HARj^N^OOD RECORD 



29 



pine is the material principally used in Flor- 

 ida and Georgia ; maple in Michigan, New 

 York and Pennsylvania; birch in Vermont 

 and Wisconsin, and oak in Indiana. 



Several of the states, noticeably Indiana, 

 Michigan, New York and Ohio, reported a 

 wide range of woods used in the manufacture 

 of veneers. This is largely due, especially in 

 the case of New York, to the utilization of 

 timber from other states and of imported 

 woods. 



In former reports upon the veneer industry, 

 statistics of the quantity in square or super- 

 ficial measure of veneer produced have been 

 presented. The attempt to give such infor- 

 mation was abandoned in the case of the 



present report, however, because it was found 

 that accurate records covering tliis point were 

 not kept by all establishments. Statistics as 

 to the thickness of the veneers manufactured 

 and the amount of material used in the pro- 

 duction of veneers of each thickness are gen- 

 erally kept, and from these data the square 

 measure of the stock produced may be esti- 

 mated. The number of square feet of veneers 

 yielded by a given amount of timber depends 

 upon the thickness of the veneers and the 

 amount of waste. The latter varies widely, 

 and depends upon the quality of the material 

 and the method of manufacture. If the per- 

 centage of waste is known, the amount of 

 veneers produced per thousand' feet of timber 



may be approximated by deducting the waste 

 and multiplying the remainder by the number 

 of thicknesses of veneers per inch. 



The thicknesses of most of the rotary-cut 

 veneers are multiples of one-sixteenth of an 

 inch. The amount of timber used for veneers 

 one-eighth and three-sixteenthg inch in thick- 

 ness formed 37.1 per cent of the total amount 

 reported for this process. In general, the 

 sawed or sliced veneers are thinner than the 

 rotary-cut veneers. This is shown by the fact 

 that in the case of the last-named process the 

 largest amount of material used in making 

 any one thickness was for the A -inch stock, 

 while for the other two processes the greatest 

 amount was used for 1/20-inch stock. 



A Forestry Student's Letters to His Father 



Darmst.\dt, Gekm.^xy. Nov. 28. 

 My Dear Father: — 



Well, at last, I am settled, and I sure am 

 glad. My trunk arrived yesterday and to 

 my dismay I found that my typewriter was 

 bokeu in transit and I will not be able to 

 use it until I return to America, as I do not 

 believe they have a foreign agency. 



Jones and I are located in a good place, 

 with a fine old German Frau as a landlady. 

 She cannot speak a word of English, nor 

 can anyone else in Darmstadt, I believe, 

 and we have a hard job making ourselves 

 understood at times. However, I find that 

 my German is not so bad, and as a rule, I 

 get along all right. 



I had the greatest experience of my life 

 yesterday. .Jonesie, Jerry and I were eat- 

 ing in a Rathskeller, and at a table nearby 

 sat a German "Student Corps" (frater- 

 nity), such as you saw with Mansfield in 

 ' ' did Heidelberg. ' ' They had their colors 

 above their table, which is always reserved 

 for them. All wore the little caps which 

 are shown on the postal I am sending. 

 Finally, one fellow passed me and I asked 

 him, "agreeable?" and put out my hand. 

 He was a fine fellow, and while it is not 

 their custom to shake hands he took mine 

 and introduced us all to his friends. We 

 had quite a hard time talking to them, but 

 finally got on all right. Then the young 

 fellow who introduced himself invited me 

 to a "kneipe" that evening. I did not 

 know what that was, but I said I was game 

 and he said he would call for us at eight 

 o'clock. I got another forester, named 

 Sanderhagen, who speaks German, to come 

 with us and we were all ready here in my 

 room when Lehner, the young student, ar- 

 rived. He led us to their club house, which 

 is extravagantly furnished, and introduced 

 us to the rest of the Corps Franconia. 

 A fine crowd of fellows the.y were, and they 

 entertained us in great style. A "kneipe" 

 is a beer drinking party among students. 

 I am sending you a postal of the house, and 

 3-ou will notice where it was held. 



On next Friday, the students of this corps 

 fight the students of another corps, and I 

 am invited to the duel. They fight with 

 swords and every man in a corps must fight 

 three times. All of these fellows are cut 

 up. One man had about seven cuts on the 

 top of his head, and you see fellows on the 

 street every day with their faces bound up. 

 They are proud of their wounds and to 

 make them look big they often rub cigar 

 ashes in the cut when it is made. They 

 were very impressive last night and they 

 drank our health with a long toast from 

 the president. 



SECOND SERIES 



The affair opened with a lengthy speech 

 by the president about the Grand Duke of 

 Hesse, their state. His birthday occurred 

 Thursday and after the speech everyone 

 arose and yelled "Hoch" three times, and 

 clinked their steins. It was very interest- 

 ing, as well as a great honor to us. I 

 learned today that they seldom invite 

 .strangers or any guests to these affairs. 



I never saw such politeness as is exhib- 

 ited here. Men do not shake hands. They 

 tip their hats very low and bow almost to 

 the ground. If you enter a door with a 

 German, he will say "Bitte schbn" and 

 bow to the ground, and absolutely make 

 you go first. 



In drinking, if you say "Prosit" to a 

 man, you must drink all your beer, or it is 

 an insult, while he only takes a swallow. 

 However, if he wants to be real polite to 

 .vou, he will also drain his glass. That is a 

 compliment, indeed. 



After having met a man, one must al- 

 ways pass to his left on the street, otherwise 

 you have been impolite. 



In a rathskeller, if you leave the top of 

 your beer mug open while it has beer in it, 

 you are liable to have seven or eight 

 empty steins \)\it on top of it by others 

 around the table, and then you get stung for 

 the drinks. That is the only time you can 

 treat. They never drink water here. I am 

 so sick of beer that I cannot go it any more, 

 so I always order mineral water with my 

 meals. I pay twenty-five marks per month 

 for my room and breakfast, without light or 

 heat, which is extra. Twenty-five marks 

 are about seven dollars in American money. 



The woods here are great. Trees grow so 

 close together that they utilize every bit of 

 sunlight, so that the woods are always dark. 

 Fires never occur here, as the whole affair is 

 covered by a network of fire lanes and 

 roads, making them easily accessible. As 

 a result of no forest fires, the ground is wet 

 and porous always, so that one sinks in 

 over his shoe tops when walking. It is very 

 interesting, this forestry work over here, 

 and I think I will learn a lot which will be 

 of value to me in the future. We have a 

 fine German forester as an assistant, and he 

 sure does know his business. 



Now that the Doctor gives us all of his 

 time we find it requires a little more of 

 ours. Lectures last from 8:30 to 12:30 

 every morning; one hour is given for eating 

 and "then it's to the woods until dark. 

 Field work consists of estimating timber 

 and sylviculture trips through these im- 

 mense tracts which can be seen surrounding 

 the citj' of Darmstadt. 



Timber here consists chiefly of beech and 



white oak for hardwood, whUe Scotch pine 

 and Norway spruce {Picea excelsa) are the 

 leading conifers. The stands are very dense. 



Absolutely no forest litter exists on the 

 ground. Dead or fallen trees are not seen 

 because they are immediately disposed of 

 by the excellent means of transportation 

 existing in the woods. Even fallen branches 

 are picked up by the peasants who twice a 

 week swarm through the woods like bees in 

 search of firewood. Underbrush is unknown 

 here because of an absence of light under- 

 neath and because the trees take all the 

 nourishment from the ground. 



Lumbering is done in the most economic 

 manner possible. When a tree is felled it is 

 uprooted by a clever felling device which 

 simply pushes it over by means of props 

 forced upward against the bole. Roots and 

 fagots are worked up as well as lumber and 

 cordwood. The felled trees are sold by auc- 

 tion in the woods. They axe not dissected 

 but are left to be cut up at the discretion 

 of the highest bidder. 



In working up lumber the logs are individu- 

 ally "bastard sawn" and the boards then 

 piled in the same position as they occupied in 

 the log. This is a good plan, for then wood 

 of the same texture and color (factors vary- 

 ing with the individual tree) can be worked 

 up into one desired piece of furniture, finish 

 or flooring. 



We visited a furniture factory the other 

 day and were surprised to find that only 

 veneered furniture is made here, and the 

 finished product far surpasses that of our 

 own manufacture. 



For the past three weeks Dr. Schenck has 

 had us estimating the various stands in prox- 

 imity to Darmstadt. Our work consists of 

 estimating by the "strip method" and in 

 making "form factors" for the various spe- 

 cies in order to ascertain the stand per acre. 

 The work continues every day, rain or shine, 

 so that now the good folk of Darmstadt are 

 no longer astonished when a gang of forty 

 American lumber Jacks clad in Mackinaw 

 coats, flannel shirts, riding breeches and hob- 

 nailed boots, go tramping through the streets 

 on their way to the woods, headed by "the 

 man who looks like the Kaiser." 



We have been very well received here and 

 everyone is so enthusiastic that we feel sure 

 that B. F. S. wUl pass safely this critical 

 stage of her career. 



December 2. 

 Dear Father: — 



Here goes for a short letter before supper. 

 I have been out in the woods all afternoon 

 estimating timber and am pretty tired tonight. 

 Things are going nicely. I wish you could see 

 how comfortably we are fixed here. Jones and 



