OSAGE ORANIJE FIOXCE I'OSTS, 

 This is a Kansas farm and barnyard scone, representing the riclis of 

 liedge posts that have been cut from the overgrown hedge row. It is 

 valued principally for the excellent and durable posts it will produce. 

 JMost of the farms in eastern Kansas have an ample supply of such posts 

 for thoir owu use and a surplus to sell. 



be looked into further. The root, it has been found, contains moric 

 and morintannic acid. In the region where the osage grows the 

 wood, bark and roots are employed for dyes. The coloring matter 

 is extracted by chopping the wood into small pieces and boiling it 

 in water. Cloth treated with the dye stuff is colored yellow. 



The manufacture of wagon felloes and rims from osage orange 

 is of considerable proportion, it being estimated that about 12,000 

 wagons are manufactured annually in the United States in which 

 ■osage orange is used for these purposes. The demand for such 

 wagons is principally in dry, warm regions, where roads are com- 

 paratively free from rocks. There is very little shrinkage or 

 swelling under climatic changes, and a wagon wheel with osage 

 rims gives long service under conditions which are soon fatal 

 to an ordinary wagon. On rocky, solidly built roads, the rims, 

 however, are unsatisfactory, because the violent impact due to 

 striking unyielding obstacles splinters the wood. So great has 

 been the demand for wagons supplied with osage rims and felloes 

 that there is already a distinct shortage of supply of the wood. 



The logs that go to osage rim mills are small in size and dis- 

 torted. Saw-logs of even fair size and moderately symmetrical 

 form are seldom seen. As a consequence the manufacture of rims 

 from osage is expensive and tedious. On account of this scarcity 

 of good saw-logs, an immense amount of timber must be culled over 

 to supply the demand for good stuff. It is calculated that 26,000,000 

 feet of osage is cut annually, of which amount less than three 



OSAGE ORANGE FIREWOOD. 

 This rural scene shows, how carefully the farmer, in the sparsely tim- 

 bered countr.v of the South, carries out in a practical way the conservation 

 of his scanty supply of timber, by saving the limbs and small hedge trees 

 that are not suitable tor posts, and thus accumulates a store of fuel that 

 Is cijual in heat producing qualities to the best stove coal. 



per cent appears in finished form as wagon stock. It is esti- 

 mated that about 18,400,000 feet are used annually for posts, 

 1,000,000 feet for house blocks and bridge piling respectively, 

 700^000 feet for wagon rims, 400,000 feet for insulator pins, 350,000 

 for telephone poles, while there is an annual waste of over 4,000,000 

 feet in the manufacture of rims and pins. 



It is hardly likely that the last of the osage orange will be seen 

 in the near future, for it takes a tenacious hold on ground where 

 it once becomes established; reproduces rapidly and grows with 

 fair rapidity. While it does well usually when planted, the number 

 of trees planted so far are too few to be important. But with 

 the present annual cut the total output of osage orange must 

 decline rapidly until the time comes, if ever, when planted trees 

 will check the decline. 



While the natural range of osage orange covered about 10,000 

 square miles and the stand on many large areas within that range 

 was once abundant, it is a significant fact that the wood is now 

 found commercially in restricted areas only. The combined area 

 of these commercial stands will probably not exceed 400 square 

 miles. 



The tree picture accompanying this article was taken near Fort 

 Scott, Kans. The tree is two feet one inch in diameter, breast 

 high, and thirteen feet to the first limb. It would make about 

 seventy-five fence posts that are worth twenty cents each, giving 

 the tree a value, to the farmer, of fifteen dollars. 



v VWitBiroaiiKTOOTiJiTOSiCKTOe'^^^ 



Meeting Wisconsin Manufacturers ^ 



A continued spirit of optimism as to the general market condi- 

 tions throughout the territory covered by Wisconsin and upper 

 Michigan manufacturers was evident in the quarterly meeting 

 of the Northern Hemlock and Hardwood Manufacturers ' Associa- 

 tion, which convened at Hotel Pfister, Milwaukee, on April 17. 

 The facts brought out in reports and discussions, which are of 

 unusual importance as governing factors in the market, were 

 a decided shortage in dry stock on hand; decrease in gi-een stock 

 at mills; decrease in saw-logs brought in during the past winter, 

 and a favorable change in prices during the last few weeks. 



Following the reading of the minutes of the previous meeting. 

 Secretary E. S. Kellogg read the report of the treasurer, which 

 ■showed receipts up to April 15 of $3,414.93 and disbursements of 

 $3,314.93. It was explained by the secretary, however, that the 

 balance on hand of $35.14 was not an indication of a weakness in 

 the treasury, as the second quarters ' dues are still outstanding 



and a number of the members are still in arrears for the first 

 quarter. 



Secretary Kellogg gave a verbal report, comparing cut and 

 shipments; dry stock unsold and log input on March 1, 1911, 

 and March 1, 1912. The report also contained an analysis of 

 the insurance situation as obtaining among the mills of the mem- 

 bers of the association. The report showed an increase in hemlock 

 cut during the year of thirty-three per cent and an increase in 

 shipments of forty-nine per cent; a decrease in hardwood cut of 

 five per cent and an increase in hardwood shipments of forty-four 

 per cent. This shows an average increase in cut of seven per 

 cent and an average increase in shipments of forty-seven per cent. 



The comparison of dry stock on hand April 1, 1911, and April 1, 

 1912, showed a decrease in hemlock of twenty-seven per cent and 

 in hardwood of forty per cent. There were on hand unsold April 1, 

 99,965,000 feet of hemlock and 23,171,000 of hardwood. The report 



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