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Wood Consumption in Michigan S^^^ 



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A most interesting and important document has just been pub- 

 lished under the joint auspices of the Public Domain Commission 

 and the State Land OfSee of Michigan, in co-operation with the 

 Forest Service, entitled "The Wood Using Industries of Michi- 

 gan." The data for this document was compiled in the summer 

 of 1911 by Hu Maxwell, expert of the Forest Service, and covers 

 a record of the woods consumed in various wood using industries 

 of Michigan during the calendar year 1910. 



Michigan is one of the important wood consuming states of the 

 Union, but it is scarcely to be realized that its total annual con- 

 sumption for remanufacturing purposes involves the immense quan- 

 tity of more than a billion and a quarter feet annually. 



The accompanying page figure-table shows in detail the various 

 kinds and quantities of wood employed in the industries of the 

 state. It will be seen that maple heads the list, with white pine 

 a bad second, and hemlock still further down the line. The table 

 is worthy of a careful analysis. 



Wood manufacturing in Michigan is highly developed. During 

 1910 the sawmills of the state produced 1,681,081,000 feet of 

 lumber, while within the state the factories consumed 1,282,-561,- 

 200 feet of lumber in producing commodities turned out by them. 

 Only about a half billion feet of lumber thus consumed was pro- 

 duced outside of the state of Michigan. This was occasioned by 

 the use of wood that does not grow in commercial quantities 

 within the state, and the purchases involved quite largely oak, 

 gum and poplar, although a good deal of mahogany and minor 

 foreign growth is employed by furniture manufacturers of the 

 state. As is well-known, the yearly sawmill output of Michigan 

 is declining at the rate of perhaps two hundred million feet 

 annually. While it can not be definitely stated that the demands 

 of the wood-using factories are decreasing or declining, it is more 

 than likely that they are increasing. 



As will be noted by the table, Michigan manufacturers reported 

 the use of ninety-nine different kinds of wood, showing an aver- 

 age cost per thousand feet of $23.12, and the total cost $29,650,- 

 82.S. Of this immense consumption 62.06 per cent grew within the 

 state of Michigan and the remaining .'17.94 per cent grew outside 

 of the state. 



The work carefully analyzes each wood used outside of the 

 state, and states its specific use in the various industries. 



Planing mill products consume nearly 34 per cent of the total 

 employed in the states; boxes and crates, 18 per cent; sash, doors 

 and general millwork, 6V. per cent; furniture, 6V> per cent, and 

 the remainder of the consumption is divided among wooden- 

 ware, novelties, handles, refrigerators, kitchen cabinets, automo- 

 biles, vehicles, fixtures, tanks, agricultural implements, matches, 

 boot and shoe findings, trunks, valises, laundry appliances, musical 

 instruments, car construction, chairs, sporting and athletic goods, 

 caskets and coffins, excelsior, ship and boat building, toys, 

 plumbers' woodwork, pulleys, conveyors, dowels, brooms, etc. 



It may be useful to know the relative price paid for lumber in 

 Michigan and other states where similar compilations have been 

 made. Michigan pays an average price of $23.12 per thousand, 

 while Kentucky pays $2.'!. 07; Wisconsin, $21.81; Massachusetts, 

 $21.29; Maryland, $20.67; North Carolina, $14.13; Louisiana, 

 $11.63. There is probablv coMipens;ition for the Michigan manu- 

 facturers in this higher price scale from better labor conditions 

 prevailing in the state, and from a generally higher efficiency that 

 is enjoyed by manufacturers of any other commonwealth. 



Perhaps the largest buyer of lumber grown outside of the state 

 of Michigan is the furniture trade of that state. Furniture manu- 

 facturers buy five eighths of their wood without the state. The 

 two leading woods purchased are white oak and red oak. The 

 next wood in importance employed by the furniture trade is sugar 

 maple, practically all of which is home grown. Red gum is em- 

 ploj'ed in large quantities, as is also poplar. Mahogany cuts no 



inconsiderable figure in the aggregate purchase of Michigan manu- 

 facturers. Red gum is growing in material appreciation in the 

 furniture industry of the state, and the consumption is rapidly 

 increasing. 



The work shows that there are 830 remanufacturers of wood in 

 the state of Michigan employing, as before noted, ninety-nine 

 different varieties. In some instances a wood is employed chiefly 

 because it is convenient, but this is not generally the principal 

 reason. Its employment for a particular purpose is more likely 1 

 due to its peculiar and special properties such as strength, elas- l 

 ticity, color, hardness, softness, figure, or the absence of objec- 

 tionable taste and odor. As for choice between two woods, one 

 manufacturer is likely to have a preference to induce him to pass 

 by one to pick up another. Generally speaking, price cuts a good 

 deal of figure in the employment of woods in the factories of 

 Michigan, and the wood is usually bought that will answer the 

 purpose and that can be secured at the lowest price. In some 

 special instances, however, lumber is purchased that serves the 

 purpose best. Hence it is that such a considerable quantity of 

 lumber is purchased from outside the state. 



The book involves a list, which is very exhaustive, of the uses 

 to which various varieties of lumber are placed in the state. As 

 a supplement is a directory of important wood-using houses. 



Copies of this publication can be obtained on apjilication to A. 

 C. Carton, secretary of the Public Domain Commission, or Huntley 

 Russell, commissioner of the State Ijand Office, Lansing, Mich. 

 It is a work that should be secured and carefully read by manu- 

 facturers and jobbers of lumber througliout the country. 



Unnecessary Literature 



The questiop of economy in government has been so widely dis- 

 cussed by newspapers and periodicals that everybody, who has any 

 connection with the government, has probably .seen some way in 

 which dollars could be saved. Undoubtedly one of the most flagrant 

 money spending propositions indulged in at Washington is the use 

 of the government printing office, in which is printed all public 

 matter of every description. The difficulty is not in the fact that 

 the government gets out too much information, but that the infortna- 

 tion is not wisely or even systematically distributed. 



II.\RDwooD Record is constantly leminded of this fact b.y con- 

 tiraious receipt of all sorts of jjampihlets and bulletins varying in size 

 from a single sheet to bulletins of a, hundred or two hundred pages, 

 which are absolutely useless as far as any connection with the hard- 

 wood or general lumber trade is concerned. The same thing is 

 undoubtedly true in every other line. In fact the wliole policy of 

 distribution is evidently wrong. Under the present method repre- 

 sentatives from any district, regardless of the location of state or 

 district, are each given, gratis, the same number of every publicatiou 

 which is issued. As an article in Lippincott 's magazine pertinently 

 ])oints out, a member of Congress from an east side district of New 

 York City gets as many reports on Diseases of Cattle as a member 

 from a distinctly rural district of a farming state. It is very easy 

 to conceive, under these circumstances, of the vast number of wasted 

 copies of every publication. 



Another conspicuous waste of money is caused by reiteration ol 

 information. The same report will often be printed in three or fou 

 different forms, with various preliminaries and summaries, no one ol 

 which could not be included in the complete repoi't. It certainlj 

 seems from only casual observation that a very material saving io 

 this direction could be effected without any particular efl^ort. 



Don't ask a foreign merchant for a "statement." It is cus- 

 tomary, and gives no offense, to ask for references, which are 

 promptly and courteously given, but a request for a "statement" 

 is a fatal offense. 



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