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Uses of Birch by Industries 



iiiliUiyoil lis raw mnterial in 

 i' in noiioral use. Tlic Icai 



More than lialf a duzi-ii ki 

 :ill may hv ami oocasiuiially 

 lories, but only tlir?e of tli 

 •'pecios of bireli follow: 



Sweet bireli ranges from New Kngland to Kliiriila and oei-iirs as 



I west as Illinois. Its best development is in Pennsylvania and 



iitiiward nlonn the mountains to North Carolina and Tennessee. 



Vellow bin-h has nearly the same ranee as the foregoing, but 

 does not e.xtend quite so far south, but a little further west. It is 

 at its best in Miehigau and Wiseonsin. 



Paper bireh is a northern tree growing from the Atlantic to the 

 Pa.ifie, but is at its best in New England and the Lake States. 



These three furnish nearly all of the birch lumber, but a little 

 is supplied by the following: 



White bireh, sometimes called old field or poverty birch, amounts 

 til little outside of New Kngland, and is of no great importance 

 there. The tr?cs are small. 



Mountain bireh ranges from the Rocky Mountain states to the 

 northern Pacific coast states, and very little of it finds its way to 

 ■..iwmills or factories. 



Kivcr birch occurs from New Kngland to Florida and westward 

 I" the Mississippi river and beyond. It has the most scaly bark 

 of all the birches, and the rolls are often of a bronze or copper 

 color, while thosc_ of yellow birch are silvery with a tinge of yel- 

 low, and those of paper and white birch ar? white. The bark of 

 sweet birch Volls very little. 



The heartwoods of all the birches look much alike, being brown 

 or reddish, except that of river liirch which is pale and character- 

 less, and because of its lack of color, river birch is little used. 



The sapwood of paper birch is desirable for spools and shoe 

 pegs, and its heartwood, though constituting a relatively small 

 part of the tree's trunk, is used in the same way as the licartwood 

 of sweot and yellow birch. 



Most of the birch lumber that goes into house finish and furni- 

 ture is sweet or yellow. In the market no distinction is made be- 

 tween the two woods. They look so much alike that they cannot 

 be distinguished one from the other, yiough the standing trees 

 arc generally clearly distinguishable, yet, when yellow and sweet 

 birch trees are large and old, experienced lumbermen are some- 

 times puzzled to tell which is which. 



One or more species of birch, in addition to those named above, 

 are distinguished by botanists, but are not recognized by laymen. 



The table which follows lists, according to states and indus- 

 tries, the entire yearly use of bireh by factories in this country; 

 but the different kinds of birch are not separated. It would be 

 (|uite impossible to separ.-itc thoiii. Tlie two items, spools and 



siiu ■ iMi,Mii;;s, ],o«,v,r, r.priMiit paper bir.li, and the reuiainiug 

 items are jiriiiciiially sweot and yellow birch. 



The items grouped under "millwork" arc chiefly interior house 

 finish. Much of the best grades of birch goes into this industry. 

 Boxes constitute the second largest industry represented in the 

 table, but this material is not of the best grades. Cheaper lumber 

 is made into boxes. 



The total cut of birch lumber in the United States approximates 

 ;!«IJ,OUO,(MIO f et a year. Factories use 100,000,000 feet more than 

 the sawmills cut. This means that a large quantity, at least 25 

 per cent, of the birch that reaches factories, is not in the form of 

 lumber, but is logs or billets. 



The following states are the principal producers of birch. 



Yearly Yearly 



lumber lumber 



■'^I'llc. cut, feet. State. cut, feot. 



WIsciinslii 179,549,000 Vermont 22,980,000 



^"•^^'I'K'"' 59,251,000 West Virginia 10.500.000 



■^'"'ne 28.088,000 New Hampshire 10.370,000 



New V.iik 2,3,192.000 



National Forest Receipts Increase 



Receipts from the national forests in the fiscal year I'JIH, end- 

 ing June 30, exceeded those for 1917 by almost $120,000 and totaled 

 over $3,574,000. The increase does not come up to the big increa.se 

 of the year before, which was more than $600,000, but still shows 

 a healthy growth in most lines of business on the forests. The 

 cost of operating the forests was about $4,000,000, and was prac- 

 tically the same as in the previous year. This is exclusive of the 

 additional expenditures caused by the very serious fire situation, 

 and for which a special deficiency appropriation of over $700,000 

 was made by Congress. 



Olockmakers in this country use nearly 8,000,000 feet of wood 

 a year, and they employ it in many ways. Most of it is worked 

 into cases, but some clocks are wood, both case and works, others 

 have wooden faces or hands, or pedestals. Before clocks were 

 manufactured by machinery, and when everything was hand work, 

 some makers turned out very fine and valuable clocks with scarcely 

 any metal about them. Apple and pear wood were considered the 

 best, though persimmon rated near them. The wood of the two 

 fruit trees was smooth and assured little friction in the running 

 parts. During long spells of rainy weather wooden clocks were 

 inclined to give trouble because of the swelling of the material. 

 Many of the old time "grandfather clocks" were practically all 

 wood, cases, wheels, liands, and all. 



USES OF BIRCH BY STATES AND INDUSTRIES— FEET PER YEAR. 



States. Mlllw 



Wis 13,471 



111 11,937 



Maine 770 



Mich 10,007 



W. Vii 4,r.;)2 



Ohio 3,035, 



Iowa 1,391 



C-onn 4G1, 



ilo 1,785, 



M(i 1,555, 



N. .1 693, 



Cal COS, 



Teim 1,113, 



ork. Boxes. 



.000 15,597,000 



,000 20,933,000 



,no0 076,000 



.050 6,700,000 



.000 2,550.000 



,ssO 1,114,900 



..-.00 17,200 



.soo 70,000 



AT' 6,099.000 



.r.oo 347,800 



.120 4,675,000 



.000 3,200,000 



.990 765.000 



,150 1,130,000 



,300 



,320 



.000 200,000 



,700 



,000 



000 10,600 



26,.S71,000 



10,444,200 



2.002,000 



0,011, .-.50 



13,09S.3S2 



3.2S0.S39 



20,000 



1.904,893 



2,195,070 



0,088.000 



1.149,807 



250.000 



877.990 



S59.050 



525.000 



57.900 



890.000 



03,500 



Woodcu- 



warc. 

 15,020,000 



405,000 

 1 87, .500 

 i, 137,000 

 ,300.500 

 137.000 

 400.500 



91,000 



225,000 



557,000 



1,000 



Office 

 Fixtures. 

 1,346,000 

 2,757.500 

 70,000 

 2,122.500 

 1,055,500 

 1,576,000 



63,000 

 832,300 



04,000 

 103,000 



20.000 



1,443,844 



312.000 



14.440 

 591.150 

 100,000 



99,000 

 343,142 

 130,000 



Vehicles. Instruments. 



4,081,975 



1.455,000 



322,000 



1,010,000 

 1,514,500 

 82.000 

 1.520.500 

 050.000 

 358.000 

 130.000 

 10,500 

 24,500 



90,000 



,904,000 



76,000 



