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THE VENEER INDUSTRY 
The term veneer covers thin strips or slices of wood used in the manu- 
facture of crates, hampers, berry boxes, and baskets. The center of manu- 
facture for this region may be said to be at Anna, Jonesboro, Cobden, Alto 
Pass, and Dongola. There are three kinds of veneer: sawed, sliced, and 
rotary cut, and most of the veneer manufactured in this region may be 
said to be of the last variety. The main logs going into this trade are so- 
called ‘‘softwoods,” such as elm, sycamore, red and black gums, maple, 
cottonwood, and tulip-tree, which come from bottomlands that are being 
cleared for farming. Logs may be hauled in to the mills by dray or motor 
truck, shipped in on railroad cars, or rafted down the Ohio and Mis- 
sissippi rivers. Very large logs are preferred for veneers, but they can 
be used down to 12 inches, or even less at the small end. 
In making sliced or rotary cut veneers from the log, it is first cut 
into bolts of certain lengths depending upon the length of the lathes upon 
which they are turned out, some running up to 76 inches; but usually the 
bolts are shorter. They are then steamed for 12 to 24 hours, to soften the 
wood, after which they are spanned in a machine resembling a lathe and 
turned past the edge of a large stationary knife which may take off a con- 
tinual roll like a thin piece of paper, or short pieces such as go into the 
sides of hampers. There may be considerable waste in this process, due 
to twisted grain, splits, frost cracks, seams, knots, and other defects in 
the logs, but with a clear sound log, the number of superficial feet of 
veneer secured is considerable. Rough waste may be used to fire the boil- 
ers, and the six- or eight-inch cores which are left at the center of the 
bolts may be used for the bottoms of berry boxes or sold to some pulp 
company for pulp-wood. Some of the processes in connection with the 
manufacture of different classes of veneered packages may now be con- 
sidered in greater detail. 
Bushel baskets for shipping fruit—At present the main wood used 
for this purpose is black gum, as it makes a good-looking white basket. 
For the top hoop of the basket, oak was formerly used, but now good 
hoops are made from black gum and pecan, soaked before being bent. To 
make these hoops, which give strength to the top of the basket and over 
which the cover fits, logs are sent into the mill in lengths of five feet two 
inches. They are split into boards 7% of an inch thick with a band-saw, 
having a kerf of 1/16 of an inch, so that there is very little waste. These 
boards, after slabbing, are run through a machine with a series of small 
circular saws, like a lath-machine, which splits the boards into strips of a 
suitable thickness for bending. The main part of the basket, called the 
“web,” is made by hand by laying strips on a circular form and joining 
