HARDWOOD RECORD 



57 



pose, causing great waste of timber. The 

 wood is coarse, brittle and perishable. The 

 lieartwood is reddish brown, with darker sap- 

 « ood ; it M'eighs twenty-six pounds to the 

 cubic foot. 



Hemlock is largely made into coarse lum- 

 lier and used for outside work, railway ties. 

 Joists, rafters, sheathing, plank walks, lath, 

 etc. It is rarely employed for inside finish, 

 owing to its Vjrittle and splintery character. 

 However, clean boards made into panels or 

 similar work and finished in the natural color 

 present a very handsome appearance, owing 

 to the peculiar pinkish tint of the wood, 

 ripening and improving with age. 



With the growing scarcity of white and 

 Norwaj' pine, hemlock has liecome the natural 

 substitute for these woods for many purposes, 

 notably for framing and sheathing ordinary 

 structures. JJithigan is second only to Penn- 

 sylvania in volume of production. The last 

 fifteen years have covered the era of hemlock 

 production and consumption in the United 

 States, and the output has gradually in- 

 creased from an insignificant amount to a 

 vast quantity. Hemlock areas are becoming 

 very limited, and it will not be many years 

 before the wood is as scarce as white and 

 Norway pine. The demand for the lumber 

 lias grown so rapidly that the very coarsest 

 of it is now sold at a good figure above 

 stuiii|)aop and milling cost. 



LUMBER FEO- 

 DUCTION. 



As previously not- 

 eil, the white and 

 Norway pine prodiic 

 tion of the Cadillac- 

 section is well nigh 

 at an end, and the 

 remaining growth nt 

 the country consists 

 chiefiy of hemloci;, 

 maple, beech, bass- 

 wood, gray elm and 

 birch. The hemlock 

 is manufactured into 

 dimension material, 

 sheathing and finish 

 ing lumber and is 

 distributed through- 

 nut the countrj', very 

 largely to the retail 

 lumber yard trade. 

 The hardwood busi- 

 ness is entirely dis- 

 tinct in its character. 

 While most of the 

 )dants manufacture 

 various kinds of 

 hardwood into luin- 

 l:er, for sale both to 

 wholesale distribut- 

 ors and to wholesale 

 consumers, makers of 

 flooring, interior fin- 

 ish, furniture, etc., 

 several of the larger 

 concerns manufacture 

 maple lumber with 

 s])ecific reference to 



TWO OLD CRONIES AT A CUMMEIMUGGINS 

 COJirANY CAMP. 



the requirements of their own large floor- 

 ing factories. Other houses which do not 

 produce flooring make a specialty of winter- 

 sawing maple, and end-piling it under sheds 

 to produce the white maple stock employed 

 largely in furniture making. 



It can be said of the manufacturers of the 

 Cadillac district that they are experts in 

 both lumber and flooring production. Pri- 



JUGIIFEItT I.ii,W>J:I! AT WORK IX CUIIMER-DIGGIX.S COMTANY WOODS. 



niarily, initial expense is not considered in 

 the building of railroads, construction of 

 saw-mills and factories. Everything is done 

 after the best plans that brains can devise 

 and money execute, with the natural result 

 that the manufactured product is of the very- 

 highest type. The methods employed insure 

 the highest etticiency, together with a mini- 

 mum of cost. Notwithstanding the great cx- 

 jiense entailed in original plants, it is doubt- 

 ful if any community in the United States 

 produces better lumber or flooring at less 

 expense. 



Economic and systematic methods are pur- 

 sued from the forest to the loaded car. The 

 management of woodwork entails not only 

 taking from the forest, but also the utiliza- 

 tion of the woods' waste, which either in 

 the woods or at the mills is converted into 

 "chemical wood" and eventually turned 

 over to the Cadillac Chemical Company, 

 which operates two retort and distillation 

 plants, one at Cadillac and one at Jennings. 

 The wood alcohol and acetate of lime pro- 

 duced by this company go very largely into 

 the export trade, while most of the charcoal 

 is sold to the Mitchell-Diggins Iron Com- 

 pany, which operates a blast furnace at 

 Cadillac for the production of Lake Superior 

 charcoal pig iron. Thus the forest refuse is 

 carefully utilized. 



HARDWOOD 



FLOORING. 

 It is well kuuwn 

 that Cadillac is the 

 chief manufacturing 

 center of maple floor- 

 ing, and incidentally 

 it produces a consid- 

 erable quantity of 

 beech and birch floor- 

 ing. Two lai-ge insti- 

 tutions are engaged 

 in this industry at 

 Cadillac and one at 

 Jennings. 



The character of 

 t h e maple timber 

 grow-ing in the Cad- 

 illac region has been 

 fully discussed in a 

 previous section of 

 this article. When 

 converted into lum- 

 ber by the moileru 

 methods pursued by 

 local manufacturers, 

 it constitutes the 

 basis of the extensive 

 Ilooring industry of 

 the district. 



It is only within 

 the past fifteen years 

 that maple has re- 

 ceived serious con- 

 sideration as a lum- 

 ber product, and it is 

 only within that 

 length of time that 

 users of hardwoods 

 have realized the in- 

 trinsic merits of the 

 wood. 



