PAPERS OX BIOLOGY AND AGRICULTURE 237 



to the use of veneered panels for furniture and interior 

 finish where large surfaces must be exposed. The suc- 

 cess during the war with waterproof casein glues has 

 led to a marked increase in the manufacture of built-up 

 material, commonly known as "ply-wood" for trunks, 

 automobile tops, shoe findings, airplane propellers, and 

 many other articles requiring both strength and durabil- 

 ity. The fact that the fibres of the constituent pieces run 

 in several different directions insures strength, while the 

 waterproof glue makes the built-up piece proof against 

 moisture changes. 



Outside of the large amount of wood used for the 

 above, the scarcity of elm and other slack cooperage 

 woods has increased the price of barrels so that there 

 have been introduced into the fruit shipping industry a 

 number of "veneered packages" which are made from 

 wood by slicing vertically or cutting in a rotary direction 

 logs which have been steamed previously to soften the 

 fiber. Egg cases are made also in large quantities from 

 cottonwood and gum by a similar process. 



In the face of increasing demand, the amount of wood 

 'used for veneers in Illinois has fallen from 22,650,000 

 board feet to 19,538,000 board feet, a decrease of over 3 

 million feet or 13.7 per cent in the last ten years. Visits 

 to veneer plants in a limited portion of southern Illinois 

 covered by a recent bulletin show that about 4,000,000 

 board feet of logs are consumed for veneers in that im- 

 mediate region, and that some of the mills will be forced 

 to move to Arkansas or Missouri nearer a larger source 

 of supply within five years. Thousands of dollars are 

 paid out in one limited region of southern Illinois for 

 fruit and vegetable containers, and some are imported 

 from other states, especially ladders for fruit-picking. 

 Indications are that larger and larger quantities of both 

 logs and manufactured products will have to be shipped 

 into this region which is in some parts 30 per cent tim- 

 bered. 



TIMBER IX THE EOUXD 



Large quantities of wood are used in the round for 

 telegraph and telephone poles, piling, and fence posts, 

 which it is almost impossible to estimate. The Illinois 



