES 



Quantity Average Total cost 



used annually cost per f. o. b. 



Industries Feet B. M. 1,000 ft. factory 



Planing mill products .•;96,903,714 $12.45 $4,940,17S 



Sash, doors, blinds and general millwork. 73,130,500 18.74 1,370,626 



Boxes and crates 24,373,409 11.65 284,002 



Car construction 21,769,025 24.13 525,357 



Furniture 16,253,607 19.22 312,470- 



Vehicles and vehicle parts 4,845,250 31.44 152,326 



Agricultural implements 4,572,421 22.51 102,913 



Miscellaneous 4,220,000 16.77 70,750 



Caskets and coffins 4,088,500 13.39 54,760- 



Fixtures 2,755,000 39.70 109,387 



Excelsior 1,993,500 8.35 16,645 



Handles 760,000 18.18 13,820' 



Rpfrigerators and kitchen cabinets 723,000 20.57 14,875 



Trunks and valises 476,000 25.89 12,325 



Porch swings 75,000 15.15 1,250- 



Total 556,938,920 $14.33 $7,981,679- 



Hakdwoods in Georgia 



Georgia is not usually classed as a hardwood state, though it is by 

 no means destitute of valuable hardwoods. In view of this, it i» 

 interesting to note what the factories are doing with hardwoods, and 

 where they are procuring them. The report shows the annual use of 

 only 45,000,000 feet of such, compared with 511,000,000 feet of pine, 

 cypress, hemlock, and cedar. It must be confessed that the showing 

 is not very good from the hardwood standpoint. 



White oak leads the hardwoods and red oak is second. About half 

 of the former grows in the state, the other half comes from surround- 

 ing states. Considerably more than half of the red oak is drawn from 

 outside regions. What is classed as white oak is made up of several 

 species of the white oak group, and the same holds for red oak. 

 The true red oak — the northern red oak — is little used in Georgia, 

 and what passes as red oak at the sawmill and factory is usually 

 willow oak, yellow oak, or Texas red oak. Much of that which passes 

 as white oak is overcup or forked leaf, or cow oak, though considerable 

 true white oak is mixed with it. 



Next after oak, the hardwood which meets the largest demand is 

 yeUow poplar, and about three-fourths of it grows in Georgia forests. 

 Following poplar is red gum which grows abundantly in the state, 

 yet it was found convenient to send beyond the borders for one-third 

 of what the factories used. Chestnut is next in quantity among the 

 hardwoods. It has frequently been asserted that chestnut is prac- 

 tically extinct in Georgia, and that it has totally disappeared from 

 large regions since the Civil war. However that may be, the report 

 shows that nearly half of the chestnut used was cut in the forests 

 of the state. It comes principally from the mauntainous district of 

 the Northwest. 



The state supplies considerably more than half of the ash reported, 

 which consists of several species. The showing is not so favorable 

 with sugar maple which is brought into the state, except a moderate 

 quantity that is cut in the high region in the northern part. The soft 

 maples do weU in Georgia, but hard maple is a more northern tree 

 which has followed the mountains southward. Nearly half of the 

 hickory comes from other states, and Cottonwood is likewise divided 

 about half and half, while all of the birch and most of the beech is 

 brought in from outside regions. The use of the other hardwoods is 

 quite limited in the Georgia factories and shops. 



A summing up of the statistics of different hardwoods reveals the 

 fact that not more than 25,000,000 feet a year are supplied from 

 Georgia's own forests. 



