28 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



Veneer Production T>uringl908 



Following is the annual federal report on 

 veneer production for 1908, compiled through 

 the cooperation of the Bureau of the Census 

 in the Department of Commerce and Labor, 

 and the Forest Service in the Department of 

 Agriculture. The work was conducted under 

 the direct supervision of a committee of four, 

 consisting of W. M. Steuart, chief statistician 

 for manufactures, and J. E. Whelchel, expert 

 chief of division, representing the Bureau of 

 the Census, and E. S. Kellogg, assistant for- 

 ester, and A. H. Pierson, forest assistant, 

 representing the Forest Service. 



The growth of the veneer industry during 

 190S was rapid, as it had been during the pre- 

 ceding few years. Returns for the year 1908 

 were received from 402 establishments in 

 operation in 34 states as compared with 370 

 establishments iu 30 states in 1907. The 

 development of this industry follow.s logically 

 the growing scarcity and increasing cost of 

 timber, as a result of which, economy in the 

 use of wood is being practiced in numerous 

 ways, one way being the substitution of thin 

 lumber for thick. Formerly veneers were 

 manufactured from the cabinet woods exclu- 

 sively, and their use confined to the covering 

 of inferior woods. While this class of veneers 

 still forms an important part of the total 

 product of the industry, by far the larger and 

 more rapidly increasing part is made up of 

 veneers manufactured from inferior hardwoods 



and a few of the conifers, and utilized as 

 material iu the manufacture of "built up" 

 lumber, packing boxes, crates, barrels, bas- 

 kets, etc. 



Of the veneers prepared by the three 

 processes — rotary cutting, sawing and slicing 

 ■ — the first-named process is much the more 

 extensively used, espeeially in the case of the 

 cheaper woods, while sawing and slicing are 

 the methods generally employed in manufac- 

 turing veneers from the more expensive cabi- 

 net woods. In the case of bird's-eye maple 

 and curly birch, however, the peculiar figure 

 in the grain Ls best shown in tangential sec- 

 tion, and rotary cutting is the process usually 

 employed. 



The quantity of timber consumed in the 

 manufacture of veneers during 1908 exceeded 

 the quantity so consumed during the preceding 

 year by 34,019,000 feet, log scale, or 9.8 per 

 cent. Increases are shown for both the do- 

 mestic and the imported woods. The relative 

 increase was much greater for the imported 

 than for the domestic woods, the rates being 

 71.9 per cent and 7.6 per cent, respectively. 

 Of the twenty-three domestic woods reported 

 separately in both 1908 and 1907, all but 

 eight showed increases in quantity, the in- 

 creases ranging from 0.8 per cent for elm to 

 270 per cent for Douglas fir. Comparisons 

 for individual species of the imported woods 

 consumed can be made only for mahogany and 



KIND OF WOOD. 



Total. 



MATEBUL USED. 



Quantity 



(thousand 



feet, log 



scale). 



382,542 



Domestic: 



Red gum 



Yellow pine 



Cottonwood 



Maple 



Yellow poplar 



White oak 



Birch 



Tupelo 



Elm 



Basswood 



Beech 



Spruce 



Sycamore 



Walnut 



Red oak 



Ash 



Chestnut 



Sugar pine 



Tamarack 



Western pine 



Hemlock 



Douglas fir 



Magnolia 



White pine 



Buckeye 



Balsam fir 



Hickory 



Cypress 



Cedar 



Larch 



Holly 



Cherry 



Another 



Imported: 



Mahogany 



Spanish cedar 



Maple 



Birch 



Beech 



Circassian walnut. 



Satinwood 



119,485 



42,342 



33,904 



27,886 



22,898 



26,700 



17,769 



16,442 



12,714 



11.609 



8,515 



5,413 



5,279 



5.176 



4,449 



2,490 



1,138 



942 



551 



423 



349 



333 



315 



232 



225 



200 



192 



153 



104 



101 



60 



94 



81 



11,487 



6.558 



1,000 



500 



300 



170 



3 



Cost. 



$7,891,431 



Average 

 cost per 

 thousand 

 feet, log 

 scale. 



1,253,411 



314,008 



464,608 



413,811 



472,533 



982,018 



255,036 



150,759 



205,602 



233,983 



119,763 



74,477 



70,944 



313,291 



127,354 



47,729 



14, 182 



17,898 



4,410 



8,037 



4,148 



5^192 



2,618 



3.709 



2,250 



2,000 



1,920 



1,522 



1,059 



1,414 



3,600 



1,219 



1,472 



1,478,364 

 796,940 

 14,000 

 7,000 

 3,600 

 15,250 

 300 



$20.63 



10.49 



7.42 

 13.70 

 14.84 

 20.64 

 47.44 

 14.35 



9.17 

 16.17 

 20.16 

 14.06 

 13.76 

 13.44 

 60.53 

 28.63 

 19.17 

 12.46 

 19.00 



8.00 

 19.00 

 11.89 

 15.59 



8.31 

 15.99 

 10.00 

 10.00 

 10.00 



9.95 

 10.18 

 14.00 

 60.00 

 22.57 

 18.17 



128. 70 

 121.52 

 14.00 

 14.00 

 12,00 

 89.71 

 100. 00 



QUANTITY AND COST OF VARIOUS WOODS USED IN VENEER PRODUCTION IN 1908 



Spanish cedar, as these were the only kinds 

 shown separately in both years. The consump- 

 tion of mahogany was 70.9 per cent greater 

 in 1908 than in 1907, and the increase in the 

 quantity of Spanish cedar used was 67.2 per 

 cent. 



The largest actual increases in the consump- 

 tion of domestic woods occurred for red gum, 

 yellow pine, beech, sycamore, tupelo and wal- 

 nut, while the largest actual decreases are 

 shown for yellow poplar, white oak and bass- 

 wood. 



The quantity and cost of material used in 

 the manufacture of veneers in 1908 are 

 shown, by kinds of wood, in the accompanying 

 table. 



Wliile domestic woods supplied 94.8 per cent 

 of the total quantity of wood consumed dur- 

 ing 1908 iu the production of veneers, their 

 cost formed only 70.7 per cent of the total 

 cost of the cut of all woods for that year. 

 The average cost per thousand feet, log scale, 

 for all woods utilized in veneer manufacture 

 increased from $18.47 in 1907 to $20.63 in 

 1908, the gain being $2.16, or 11.7 per cent. 

 This increase, however, was due entirely to 

 the fact that the proportion of the high-priced 

 imported woods in the total quantity used was 

 larger in the latter than in the former year, 

 and the average cost per thousand of these 

 woods advanced from $103.38 in 1907 to 

 $11.5.67 in 1908. Of the imported woods, 

 Spanish cedar had the largest increase in 

 average cost per thousand feet, the average 

 advancing from $72.44 to $121.52. While in- 

 creases occurred iu the average cost per thou- 

 sand feet in the case of nine domestic woods, 

 the average for all domestic woods decreased 

 from $1.5.53 to $15.38. Among the woods 

 for which important changes in. price were 

 reported were white oak,- with an increase 

 from $35.56 per thousand feet to $47.44, and 

 sycamore, with an increase from $9.96 to 

 $13.44. On the other hand, the average cost 

 of walnut decreased from $70.39 to $60.53 

 and that of magnolia from $15.46 to $8.31. 

 Smaller actual decreases occurred in the case 

 of eleven other domestic woods. 



In 1904 plants manufacturing veneers were 

 reported from only twenty states, and the in- 

 dustry was, iij the main, confined to four 

 North Ceutral states, namely, Illinois, In- 

 diana, Michigan and Wisconsin. In 1908 

 plants were reported from thirty-four states, 

 and the four mentioned, though still impor- 

 tant in the industry, had ceased to monopolize 

 it. The extent to which the industry is be- 

 coming distributed is indicated by the fact 

 that in 1908 the four leading states in the 

 production of veneers were Florida, Illinois, 

 Indiana and Tennessee. 



Naturally the industry is, in general, con- 

 fined to sections where suitable timber 

 abounds, and the kind of timber most used 

 in each state depends, in a measure, upon the 

 prevailing species there. Thus red gum is 

 the principal timber used in Arkansas, Illi- 

 nois, Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee and 

 Texas, where this wood is plentiful; yellow 



