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What Becomes of Oak Lumber ]^ 



The latest published statistics show that the annual cut of oak 

 lumber in the United States totals 3,318,952,000 feet. That which 

 is used in its rough form, added to exports and sawed railroad ties, 

 amounts to 1,335,367,000 feet. The remainder, which is 1,983,584,000 



feet, is worked in shops and factories and is made into numerous 



articles. These belong to different industries. The following table 

 apportions the oak among forty eight wood-using industries, shows the 

 amount consumed by each of them, and the average price paid for 

 oak by the different industries. 



Quantity used .Vverage 



.nnnually cost per 



Industries feet b. ni. 1,000 ft. 



General mill work .".01,367,772 $35.70 



Furniture 431,053,289 34.11 



Car construction 303,276,814 26.81 



Vehicles and vehicle parts. . 212,918,361 34.92 



Chairs . 135,269,118 28.93 



Agricultural implements . . 69,346,130 35.51 



Fixtures 62,681,744 49.80 



Boxes and crates 56,362,111 13.98 



Ship and boat building '. 32,382,311 42.63 



Refrigerators and kitchen cabinets 31,351,521 31.27 



Instruments, musical 20,638,480 48.39 



Sewing machines 19,106,250 45.70 



Picture frames and moulding 16,043,423 42.12 



Plumbers' woodwork 14,031,200 36.31 



Handles 12,458,472 25.86 



Machine construction 8,295,864 29.16 



7,716,860 25.77 



7,544,235 47.24 



7,343,500 27.99 



5,042,401 57.43 



4,936,000 41.79 



4,826,472 17.54 



2,640,700 15.20 



2,637,027 33.62 



2,576,800 20.84 



2,497,559 57.96 



1,444,057 24.56 



1,248,000 36.55 



956.200 43.20 



565,800 44.98 



427,500 32.04 



405,000 39.04 



403,200 33.87 



372,100 32.73 



294,000 24.31 



272,100 36.02 



250,000 17.52 



182,200 41.17 



158,000 43.13 



90,900 27.11 



77,000 17.40 



39,000 47.44 



20,000 65.00 



12,000 30.00 



12,000 52.08 



4,500 42.22 



.3,500 42.29 



3,000 8.00 



Woodenware. novelties, etc 



Caskets and coffins 



Pulleys and conyeyors 



Tanks and silos 



Electrical machinery and apparatus. . . . 



Mine equipment 



Gates and fencing 



Clocks 



Equipment, playground ,. . . . 



Sporting and athletic goods 



Toys 



Saddles and harness 



Elevators 



Pumps and wood pipe 



Laundr.v appliances 



Brooms and carpet sweepers 



Boxes, tobacco 



Professional and scientific instruments. 



Rollers, shade and map 



Printing material 



Bungs and faucets 



Patterns and flasks 



Weighing apparatus 



Brushes 



Dowels 



Shuttles, spools and bobbins 



Whips, canes, and umbrella sticks 



Butchers' blocks and skewers 



Signs and supplies 



Trunks and valises 



Aeroplanes 



Boot and shoe findings 



Total 1,983,584,491 ?33.48 



The first and largest industry is general millwork which includes 

 flooring, ceiling, doors, sash, blinds, stair material, and many other 

 articles of a similar kind. Furniture is somewhat smaller in quantity 

 of wood consumed, but it is very large. The manufacturers of rail- 

 way cars also make enormous demands upon oak supplies. It will be 

 noticed that furniture and chairs are considered to be separate, under 

 the schedule of industries adopted by the Forest Service where the 

 foregoing table was compiled. The reason for classifying them as 

 separate industries is that chairs are frequently the product of fac- 

 tories which make nothing else, and the method of manufacturing 

 chairs differs from that employed in making general furniture. If 

 chairs and furniture are counted as one industry it exceeds general 

 millwork in volume of wood used. 



Cost of Material 

 The different industries do not pay the same price for the oak 



they use. The average cost at the factories is $33.48. The lowest 

 price is paid for the small quantity made into slioe shanks, which ara 

 thin pieces, cut from rotary veneer, and placed between the soles of 

 shoes, under the arch of the foot. This material reaches the factory 

 in the form of logs, to which fact its low price is due. 



The highest price is paid for stock to be made into whip handles. 

 It reaches the factory in the form of squares, and is already partly 

 manufactured. That explains its high price. The price next to the 

 lowest is paid by makers of boxes and crates who use low grades ot 

 lumber. 



The total sum paid for oak by all the industries in the United 

 States that use it is $66,408,069 a year. The price paid by a particu- 

 lar industry is governed largely by the grade of material bought, 

 but other things have something to do with price, especially the dis- 

 tance of the supply from the place where it is to be used. In some 

 cases, part of the manufacturing is done before the stuff reaches 

 the factory which completes the article. This increases the cost at 

 the finishing or assembling factory. Chairs and vehicles belong in 

 this class. 



The table of industries and prices make no distinction between 

 white oak and red oak. Grade for grade, there is not much difference 

 in cost. If the whole country is included, white oak is employed in 

 larger quantity than red oak. 



The foregoing table does not include any of the oak that is used 

 in the cooperage business. To include this would add many million 

 feet to the total given. This wood is employed by the makers of 

 both tight and slack cooperage. Tight cooperage includes barrels 

 for liquids, and white oak is chiefly employed ; while slack cooperage 

 embraces barrels and kegs for dry articles, and for this red oak is 

 as serviceable as white. ' 



The Scene Shift in the Spoke Trade 



Changes come to all branches of the hardwood business from time 

 to time, but no other branch of it reflects at present so radical a 

 shift in the scenes as the spoke branch of the trade, especially in the 

 manufacture and sale of hickory spokes. The shift is due to the 

 introduction and rapid develojiment of the automobile and the motor 

 truck. These call for spokes in enormous quantities, but the call 

 is entirely different and has been the means of replacing what was 

 formerly the cream of the hickory spoke trade. 



This was set forth in a plaint made recently by a prominent manu- 

 facturer who has been identified with the spoke business all his life. 

 He said that the automobile business had ruined the finer spoke trade, 

 which was the manufacture of hickory spokes used in the high-priced 

 buggies and carriages of the older days, and to which the spoke manu- 

 facturer looked for his main profits. This change might not seem to 

 make much difference since the automobile calls for a larger quantity 

 than has been lost in the fine carriage and buggy spoke trade, but 

 the spoke man complains that there is no money in the auto spoke 

 trade, that it is handled on the same close margin of the low-grade 

 and cheap buggy spokes and wagon spokes of olden times. He con- 

 tends further that the same high quality of hickory stock is not 

 insisted upon. The automobile manufacturers are close calculators 

 and shrewd buyers, and because of tlie large quantity used they insist 

 on narrow margins with a final result that this branch of the spoke 

 business today is very unsatisfactory from a profit yielding stand- 

 point. ' 



Meantime it has replaced that old trade in fine spokes and shafts 

 that made the best profit and has brought horn* the realization that 

 the spoke men never made enough profit on the lower priced goods. 

 So far as quantity is concerned, the spoke trade is as big today as it 

 ever was, perhaps bigger. 



It is a mistake to depend on the highest grade product for all the 

 profits. Every grade and specification of mill products should pay 

 its own fair profit. Then the shifting of scenes from one to another 

 will not so disturb the balances of those engaged in the trade. » 



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